Password (Object Lessons)

Eve, Martin Paul

ISBN 10: 1501314874 / ISBN 13: 9781501314872

Published by Bloomsbury Academic, 2016

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 9781501314872

Bibliographic Details

Title: Password (Object Lessons)

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Publication Date: 2016

Binding: Soft cover

Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis:

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

Where does a password end and an identity begin? A person might be more than his chosen ten-character combination, but does a bank know that? Or an email provider? What s an identity theft in the digital age if not the unauthorized use of a password? In untangling the histories, cultural contexts and philosophies of the password, Martin Paul Eve explores how what we know became who we are , revealing how the modern notion of identity has been shaped by the password.

Ranging from ancient Rome and the watchwords of military encampments, through the three-factor authentication systems of Harry Potter and up to the biometric scanner in the iPhone, Password makes a timely and important contribution to our understanding of the words, phrases and special characters that determine our belonging and, often, our being.

Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.

Review:

An erudite and interesting amble through the history, philosophy, and psychology of passwords. --Bruce Schneier, Security Technologist and New York Times-Bestselling Author of Data and Goliath The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World

Conjuring our passwords has become a daily act of our computer-saturated existence. By no means sequestered to our digital present, Martin Paul Eve's excellent account of the password covers its long and lively history. Weaving literary references with lucid technical explanations, Eve skillfully traces the evolution of password to probe its fundamental connections to issues of human identity, trust, and ownership. --Gabriella Coleman, Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy, McGill University, Canada