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PIN number analysis


Farelf

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When ATM cards first hit Canada, they all allowed a 6-digit PIN and one Credit Union allowed up to 12.

Whose the herpty-derp that standardized it at 4?

As usual with standards Lowest wins - if your issuer lets you have a long PIN the card works locally only

I was surprised that 1066, 1492, 1776, 1805 didn't rank higher.

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interesting article. And he ends with another security absurdity; passwords no one can remember so they write the on a post-it and put them on their monitor, instead of just longer memorable ones.

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By way of contrast, Benford's Law predicts the frequency of digits in the description (measurement) of physical entities, with recent hints of a fractal connection. No leading zeros in mensuration of course, significant digits only:

Digital Frequency - Benford's Law

Digit 1st 2nd 3rd
0 - 11.967927% 10.178436%
1 30.103000% 11.389010% 10.137598%
2 17.609126% 10.882150% 10.097220%
3 12.493874% 10.432956% 10.057293%
4 9.691001% 10.030820% 10.017809%
5 7.918125% 9.667724% 9.978758%
6 6.694679% 9.337474% 9.940131%
7 5.799195% 9.035199% 9.901921%
8 5.115252% 8.757005% 9.864118%
9 4.575749% 8.499735% 9.826716%
All 100% 100% 100%

Apropos of nothing in particular - except Benford's is a sometimes useful touchstone for the division between "the world" (say account balances) and human imagination (say accounting fraud) :P - or randomness ("noise"). The Benford's prediction of the least likely 4-digit sequence is anything from 9990 to 9999 (practically the same probability throughout that range).

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