Infosec: the early years

15 November 2010

As part of my wife’s heroic renovation of our basement, she provided each one of our children with a little cabinet to keep their Lego creations and similar valuables. She screwed a hasp onto each cabinet and gave each child a padlock with a four-letter combination, so that each could secure his valuables against nosy brothers.

Over breakfast, The Six-Year-Old could not resist dropping so many hints about his combination that The Eight-Year-Old guessed it.

The Four-Year-Old told his brothers the combination outright, but this information is now moot, because while the lock was open, he accidentally held the shackle in the position for resetting the combination… and futzed with the dials, so that God only knows what the combination is now… and locked his cabinet.

• Later: In honor of National Novelette Writing Month
• Earlier: Know when to walk away