Tech Time Warp is a weekly feature that looks back at interesting moments and milestones in tech history.
Tag: Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: Cryptolocker spreads fast and at great cost
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
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?
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...
Tech Time Warp: How a goodbye party launched DEF CON
Tech Time Warp: How a goodbye party launched DEF CON
The 34th DEF CON conference takes place Aug. 6–9 in Las Vegas. It’s no surprise that one of the hacker community’s most influential events has such a memorable origin story. Whether you’ve attended DEF CON or its more corporate cousin,...
Tech Time Warp: 1994 Citibank Heist Yet Another Reminder to Keep Credentials Secure
Tech Time Warp: 1994 Citibank Heist Yet Another Reminder to Keep Credentials Secure
The bank heists of Hollywood are glamorous: all-black clothes, darting around lasers, and — in modern cinema — genius hackers with incredible programming skills. But one of the first major digital heists of history, which took place 32 years ago...
Pioneers in Tech: A new future for computer-generated graphics
Pioneers in Tech: A new future for computer-generated graphics
Jurassic Park. The Abyss. Beauty and the Beast. And, 35 years ago this month, Terminator 2. In this edition of Tech Time Warp, we look back at the contributions of Dr. Marc Regis, co-founder of Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), whose...
Tech Time Warp: Celebrating 250 years of America’s first submarine
Tech Time Warp: Celebrating 250 years of America’s first submarine
All eyes are on 1776 this weekend, and while computer innovation wasn’t occurring 250 years ago, the American fight for independence was not technology-free. One of the lesser-known stories of the American Revolution is a proof-of-concept submarine financed by George...
Tech Time Warp: Nine years since the NotPetya nightmare
Tech Time Warp: Nine years since the NotPetya nightmare
With damages estimated at $10 billion worldwide, the NotPetya malware attack of late June 2017 was a nightmare scenario by any standard. But several aspects of the malware — the work of Russian military intelligence officers — were particularly fiendish:...
Tech Time Warp: The Manchester “Baby” and the birth of the stored program computer
Tech Time Warp: The Manchester “Baby” and the birth of the stored program computer
At 17 feet long and nearly 7 ½ feet tall — and weighing in at almost a ton — it might seem silly today that the “Small-Scale Experimental Machine” built in 1948 at the UK’s University of Manchester was nicknamed...
Tech Time Warp: The legacy of Stuxnet
Tech Time Warp: The legacy of Stuxnet
These days, USB drive security risks are clear — and cloud storage now serves as an alternative to portable storage. But 16 years ago, the humble USB drive was the carrier for what many still consider the most sophisticated malware...
