Encrypted files in your norbt
Posted on June 2010
More than just text
The users have spoken!!! Now in norbt.com you can add files inside your norbt’s encrypted content. The files that you add to your norbt are encrypted and decrypted in the browser same as the text.
How to add files
To add a file you just use the add file section under your norbt’s text in the creation page. You will be prompted to select the file to add. The file will be added to your locked data section. The file has not been sent to the server yet, it has just been transfered from your computer to the browser. When you press send both the text and file will be encrypted together using your answer and that encrypted data is sent to our servers.
How files are viewed
When a user gives the correct answer for a norbt, the encrypted data for that norbt is downloaded from our server. If the norbt has files associated with it, the encrypted data includes those files encrypted inside. Once the user has the encrypted data for your norbt, she decrypts the data on her browser. If the data contains files, those will be shon as part of the data displayed. If the files are images, the image and a link to download the file will be displayed. If the files are not images just the download link will be displayed.
You can view the example above at https://norbt.com/NORBT
Subscriptions
As we explained in some other articles, recently norbt.com has adopted a fremium policy to try and cover the cost of running the service.
By default the maximun size for your norbt is small. It’s about 32KB, the size of a small picture (may be 200×200 pixels) or a long text file. For those users who would like to include larger text or image files, this functionality is available in all of the subscription packages. The lowest subscription includes 400K per norbt for 1.5$/month. Log in to see the subscription options.
Enjoy the new functionality and keep those comments coming!
Your own custom ID
Posted on June 2010
What’s a custom ID
A custom ID is an ID chosen by the user at the creation of the norbt. This id will be part of the URL to access that norbt.
Example: http://norbt.com/MY_OWN_ID.
Custom IDs are useful because they are easy to remember and may have meaning for you and those accessing your norbt.
How to create a norbt with a custom ID
You will need to have or create an account (username/password) and subscribe to gain access to the custom ID function.
When you create a norbt, you can select to use a custom ID. Norbt.com will let you know how many custom IDs you have left to use.
Examples:
Signature email with custom ID
We wrote a couple of articles on the advantages of using norbt in your email signature. If your email signature has your name, it will be easier to remember and access. For example John Smith could use https://norbt.com/JOHN_SMITH. You could even use it in your business card.
Directions to your home or office
Use an easy to remember ID for the directions to your home or office. https://norbt.com/JOHN_HOME
In general you can use custom IDs any time that you want an easy to remember and easy to communicate URL.
Disclaimer, not a free feature
Recently norbt.com has adopted a fremium policy to try and cover the cost of running the service. With these new subscription packages, we hope to be able to give something back to the open source community without which this service would not exist.
This feature is only available to subscribers. Currently the minimum subscription that allows you to use this feature costs a whopping 1.5$/month! Come join our community and help make norbt.com a better service. Thanks for your ongoing support!
Do you have any other examples of where a norbt.com custom ID might be useful? Leave us a comment to let us know!
Limit views on your norbt
Posted on June 2010
Until recently you had little control on how many people accessed and viewed the content of your norbt. Based on user feedback, we have added functionality to let users know how many times their norbt had been viewed and who by. But we didn’t stop there! We also added functionality which allows users to limit the number of times that a specific norbt can be viewed.
In this post we’ll explain how you can control access to your norbt by limiting the number of times that norbt.com will serve your norbt’s encrypted content before the content is blocked to new views.
In our previous post we explained how you can track visits on your norbts . It may be useful to read it to understand better how blocking works.
Why would I block norbts?
There are multiple reason why you may want to block a norbt but some examples that come to mind are the following:
One to one private email
You want to send an email that should only be read once by the final recipient. By setting the number of visits to 1 you are telling norbt.com that the encrypted data should only be served once. Only the first person that access your norbt and answers it correctly gets access to the norbt’s encrypted content.
Challenge with a reward for the first X people to view
If you are doing a challenge where you give a reward to the first X people who answer your question correctly, you could control that by limiting the number of views of the encrypted content to X.
My own private norbts
If you have private norbts with information that only you want to access, you can block them when you are not using them to stop people from trying to guess your answer.
Outdated norbts
If you have norbts that you are not using right now, but may use in the future, you may choose to block it now and un-block it in the future when you need it. If you delete a norbt you will be losing the ID associated to it, so you may consider blocking it instead to keep the ID.
How to block your norbts
To limit the number of times your norbt can be opened you have to go to the edit/manage page for your norbt. To do that click on the manage norbt in your norbt’s view page. You must be logged in as the owner of the norbt to view the manage button.
Once you are on the manage page for your norbt, select the view control tab. There you have two options: block the norbt right now using the checkbox or select the number of times that your norbt can be opened before it blocks.
If you select to enter a number in max. views. The norbt encrypted content will not be served by the server once the max views number has been exceed. If the norbt in question has already been served that number of times or more, it will be blocked automatically – the result will be the same as if you had chosen to mark block access.
