Field notes on building trustworthy systems
Writing from our practices on the decisions that make public-sector technology secure, private, and durable, drawn from the systems we actually build.
Data minimization as law, not policy
The safest data is the data you never collected. We treat minimization as a hard constraint on the schema, not a value statement in a policy document.
Replacing a critical legacy system without taking it offline
Modernization fails when it treats the old system as something to switch off on a Friday. The real constraint is that the service it runs cannot stop.
What a credible security audit actually covers
A scan is not an audit, and a clean report is not a safe system. Here is what separates an assessment a regulator can rely on from a PDF that just looks reassuring.
One accessible codebase for the phone, the desktop, and the on-site terminal
Three devices, three contexts, one application. Building adaptively rather than separately is what keeps accessibility a guarantee instead of a per-platform afterthought.
Relocatable by design: avoiding cloud lock-in in public infrastructure
A government system can be hosted on a commercial cloud today and still be free to move tomorrow. The trick is to decide that on day one, in code.
Have a system you want a second opinion on?
We are happy to talk through an architecture, a program, or an assessment, whether or not it turns into an engagement.