Millions of British people are using their pet’s name as their online password, despite it being an easy target for hackers, a survey has found.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said 15% of the population used pets’ names, 14% use a family member’s name, and 13% pick a notable date.

And 6% of people are still using “password” as all - or a part - of their password.

The NCSC urged people to choose random words that cannot be guessed instead.

Other problematic passwords included a sports team the user supported (6%), a string of numbers such as “123456” (6%), or a favourite TV show (5%).

Some 40% of respondents said they had never used one of these easily-guessed items as part of a password…

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