Rick

Towards a practical digital library

I started collecting digital content in the 1980s. Before that I was satisfied to print things…
My invitated – a classic phishing attack

Phishing emails can be tiresome. Sometimes, though, they are classically bad. Even better, this one uses…
Migration Round Trip

A few weeks from now I’ll throw the switch and redirect Cryptosmith web traffic to its…
The Migrating Web Site

I am moving my Cryptosmith web site to WordPress.com. This will give me a lot more…
John Oliver on Net Neutrality

Comedian John Oliver has recorded a classic rant about net neutrality. Here’s my favorite quote: The…
The “Bug-Free Software” fallacy

About 20 years ago, I worked with a fellow who proudly told me that he had…
Multics was flawless?

Last week I participated in a very geeky panel discussion about a now-defunct standard for computer…
Example of KISS

Ok, this is a backwards observation. One of my hot buttons is to spot “cyber security…
Digital’s RT-11 File System

(Circa 1975-199?) The PDP-11 computer, build by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the late 20th century,…
Security Design Principles

This is an extended, less-edited version of an article appearing in IEEE Security and Privacy in December 2012. This…
Kilo mega giga tera

I am not keeping this page up to date. Please visit https://cryptosmith.com/2013/10/18/memory-sizes-kilo-mega-giga-tera-peta-exa/ instead. Here is a…
Memory Sizes: kilo mega giga tera peta exa

Here is a table summarizing large numbers, their names, and the number of bits they require…
GUIs: Control, Conveyance, Continuity, and Context

I’m a sucker for basic principles distilled into pithy prescriptions. A freelance writer, Brian Boyko, has…
A really simple Drupal 7 example module

I developed this module back when I managed my self-hosted Drupal system. Since then I’ve found…
Boston University’s RAX Library

(circa 1973-8) Boston University (BU) developed its own timesharing system in the 1970s for its IBM 360…
Homework

LakesideMap
Pragmatic Security: the history of the Visa card

I’ve been looking at the evolution of electronic funds transfer (EFT) and payment systems recently. My…
Boak’s Puzzle: Disposing of Classified Trash

Recently I was skimming through the NSA’s “classified history of COMSEC” (Volume 1 and Volume 2). This…
Real-world document encryption

I’ve been reviewing histories of cryptography recently and here’s an interesting thing about pre-computer encryption: it’s…
Design Patterns for Identity Systems

These are design patterns in the Christopher Alexander sense rather than the object oriented design sense:…
A Simple CPU Demonstration

CPU = Central Processing Unit The CPU is the working part of the computer. It runs your…
Fixing the Insider Threat: Separation of Duty

The insider threat isn’t easy to fix. We can fix it with Separation of Duty, but…
Stream Cipher Reuse: A Graphic Example

Take a look at the following image. You should see two different ‘messages’ here. This particular…
Files using Classic FORTH

(circa 1970-85, maybe later) The Forth programming system was developed in the late 1960s by Chuck Moore.…