4 reasons you should never use your pet’s name as a password

Pets make the lives of their owners better, whether it’s companionship or making the mundane adorable. Either way, you likely love taking and posting pictures of your furry, feathery, or scaled friend using your camera phone. However, posting those pictures may harm you by making your passwords easier to crack.

A 2022 study by Aura found that more than 39% of pet owners use or have used a pet’s name as a part of their password. While this may seem like it makes it easier to remember, it makes it easier for that password to be breached. Here’s why you should avoid using your pet’s name in your passwords.

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Password attacks

A brute force attack is a type of trial-and-error attack a hacker uses to break a password. A dictionary attack is an attack that uses a list of common words or phrases and tries them to see if they can get in. While using a pet’s name is better than using “password” as your password, it could leave you compromised.

If your pet has a common name, it may be easy to guess that name when a hacker uses a password attack. Even if you add numbers or characters to the end of it, they have programs that work through those combinations in seconds. If your pet has a unique name, it may take a hacker longer to break it with a regular brute force attack. Still, names are never a good idea for a password.

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Social media hints

While you may love sharing your pet’s cuteness with the world, you may make yourself more susceptible to hacking. When sharing images of your pet, you likely share their name and information about where you were and what you did with them. You may also share important dates, such as when you adopted them. If you incorporate any of this information into your password, like your pet’s name and the year you adopted it, it could be used to hack your password.

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Security question answers

If a hacker finds a pet name or details about the pet that they found about you as part of a password, they may be able to use those details to change your password. Many services allow you to reset your password without using email, but you need to answer one or a few security questions. These questions are often personal, such as “What is your mother’s maiden name?” “What was your first pet’s name?” or something along those lines.

With access to the name of your pet and other information, a hacker may be able to hack your password and change it because you used your pet’s name. By steering clear of obvious information such as this, you will keep yourself digitally safe.

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Emotional attachment

Beyond the security risks, there is a personal and emotional reason to reconsider using a pet’s name in your password. Pets are members of our families and are valued as such. However, they do not live as long as we do and eventually pass away along our journey. That loss is difficult, and you are constantly reminded of the lack of their presence, especially shortly after that loss. If you incorporate your pet’s name into your password, you’ll continue to use that password and be reminded of your pet. While they’re alive, that may spark joy, but after they pass, it may bring pain and unhappiness to your day.

Create a better password

Pets are a central part of our lives, but that doesn’t mean that they should be central to your online security. Including your pet’s name in your password can leave you susceptible to hacking and make it easier to steal your data. Instead, create a stronger password, perhaps one that is generated and stored in a password manager.