#altos engineers

[modular-hospital-equipment]

Medical Surgical Pendant - OT Pendant at Latest Price | Altos Engineers

Medical institutions perform a variety of functions. Out of all of them, one of its main functions is to perform surgical procedures. Hospitals are generally judged by the success of the operations performed by their surgeons.

Operating rooms have been created for surgeons as well as surgical staff to perform surgical procedures requiring time, patience, attention and safety. A variety of equipment is required for use in the surgical operating room.

Surgical Pendant

Medical Services Pendants also referred to as Booms, are considered to be one of the most essential items of equipment in the operation theatre. They allow efficient utilization of space to offer staff with the ability to transport required medical care to patients efficiently and quickly.

The surgical pendant is available in a variety of configuration to meet surgical specific needs. Like -  Fixed Surgical Pendant, Double Arm Surgical Pendant, Single Arm Laparoscopic Pendant, Double Arm Laparoscopic Pendant, Modular Single Arm Pendant, Modular Double Arm Pendant, Modular Electric Single Arm Pendant, Modular Electric Double Arm Pendant

Wall and Ceiling Panels

Medical facilities require building materials with excellent durability, chemical resistance, low maintenance costs and affordability. Wall and Ceiling Panels, the plastic material PVC, also known as vinyl, meets these demands. Wall and Ceiling Panels are most commonly used in hospitals.

Scrub Sinks

Scrub sinks, also called surgical sinks or medical sinks and are imperative to the health and safety of patients. They serve as scrub stations for surgeons and others or staff to clean their hands and arms before a surgical or invasive procedure. Altos high-quality SS Scrub Sinks offer hands-free operation via either manual, knee-kick panels, electronic eye infra-red sensor or programmable automatic timer. The Series is available in single/double/triple basins and is made from the best materials, components and craftsmanship available.

Laminar Air Flow

Laminar air flow ventilation is utilized in operating t theatres of today to decrease the amount of infectious organisms in the air that could cause post-operative inflammation of the area. We manufacture and supply high-quality precession-engineered Laminar Air Flow Units for Operation Theatre and are made in accordance in accordance with international standards for quality.

Hatch Box

Hatch Box is extensively used to transfer the materials from to clean rooms without contaminating air in the clean room, and without needing to open the door of the room. The hatch box is constructed to be constructed in a manner to ensure that just one entrance could be opened at the same time. The UV light should be installed inside the chamber in order that it will remain open even when both doors are shut. The UV light must be switched off automatically when a door is open.

Peripheral Lights

Peripheral lights are lighting fixtures used in hospitals and other medical facilities to provide light to areas adjacent to a patient bed. They can be used to create a more comfortable atmosphere, provide extra illumination for medical staff, and help to reduce the risk of falls in patients. They are typically installed around the bed, but can also be placed in hallways and other areas. These lights are typically designed to be energy efficient and help to reduce the amount of energy consumed in the facility.

If you're looking for peripheral lights, you've come to the right place. We have a wide range of options available to suit your needs, from simple nightlights to more robust lighting systems. Our lights are energy efficient, long-lasting. We specialize in manufacturing LED Peripheral Light. We have developed an effective ceiling light that can be used in hospitals, hotels, commercial and residential projects.

X-Ray Boards

X-Ray boards are used in hospitals to support X-rays during a radiography examination. The board is made of a material that is highly resistant to X-ray radiation and prevents the film from being fogged. It helps to ensure that the radiologist can clearly see the images produced by the X-ray and diagnose the patient accordingly.

We offer a variety of high-quality X-Ray Boards that are designed to provide a clear and detailed image of X-Rays. Our boards feature a lightweight aluminum construction that is both durable and easy to move. Additionally, each board has a non-glare finish that ensures maximum visibility of the X-Ray. We have several options available to meet your specific needs.

Surgeon Control Panel

The Surgeon Control Panel is a computerized system found in many hospitals which helps surgeons better manage patient care. It provides surgeons with access to patient information, medical records, imaging results, and other data. It also allows surgeons to access and manage anesthesia, operating room equipment, and other medical devices. The Surgeon Control Panel helps to improve patient safety and the quality of care by providing surgeons with the data they need to make informed decisions quickly and accurately.

