But if you were careless enough to choose your birth date, a year in the 1900s, or an obvious numerical sequence, his chances go up. Advertisement 
 
 
 
 On the other end of the scale, the least popular combination—8068—appears less than 0.001 percent of the time. Data Genetics came up with the numbers by analyzing a database of 3.4 million stolen passwords that have been made public over the years. Researchers at the data analysis firm Data Genetics have found that the three most popular combinations—"1234," "1111," and "0000"—account for close to 20 percent of all four-digit passwords. In a distant second and third are "0" and "2." Why should so many people select this code to make it appear so high up the list? (Interestingly, this is very compelling evidence confirming the hypothesis that a 4-digit password list is a great proxy for a PIN number database. (Another fascinating piece of trivia is that people seem to prefer even numbers over odd, and codes like 2468 occur higher than a odd number equivalent, such as 1357 ). So choosing your birthday, your birth year, or a number that might be a lot of other people's birthday or birth year makes your password significantly easier to guess. (suggested by the red-dashed trend line) which would probably allow a fair estimation of the ages (years of birth) of the people using the various websites. Another interesting way to visualize the PIN data is in this grid plot of the distribution. People love to start their PIN numbers with 0 , and even more so with the digit 1 . One would hope, of course, that fewer people choose "1234" to protect their checking accounts than to log in to random websites. Among seven-digit passwords, the fourth-most popular is "8675309," which should ring familiar to fans of '80s music. Common nine digit passwords also follow patterns and repetition.
– 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.