Monday, March 18, 2024
Daily FeatureFridayPressPress Releasepublicity

Press Release: 1 in 3 U.S. Pet Parents Have Used Their Pet’s Name as Their Password

tortie cat with parsley
Cookie has parsley eyes.

I have to laugh because my first passwords were “cookie”, and I used that for everything! Apparently I’m not the only one.

~~~

Aura research finds families vulnerable online; company appoints 4 official Spokespets to promote safer ways to show love for furry friends

BOSTON, May 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Aura, the leader in intelligent safety for consumers, today introduced a public safety awareness campaign encouraging families to bolster their online safety habits. Marking the start of National Pet Month and World Password Day on May 5, Aura has released new data that found more than one-third (39%) of American pet parents have used their pet’s name as part of their password for an online account. That stat rises to 1 in 2 (50%) among pet parents between 35-44 years old. Through this campaign, Aura aims to highlight to families 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.

“People tend to create passwords that are both meaningful and easy to memorize for use across various platforms. However, simplicity and ease are two descriptors that should never be used regarding your passwords. That means the password is hardly protecting your accounts and your assets,” said Kelly Merryman, president & COO of Aura. “Strong, unique passwords are the most important — and sometimes only — protection we have against hackers.”

Pet names are often widely known and easily searchable on social media or online. In fact, pet parents are often their pets’ publicists. Aura’s survey found of those who use their pets’ names in passwords:

  • 59% have posted a photo of their pet to social media
  • 48% have posted their pet’s name on social media
  • 36% of those who have ever posted their pet’s name on social media have 500 or more followers on their social accounts

In addition, 63% of parents of children under 18 who have ever owned a pet have used their pet’s name as their password, and 52% have posted their pet’s name on social media.

Introducing Aura’s Spokespets
To call attention to this safety risk, Aura has partnered with four famous pets who are no strangers to sharing their information online. The Aura “Spokespets” will serve as safety ambassadors for the brand, sharing recommendations for pet parents on better ways to show love for their animals and tips to keep the whole family safe online. Aura’s inaugural class of Spokespets are:

Promoting Password Hygiene
In addition to pet names, Americans have used notable dates like birthdays or anniversaries (40%), family members’ names (34%) and sports teams (22%) as part of their passwords.

Using personal information that a hacker or scammer can easily find makes an online user vulnerable to cyberattack. These criminals often use automated technology and bots to trial different combinations of personal details and numbers in combination with stolen user IDs to break into and take control of accounts.  In fact, one of the FBI’s most-wanted cybercriminals suspects that he was caught after federal authorities correctly guessed his password – his cat’s name followed by the number “123.”

The impact of a targeted attack has a wide blast radius when you consider that nearly half (47%) of pet parents who have used their pet’s name as part of their passwords admit that they use the same password for most or all of their online accounts. 23% of this group have shared their frequently-used passwords with people outside their immediate household. 7 in 10 (74%) say they only change their passwords if they are forced to update them.

For pet lovers who don’t want to spend their days ideating complex, unique passwords, Aura recommends calling for backup. Aura’s platform proactively identifies and prevents online threats. As part of its intelligent safety platform, Aura’s password manager stores all your passwords in one secure place and generates unique, strong passwords to secure your online accounts. What’s more, Aura will proactively alert you if you have a weak or breached password, and auto-update your credentials on select sites.

For more on Aura’s intelligent safety platform and tips on creating stronger passwords, visit aura.com/petpasswords.

Survey Method
This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Aura from April 19-21, 2022, among 2,082 adults ages 18+, of whom 1,835 have owned a pet. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact [email protected].

About Aura
Aura, the leader in intelligent safety solutions, provides all-in-one digital protection for consumers. We understand that the online safety needs of each individual are unique and require a personalized solution. By bringing together security, privacy and parental controls on an intelligent platform, Aura makes adaptive and proactive digital safety accessible to everyone. Visit www.aura.com.

Media Contact:
Eva Dudzik
[email protected]

SOURCE Aura

 


Read other Press Releases

I subscribe to a variety of reading lists to constantly further my knowledge of health and welfare for cats and other pets, domestic animals and wildlife. I occasionally publish press releases I think my readers will appreciate, and I share them by choice with no compensation. When I am occasionally compensated for a post I clearly note that is a “sponsored post”.


Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

AfterDinnerNap-Etsy

Fine ArtPhotographyGiftsGreeting CardsBooksCommissioned Portraits & Artwork

Great Rescues Day Book:
Portraits, Rescue Stories, Holidays and Events, Essential Feline Information, All in One Book

day book with cat portraits
Great Rescues Day Book

Each month features one of my commissioned portraits of a feline or felines and their rescue story along with a kitty quote on the left page, and on the right page the month name with enough lines for all possible dates, with standard holidays and animal-themed observances and events. Great Rescues also includes a mini cat-care book illustrated with my drawings including information on finding strays or orphaned kittens, adopting for the first time or caring for a geriatric cat, a list of household toxins and toxic plants, or helping stray and feral cats and beginning with TNR.

Each book includes also 10 sheets of my “22 Cats” decorative notepaper with a collage of all the portraits in black and white so you can make your own notes or write special notes to friends.

The portraits in this book, collected as a series, won both a Certificate of Excellence and a Muse Medallion in the 2011 Cat Writers’ Association Annual Communication Contest, as well as the 22 Cats Notepaper mentioned below.

Read more and order.



Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.


Subscribe to my e-newsletter

Subscribe to The Creative Cat Preview E-newsletter.


© 2022 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Weekly schedule of features:

Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life

Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters

Tuesday: Rescue Stories

Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork

Thursday: New Merchandise

Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy

Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats

And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

 
PORTRAITS OF ANIMALS WEBSITE
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | LINKEDIN | PINTEREST | TUMBLR | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE| EMAIL | PATREON

HOME

Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

2 thoughts on “Press Release: 1 in 3 U.S. Pet Parents Have Used Their Pet’s Name as Their Password

  • Ha!
    I have so many passwords, it’s impossible to remember them all.
    So, for awhile, I reused the same one for everything, but that quickly became an issue with my job, as the IT people won’t allow reused ones!
    Have not used a pet’s name as a password, because we have many and I cannot pick one only.
    However, this is interesting, and thought-provoking, information.

    Reply
    • Back in the 90s when I started with passwords I decided I’d use the name of the cat who was on my lap when I set it up, figuring I’d have a variety for the nine I lived with then, and the hundred or so who had passed through as fosters. But that was nearly always Cookie! And when I used another cat’s name I didn’t remember, so I made them all Cookie. That’s why I used her as the featured image. it wasn’t such a big deal to use simple and obvious passwords, until the hackers figured that out. Now I have sets of passwords that I can remember, each with variations that only I could figure out because they aren’t logical variations.

      It is interesting information, that’s one of the reasons I had to share it.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this:
Verified by ExactMetrics