Writing Board

Writing Board is a tool used in hospitals to help patients communicate with medical staff. It is a whiteboard with a dry erase marker and space for patients to write their thoughts, questions, and concerns. It is a great way for patients to feel heard and for medical staff to better understand their needs. Writing Board can help bridge the gap between patient and provider, providing a safe and effective way for patients to communicate.

Operation theatre LED surgical lights

High quality lighting is essential to conduct operations. Appropriate lighting is important, especially in cases of difficult and complex surgical operations. Operation theatre LED surgical lights provide doctors with optimal viewing during the procedure. Operation theatre LED surgical lights or halogen lights are two types of surgical lights.

Hospital Door

Seal Swing and Automatic Sliding Door in hospitals are two different doors that serve different purposes. Seal Swing doors are typically used to prevent germs and other contaminants from entering a hospital or medical facility. They are designed to create an airtight seal when closed, which helps to keep the air clean and free of contamination.

Automatic Sliding Doors, on the other hand, are used to allow quick and easy access to the hospital while still providing a secure and safe environment. The doors are equipped with an automatic sensor that opens and closes the door as people enter and exit the hospital. Both Seal Swing and Automatic Sliding Doors are important components of a hospital's safety and security measures.

Pressure Relief Dampers

Pressure relief dampers are a type of safety device commonly used in hospital ventilation systems. They are designed to protect the system from high pressures caused by sudden changes in air pressure, such as when a door is opened. They are typically used on the exhaust side of the system, and can be either manual or automatic. When the pressure in the system exceeds the set point, the damper opens to release the excess pressure, preventing damage to the system and ensuring optimal air flow.

[bazellgraham]

Graham Bazell - An Entrepreneur

Graham Bazell knows several computer languages that complement his skills as a software engineer.

[ssw12]

Elevating Network Security: The Role of Palo Alto Certified Engineers

In today's digitally-driven landscape, ensuring robust network security is paramount for organizations of all sizes. With cyber threats evolving at an unprecedented pace, businesses must employ advanced technologies and skilled professionals to safeguard their networks and sensitive data. Palo Alto Networks, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, offers innovative platforms and tools designed to protect against a wide range of cyber threats. However, harnessing the full potential of Palo Alto Networks' offerings requires expertise and proficiency. This is where Palo Alto Certified Engineers play a pivotal role.

Understanding Palo Alto Certified Engineers:

Palo Alto Certified Engineers are skilled professionals who have undergone comprehensive training and certification programs offered by Palo Alto Networks. These certifications validate their proficiency in deploying, configuring, and managing Palo Alto Networks' security solutions effectively. From firewalls and intrusion prevention systems to secure access solutions and cloud security, Palo Alto Certified Engineers possess the knowledge and skills necessary to design, implement, and optimize robust security architectures tailored to meet the unique needs of their clients.

Key Responsibilities of Palo Alto Certified Engineers:

Designing Secure Network Architectures:

Palo Alto Certified Engineers collaborate with clients to assess their security requirements, infrastructure, and risk profiles. Based on this assessment, they design customized network security architectures leveraging Palo Alto Networks' solutions. Whether it's implementing next-generation firewalls, securing cloud environments, or establishing secure remote access policies, Palo Alto Certified Engineers ensure that organizations have robust defenses in place to mitigate cyber threats effectively.

Implementing Advanced Security Controls:

Once the design phase is complete, Palo Alto Certified Engineers take on the task of implementing Palo Alto Networks' security solutions within the client's environment. This involves configuring firewalls, setting up threat prevention policies, and deploying advanced security features such as intrusion detection and prevention, URL filtering, and SSL decryption. By meticulously fine-tuning security controls, Palo Alto Certified Engineers strengthen the overall security posture of organizations and reduce their exposure to cyber risks.

Optimizing Performance and Scalability:

In addition to deployment, Palo Alto Certified Engineers are responsible for optimizing the performance and scalability of Palo Alto Networks' solutions. They conduct performance assessments, analyze network traffic patterns, and fine-tune configurations to ensure optimal security effectiveness without compromising network performance. Moreover, Palo Alto Certified Engineers design scalable architectures that can accommodate the evolving needs of organizations, allowing them to adapt to changing threat landscapes and business requirements seamlessly.

