A significant fraction of Americans are using COVID- and presidential-candidate-related passwords online. This was the finding of an annual report on Password Strategies by Security.org, a team of security experts, advisors, and researchers. The researchers asked 750 Americans to share their password strategies and security habits.

Here are some key findings:

• Forty-five percent of Americans use passwords that are eight characters or less.
• Twenty-five percent of Americans share their personal passwords with other people.
• Just 15 percent of Americans use strong password generators. 

Now, for some key findings on Americans’ “inspiration” for passwords:

• Twenty-one percent of Americans have used Trump or Biden as part of their password in 2020. Twelve percent use Trump and 9% report using Biden.
• Fourteen percent use “COVID” in their password.
• Twenty percent admit to dropping an f-bomb or other curse word as part of their passwords.

In addition, pets are popular password inspirations as well. In fact, according to the report, more people use their pet’s name as part of a password than a parent’s name, child’s name, last name or friend’s name.