A Simple techniqe to Scramble your important PIN numbers

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If you are like me, who forgets important passwords for credit nd debit cards, and then having to phone banks to send another password, I developed a simple technique that is fairly safe to scramble your password using a simple techniqe and writing this down instead of the actual password.

This simple techniqe uses a few digits that you can remember, and apply it throughout to all your credit and debit cards including online banking pins.

You only need to remember this unique number which you must never give anyone clue about. This number can be minimum 2 digits or more, but for most purposes a 2 digits will more than suffice.

However, if you were going to forget your pin number whilst going shopping then you must carry your scrambled number with you, which you can write down, so even if someone saw your scrambled number, it won't be any good to anyone, as it is not a real 4 digit pin number.


The technique uses a simple maths principle, the two digits must not be same numbers like 11, 22, 33, 44, and so on but must be two different numbers like 12, 21, 45, 37 and so on. Edit: Also avoid numbers with zeros like 10,20,30, 40 and so on, including single numbers like 01,02, 03, but you can have as many digits as you want, two should be minimum, 3 is good, 4 is ideal but can take longer to encrypt and decrypt,


Let us assume your actual password that you don't want to lose so you scramble it first and then write it down in your diary or save it in your computer, but the two digits number you must never tell anyone or write it down. For extra security you can even use 3 digits or 4 digits to scramble, the more you scramble the less anyone can descramble.

Let us assume your password or pin number is 2345, and your two digits scrambling number is 25,


Step 1.

take 2 first from your scrambling number

write down 2222 and subtarct 2345, do not use a calculator for this and do not use or pass any carry out or borrow, from adjacnet digits,

You treat each digit individually, hence no carry or borrow from adjacent digits,

so strating either from right to left or left to right, does not matter, the result will be the same as we are not borrowing or carrying out overflow.

so start from right, take 2, minus 5 from it, but since you can't as 2 is smaller than 5, so we make 2 as if it is 12, we pretend we have borrowed 10 from somewhere, but not from any of the other digits.

so this gives us 12-5= 7
similarly we take the next digit which is 4, (since our actual pin number is 2345)
so taking the next digit 4 and subtracting it from 2, we can't so we add 10 again from somewhere, hence we minus 4 from 12, gives us 8

third digit of our pin is 3, so we di the same again, we subtract 3 from 2 but we make 2 look like it is 12 by borrowing 10 from somewhere, the rsult is 9

finally our last digit of our pin (since we were dealing from right to left) is 2, and we can now take away 2 from 2 and we need not borrow 10 from anywhere, so the answer is 0

hence after first scramble our answer is 0987

2 2 2 2 (first digit of your secret scranmbling code)
2 3 4 5 (Your actual pin number you subtract from above)
--------
0 9 8 7 (this is your intermediate scrambled number)

Now take the 2nd digit of your secret 2 digit scrambling number which in our case is 5 (remember our secret scrambling code was 25)

Now we do the same again to 0987 but this time we are subtracting it from 5555, hence we get the following:-

5 5 5 5
0 9 8 7
--------
5 6 7 8

so by scrambling our original Pin number which was 2345, we get a scrambled number 5678, we can now write this down safely since it won't be any good to anyone, but if we forget our actual Pin number we can use the above scrambled number to get to our original number, here is what you now have to do.

Do the same as you did above i.e. Subtracting but this time instead of using 2 first we use 5 first and then 2, but we just do another subtraction, and not addition.

example:
we first take 5s
5 5 5 5
5 6 7 8
--------
0 9 8 7 (our intermediate number)



now we take 2s

2 2 2 2
0 9 8 7
---------
2 3 4 5 this is our original Pin number.


The two digits you must remember as your descrambling code number can be any number, year you rememer the most, someone you love their birthdate, or year, or just any favourite number that you are unlikely to not remember.

Distinctively possible, but If upon scrambling your number comes almost same as your original Pin number then you must choose another number.

