At a glance, ji32k7au4a83 may seem like a strong password. However, in this article by Gizmodo; data breach repository Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) revealed that this password has shown up in 141 data breaches. HIBP is an aggregator that helps users to find out if their email or personal data were compromised in significant data breaches, such as a password search to determine if your password has been involved in a data breach.

This finding was brought up by a software/hardware engineer, Robert Ou on his twitter account. His tweet has prompted some of his followers to quickly investigate on this less than a common password. Turns out, the password is a system of transliterating Mandarin.

By using a ZhuYin keyboard (a common keyboard used typing Mandarin in Taiwan), the password breaks down to Mandarin characters that translates to English as “my password”.

All of us could benefit from a password check at HIBP. Who knows? Your password could translate into a common term in another language.