It is with regret that I am writing this because the world has lost a bright light. This page lists the stories people volunteered about Paul. Mainly from InfoSec Twitter but all sorts of lovely people who knew Mr Mason managed to find me. They are included and very welcome.

If you are reading this and you want to add to the list you can use the comments if you prefer, or I will still take them over Twitter if you have that. The intent is that these will be combined and used to produce a photo album or book for his parents.

There will be an effort to remember Paul at the next Glasgow Defcon on Tuesday 1st of September via Discord/Twitch. As Paul was all about sharing knowledge there will be a talk scheduled and then a virtual “wake” after the event where people can share stories. You are all welcome.

Lisha Sterling/@lishevita

Andy Gill/@ZephyrFish

Robert a.k.a Rab Ray

Spoken poetry for 2 hours.

Paul Ritchie/@cornerpirate

One of the many things that I thank @PMason00 for is the insanely generous gift of a travel guitar that he gave me after work took us away for a ski trip.

I got it out and have given it a bash here it sounds great for a wee guitar.

Neither of us wanted to ski. So we had planned a bunch of things to do ranging from lock picking to rocking the hotel to its core.

He handed me this wee travel guitar at Glasgow airport and I think he had some other instrument with him I honestly forget what. We go to check-in and the extremely low budget airline was kicking off about instruments and bags. He frankly charmed the pants off the lady behind the desk.

Said we were a band and had been booked to play a hotel. They had booked our flight and, stupidly, forgot we would need instruments! Then bosh we were checked-in without paying a penny both with an instrument case over the allowance. Witchcraft I tell you. Witchcraft. 

The rest of the company were off skiing. But we were sharing a room. For us it was two days of absolute chillaxing. Up for breakfast, back for a snooze.

Then afternoons were spent passing this guitar around playing songs and talking about all kinds of things. To set this in time we stopped to watch Trump’s inauguration on CNN at one point. 

I tried to hand the guitar back to him at Glasgow airport. He said something like:

“No man you keep her. Take care of her she seems to like you”.

He stubbed out a cigarette and was off in a taxi while I tried to process the insane generosity of that action.

I installed it as the office guitar. Which @longjonsouza said “brought the promise of music” to us.

I was going in two days a week back then and I made sure I was in early to belt out songs before 8:30am. If I was stressed I would break it out. I would also infamously play it during job interviews from that point on. I think @__shabab__ was the only one to survive the new more rigorous application process.

Look if you cannot crack a password while someone plays the Mario theme badly at you are you even a hacker? This guitar has now survived my house move and it sits in my new dedicated office room right next to me.

Part of moving to a house with a garden came with a picture in my head of me and Paul sitting out there playing songs and relaxing as the summer sun toddles off to the west.

Instead as I stood out there for the first time as the owner of the place I got the call from his father breaking the sad news. While I won’t be out there with him. I will be playing his beaten and much loved travel guitar.

Don’t worry Paul I am taking good care of her.

Love you. 

Clare Cavanagh/@Clarecav01

Stefano Sesia/@StefanoSesia

Lewis Binnie/@LewisBinnie1

I remember meeting Paul at the Cyberfirst Defenders event as he was one of the lecturers there. He told us a story about how he got into a building by bluffing the security and disabling the elevator halfway up, then waiting until 3am.

— Lewis Binnie (@LewisBinnie1) October 12, 2020

I can speak for the rest of the students on that course by saying that he was a great lovely person to talk to and that story was one of my main reasons for pursuing a career in cyber. Such a shame.

— Lewis Binnie (@LewisBinnie1) October 12, 2020

Daniel Dresner/@DanielGDresner

Cooper/@Ministraitor

Campbell Murray/@zyx2k

I first met him around 2008 or 09 he was on a course I taught. Everytime I saw him after that, which was at cons mostly, he'd greet me like a long lost friend. So much heart.

— Campbell Murray (@zyx2k) October 12, 2020

James Hemmings/@MrJamesHemmings

d4n_tweets

Josh Fraser/@jishf

Steve Porter/@SteveDPorter

Jon/@Candlelands

Miguel Marques/@z0mbi3

Lorenzo

“Paul and I were colleagues. Even though we parted ways, I’ll always remember him for the little time we shared together. How he showed up at a customer meeting once wearing just everyday clothes, proudly stating (and I quote) ‘he would never wear a suit again because he has been a teacher and had had enough of that’. And then he brought to the table the most amazing and interesting stories and managed to “connect” with people and just made everything great while showing the same customer a degree of knowledge, professional attitude and passion that I’ve seldom seen elsewhere. Immediately, no matter who they were, no matter their background or language or stance in life, he just made friends.

When he talked – and he could talk a lot! – he absolutely captivated the audience like no one. Even in a crowd of hundreds, you could always feel he was talking to you and to you alone.

He helped – always, at any time, without asking too many questions when questions were a nuisance. He was always there. Always. He just .. gave freely and never, ever asked for anything back. He showed me what it means to enjoy a conversation, to be proud of what you do and find the fun side in everything. He made me laugh to the point of crying, even though English isn’t my first language. He talked about his family at times, especially his dad, about his life and achievements and funny stories and I wish we could have had that famous beer and listen to more.

I’ll always remember him. In some small but meaningful ways he changed my life when I switched careers and moved onto the cyber security side of things. He believed in me so much, and I think I made him a little bit proud.

I’m pouring myself a whisky now, and my thoughts are for all the people whose life he steered in better directions. I’m sure there’s more than he could imagine; I hope others will reach out to you to show how proud you should be of him.

My sincerest condolences.”

Youri Van Der Zwar/@yourniz

In 2015 Paul also helped us organise a hackathon out of thin air within a day! Starting with no on-site contestants (due to external factors) and ending up with a great online crowd and building some amazing prototypes with the teams! Paul you'll be missed!!! ❤

— Youri van der Zwart (@youriz) October 13, 2020

Paul Fennell/@Digit4lbytes

John A Ferguson/@jafwords

Infospectives/@trialByTruth

Callum/@dangerwank

Tallulah/@tallulahjc