AND REMEMBER NOT TO USE A CALCULATOR to subtract as the calculator will borrow and carry out overflows and underflows.

All you need to remember is we are not actually borrowing or carrying out 10s, we pretend we get this when we need to from our invisible black energy in our univeres!
 
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I thought you said simple?

If it is too simple then anyone could decypher it quickly, I used to use other techniqes but this one seems to be better overall, as it involves no borrowing or overflows from adjacent digits.

Still if you write your pin numbers on papers disguised as part of someone's phonen number, it works, but after a while you would forget which part of that 1t digits is the pin, the first 4 or the last 4, usually the last 4 as the first part must look like a STD telephone code., and then you don't know which card it applied to if you have several cards, with the scrambled number you can actually write it down on the card itself, if someone steals your card, they try that number 3 times and the card is swallowed by the ATM.
 
What about using digits from the long card number?

Say add one to the last digit of each group of 4 etc
 
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Write the PIN as part of a string of fifteen or more digits which you can write down.

For example 469254027402361

Bank PIN remember only 4 and get 2540, reverse it and the PIN is 0452

Phone PIN remember only 6 and get 4027 reverse it and the PIN is 7204

Not infallible but as most cash points will lock out the card after 3 incorrect PINs provided the PINs do not use the first or last 4 digits the chance of the criminal starting at the right place are small and getting the PIN are small.


PIN = Personal Identifying Number
PIN number = Personal Identifying Number number
 
I don't doubt there are many many other equally reliable methods, some are fairly common like reverse pin and could be guessed easily, like 1234 or 4321,

so I developed this method that i can apply across the whole lot of cards and even passwords except the letters or words, so for example if your password was 1234ABC, you could scramble the first 4 digits and if it happens to be 3789 you could still write that down as 3789ABC, or try and remember that any words or letters you could use another scrambling method for them like reverse writing letters only.

As for scrambling, using even a single digit can yield a different number but using 2 digits the chances of guessing the actual number becomes considerably more difficult.

Overall any 4 digit pin can have as many as 10,000 combinations, but in reality as you are given 3 attempts, this falls to 3,300 combinations, whether or not you scramble a number, scrambling really means you can write it down in case you forget your pin and can recover it using the 2 or more digits of your recovery code.
 
Wouldn't it be just as easy and secure to have a really simple pin?

For example 6666.

Your reminder could be written on the card by deducting, say 4 (or whatever you choose), i.e. a single 2.
 
Or simpler, just XOR your pin with another simple number, write that down and to get your number back just XOR it again with the same number.
 
many wouldn't know how to XOR a decimal number, but it would be much easier in a Binary system, where this function is known as exclusive OR gating, the truth table for which is

0 0 0
1 0 1
0 1 1
1 1 0

I can't see how this would work on 4 digit decimal numbers being encrypted.
 
I remember I used XOR gate in an application (Auto clave - a steriliser for medical instruments) which had two pressure sensors for for added safety, instead of just one sensor, and the idea behind it was that both sensors must behave equally within a few seconds of each other, and if one sensor fails, then the logical condition would not be met and so the device would complete its sterilising cycle and abort any subsequent operations as the device then becomes dangerous as it relies on one remaining good sensor.

I was resposnsible for the circuit board for such a device and I chose to employ two pressure sensors as well as a final pressure relief mechanical valve to prevent the device from exploding if the relief valve became stuck then the device must work on two pressure sensors both of which must work and if one fails the logic using XOR function would abort subsequent operation. (This approach on Auto claves exceeded that employed on most gas boilers

On Autoclave, if using or relying on just one sensor, which if it goes faulty can result in its door being opened whilst the vessle was under great pressure, despite its mechanical interlocking, which operated with the pressure and a bit of friction, still there was danger that the door could be unlocked with greater effort, but I deployed electromechanical system using a solinoid to positively lock the door and prevent it from opening whilst any pressure remained in the vessle.
 
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