If all numbers have a 1/10 chance of selection, why is a combination like “3478” safer than “0000” or “1234” for a PIN?
In: Technology
Simple probability. Someone trying to guess your code is more likely to try 0000 and 1234, and less likely to try 3478. The chance of a person trying 3478, and your code actually being 3478 is more like 1/100000 chance
Because if you are attempting to crack a pin, you’re not randomly guessing, at least not at first. You can quickly check the easy patterns, and if those don’t work, then go on to brute-force it without much extra processing power, so there is no downside in checking nonrandom PINs first
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Because 0000 and 1234 are very common PIN codes. The introduction of human choice is what makes 0000 and 1234 more common
It depends on how the password is being tested. If it’s just a random number generator trying random numbers, then 1234 is just as safe as 9483. But if the hacker tries some “common sense” passwords to begin with, then he is likely to try 1234 and unlikely to try 9483. To avoid this we consider 1234 to be unsafe.
Let’s say I’ve got a house with a lot of land. So much land that there’s ten thousand places to hide a spare key. Wow! You might think it could be in any one of those places, so they’re all equally safe. The issue is, some places are used a lot because they’re easy to remember, or make it easy to get the key. Even if you’ve got ten thousand places to put a spare key, “under the welcome mat” is still not safe at all. It’s much less secure than “in the fake sprinkler next to the cherry tree”.
Setting your pin to 1234 is like putting the key under the welcome mat. It’s easy and lazy, and it’s one of the first things people check. 3478, however, is less likely to be checked – it’s the fake sprinkler near the cherry tree.
Humans aren’t completely random. They follow order and patterns. So a human is much more likely to try those even if a computer or other completely random system wouldn’t
Because while each number combination has an equal probability to be selected in theory, the human element defies randomness models. Humans like simplicity and logical flow, not complexity and randomness, which makes certain number combinations much more likely to occur if they follow some sort of logical pattern like sequence or if the number is significant to the person like “1234” or “9999” or a birthday like “06/25”. Numbers that are sequential, follow a logical pattern like “2486” on a number pad or significant to the person setting the code like a birthday or anniversary are more likely to be chosen because they are easier to remember to the person.
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