Perfect Password: Selection, Protection, Authentication |  | Author: Mark Burnett
Creator: Dave Kleiman
Publisher: Syngress
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 868611
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 182
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 1597490415
Dewey Decimal Number: 790
EAN: 9781597490412
ASIN: 1597490415
Publication Date: December 25, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
User passwords are the keys to the network kingdom, yet most users choose overly simplistic passwords (like password) that anyone could guess, while system administrators demand impossible to remember passwords littered with obscure characters and random numerals.
Every computer user must face the problems of password security. According to a recent British study, passwords are usually obvious: around 50 percent of computer users select passwords based on names of a family member, spouse, partner, or a pet. Many users face the problem of selecting strong passwords that meet corporate security requirements. Too often, systems reject user-selected passwords because they are not long enough or otherwise do not meet complexity requirements. This book teaches users how to select passwords that always meet complexity requirements.
A typical computer user must remember dozens of passwords and they are told to make them all unique and never write them down. For most users, the solution is easy passwords that follow simple patterns. This book teaches users how to select strong passwords they can easily remember.
* Examines the password problem from the perspective of the administrator trying to secure their network
* Author Mark Burnett has accumulated and analyzed over 1,000,000 user passwords and through his research has discovered what works, what doesn't work, and how many people probably have dogs named Spot
* Throughout the book, Burnett sprinkles interesting and humorous password ranging from the Top 20 dog names to the number of references to the King James Bible in passwords
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
 "Perfect Passwords" Is Perfect! :) December 29, 2009
G. Parks (Washington NJ USA)
Review For: "Perfect Passwords: Selection, Protection, Authentication", ISBN 1597490415, by Mark Burnett, 2005
There are LOTS and LOTS of tips and tricks in this book for forming long, memorable, and hard-to-crack passwords. But if all you're interested in is the Meat and Potatoes, I can shortcut the matter and give it to you here: "The Perfect Password" has eight (8) elements to it:
1. It has UPPERCASE letters (ABC...).
2. It has lowercase letters (def...).
3. It has numbers (123...).
4. It has spaces (" ").
5. It has punctuation (.,:;-!? and the like, usually used in sentences).
6. It has symbols (@&+=>$#*^~ and the like, usually NOT used in sentences).
7. It has respelling (i.e., no words that can be found in a
dictionary -- for example, using "kwean", and not "queen").
8. It has more than 15 characters, and the more the better.
That's it, Jack! If you can easily come up, on the spur of the moment, with a passphrase or password which meets ALL of these criteria, AND which is easy to remember... then YOU DON'T NEED TO BUY THIS BOOK, you've already got it made!
Otherwise, the aforementioned Tips & Tricks will come in very very handy. And not only that, it's (surprisingly!) entertaining, too -- like the annectdote about the author's 5-year-old son, whose password was:
"ooooooooooooooo"
(Shux, his son liked the letter "o", and he could count to the minimum password length of 15, so that's what the lil' kidlet tyke used, LOL!)
Buy this book. Please trust me, you won't be sorry. :)
curiously complete September 26, 2009
William J. Carpenter (Pacific Northwest, USA)
When I saw this book, I thought the same thing you are probably thinking ... how could you have a whole book on this subject? Then I read the quotes from luminaries on the back cover, and I figured they were just friends of the author and hadn't bothered to read the book.
Well.
This is a short book, but it's amazingly complete on the subject. I don't agree 100% with all of the policy advice he gives, but it's fascinating to read the real-life password analyses he's done. If you are just someone who wants to pick better passwords for yourself, you *might* like this book. If you are an admin trying to figure out a sensible password policy for your bailiwick, I *strongly recommend* this book to you. It won't take you long to read it, and you are almost certainly going to get some insights even if you are pretty experienced already. (I am, and I did.)
I'm glad I bought it, and I'm glad I read it.
Hidden in front of your eyes... July 8, 2009
Jay P. Vansanten
This is unique book -- hence the 5 stars.
It's a quick read, you'll likely be able to finish it in a short evening.
The book is what it says -- it deals only with passwords from a mathematical basis. There are no implementation details on different OSes.
But, it doesn't promulgate the typical complex, elusive passwords that system administrators typically love. It suggests first making passwords memorable, then long, then complex -- through different character sets. There are a surprising variety of strategies which emerge. This approach can assist system administrators in developing relatively secure but easy to remember terms.
There's an informal presentation of statistics to support the presentation.
An invaluable book for system admins in an insecure world.
 Good Thoughts, But Not So Much August 9, 2006
S. Barbour (USA)
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
Mark Burnett's book appears to be the work of someone who has been in the security business for 10 years, been to a few lectures, seen lots of password policies, maybe even taken a class or two; but didn't understand some basic concepts. Bad guys may be baffled by the passwords someone creates by this book, but only if they're stupid. Most people aren't, and anyone who has spent any time understanding the math or the way people pick passwords won't be fooled too much by Mr. Burnett's suggestions. This book does have some merit in that it does educate the reader in basic security, but don't bother spending more than $5 for this book. You can get pretty much the same answers by googling around for an hour or so.
Great, quick read April 12, 2006
Roger A. Grimes (Virginia Beach, VA USA)
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
Mark has made a great, quick, must-read book on passwords. I had read a few chapters of it before it was published (my quote is on the back cover), and liked it, but the overall book should be read by all system administrators. It contains commonsense, practical advice, just more of it than most of us have thought about alone-all in one place.
I think every system administrator will see one or two of their own personal passwords in the book...which is a wake-up call.
I was able to quickly read/skim the entire book, pull out all the useful tips in under an hour while my daughter was getting her braces tightened. A complete slow read would probably take a day. I think all system administrators should buy and understand this book.
Roger A. Grimes
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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