A great feature, if available, is to limit the number of unsuccessful attempts before access is denied. Is it really a good idea to have the same one for your phone’s screen lock and your voicemail? And your ATM? And your office or home security system?ĥ) Look for protection tools. The top five on the list mentioned above were 1234, 0000, 2580, 11.Ĥ) Vary PINs.
Pinpoint security how to#
You will have to find instructions on how to change PINs, which sometimes can take some digging.ģ) Avoid common PINs. Change any default PIN immediately.Ģ) Change PINs regularly. Here are a few helpful PIN pointers:ġ) Have no defaults. WHAT’LL YOU RISK?Īs with all security issues, it comes down to determining acceptable risk and balancing risk against convenience (i.e., ease of remembering PINs). A quick Google search of “how to hack voicemail” (finding nearly 36,000 hits) will open your eyes to new worlds of potential vulnerability. Many people, for convenience, opt out of using PINs for voicemail when calling from their own number or to lock the screen of their cellphones. Anyone surprised that 1234 topped the list? Recent findings have shown the most common PIN numbers people use on their iPhones. Of course, many baddies might start with something easier than a brute-force attack.
Pinpoint security cracked#
Using the handy password-strength calculation tool at Gibson Research Corp.’s Password Haystacks (highly recommended), you’ll see that a four-digit password can be cracked shockingly quickly in a brute-force attack. In some cases you might not be allowed to repeat or use certain numbers, limiting the possibilities further. There’s no reason password principles should not apply to PINs, but it gets a little more complex, in large part because the numbers are less complex.Ī PIN is typically four digits, giving us only 10,000 possible PINs to choose from. The phone-related hacking turns our attention to the use of PINs, the personal identification numbers that also protect important information.
We are already attuned to security concerns with computers and passwords. So we now should see the need to secure devices and accounts that we probably didn’t give much thought to before. And eyes opened wider as celebrity phones were hacked to expose pictures and other private information.
This summer’s stories of cellphone hacking involving the British tabloid News of the World opened eyes to some unexpected security issues.
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