Tech Time Warp: The long goodbye to Windows XP
Windows XP turns 25 this Oct. 25 — a fitting moment to remember that even beloved software eventually reaches its “end of life.” This week’s AI-driven discovery of a PHP vulnerability reinforces the lesson: Keep software updated, apply patches, and...
Tech Time Warp: Duqu, the malware spy disguised as a Word doc
Fifteen years ago this month, reports of a new type of malware — Duqu — were opening the cybersecurity community’s eyes to the possibility of computer virus as tradecraft. Initially thought to target industrial control systems, Duqu was later discovered...
Pioneers in Tech: Remembering Dado Banatao, designer of the first PC chipset
You probably haven’t thought about your chipset lately—but if you were missing it, you would notice. Dado Banatao, who was born in 1946 in a Filipino farming village that lacked electricity, was the designer behind the first PC chipset. (For...
Tech Time Warp: How Mirai turned insecure IoT devices into a powerful botnet
Ten years ago, the tech world was abuzz with possibilities for the “Internet of Things” (IoT) — including bad actors. A hacker’s frustration sparks a bigger scheme In this case, the bad actors were a trio of college-age hackers whose...
Tech Time Warp: Lessons learned from the Yahoo breaches of the early 2010s
Ten years ago, Yahoo announced a massive security breach—the largest of its time. Account information for 500 million Yahoo users had been stolen in a hybrid state-sponsored and criminal hacker attack. When cyber espionage reached Yahoo The details sound straight...
Tech Time Warp: There she is… Miss computer-predicted America
In 1981, David Remnick — future editor of The New Yorker — wrote the following in The Washington Post: “… something has to be said for any kind of technology that can interpret hazy Miss America qualities like radiance and...
Pioneers in Tech: Charles Geschke and the desktop publishing revolution
The PDF is ubiquitous — such a workhorse of modern life that you might not often think about its origin story or how remarkable it is. It’s only been since 1992 that you could create a document with any application...
Tech Time Warp: Cryptolocker spreads fast and at great cost
Thirteen years ago, computer users in the United States were returning to the office after the long Labor Day weekend when reports began surfacing of a new virus: Cryptolocker. The concept of ransomware wasn’t new — it had started back...
Tech Time Warp: Intel recalls its 1.13GHz Pentium III processor
It was billed as the “fastest x86 processor” ever manufactured, and maybe it was — when it worked properly. Twenty-six years ago, Intel had to pull its 1.13GHz Pentium III processor off the market only four weeks after its first...
Tech Time Warp: Were the Ashley Madison hackers doing a good deed?
The summer of 2015 was a long hot summer for millions of people — 36 million, in fact. That’s the estimated number of users registered on AshleyMadison.com, a dating website for married people. The site’s motto? “Life Is Short. Have...
