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`Random` password `ji32k7au4a83` used in 141 data breaches

Source: , 12/03/2019

The data breaches were catalogued by website Have I been Pwned, but
the number due to the apparently random password was spotted by
Gizmodo, which asked the obvious question: why were so many people
using the same jumble of letters and numbers as a password?
Taking up this mystery, a hardware and software engineer from Berkeley
called Robert Ou, challenged his Twitter followers to find the answer.
`Fun thing I learned today regarding secure passwords: the password
`ji32k7au4a83` looks like it`d be decently secure, right? But if you
check e.g HIBP, it`s been seen over a hundred times. Challenge:
explain why and how this happened and how this password might be
guessed,` he tweeted.
The tweet proved quite popular as many took up the challenge and it
wasn`t long before an answer was found. Taiwanese internet users
decoded the answer, noting that on a Taiwanese keyboard with the
Zhuyin Fuhao layout, the random assortment of numbers and letters
spells out æˆ`çš„å¯†ç¢¼, or `wÇ` de mÃ¬mÇŽ,` which in Mandarin, translates to
`my password`.

On a Zhuyin Fuhao layout, typing the letter J and I will add to two
add two of the symbols (ã„¨ + ã„›), which are displayed in the top right
of the keys, but pronounced as u and o. From there the tone of the
character has to be typed out, hence the 3. Simply put, Ji3 translates
to `me` in English, but it`s switched to `my` after you add `2k7,` the
next three characters in the password.
There is a slightly different system used by mainland China, which
suggests that people using `ji32k7au4a83` are mainly from Taiwan and
while that password has shown up in 141 data breaches, `au4a83`
(password) has shown up 1,495 times.
`Password` came second in SplashData`s 2018 annual poll of the worst
passwords, with `123456` coming out on top. Despite living in a world
of biometric security, the traditional password hasn`t been completely
ditched and worse, terribly simple ones are still widely used no
matter the language.

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