This is the home page of Zach Smith.

I work in Security Engineering and Architecture, with a specialisation in Identity and Access Management. Usually, my work involves understanding the technical infrastructure in place at an organisation. From there, I help the organisation implement technical or policy improvements, or deploy new solutions to harden security. I love this work because it involves maintaining a big-picture view while also getting to muck around in the swamps of complex systems. I also assist with establishing technical agreements – research partnerships, contracts with high performance computing institutes, and so on.

Before this, I completed my PhD at the University of Luxembourg. My research focused on the application of Formal Methods to cybersecurity. By creating mathematical models of real-world communication protocols (such as RFID or Internet messaging), we can analyse their security. I’m originally a mathematician by study, and successfully fulfilled the pure-math meme of justifying my work with “it has applications in cryptography”. More on research.

I have taken part in several programming projects in the past, some of which ended up being quite successful. I’m a big fan of game design as a way for honing my programming - you get to wear many hats, pick up artistic skills and have fun with the result! I mostly work in modifying or extending existing games - either by using supported modding tools or using more creative methods. These days in what spare time I have I work with a friend developing a game in Unreal… but it’ll be a while before there’s anything worth showing. More on programming.

I am trying my best to write things about the other things that fill my life. I think we are at our most interesting when we have a diverse set of hobbies – I dance swing, speak Chinese, and play a card game with people I met in a boardgames design group in my late teens with a dozen active players. You can see it in the blog.

If you want to contact me, you can email me using zach (at) (this website).