We continue the popular theme of offline security by considering how computer security might be applied to the challenges presented in running a secret society. We discuss membership testing problems and solutions, set in the context of security authentication protocols, and present new building blocks which could be used to generate secret society protocols more robustly and generically, including the lie channel and the compulsory arbitrary decision model.

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mkb23/research/Dining-Freemasons.pdf

(the name is derived from the famous Dining Cryptographers protocol)

analysis of shibboleths, private communication in public

This has been a wicked good read so far, thankee.

Re-visiting this over 2 years later and it’s blowing my mind all over again. Beautifully concise and considered piece. Definitely a lost gem of the forum, thanks again.