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: Cybersecurity’s evolving role in homeland security
Although Cybersecurity Awareness Month has been observed in some fashion for more than 20 years, the federal agency leading the effort to #SecureOurWorld has only existed since late 2018. Let’s dive into this week’s Tech Time Warp. The origin story...
Tech Time Warp: Time for pumpkins, ghosts, and cybersecurity awareness
If you’re reading this, you know it’s important to be cyber-aware 365 days a year, but for more than 20 years, October has been as synonymous in the tech world with cybersecurity as it is with pumpkins and ghosts. In...
Tech Time Warp: The logic bomb that launched an industry
Whether you called it Jerusalem, Friday the 13th, Datacrime, or the Columbus Day virus, the malware was first uncovered in October 1987 and the variants it inspired are remembered nearly 50 years later for the good they did. No—really, you...
Tech Time Warp: The impetus for U.S. national security policy was… a teen movie?
“Is this a game, or is it real?” Eighties movie buffs will recognize this famous line from 1983’s WarGames, where Matthew Broderick plays a teenager who hacks into a defense department computer system. After Broderick’s character guesses an insecure password...
Tech Time Warp: Back to school and back to hacks
Now that we are past Labor Day, school is back in session across the United States—which means summer vacation is over for cybercriminals, too. Let’s dive into this week’s edition of Tech Time Warp. The education sector is increasingly a...
Tech Time Warp: Bidding adieu to AppleTalk
Fifteen years ago, Apple quietly discontinued one of its innovations from the 1980s: the AppleTalk networking protocol. When Apple released Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), it ended support for its proprietary local area networking system, moving fully to TCP/IP-based...
Tech Time Warp: Have you ever wondered about the history of cut, copy, and paste?
For many of us, using the keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy, and paste is as second nature as flipping a light switch. Whether you’re a Mac (Command-) or a PC (Ctrl+) user, these shortcuts make life easier and word processing...
Tech Time Warp: Reflecting on the Ken Thompson hack
In 1983, Ken Thompson and Dennis M. Ritchie received the prestigious A.M. Turing Award for “their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the UNIX operating system.” However, this look back at technology history is...
Tech Time Warp: The golden age of Minitel
With all eyes on Paris thanks to the 2024 Summer Olympics, it makes sense to turn our attention to a uniquely French chapter in technology history: the Minitel. You may remember this innovation from your French language textbook, much like...
Tech Time Warp: A look back at Olympics technology innovation
The 2024 Paris Olympics is already being hailed as groundbreaking in the use of artificial intelligence to protect athletes from online abuse and answer their questions quickly via an exclusive AthleteGPT service. But, as you will see in this edition...