Providing Ongoing Support and Maintenance:

Beyond deployment and optimization, Palo Alto Certified Engineers offer ongoing support and maintenance to ensure the continued effectiveness of Palo Alto Networks' solutions. They monitor security events, analyze logs, and respond to incidents in a timely manner to mitigate potential security breaches. Moreover, Palo Alto Certified Engineers stay abreast of emerging threats and industry best practices, providing proactive recommendations and guidance to help organizations stay ahead of cyber adversaries.

Benefits of Engaging Palo Alto Certified Engineers:

Expertise and Specialization:

Palo Alto Certified Engineers bring specialized expertise in Palo Alto Networks' security solutions, ensuring that organizations benefit from best-in-class security practices and configurations.

Enhanced Security Posture:

By leveraging the knowledge and skills of Palo Alto Certified Engineers, organizations can enhance their security posture, reduce vulnerabilities, and mitigate cyber risks effectively.

Cost-Effective Solutions:

Palo Alto Certified Engineers help organizations maximize the value of their investment in Palo Alto Networks' solutions by designing cost-effective architectures and optimizing performance and scalability.

Peace of Mind:

With Palo Alto Certified Engineers at the helm, organizations can have peace of mind knowing that their networks are protected by industry-leading security solutions and skilled professionals who are committed to their security and success.

Palo Alto Certified Engineers play a crucial role in elevating network security and enabling organizations to navigate today's complex threat landscape with confidence. By harnessing their expertise, organizations can leverage the full potential of Palo Alto Networks' solutions and safeguard their critical assets against cyber threats. As trusted advisors and guardians of network security, Palo Alto Certified Engineers stand ready to empower organizations on their journey towards cyber resilience and success.

[lolliichop]

the taglist, part 2: character tags. ( which i wanted to have a quote, but. i've been staring at this list for 45 minutes and i can't wrap my head around it. it's fine. IT WORKS WELL. NO QUOTES. )

canon muses ↳ RED scout › ↳ RED pyro › ↳ RED sniper › ↳ RED spy › ↳ RED medic › ↳ RED engineer ›

emesis blue ↳ BLU soldier › ↳ BLU medic ›

originals / alternative universes ↳ carmine riviera / BLU retriever › ↳ carmine riviera / RED retriever › ↳ alto clef / BLU medic ›

[ssw001]

[yusuke-of-valla]

I know someone who hated Akechi's engine room death but not because of whatever it says about abuse victims but more that it was a shitty ending for his arc and proof that atlus did not give a shit about akechi until royal

That’s an opinion they’re free to have but I disagree that it’s proof Atlus did not care about him until Royal given all the promotion and focus he got even outside of Royal. I think it’s more a sign that Atlus conceptualized him first and foremost as an antagonist whereas in Royal he’s much more in the anti-hero/potential all camp, but that doesn’t mean they hated him

[sswrnd1]

Palo Alto Certified Engineers

How Palo Alto Firewalls Help Protect Against Ransomware Attacks - Palo Alto Certified Engineers

Palo Alto Networks is a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions, including next-generation firewalls that are designed to provide advanced threat protection. Ransomware attacks are a growing concern for organizations of all sizes, and Palo Alto firewalls can help protect against these types of attacks. One of the key features of Palo Alto firewalls is their ability to identify and block known ransomware threats using advanced threat intelligence and machine learning. Additionally, Palo Alto firewalls can help prevent ransomware attacks by enforcing strict security policies, limiting network access, and monitoring network traffic for suspicious activity. By implementing Palo Alto firewalls, organizations can significantly reduce their risk of falling victim to a ransomware attack and minimize the impact of any potential attacks that do occur.

[elonmuskupdates]

Tesla Global Engineering HQ announcement

[marutisuzukigenuineparts]

Everything About Car Bumper and Their Purpose in the Car

A car bumper is an important part of the vehicle’s passive safety system. It is a rigid structure that is a part of the car's exterior. Car bumpers are present in the front as well as the back of the car. It is carved out of solid metal or plastic that matches the car's body. Visit us for more info -

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Suzuki Alto Heart Stand, 2004. A small commercial van concept based on the HA24 6th generation Alto, adapted to work as an outdoor plant stall. Presented at the the 38th Tokyo Motor Show, the rear side panel was also equipped with a liquid crystal display for advertisements and information. It was powered by a 660cc DHC 12 valve 3 cylinder engine driving the front wheels. There was only one seat, for the driver, as the offside area was used for storage and to display more plants

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Greetings! I have assumed that because you're Welsh you must be able to sing. Am I right, or is this an unfair stereotype of your people? (Love your blog btw)

WELL. Yes. I can. No comment on the stereotypicality, but it's certainly true that group singing is a big cultural thing, particularly among Welsh speakers.

