Category: WayBackWednesdy

This week’s #WayBackWednesday brings us back to Germany in the 80’s and 90’s to introduce “VaMP”. VaMP was one of the earliest, fully autonomous automobiles. Developed by a team lead by Ernst Dickmann, the car drove itself over 1000 kilometers at speeds of up to 130 kilometers per hour using computer vision. In VaMP’s time,…

On this #WayBackWednesday, our 8-Bit history we examine how we incorporate humans into security. One example of this comes in the form of biometric authentication, ie., logging in to a service using a part of one’s body as identification (such as facial recognition). In today’s world, we take for granted the ability to use facial…

On #WayBackWednesday, our 8-Bit history lesson goes back to the early 2000’s when Bluetooth was first implemented in mobile phones. It was used to wirelessly connect headsets, but it wasn‘t long before enthusiasts started to investigate the opportunities the protocol offered. One of the earliest „hacks“ was called Bluejacking. Bluejackers exploited a feature which allowed…

In today’s #WayBackWednesday 8-bit history lesson, we sink our teeth into honeypots. A “honeypot” is a system that has been set up to look like a legitimate system, but it is used, instead, for other purposes. Set up on an internal network, these decoy systems are often used to detect or distract unauthorized users. Placed…

On this #WayBackWednesday, our 8-bit history lesson zooms in on bytes. The term was introduced (arguably) in 1956. Historically, “byte” has been use to describe the number of bits needed to encode a single character of text. We commonly think of this as 8 bits, but depending on encoding and computer architecture, bytes have been…

In today’s #WayBackWednesday, our 8-bit history lesson focuses on war-dialing. In the 1970s and 1980s, computers became more commonly available for remote connection via modems. To connect remotely, all user needed was to have their own modem connected to their phone line and then have it dial the number of the remote computer’s modem. The…

In today’s #WayBackWednesday, our 8-bit history lesson focuses on Lucifer. Lucifer was one of the first, modern, civilian-developed cryptographic cyphers. First variants were developed in 1971, and it was submitted by IBM as a candidate to become NIST’s recommended Data Encryption Standard (DES). At the time, Lucifer had the possibility of three different key sizes:…

On this #WayBackWednesday, our 8-Bit history lesson focuses on the early days of U.S. consumer online access… Back then, you got „easy“ online* access with an AOL (America Online) CD and a 28.8k modem. In the early 1990’s, AOL’s software connected users to chat rooms that centered around specific topics. Curious and clever teenagers looking…

On this #WayBackWednesday, we deep dive hands-first into our next 8-Bit History lesson with the Nintendo Game Boy! The Game Boy, the (amazing) 8-bit, hand-held gaming device, was released in stages throughout the world through 1989 and 1990. It ran games from cartridges, offered a monochromatic display and battery life that extended beyond 10 (amazing)…

In keeping with our 8-bit theme, on Wednesdays we will celebrate #WayBackWednesday. On these days, we will look back into cyber security history at some key moments and memories. We’ll start our journey into the past with “Creeper” and “Reaper”. When you think of “Creeper”, your mind might flash to scenes of Minecraft. And, with…