Pets can make a great addition to the family, bringing positivity and warmth to a household, but the digital devices associated with them could be a different story.

While every fifth pet owner uses some type of digital device to monitor or secure their domestic pet, for 39 percent of those pet owners, digital devices end up posing a risk to the owner or their household. That’s according to Kaspersky Lab, together with the research agency Opeepl, in which a 2018 survey of 7,740 household pet owners from 15 countries gathered data on how modern technologies affect pet and household safety.

According to the survey, half of the devices used for pets have access to the Internet, which makes them vulnerable to cyber attacks. Cat and dog trackers can allow attackers to manipulate information about the pet’s location or even steal its owner’s personal data. The study also found that the penetration of technologies and digital devices related to pets isn’t limited to trackers, either. Other popular tools cited by respondents were web cameras for watching pets, smartphones and tablets with games designed for pets, digital toys, automatic feeders or water dispensers, and more.

“I think across the board there is a concern about this,” said David Emm, principal security researcher at Kaspersky, on this episode of The Insuring Cyber Podcast. “Pets is just one aspect of it, to be honest, because we look at everything from [security] cameras to children’s toys. We’ve got all of these digital assistants in the home, and more and more stuff around us is connected in some way or another. With these devices, the danger is that out of the box, people just deploy them without really thinking about what the security implications of them are.”

The danger, Emm said, is that these devices become part of a household’s entire network once connected, which means a device’s inherent vulnerabilities could have a ripple effect.

“It could affect perhaps laptops or smartphones that we’re using, so if somebody were able to get a foothold into that particular device, it could perhaps be a springboard into other devices in our home,” he said.

Another concern is around the theft of personal data.

“If data is being sent and received to and from that device, and it isn’t being encrypted in any way, it’s not being protected,” he said. “There’s the danger that somebody could actually gather that data and could find out, for example, passwords to that device or another one.”

Emm cautioned users of digital devices for pets or other household functions to think about the scope of the device.

“In other words, is every function there one that you need?” he said. “If it isn’t, switch it off, because the less that you are using, the smaller the potential scope of anyone outside who could attack you.”

He said to also make sure all devices are frequently updated and aren’t set to the default password.

“One of the things you can do is if there’s a default password that comes with it, change it straight away,” he said. “Because if some kit is issued with the same password for everyone who buys it, then that same password will work for everyone who buys it. So, it’s important to create a new password for every digital device that you buy.”

Concerns around passwords don’t stop at changing the default password. Another way pet owners invite personal data theft or cyber breaches into their systems is by using their pets’ names as passwords. This is still happening more often than people might think, according to Chubb’s fifth annual study on personal cyber risk. In fact, half of those surveyed said they’re still including the name of a pet or another identifiable name or date in their password.

“Unfortunately, people might not use the best passwords because they’re trying to use a password they won’t forget, and as a result, they try to choose something easy to remember. That can be a pet’s name, could be their college mascot, could be a childhood address,” said Carolyn Boris, Chubb’s vice president of personal risk services, later in the episode. “Then they combine it with numbers that might relate to their own birthday or a relative’s birthday. Unfortunately, people then may reuse these weak passwords on multiple sites, and not all sites have the same level of security, so the problem compounds itself.”

The survey found another factor that may be compounding the problem of weak security—users being annoyed with having to constantly change their passwords. Respondents admitted to being annoyed with being forced to change passwords and keep track of them—more than 60 percent each, the insurer said.

“I guess what I would say is that it’s going to be more than just annoying if an individual is actually a victim of a cyber breach or an identity theft—something that might impact their financial accounts,” Boris said in response to these concerns. “This is going to be a highly undesirable outcome. So, I think about it this way: We are all busy, and sometimes having to create yet another password can be really challenging in a moment, and that bad habit (of using easily identifiable passwords) can be hard to break. But I do think it’s worth the effort.”

With these cybersecurity concerns surrounding pets, will cyber insurance for pets ever become a reality? Emm said he isn’t ruling it out.

“I haven’t seen specific cyber insurance for pets. I guess it’s entirely possible, though,” he said. “I think a few years ago, it would’ve seemed perhaps crazy to have cyber insurance at all, let’s say, in the corporate sector. Now, that’s become a really standard thing. So, things move very, very quickly, and I guess it is possible… I think at this point, we haven’t seen it, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t in the future.”

Chubb’s survey did report some good news: Adoption of practices such as regularly clearing browser histories and using password protection apps, pop-up blockers and malware protection were up significantly from 2021. Boris said she hopes to see those numbers increase even more in the future.

“While it’s encouraging that we’re seeing better cyber habits and that they’re being more widely adopted, we’re hoping to see even higher numbers reflecting frequent clearing of browser histories using cybersecurity software and using password protection apps going forward,” she said. “And we do believe that consumers should continue to educate themselves on these best practices.”

Check out the rest of the episode to hear what else Emm and Boris had to say, and be sure to check back for new episodes of The Insuring Cyber Podcast, publishing every other Wednesday along with the Insuring Cyber newsletter. Thanks for listening.