Far too many turn to Jingles, Mittens, or Bella for password inspiration, given that these are some of the easiest passwords to crack.

Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading

May 5, 2022

1 Min Read
Woman kissing her cat's head while she works at home on her laptop
Source: Westend61 GmbH via Alamy

For all who celebrate World Password Day, here's an easy way to immediately boost online safety — stop picking your pets' names for passwords. 

An overwhelming number of Americans (39%) use their pet's name as part of their password, according to new data from Aura. That number jumps to half (50%) for pet lovers between the ages of 35 to 44, Aura added. 

"Through this campaign, Aura aims to highlight ... that while using a pet's name as a password may be a show of love and an easy-to-remember access code to your online life, pet passwords are some of the easiest for cybercriminals to guess," the company said in a statement

Other notable findings from the survey found 59% of pet parents have posted a picture of their pet on a social-media account, and 48% have also shared their pet's name, giving attackers a good place to start guessing online account passwords, Aura pointed out.  

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Dark Reading Staff

Dark Reading

Dark Reading is a leading cybersecurity media site.

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