Category: Tech Insight
Tech Time Warp: Malware in the “Form” of a boot sector virus
Although this week’s Tech Time Warp topic is not as prevalent today, boot sector viruses were a widespread issue in the 1990s and 2000s. Especially common during the days of MS-DOS and floppy disks, a boot sector virus attacks a...
Tech Time Warp: 80s viruses that hit the Apple II
Apple products have a reputation for being immune to malware, but that is not 100 percent true. In 1988, hackers released two viruses targeting ProDOS, the Apple II operating system. Admittedly, it took hackers five years to attack ProDOS —...
Tech Time Warp: Morto worm relishes on common usernames and weak passwords
Before you read any more of this post, ask yourself: Are you using “administrator” as a username for any service? If the answer is yes, stop what you’re doing and change that immediately. Then return here to find out why....
Survey sheds light on SMB IT spending trends
A survey of 375 IT decision-makers within small-to-medium businesses in the U.S. suggests that planned investments in IT in 2023 are contracting slightly because of continuing economic headwinds. Conducted by Analysys Mason, a management consulting firm, the survey finds that...
Pioneers in Tech: LGBTQ+ activist Edith Windsor’s first career
The late Edith Windsor is best known as the plaintiff in the 2013 Supreme Court case United States v. Windsor, which struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and helped paved the way for the legalization of same-sex...
Tech Time Warp: Making nothing of mobile malware
An early case of mobile malware provoked an interesting reaction from pundits: swift dismissal as much ado about nothing. In June 2000, users of mobile phones made by the Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica began receiving strange text messages. The messages...
A look into IT service provider spending habits
A survey of nearly 400 IT service providers, MSPs, and other professional service companies finds well over half (58 percent) have increased their suppliers over the past three years, with 26 percent keeping the number of vendors they work with...
Tech Time Warp: Burning questions about Flame’s origins
The Flame virus first flickered publicly in May 2012 when the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union requested the hacking of Iranian computers be investigated. Although not widespread — only a few hundred targeted computers were thought to have been infected...
Tech Time Warp: Kodak plays for KEEPS
Eastman Kodak’s major product announcements on May 29, 1985, remind us yet again of how far we’ve come in less than 40 years. The New York Times, The Washington Post and Associated Press all covered Kodak’s news about KEEPS (short...
Honoring the MSP community on Global MSP Day 2023
June 1st is quickly approaching, and the excitement is building! We’re looking forward to a collaborative Global MSP Day. As we get closer to the big day, SmarterMSP surveyed MSPs to learn what it means to be an MSP, as...