Uh, that said, I have the lowest voice of any cis woman I've ever met or seen. Zero songs are written for my vocal range. I dream of the day I find another so we can bond OR I can finally sing something with my vocal chords and gender in mind. If you're musically inclined at all for this to make sense to you, my comfortable range is B2 - C5, which means I can encompass all of tenor, a chunk of baritone in the low end, and not quite all of alto in the high end. The closest I've ever come to finding a female singer with a similar reach is Madeline in The Amazing Devil, who hits low notes even I struggle with in That Unwanted Animal; but she can go much higher than me (and is certainly more comfortable in a higher range than me), so she's just a vocal prodigy. Every choir teacher I've ever had has confidently told me "Plenty of famous singers are altos, you're not alone!" And I'm like "That would be useful, Beryl, but I'm not an alto and they all sing higher than me."

Thinking about it, though - this is entirely anecdotal and not backed up by any actual statistics - I have consistently found over the years that Welsh voices tend towards the lower end. I'm thinking back to the choir I was in in Aberystwyth, the Elizabethan Madrigal Singers. It was a student choir, so there was a mix of nationalities but mostly Welsh and English. I remember at one point the conductor stopped us on one song and made us sing one of the phrases, section by section from the basses up. The point he was making was about our pronunciation of the word 'castle'.

"Listen to that!" he laughed. "You all need to pronounce that 'a' the same way, and this is a formal piece, it needs to be long. It's "Cahstle", not "cassle". Look how only the sopranos are doing it right!"

And one of the basses looked along the line and went "Rob... that's because they're English."

And we realised that every bass and all but one alto was Welsh; two thirds of the tenors and every single soprano was English. The higher the voices went, the fewer Welsh people were present.

(Shout out to Rob, very quickly - he was an English tenor, but on reaching Aberystwyth University he'd learned a smattering of Welsh as best he could and joined the Welsh language choir as well as the Mads to practice it. He was affectionately known as 'Rob Sais' in honour of this respect. Really nice guy. I believe he's an engineer now.)

But yeah, that's a trend I have noticed over the years in other places, too. No idea how universal that is vs just my own observations in my own bubble, but there we are

[bazellgraham]

Graham Bazell - A Talented Software Engineer

Graham Bazell, a talented software engineer from Palo Alto, CA, is driven by his unwavering commitment to personal and professional growth. In the next 10 years, he envisions himself further expanding his technical abilities, embracing leadership roles, and contributing to the evolution of the decentralized finance industry. Graham's passion for technology and his drive to continuously improve make him a valuable asset in the software engineering field, contributing to the growth and innovation of the industry.

[greenplumbboblover]

Not-a-tutorial - Lighting (Advanced)

Previous parts:

Not-a-Tutorial - Lighting (Basics)

Not-a-Tutorial - Lighting (Basics - Indoor)

Intention:

While dialogues and body language can say a whole lot on what you're trying to tell to the reader, lights can as well! Here's a great example:

(Left is with the lights on, right is with the lights off).

As you can see, the left one feels much more like it's... let's say, a winter-y 6pm, and she's studying in the library...

Whereas on the right, it feels much more like she's skipping on sleep, and it's 3am, studying.

Moods:

You can also use lighting for more tenser scenes! Here are a few examples from my story:

Here the setup was the same, but I added softer rose/red pastel-y colours... (Though this scene did have like 6 lights :p)

Here I not only used a blue backlight for giving it a “night” feeling, but I also added an orange and white front-light to represent a sense of hope and that our poor Ethan isn't alone.

Here I gave Vita and Nick Alto a yellow, green and red lighting setup, to represent more jealous and angry colours for Nancy. As Nancy is staring at them.

However, the pink represents not only the stage light, but also a sense of Innocence given her background of not understanding the entrepreneur game.

