Is Your Pet's Name a Safe Password?

A pet's name is one of the most popular ways to start a password. It's easy to remember, it means something to you, and it doesn't change for years. Those are the same reasons it's one of the first things anyone trying to guess your password will look for.

Why pet names are so popular

A good password is hard to remember, so people reach for words they'll never forget. A dog, a cat or a childhood rabbit fits perfectly. Many people then reuse the same pet name, with small changes, across several accounts.

Where your pet's name shows up online

Photo captions and hashtags, like "Sunday walk with Biscuit".
Comments from friends, who say hello to your pet by name.
Your bio, where people often list their pets next to their job and hometown.
The pet's own account, which usually has the pet's name as its handle.
"Gotcha day" and birthday posts, which give away the name and a date in one go.

Anyone can find these in a few minutes. Gathering what someone has made public like this is called open-source intelligence, or OSINT.

The security question problem

"What was the name of your first pet?" is a classic security question for getting back into an account. If your pet's name is public, it can help someone get past that question as well as guess your password. If a site asks it, you don't have to give the real answer. Make one up and keep it in your password manager.

"But I added numbers"

Adding a number doesn't help much when the number also comes from your life. The year you got your pet, its birthday or your own birth year are the first numbers a guesser tries after the name. Swapping letters for symbols, like B1scu1t!, doesn't help much either. Password-cracking tools try those swaps automatically. Read why symbol swaps don't make a password stronger.

What to use instead

Use a password manager to create a long, random password for each account.
For the few passwords you have to remember, use a passphrase of four or more random words that have nothing to do with your life.
Give made-up answers to security questions, and store them in your password manager.
Turn on two-factor authentication, so a guessed password isn't enough on its own.

Practice spotting it in a game

Guess The Password is a free password guessing game built on habits like this one. Each level gives you a fictional person's profile, chats and posts, and you crack their password from the clues they left. Every person and password in it is made up. There's also the Daily Cipher, a new password to crack every day.

Seeing how quickly a "personal" password falls is the fastest way to stop using one.

Play free in your browser Try today's Daily Cipher