PIN Codes You Should Never, Ever Choose

Sorry to ruin your afternoon, but that PIN number you picked—probably a birthday, month/day combo, or year in the 1900s—is among the easiest for thieves to guess. And if you chose "1234," "1111," or "0000," consider your bank account a slush fund for anyone who steals your card. The firm Data Genetics looked through a database of stolen passwords—mostly for websites—and ranked the popularity of PIN codes, Slate reports. A few tidbits:

• The least popular PIN is 8068, used in less than 0.001% of passwords. But with that information now public, it may not be the best choice.
• The next four least-chosen codes are 8093, 9629, 6835, and 7637.
• People tend to like using even numbers rather than odd.
• 22nd-most popular is 2580. You can figure out why by looking at your phone keypad and seeing which numbers run down the middle.

Click for the full article, or go straight to the research. (More passwords stories.)