Here I gave little Bella a red background and light foreground, keeping the left part of her face dark, as the speech is about the future of the town. And with the light, she represents a bright but unclear future.

Note: all of these images do use Reshade, so trying to get these results without it may look a bit different!

Seasons:

Representing the colours associated with the seasons can give a scene a really cool feeling!

Summer, Spring, Autumn, Winter.

Color mixing:

One thing I thought was pretty cool with TS3's Lighting engine, is how colors in certain highlights will mix just like paint!

Red + Blue looks a bit purple-ish.

Red + Yellow will look a bit orange-y.

Blue and Yellow will turn green-ish at parts.

Custom Coloured Lights

Sometimes, some of EA's colours aren't... quite there. Or really what you need. Here is a short list of colours I've made and used:

0, 150, 255 - Replacement of Cyan (More of a light blue):

0, 163, 108 - Jade

255, 195, 0 (better Yellow)

What's the easiest way to find new colours?

It's pretty easy! If you google for "Colour generator" then there you go! Do make sure to get the RGB values from those websites!

But, for the ones who don't want to google, here are a few suggestions:

Give them a try and see which ones are great! Do go for colours that are quite strong in contrast. Pastel will just end up being white, and darker colours will just turn... well it will look like there is no light on :p

That was it! Hopefully it was insightful, and obviously feel free to add your own discoveries to it! :)

[deancasbigbang]

Moving Castiel

Author: Raven_Fuchs

Artist: Marvfortytwo

Rating: Mature

Pairings: Dean/Castiel; Mary Winchester/John Winchester; Sam Winchester/Jessica Moore

Length: 24523

Warnings: No warnings apply

Tags: Friends to lovers, Tornado, Mild depression, Cafe/Bakery AU, Low angst

Summary: As Dean is about to graduate with his Masters degree in engineering he loses his job repairing items at a pawn shop and starts working for his friend Cas in his cafe. Dean discovers he’s a natural at baking and hopes one day to go into business with Cas. Cas runs a cafe that his aunt left him while it gives him experience he yearns to establish his own speciality bake shop. After a tornado destroys the cafe Dean and Cas have to decide if they’ll both relocate to California and set up the bakery of Cas’ dreams while Dean rejoins his mom who moved out there to help Sam and Jess with their new baby. Decision made, the boys look for a place in Palo Alto to start their new business that fuses Cas’ baking talent with Dean’s mechanical know-how.

Link to Fic | Link to Art

[max-levchin]

Shamir Secret Sharing

It’s 3am. Paul, the head of PayPal database administration carefully enters his elaborate passphrase at a keyboard in a darkened cubicle of 1840 Embarcadero Road in East Palo Alto, for the fifth time. He hits Return. The green-on-black console window instantly displays one line of text: “Sorry, one or more wrong passphrases. Can’t reconstruct the key. Goodbye.” 

There is nerd pandemonium all around us. James, our recently promoted VP of Engineering, just climbed the desk at a nearby cubicle, screaming: “Guys, if we can’t get this key the right way, we gotta start brute-forcing it ASAP!” It’s gallows humor – he knows very well that brute-forcing such a key will take millions of years, and it’s already 6am on the East Coast – the first of many “Why is PayPal down today?” articles is undoubtedly going to hit CNET shortly. Our single-story cubicle-maze office is buzzing with nervous activity of PayPalians who know they can’t help but want to do something anyway. I poke my head up above the cubicle wall to catch a glimpse of someone trying to stay inside a giant otherwise empty recycling bin on wheels while a couple of Senior Software Engineers are attempting to accelerate the bin up to dangerous speeds in the front lobby. I lower my head and try to stay focused. “Let’s try it again, this time with three different people” is the best idea I can come up with, even though I am quite sure it will not work. 

It doesn’t. 

The key in question decrypts PayPal’s master payment credential table – also known as the giant store of credit card and bank account numbers. Without access to payment credentials, PayPal doesn’t really have a business per se, seeing how we are supposed to facilitate payments, and that’s really hard to do if we no longer have access to the 100+ million credit card numbers our users added over the last year of insane growth. 

