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Under the Hood of IDES and the 5-Level Security System

Type: story
Title: Under the Hood of IDES and the 5-Level Security System
Date: 1976-03-15
Alias: Under the Hood of IDES and the 5-Level Security System, Under the Hood of IDES and the 5-Level Security System, IDES Architecture and Security
Category: Programming, IDES, Origins, Colton, Gladstone
Participants: Randal Schwartz, Kevin Hornych

  • Under the Hood of IDES and the 5-Level Security System

  • When I moved from Gladstone to Colton between 9th and 10th grade, I left behind close friends like Kevin Hornych, who was instrumental in championing and spreading our network connection back in Gladstone.
  • To bridge the distance without paying long-distance phone tolls, I authored IDES (Interactive Data Exchange System) on the shared HP 2000 BASIC educational minicomputer.

  • Technical File Architecture

    • HP 2000 BASIC supported shared, randomly-accessible files across user sessions.
    • I created a custom record layout inside these random files:
      • Live Chat Stream: One section of the file was reserved for consecutive, revolving real-time chat messages that active terminals could poll and print.
      • Store-and-Forward Delayed Email: Another dedicated segment functioned as asynchronous personal mailboxes, allowing users to leave persistent messages that friends could log in and collect later.

  • The 5-Level Role-Based Security Model

    • Because anyone on the educational network could potentially access the system, I designed a multi-tier permission structure:
      • Level 5 (Admin): Full administrative and operator control (my account).
      • Levels 4, 3, 2: Progressively tiered features and administrative privileges.
      • Level 1 (Guest/Chat Only): Restricted to live interactive chatting only—no mailbox or store-and-forward email privileges.
    • Users had to establish trust to earn higher security clearance levels, creating one of the earliest role-based access control systems implemented in high school educational computing.
  • See Inventing Chat and Email Across a Leased Line in High School and IDES Viral Spread and the TOTO Text Editor Gig.

What links here

🔗 Childhood Friendship with Kevin Hornych and Playing Hooky in the Woods 🔗Kevin Hornych
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.