The Mystery of Password “ji32k7au4a83” and How to Choose Secure Passwords

Earlier reports highlighted that the 2020 "worst" password "123456" was used by nearly 3% of people, and a recent discussion on the Have I Been Pwned site focused on the unusual password "ji32k7au4a83" and its usage count.

Have I Been Pwned offers a Pwned Passwords service that records 551,509,767 real passwords exposed in data breaches; a query for "123456" returns 23,174,662 occurrences.

Hardware/software engineer Robert Ou noticed that "ji32k7au4a83" appeared 141 times in the database, which seemed implausible because the string looks random.

It was later explained that the string is the Zhuyin (Bopomofo) transcription of the Chinese phrase "我的密码" ("my password"), accounting for its presence.

Zhuyin, based on Zhang Taiyan's phonetic letters, was created in 1913 by the Chinese Phonetic Union and officially promulgated by the Beiyang Government's Ministry of Education in 1918.

The original 1918 version listed initials, medials, and finals, for example: ㄍㄎㄫㄐㄑㄬㄉㄊㄋㄅㄆㄇㄈㄪㄗㄘㄙㄓㄔㄕㄏㄒㄌㄖ (initials), ㄧㄨㄩ (medials), and ㄚㄛㄝㄟㄞㄠㄡㄢㄤㄣㄥㄦ (finals).

After more than a century of evolution, Zhuyin is still used in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu.

Security experts warn that attackers compile common‑password lists from such breach data and can crack many accounts quickly—studies show about 17 minutes to compromise 1,000 accounts.

To protect yourself, follow three guidelines: (1) use passwords at least eight characters long; (2) avoid obvious patterns; (3) include at least three character types such as letters, numbers, and special symbols.

The article invites readers to share their own password‑creation tips and reminds anyone who may have used the discussed passwords to change them immediately.

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