Category Archives: European Union

Britain, Consumer Affairs, European Union, Government, Research, Society, Technology

Research reveals the most commonly used PIN numbers…

10 per cent of PINs can be guessed in just one attempt

Research has revealed that one in ten PINs can be correctly guessed first time. The most commonly used numbers have been revealed, with 10% of the population still using 1234.

Researchers found 17 per cent of people in Europe have suffered identity fraud. Credit card fraud cost the UK more than £388 million in 2012.

Despite a rise in credit card fraud, the most commonly-used PIN is still 1234, with 1111 and 0000 coming in second and third.

Studies have shown that one in ten codes is so obvious that it would take criminals just one attempt to guess it correctly, while more than a quarter of the codes are used so often they can be guessed in fewer than 20 attempts.

Researchers from DataGenetics, a technology consultancy, analysed 3.4 million four-digit codes and found that many people use birth years as PINs, making it even easier for hackers to guess a code simply by finding out a person’s age from online accounts.

Additional research carried out by security experts McAfee found that 17 per cent of people in Europe have been victims of credit card fraud, at a cost of £1,076 per person.

The total cost of credit card fraud in the UK last year from criminals hacking and cloning cards was £42.1 million and the total amount of fraud committed through all credit card-related crimes was £388 million.

There are 10,000 possible combinations for four-digit PIN codes using 0 to 9.

The majority of PINs in the DataGenetics list began with the number one, which may be due to the popularity of using birth years. Zero and two were also popular. The higher the number, the lower its frequency.

The majority of PINs in the DataGenetics list began with the number one, which may be due to the popularity of using birth years. Zero and two were also popular. The higher the number, the lower its frequency.

DataGenetics unlocks data held in large databases. In producing its findings it used data from previously released password tables and security breaches. By combining the password databases, researchers filtered the results to show just four-digit numbers and were able to analyse 3.4 million four-digit passwords.

They discovered that all of the possible 10,000 combinations – from 0000 to 9999 – were found in the data list.

The most popular password was 1234, but the amount of times this number occurred ‘staggered’ the researchers – almost 11 per cent of the 3.4 million passwords were 1234.

This PIN was also more popular than the 4,200 codes at the bottom of the list combined.

The next most popular 4-digit PIN was 1111, used more than 6 per cent of times.

Data Genetics compiled a list of the top 20 passwords and found that 26.83 per cent of all the passwords in the list could be guessed by attempting these 20 combinations.

The researchers said:

… Statistically, with 10,000 possible combinations, if passwords were uniformly randomly distributed, we would expect these twenty passwords to account for just 0.2 per cent of the total, not the 26.83 per cent encountered.

The more popular password selections dominate the frequency tables and the study found that 10 per cent of PINs could be guessed correctly first time.

More than 20 per cent could be guessed by using just five attempts and statistically, one third of all codes could be guessed by trying just 61 distinct combinations.

The data found that the least-used code was 8068 with just 25 appearances in 3.4 million – far fewer than random distribution would predict.

The researchers also noted that many of the high-frequency PINs could be interpreted as years because many began with 19, for example, 1984, 1967 and so on.

This could be a birth year or anniversary and if a hacker can guess someone’s age, or even obtain it through birth records or online accounts, for example, they could make an educated guess at the PIN.

The majority of PINs in the DataGenetics list began with the number one, which may be due to the popularity of using birth years.

The numbers zero and two were also popular.

The research found that the higher the number from 0-9, the lower its frequency at the start of the code.

Another study by Google Apps found that a pet’s name is the most common online password.

As many as one in six people use their pet’s name as a password.

One is six Britons admitted accessing someone else’s account by guessing the password, with partners the most common target.

TOP 10 POPULAR PINS

  1. 1234
  2. 1111
  3. 0000
  4. 1212
  5. 7777
  6. 1004
  7. 2000
  8. 4444
  9. 2222
  10. 6969
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European Union, Government, Health, Medical, Research, Science

New European Laws could force drug companies to publish contentious research…

Drug companies have only ever released small amounts of their research data from clinical trials, with critics claiming that negative results are only half as likely to be published.

Drug companies have only ever released small amounts of their research data from clinical trials, with critics claiming that negative results are only half as likely to be published.

SHARING RESULTS OF CLINICAL TRIALS

Under new European laws, pharmaceutical companies could be forced to publish secret research into how drugs are created. This could potentially lead to drug companies having to disclose information about dangerous and unknown side-effects of many drugs.