This is the story of a catastrophic software bug I briefly introduced into the PayPal codebase that almost cost us the company (or so it seemed, in the moment.) I’ve told this story a handful of times, always swearing the listeners to secrecy, and surprisingly it does not appear to have ever been written down before. 20+ years since the incident, it now appears instructive and a little funny, rather than merely extremely embarrassing. 

Before we get back to that fateful night, we have to go back another decade. In the summer of 1991, my family and I moved to Chicago from Kyiv, Ukraine. While we had just a few hundred dollars between the five of us, we did have one secret advantage: science fiction fans. 

My dad was a highly active member of Zoryaniy Shlyah – Kyiv’s possibly first (and possibly only, at the time) sci-fi fan club – the name means “Star Trek” in Ukrainian, unsurprisingly. He translated some Stansilaw Lem (of Solaris and Futurological Congress fame) from Polish to Russian in the early 80s and was generally considered a coryphaeus at ZSh. 

While USSR was more or less informationally isolated behind the digital Iron Curtain until the late ‘80s, by 1990 or so, things like FidoNet wriggled their way into the Soviet computing world, and some members of ZSh were now exchanging electronic mail with sci-fi fans of the free world.

The vaguely exotic news of two Soviet refugee sci-fi fans arriving in Chicago was transmitted to the local fandom before we had even boarded the PanAm flight that took us across the Atlantic [1]. My dad (and I, by extension) was soon adopted by some kind Chicago science fiction geeks, a few of whom became close friends over the years, though that’s a story for another time. 

A year or so after the move to Chicago, our new sci-fi friends invited my dad to a birthday party for a rising star of the local fandom, one Bruce Schneier. We certainly did not know Bruce or really anyone at the party, but it promised good food, friendly people, and probably filk. My role was to translate, as my dad spoke limited English at the time. 

I had fallen desperately in love with secret codes and cryptography about a year before we left Ukraine. Walking into Bruce’s library during the house tour (this was a couple years before Applied Cryptography was published and he must have been deep in research) felt like walking into Narnia. 

I promptly abandoned my dad to fend for himself as far as small talk and canapés were concerned, and proceeded to make a complete ass out of myself by brazenly asking the host for a few sheets of paper and a pencil. Having been obliged, I pulled a half dozen cryptography books from the shelves and went to work trying to copy down some answers to a few long-held questions on the library floor. After about two hours of scribbling alone like a man possessed, I ran out of paper and decided to temporarily rejoin the party. 

On the living room table, Bruce had stacks of copies of his fanzine Ramblings. Thinking I could use the blank sides of the pages to take more notes, I grabbed a printout and was about to quietly return to copying the original S-box values for DES when my dad spotted me from across the room and demanded I help him socialize. The party wrapped soon, and our friends drove us home. 

The printout I grabbed was not a Ramblings issue. It was a short essay by Bruce titled Sharing Secrets Among Friends, essentially a humorous explanation of Shamir Secret Sharing. 

Say you want to make sure that something really really important and secret (a nuclear weapon launch code, a database encryption key, etc) cannot be known or used by a single (friendly) actor, but becomes available, if at least n people from a group of m choose to do it. Think two on-duty officers (from a cadre of say 5) turning keys together to get ready for a nuke launch. 

The idea (proposed by Adi Shamir – the S of RSA! – in 1979) is as simple as it is beautiful. 

Let’s call the secret we are trying to split among m people K. 

First, create a totally random polynomial that looks like: y(x) = C0 * x^(n-1) + C1 * x^(n-2) + C2 * x^(n-3) ….+ K. “Create” here just means generate random coefficients C. Now, for every person in your trusted group of m, evaluate the polynomial for some randomly chosen Xm and hand them their corresponding (Xm,Ym) each. 

If we have n of these points together, we can use Lagrange interpolating polynomial to reconstruct the coefficients – and evaluate the original polynomial at x=0, which conveniently gives us y(0) = K, the secret. Beautiful. I still had the printout with me, years later, in Palo Alto. 

It should come as no surprise that during my time as CTO PayPal engineering had an absolute obsession with security. No firewall was one too many, no multi-factor authentication scheme too onerous, etc. Anything that was worth anything at all was encrypted at rest. 

To decrypt, a service would get the needed data from its database table, transmit it to a special service named cryptoserv (an original SUN hardware running Solaris sitting on its own, especially tightly locked-down network) and a special service running only there would perform the decryption and send back the result. 

