I have a classic example of a large corporation not paying attention to things that are going on that I'd like to share with you.
Recently I received a PIN number for one of my hundred or so credit cards. That's an actual picture of it over there to the left. I had to laugh when I looked it over.
They assigned me a PIN number (5555) and then in the small print where they are telling me the rules for me choosing my own pin number, rule number 2 says "Your PIN cannot contain four identical digits (e.g. 5555)."
Hello? If my PIN cannot contain four identical digits (e.g. 5555), then why does it contain four identical digits, and why are they the exact four identical digits that the example says I can't use?
Funny? yes. Sad, pathetic? yes. Disturbing? yes.
So if they've deemed that having four identical digits is a security risk, then why did they set the card's default to be the most risky? and then print the number twice?
Not to worry, I've already sent in the corrections with my new PIN number. I really wanted it to be 5555, but since that seems to be the only numeric key on the credit card company's keyboard, I'm betting that 80% or more of the cards issued by this bank use the default 5555 for their PIN.
People are lazy, look at how many people use Internet Explorer just because it comes on their machine. It's not even the most secure browser for the PC, and I read yesterday that over 50% of Internet Explorer users haven't even bothered to upgrade to the most current version (even tho the process is fairly automatic). My point is that the masses just stick with whatever they have because it's the default.
Personally, I'd prefer that my credit card had no PIN. Then I wouldn't have to keep something else secure. As it is, I've made sure that the PIN is something the bank didn't send me. And even though it was a struggle, I made sure it doesn't have four identical digits.
Three identical digits? Now that's another story.
