Explorables

Small interactive explainers that accompany my Ex Machina column — one concept, one parameter, one insight you can feel by trying it.

• How hard is factoring?
  RSA hides its secret inside the product of two very large primes. Multiplying them to get that number is instant; factoring it back into primes is so slow that, at today's key sizes, the fastest machines on earth would run out of time before the universe did.
  Ex Machina 475 · The Quantum Reckoning→
• The patch deficit
  Security teams patch vulnerabilities at a roughly fixed rate — a well-resourced team clears maybe five critical bugs a day.
  Ex Machina 474 · A Matter of Sovereignty→
• The collapsing appeal
  India's IT Rules today route a takedown complaint through three stages: the platform's Grievance Officer, then the Grievance Appellate Committee, then the Inter-Departmental Committee.
  Ex Machina 473 · The Digital Media Amendments→
• The cascade
  A modern supply chain is a sequence of bets on other people's competence. When one link breaks, the disruption travels — often through stages most of the world has never heard of — until it arrives somewhere familiar.
  Ex Machina 472 · Deeply Interdependent→
• Tamper test
  A notary attests that a stamped paper exists. A cryptographic signature attests that an issuer — say, UIDAI — emitted exactly this data.
  Ex Machina 471 · Do We Need Notaries→