Decryption request rate was monitored externally and on cryptoserv, and if there were too many requests, the whole thing was to shut down and purge any sensitive data and keys from its memory until manually restarted. 

It was this manual restart that gnawed at me. At launch, a bunch of configuration files containing various critical decryption keys were read (decrypted by another key derived from one manually-entered passphrase) and loaded into the memory to perform future cryptographic services.

Four or five of us on the engineering team knew the passphrase and could restart cryptoserv if it crashed or simply had to have an upgrade. What if someone performed a little old-fashioned rubber-hose cryptanalysis and literally beat the passphrase out of one of us? The attacker could theoretically get access to these all-important master keys. Then stealing the encrypted-at-rest database of all our users’ secrets could prove useful – they could decrypt them in the comfort of their underground supervillain lair. 

I needed to eliminate this threat.

Shamir Secret Sharing was the obvious choice – beautiful, simple, perfect (you can in fact prove that if done right, it offers perfect secrecy.) I decided on a 3-of-8 scheme and implemented it in pure POSIX C for portability over a few days, and tested it for several weeks on my Linux desktop with other engineers. 

Step 1: generate the polynomial coefficients for 8 shard-holders.

Step 2: compute the key shards (x0, y0)  through (x7, y7)

Step 3: get each shard-holder to enter a long, secure passphrase to encrypt the shard

Step 4: write out the 8 shard files, encrypted with their respective passphrases.

And to reconstruct: 

Step 1: pick any 3 shard files. 

Step 2: ask each of the respective owners to enter their passphrases. 

Step 3: decrypt the shard files.

Step 4: reconstruct the polynomial, evaluate it for x=0 to get the key.

Step 5: launch cryptoserv with the key. 

One design detail here is that each shard file also stored a message authentication code (a keyed hash) of its passphrase to make sure we could identify when someone mistyped their passphrase. These tests ran hundreds and hundreds of times, on both Linux and Solaris, to make sure I did not screw up some big/little-endianness issue, etc. It all worked perfectly. 

A month or so later, the night of the key splitting party was upon us. We were finally going to close out the last vulnerability and be secure. Feeling as if I was about to turn my fellow shard-holders into cymeks, I gathered them around my desktop as PayPal’s front page began sporting the “We are down for maintenance and will be back soon” message around midnight.

The night before, I solemnly generated the new master key and securely copied it to cryptoserv. Now, while “Push It” by Salt-n-Pepa blared from someone’s desktop speakers, the automated deployment script copied shard files to their destination. 

While each of us took turns carefully entering our elaborate passphrases at a specially selected keyboard, Paul shut down the main database and decrypted the payment credentials table, then ran the script to re-encrypt with the new key. Some minutes later, the database was running smoothly again, with the newly encrypted table, without incident. 

All that was left was to restore the master key from its shards and launch the new, even more secure cryptographic service. 

The three of us entered our passphrases… to be met with the error message I haven’t seen in weeks: “Sorry, one or more wrong passphrases. Can’t reconstruct the key. Goodbye.” Surely one of us screwed up typing, no big deal, we’ll do it again. No dice. No dice – again and again, even after we tried numerous combinations of the three people necessary to decrypt. 

Minutes passed, confusion grew, tension rose rapidly. 

There was nothing to do, except to hit rewind – to grab the master key from the file still sitting on cryptoserv, split it again, generate new shards, choose passphrases, and get it done. Not a great feeling to have your first launch go wrong, but not a huge deal either. It will all be OK in a minute or two.

A cursory look at the master key file date told me that no, it wouldn’t be OK at all. The file sitting on cryptoserv wasn’t from last night, it was created just a few minutes ago. During the Salt-n-Pepa-themed push from stage, we overwrote the master key file with the stage version. Whatever key that was, it wasn’t the one I generated the day before: only one copy existed, the one I copied to cryptoserv from my computer the night before. Zero copies existed now. Not only that, the push script appears to have also wiped out the backup of the old key, so the database backups we have encrypted with the old key are likely useless. 

Sitrep: we have 8 shard files that we apparently cannot use to restore the master key and zero master key backups. The database is running but its secret data cannot be accessed. 

