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This article was produced in collaboration with Aura.
A new poll from digital security firm Aura has found that a third of pet parents in the US have used their pet’s name as a password — and it’s a surprisingly dangerous move. natural for us and our furry friends.
We reduce the risk of relying on our four-legged best friends for digital security, look at how digital predators can use information, and come up with some easy solutions to generate and track passwords.
Why setting your pet’s name as a password is a high security risk
Creating and remembering multiple passwords for all of our online accounts is a pain. That’s why it’s tempting to choose something short, sweet, and unforgettable — something that makes us happy. Like our pet name.
If that’s you, you’re not alone. A new survey from Halo revealed that 39% of US pet parents used their pet’s name as part of a password. Among 35- to 44-year-olds, that number is even higher, with one in two pet parents getting password inspiration from a furry friend.
Now it’s understandable. After all, being online in the digital age requires an unprecedented number of passwords.
But here’s what else the poll found — and what makes using our pet names risky: 50% of pet parents share photos of their pets on social media. social media and 37% of us have posted our pet’s name. For two-thirds of us, that information reached over 500 followers.
Antonio_Diaz via iStock
You can see where this is going. Anyone who can see our social media profiles now has a password for one or possibly some of our digital accounts — especially if we’re among the 37% of Americans who use the same passwords for all or most of our online accounts or one-third of Americans use the same password for personal and work accounts.
Yes, we can, but they don’t i know that’s my password.
Trouble is they do – or at least, they know it’s a reasonable guess. A potential hacker is familiar with the stats and the pet names are right up there with birthdays and anniversaries as top password choices. With a third of pet parents in the US using the pet’s name as part of a password, a hacker is off to a pretty good start.
Depending on the account the hacker broke into, they could use it to gain control of your other important accounts and gain access to:
- personal and professional email
- social media accounts
- Bank accounts and credit cards
- Investment accounts and securities
- online shopping account
- personally identifiable information
- home and work addresses
How can a hacker use our pet names to steal information?
So how will it work? Here’s an example: If a hacker knows 1) your email address and 2) that you have an online account with a particular company, they can use “password” to check the passwords known (like “password123” and “adsf”) to see if there is any activity with that particular email address.
If your password is a truth about yourself that hackers or scammers can easily find, it’s pretty easy for them to use an automated bot to try out variations of your pet’s name with different numbers (so using “Fido123” won’t slow them down much).
If a match is found, then the hacker can use the valid credentials to try to take over the account. Aura cites Akamai, a cybersecurity company that reports at least 280 million malicious login attempts per day, including 300,000 login attempts per hour from a botnet.
Andreas Kestel via iStock
Then there’s the fact that so many brands use our pet security questions to access a locked account (think “what was your first pet’s name?”) ). If you have posted your pet’s name on social media and are using that as the answer to your security question, your information is now even more vulnerable.
The consequences are also not interesting to consider: If a hacker can access your account through an insecure password, they can cause significant damage to your life and finances. Even with just a few pieces of personal data, such as account logins and passwords, criminals can commit a variety of forms of ID theft, including credit card fraud, account fraud, and more. borrowing and defrauding taxes or government benefits.
The benefit of not using our pet names as passwords
By not using our pet names, we protect ourselves — and our pet toy and snack fund — from digital threats. It’s a small thing but can make a big difference in our online safety.
While we’re doing some pet name password cleanup, you should also get rid of any other public information we’re using as passwords (child names, important dates, team sports, etc.) favorite sports, etc.).
Getting rid of any duplicate passwords is another great way to keep yourself safe; that way, even if a hacker gets access to an account, they won’t necessarily have access to all of our account.
How to Create — And Remember — Complex Passwords
So should we replace all those pet name passwords that we are using? Ideally, we choose a variety of unique, complex passwords that contain lots of numbers, letters, and special characters like @, #, and %.
Writing them down on paper is not a good idea – digitally or on paper. But pet parents can discover a password manager that manages different, complex passwords for each account consumers have across mobile and desktop devices. .
Create a super cool complex password (no pet names) to access the password manager itself, as that password will act as a gatekeeper to all your other passwords, then memorize it.
hobo_018 via iStock
And why keep security measures to a minimum? Aura .’s All-in-One Digital Safety Platform can manage your passwords and more. Aura’s intelligent safety tools protect against malware and viruses from your digital devices. Their app will alert you to suspicious activity and threats to your identity, bank accounts, online accounts, and passwords. And if you need help, their 24/7 US customer support is here to help.
They also love pets. As one Aura team member assured us, “Trust me, we have an entire Slack channel dedicated to our employees sharing photos of their furry friends. But leave digital security to Aura and keep your pets away from it! With Americans’ financial losses from cybercrime growing 68% from 2020 to 2021 to more than $6.9 billion, it’s more important than ever to keep your family safe online. There are so many other ways to show love to your pets other than using their name as your password.”
We’re in favor of anything that can protect our pet’s finances — yeah, we mean ours. And staying safe online is also part of keeping our furry friends safe. Think of this as just one pet best practice, such as storing chocolate in a cupboard or monitoring grooming. It’s all under the “safety first” heading – so you and your four-legged best friend can continue the good times.
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