Note that when you limit the number of times that encrypted content will be served, your requests as a owner of the norbt do not count towards blocking.
Find your blocked norbts
Finding out which of norbt’s are blocked is easy. In your norbt’s page, those norbts which are blocked appear with red stripes on top of their id.
You can click on any id to go it’s specific view page, and from there to the id management page and change the view control fields if you want to un-block it.
How your blocked norbts are seen
When a norbt is blocked the norbt’s visitor gets a message (see the image below). The user sees the title and the question of your norbt. The user doesn’t get the option to answer the question and view the content.
Some security details
The block feature is controlled by our server, even if you bypass the ui (user interface) and send the right answer to get the encrypted content, our servers will check if the norbt is blocked and if you are the owner of the norbt to know if it should serve the norbt’s encrypted content.
For more details about security see our security page.
We hope you find this functionality useful. We’ll keep on working to improve your experience at norbt.com. Thanks for your support.
Tracking your norbt’s visits
Posted on May 2010
Have you ever wondered how many times your norbts are viewed? Norbt.com has created a quick and easy way to give you this information in two simple steps.
To track your norbt’s visits, just sign in with your user. Once signed in, you will see a list of all your norbts. This list has a counter on the right side of the screen to let you easily see how many times each norbt has been viewed (it will show up like the “45 views” image to the right of this text). It also lets you know how many times you, the owner, has viewed the item versus someone else.
For more details on a specific norbt you can click directly to your norbt’s view page. At the bottom of this page you will see a list with the details of when and who did what with your norbt. Only the owner of the norbt can see these details. For an example of how this looks see below:
On your norbt’s view page, you can see when a user requested your norbt (view question) and when she/he provided the right answer and opened your norbt (view data).
One user to rule them all (your norbts)
Posted on May 2010
A new functionality has been implemented in norbt that allows you to create a user.
Once you have a user, you can Sign in and manage all your norbts.
This is usefull for multiple reasons:
- you control all your created norbt under a single user.
- your username (which you choose) is easy to remember (not like your norbts id)
- you can view all your norbts in on place (your user page)
- you have only on password (your user’s password) to manage all your norbt. You do not need extra passwords for each new norbt
- New norbt creation is faster and easier signed in as your user. When creating a new norbt, you don’t need to answer a captcha and you have 4 fields less to fill up
You can easily add norbts that have already been created by you to your user bu signing in, going to the norbt you want to manage, clicking on the manage your norbt, and selecting the “own this” tab.
We’re back!
Posted on May 2010
…we were not on holidays though.
We’ve been working under the radar preparing a bunch of exciting features:
- Create a user to manage all your norbt’s (no more captcha’s!).
- View a complete list of visits to your norbt including who was able to open it.
- Check your new user page to have a quick view of all this data.
- Block your norbt’s or limit the number of times it can be opened.
- Get YOUR_CUSTOM_ID id’s!
And finally:
- Add files to your norbt’s! (Yes, they’ll be encrypted in your browser too).
In group secret sharing in Twitter and Facebook
Posted on December 2009
We have added links/buttons for sharing your norbt in Twitter or Facebook.
When you create a norbt, if you specify an e-mail address, you’ll receive a message with some extra instructions and links to directly share your norbt on twitter and facebook:
Once, a norbt is already created, you can still post your norbt via the management tools:
Finally, facebook and twitter may request your consent to complete sharing your norbt.
You may want to play a game with your friends to see if they know the answer to your question. You may want to organize a party for those who know the name of your dog. Or you just want to tell something to a subgroup of your followers (you are filtering that something to an in group with your question/answer)…
Start sharing norbts on Twitter or Facebook now, create a new norbt.
Security update: change to HMAC
Posted on November 2009
We’ve received some suggestions via the comments on this blog and also from comments on Bruce Schneier’s blog to improve the security of norbt.
We have changed from Hashing to MAC‘ing. We have updated the security page to reflect the current implementation of norbt. You can find the previous content at security0.
A strong norbt starts with a strong answer. Remember to think about how easy it is for a person or a computer to guess your answer in order to determine how easy/difficult your norbt is.
简体中文 (Chinese) translation
Posted on November 2009
norbt.com has been translated to Chinese. We support seven languages now: English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Catalan.
norbt.com 已被成功翻译成中文。我们现已拥有七种语言的版本：英文，中文，西班牙文，葡萄牙文，法文，意大利文和嘉泰兰文。
Big Thanks to Miacademi (Chinese academy in Barcelona)for their excellent work.
Muchas gracias a Miacademi (Academia para aprender Chino en Barcelona) por su excelente trabajo.
竭诚感谢 Miacademi 的帮助.
Français (French) translation
Posted on November 2009
norbt.com has been translated to French. We support six languages now: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Catalan.
norbt.com a été traduit au français. Nous supportons maintenant sis langues : Anglais, Espagnol, Portugais, Français, Italien et Catalan.
Big Thanks to Robert. Merci beaucoup à Robert.