Tech Time Warp: Chernobyl, the first malware known to damage computer hardware
This installment of Tech Time Warp looks back as the fast‑approaching 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident—along with a new report on damage to the defunct facility’s outer protective structure—calls to mind an anniversary in malware history. The fast-approaching...
Pioneers in Tech: Frances “Poppy” Northcutt, the first woman in Mission Control
All eyes have been on Artemis 2 this week and its many firsts. These include the first woman to fly to the moon (Christina Koch) and the first female launch director of a crewed launch (Charlie Blackwell-Thompson). That’s why this...
Tech Time Warp: The Conficker case study
Conficker was a nasty piece of malware that first emerged on the scene in November 2008. By April 1, 2009, many security experts and computer users were bracing themselves for the worst: a predicted “menacing” new phase as machines infected...
Tech Time Warp: A salute to the floppy disk, the foundation of “sneakernet”
The denizens of Gen Z and Gen Alpha may have never used floppy disks, and they may have never given much thought to what the “Save” icon represents. And, like the giant cell phones of the 1990s, the floppy disk...
Tech Time Warp: FBI releases its first warning about a computer virus
Twenty-six years ago, on March 28, 1999, the FBI took a historic step: Its National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) issued its first warning about a computer virus. The NIPC had “received reports of significant network degradation and email outages,” and...
Pioneers in Tech: Joan Clarke, Bletchley Park codebreaker
The stories of the women of Bletchley Park—the secret British codebreaking facility during World War II—are only now becoming known, much like those of the “hidden figures” of NASA. How women helped break the unbreakable Thousands of women worked at...
Tech Time Warp: It’s MyLife, the email worm of spring 2002
The year was 2002 when this week’s Tech Time Warp was born. Email and the internet were still enough of a novelty that unwitting computer users were duped by an email worm promising fun screensavers. In multiple variants claiming to...
Tech Time Warp: TJX hack exposes the depth to which consumer data is at risk
These days, one expects to be notified one or two times a year about potential exposure in a data breach. Nineteen years ago, that wasn’t as commonplace—and we were learning just how widespread the problem could be. In January 2007,...
Tech Time Warp: The fascinating world of phone phreaks
“If we hadn’t made those blue boxes, there would be no Apple.” This quote from Steve Wozniak is an intriguing teaser into the fascinating world of phone phreaks—the hackers of the late 1960s and 1970s, who managed to place calls...
Pioneers in Tech: Frederick McKinley Jones, inventor of mobile refrigeration
We can thank inventor Frederick McKinley Jones, for the proliferation of food choices we enjoy on a daily basis. The modern grocery store—which houses tropical fruits, exotic imported cheese, and frozen sushi-grade fish—was first made possible by Jones’ 1941 invention,...