The rules would mean that some of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies would have to share the results of clinical trials which could then be analysed by independent scientists.

Analysts say that the move will also reveal if patients have been fooled by the use of placebos or drugs that have not been scientifically proven to work.

Drug companies have only ever released small amounts of their research data from clinical trials, with critics claiming that spurious and negative results are only half as likely to be published.

The disclosure rules being drawn up by the European Medicines Agency, an EU body, have been met with stiff resistance from pharmaceutical companies. They claim that some of their information might be misinterpreted, which might spark significant health scare’ around the use of particular drugs.

In just the last three years, 26 drug companies have racked up financial fines amounting to more than £7 billion for acting dishonestly.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Britain’s largest pharmaceutical company, announced earlier this year that it would support a move for such laws by publishing the results and data of all its clinical trials.

The move and announcement by GSK followed fierce criticism of the company after it was given a £1.9 billion fine in the United States last year, in part for withholding safety data about Avandria, its best-selling and highly profitable diabetes drug.

A leaked e-mail message from the head of a leading pharmaceutical industry body to company executives revealed that ‘patient groups’ would be used in an attempt to block legislative amendments to the clinical trials directive.

The e-mail, first seen by the Guardian, a London based broadsheet newspaper, was sent by the director-general of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, Richard Bergström, to the directors and legal departments at companies including Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline.

In his message, Mr Bergström says that patient groups will be ‘mobilised’ to express concerns about…

… the risk to public health by non-scientific re-use of data.

Campaigners have hit back and have said that the groups – which are often funded by the companies themselves – are a ‘front for the pharmaceutical industry’.

Health Action International, a campaign group, said it was ironic that such a transparency initiative being promoted by the pharmaceutical industry was now ready to use patient organisations to fight their corner. The health lobby group says that patient groups in the pay of the pharmaceutical industry will now go into battle for them, and has suggested there is a clear ‘hidden agenda’. In a statement the group said:

… Patient groups get traction because they are assumed to represent the voice of the suffering. But industry uses them to say we’re not going to get innovative medicines if the industry is deterred from investing by having to be transparent about their clinical trials.

 

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European Union, Government, Politics, Scotland

Scottish independence and the other five unions…

FIRST MINISTER OF SCOTLAND PROVIDES CLARITY ON INDEPENDENCE

The First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, has said that a separate Scotland would abandon only one of its ‘six unions’ on gaining independence.

Mr Salmond said only the historic ‘political union’ between Scotland and the rest of the UK would be destroyed by a Yes vote in next year’s referendum on Scottish independence.

The First Minister of Scotland made clear that five other unions would remain intact: the ‘currency union’, membership of the European Union, a defence union through NATO, the Union of the Crowns and a ‘social union between the people of these isles’.

Mr Salmond has already tried to allay Scottish voters’ fears by promising to keep the Queen as Head of State, to continue use pound sterling as the currency in Scotland, and to share welfare services with England following a referendum victory.

The SNP leader also gave a pledge that an independent Scotland could remain part of a United Kingdom because the term first came into use before the 1707 Act of Union.

Those who oppose Scottish independence have claimed that the speech delivered by the First Minister signals a shift in SNP policy towards ‘independence lite’. They also say that Mr Salmond cannot guarantee EU and NATO membership as Scotland would have to apply and enter into tough negotiations. Unionists are also promoting the view that it would be highly unlikely that Westminster would agree to a pound-sterling ‘currency union’. This, despite the fact that pound sterling is as much Scottish as it is English, and, how would Scotland be expected to pay its fair share of the national debt if a pound-sterling currency union did not prevail?

The SNP leader’s speech, in Nigg in Easter Ross, last Friday, marked the start of a summer tour that will see Mr Salmond taking the case for independence to the Scottish people.

In his speech, Mr Salmond said:

… We must address and fundamentally change the political and economic union as a matter of urgency. This political union is only one of six unions that govern our lives today in Scotland – and the case for independence is fundamentally a democratic one.

… A vote for independence next year will address the democratic deficit which sees policies like the punitive Bedroom Tax, the renewal of Trident or Royal Mail privatisation imposed on Scotland against the wishes of Scotland’s democratically elected representatives.

… But that will still leave five other unions intact. We will embrace those other unions while using the powers of independence to renew and improve them.

Mr Salmond said a ‘social union’ would still unite ‘all the peoples of these islands… People will still change jobs and move from Dundee to Dublin, or from Manchester to Glasgow. With independence, we will continue to share ties of language, culture, trade, family and friendship.

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