I will leave it to your imagination to conjure up what was going through my head that night as I stared into the black screen willing the shards to work. After half a decade of trying to make something of myself (instead of just going to work for Microsoft or IBM after graduation) I had just destroyed my first successful startup in the most spectacular fashion. 

Still, the idea of “what if we all just continuously screwed up our passphrases” swirled around my brain. It was an easy check to perform, thanks to the included MACs. I added a single printf() debug statement into the shard reconstruction code and instead of printing out a summary error of “one or more…” the code now showed if the passphrase entered matched the authentication code stored in the shard file. 

I compiled the new code directly on cryptoserv in direct contravention of all reasonable security practices – what did I have to lose? Entering my own passphrase, I promptly got “bad passphrase” error I just added to the code. Well, that’s just great – I knew my passphrase was correct, I had it written down on a post-it note I had planned to rip up hours ago. 

Another person, same error. Finally, the last person, JK, entered his passphrase. No error. The key still did not reconstruct correctly, I got the “Goodbye”, but something worked. I turned to the engineer and said, “what did you just type in that worked?”

After a second of embarrassed mumbling, he admitted to choosing “a$$word” as his passphrase. The gall! I asked everyone entrusted with the grave task of relaunching crytposerv to pick really hard to guess passphrases, and this guy…?! Still, this was something -- it worked. But why?!

I sprinted around the half-lit office grabbing the rest of the shard-holders demanding they tell me their passphrases. Everyone else had picked much lengthier passages of text and numbers. I manually tested each and none decrypted correctly. Except for the a$$word. What was it…

A lightning bolt hit me and I sprinted back to my own cubicle in the far corner, unlocked the screen and typed in “man getpass” on the command line, while logging into cryptoserv in another window and doing exactly the same thing there. I saw exactly what I needed to see. 

Today, should you try to read up the programmer’s manual (AKA the man page) on getpass, you will find it has been long declared obsolete and replaced with a more intelligent alternative in nearly all flavors of modern Unix.  

But back then, if you wanted to collect some information from the keyboard without printing what is being typed in onto the screen and remain POSIX-compliant, getpass did the trick. Other than a few standard file manipulation system calls, getpass was the only operating system service call I used, to ensure clean portability between Linux and Solaris. 

Except it wasn’t completely clean. 

Plain as day, there it was: the manual pages were identical, except Solaris had a “special feature”: any passphrase entered that was longer than 8 characters long was automatically reduced to that length anyway. (Who needs long passwords, amiright?!)

I screamed like a wounded animal. We generated the key on my Linux desktop and entered our novel-length passphrases right here. Attempting to restore them on a Solaris machine where they were being clipped down to 8 characters long would never work. Except, of course, for a$$word. That one was fine.

The rest was an exercise in high-speed coding and some entirely off-protocol file moving. We reconstructed the master key on my machine (all of our passphrases worked fine), copied the file to the Solaris-running cryptoserv, re-split it there (with very short passphrases), reconstructed it successfully, and PayPal was up and running again like nothing ever happened. 

By the time our unsuspecting colleagues rolled back into the office I was starting to doze on the floor of my cubicle and that was that. When someone asked me later that day why we took so long to bring the site back up, I’d simply respond with “eh, shoulda RTFM.” 

RTFM indeed. 

P.S. A few hours later, John, our General Counsel, stopped by my cubicle to ask me something. The day before I apparently gave him a sealed envelope and asked him to store it in his safe for 24 hours without explaining myself. He wanted to know what to do with it now that 24 hours have passed. 

Ha. I forgot all about it, but in a bout of “what if it doesn’t work” paranoia, I printed out the base64-encoded master key when we had generated it the night before, stuffed it into an envelope, and gave it to John for safekeeping. We shredded it together without opening and laughed about what would have never actually been a company-ending event. 

P.P.S. If you are thinking of all the ways this whole SSS design is horribly insecure (it had some real flaws for sure) and plan to poke around PayPal to see if it might still be there, don’t. While it served us well for a few years, this was the very first thing eBay required us to turn off after the acquisition. Pretty sure it’s back to a single passphrase now. 

Notes:

1: a member of Chicagoland sci-fi fan community let me know that the original news of our move to the US was delivered to them via a posted letter, snail mail, not FidoNet email!