ABOUT CRYPT NEWSLETTER
Crypt Newsletter has been on the Web since sometime in 1994 when Jim Thomas, editor of Computer underground Digest, made space for me on the computers of Northern Illinois University's Depart of Sociology.
Jim's largesse came on or slightly before the publication of "The Virus Creation Labs" which -- more or less -- was the fruit of the research I put into the first twenty issues of Crypt Newsletter. And I've been here -- in virtual space, anyway -- ever since.
In the real world, Crypt Newsletter is written and edited in Pasadena, California.
If you've been reading material on the Website you already know the Newsletter has a strong and extremely critical point of view. Credit that, in part, to a number of years spent writing features news stories at the Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania. That's where I became convinced that employing basic middle-America newspaper journo-ese was a sure-fire way to lose a readership. During my time at the place I was continuously reminded that newspaper writers should deliver copy for an audience with a reading sophistication somewhere around the fourth grade. This was one of the biggest pieces of arrant nonsense I have ever had the privilege to hear. It not only insulted people who enjoy getting their information by reading, but also denigrated fourth grade students, who -- I've found -- are generally much smarter than the weisenheimers I heard spouting this rubbish in Allentown.
So, the Crypt Newsletter comes from a diametrically opposed position. I make the assumptions that Crypt Newsletter regulars don't like dumbed-down material and that they have a pretty sharp appreciation for critical analysis -- in the areas of computer crime, Internet subcultures and technology in collision with society, anyway.
As a consequence, readership has gone slowly but steadily upward. In 1995, the Crypt News Website averaged 175-250 readers per day. Now, it fluctuates between 700-1000 readers/day on weekdays, mostly during U.S. business hours. Weekend statistics fluctuate wildly, perhaps dependent upon how nice the weather averages out to throughout the continental U.S.
How do others describe the Crypt Newsletter?
Well, here's a recent blurb from the San Jose Mercury News' On-line minister of information, John Murrell. Thanks, John!
"The presentation is Spartan, but George Smith's Crypt Newsletter home page offers plenty to entertain and exasperate those who insist on at least a modicum of fact, accuracy and clear thinking in their tech news. The newsletter deals with different sorts of myths -- about computer viruses, secret mind-control weapons, network security, etc., and also takes delight in skewering half-baked reporting on such issues in the popular media."
Crypt Newsletter or its editor have also been cited in numerous sources. Some of them have included Scientific American, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Aviation Week & Space Technology, Newsday, Der Spiegel, The Age (Melbourne, Australia), CNET, WIRED, The Nation, Brian McWilliams' PC World On-line RealTime audio radio show, Federal Computer Week, TechNation, Defense News, the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy & Government Project (also recommended Crypt Newsletter as an intelligence source "hotsite"), The Sydney Morning Herald, the National Computer Security Association's magazine and SPIN.
For more Crypt-oid style, I also write regularly on subjects dear to the heart of our readers for the Netly News on TIME Inc's Pathfinder site -- as well as other publications.
I'm available for speaking engagements, too.
Contacting Crypt Newsletter -- George Smith Crypt News 1635 Wagner St. Pasadena, CA 91106 ph: 626-568-1748
Relevant links.