Unless you live in a tribe in the Amazon jungle, you have a bank account and debit card. When using these cards in POS devices or ATMs -with exceptions- a 4-digit password is sufficient. Well, why does the password of our cards, which are linked to our bank accounts where we keep all our money, consists of only a 4-digit number?
Even a simple website at least 6 digits and special characters, but banks do not need such complex passwords.
Moreover, our bank account is from a website account. although it is much more valuable. In addition, complex passwords are required for internet banking, but this does not apply to card passwords. Let’s see what is the reason for this situation:
Security techniques revolve around three things:
- Something we are: Retina scan, fingerprint, tongue print tests are included in this form of security.
- One thing we know: Passwords for our accounts are covered by “something we know”.
- Something we have: A debit card is something we have.
When we have our ATM card and PIN with us, we can use these three types of security. we get both. In other words, our password is not a security measure on its own, it must be supported by at least one of the other security techniques.
Complex passwords of 6-7 digits are not preferred by banks as it is a password that should be easily remembered anytime, anywhere. As the probability of making a mistake while typing a 7-digit password will increase, the cards can easily be blocked. This incurs additional costs to the banks.
In addition, customer satisfaction decreases. When paying with a card or withdrawing money at an ATM, transactions will take longer. There is also a waste of time. Even debit card expenditures will decrease due to frequent password problems.
Trying all the possibilities one by one, cracking the password is called “brute forcing”. So how secure are 4-digit ATM passwords against this?
The probability that a malicious person will find the correct password using all the possibilities in order 0000, 0001, 0002 with this method is only 0.03% because 10000 possible permutations and if three times in a row incorrectly entered – at least for that day – the card is blocked. In addition, security cameras provide extra work.
In fact, the man who invented the ATM originally wanted a 6-digit PIN to be used.
The idea came to British inventor John Shepherd-Barron while he was taking a shower. Inspired by chocolate machines and thus the first automatic withdrawal unit was opened in London on 27 June 1967.
The main reason why the inventor got this idea is that only 1 minute late He could not withdraw money from the bank and wanted to have the freedom to withdraw money from anywhere in the world at any hour.
The reason why the number of digits in passwords decreased to 4 is because Barron’s spouse finds 6 digits too long and he couldn’t remember his password. His wife, who complained about the long password, thus influenced a decision that affected billions of people.
Sources: Science ABC, Wikipedia
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