3 ms·
Cryptography is a little bit like making fireworks. For most people, and you are most people, you're better off to just buy fireworks made in a factory. Follo
by donw 6y ago
Cryptography is a little bit like making fireworks.
For most people, and you are most people, you're better off to just buy fireworks made in a factory.
Follow the instructions, light them, they go bangity-boom-sparkle-puff, and everybody gets to finish up the evening with the same number of limbs and eyeballs as they started with.
Make your own, and you had better know what you are doing. Even if you do, Bad Shit is high on the list of possible outcomes.
Gunpowder may be a "low" explosive, but that doesn't mean it likes you.
Build up too much static and get a spark? Look around your workshop, and imagine your tools and furniture suddenly coming at you much faster than would be considered polite for inanimate objects.
Screw up the measurements? Get the fusing wrong? Now not just you, but also your guests, can experience the fun and excitement of being mortared.
Or you can be sane, and just buy some fireworks from one of those plywood booths that pop up every June.
tl; dr Don't roll your own crypto.
- bigiain 6y agoI used to lurk on alt.pyrotechnics - where I learnt “The Pyrotechnicians Salute”. Where you hold up both hands and wave all ten fingers in the air. To prove you still have them...
- hanche 6y agoGood analogy. And even factory made fireworks is dangerous if you don’t follow instructions. And so it is with cryptography.
- bigiain 6y ago“Ligh blue touch paper”, ok, got it. “ ... and stand well clear” yeah yeah, stupid safety advice. What kind of noob do you think I am? I’m a rockstar 10x ninja! <firework, caring little for egos, explodes as designed>
- tialaramex 6y agoLeading to the pun: https://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/ https://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/ (Cambridge University is associated with a light blue colour, although exactly which light blue colour is controversial, its rival Oxford University is associated with a dark blue - and of course such security research may sometimes lead to fireworks of a different kind...)
- cutemonster 6y agoYour own fireworks is dangerous to you But your hand rolled crypto, though, likely won't hurt you, it hurts others far away (e.g. dissidents in a dictatorship)