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History of Modern Technology: Pocket Power: The USB Story
A tiny stick changed how we move information—and how attackers move too. We pull back the curtain on the USB flash drive’s quiet takeover: why floppies and CD-Rs failed us, how flash memory and USB converged, and which teams across Singapore, Israel, and China raced to ship the first pocket drive that actually worked. From early 8 MB models that cost a small fortune to today’s terabyte dual‑connector rockets, the arc is a crash course in convenience beating complexity.
We go beyond the specs to the human story. The new sneaker net brought agility to classrooms, studios, and fieldwork long before cloud storage matured, and it still rules when bandwidth is scarce or privacy matters. But the same traits that made thumb drives beloved—small, portable, plug‑and‑play—made them dangerous. We unpack pivotal moments: Agent.BTZ breaching U.S. military networks, Stuxnet crossing air gaps to wreck centrifuges, a city’s entire resident database riding unencrypted in a bag, a hotel compromised by parking‑lot bait, a campus locked by ransomware, and a firm undercut after careless copying. Each tale shows how curiosity, haste, and habit can turn a helpful tool into a vector for loss.
We share the playbook that works: default to encryption (hardware or OS‑native), label and inventory every drive, whitelist trusted devices and block the rest, and train people to treat unknown USBs like untrusted code. We also map where flash still beats the cloud—air‑gapped labs, disaster zones, forensic chains, and anywhere “no third‑party server” is a requirement. If portability is power, prudence is the price. Listen to learn the origin myths, the price curves, the cultural shifts, and the simple habits that keep pocket power safe.
Enjoyed the story and the takeaways? Follow, share with a friend who loves tech history, and leave a quick review telling us your USB rule number one.
Interviews with Tech Leaders and insights on the latest emerging technology trends.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Support the show
Art By Sarah/Desmond
Music by Joakim Karud
Little chacha Productions
Juan Rodriguez can be reached at
TikTok @ProfessorJrod
[email protected]
@Prof_JRod
Instagram ProfessorJRod
View all episodes
By Juan Rodriguez
4.8
2020 ratings
A tiny stick changed how we move information—and how attackers move too. We pull back the curtain on the USB flash drive’s quiet takeover: why floppies and CD-Rs failed us, how flash memory and USB converged, and which teams across Singapore, Israel, and China raced to ship the first pocket drive that actually worked. From early 8 MB models that cost a small fortune to today’s terabyte dual‑connector rockets, the arc is a crash course in convenience beating complexity.
We go beyond the specs to the human story. The new sneaker net brought agility to classrooms, studios, and fieldwork long before cloud storage matured, and it still rules when bandwidth is scarce or privacy matters. But the same traits that made thumb drives beloved—small, portable, plug‑and‑play—made them dangerous. We unpack pivotal moments: Agent.BTZ breaching U.S. military networks, Stuxnet crossing air gaps to wreck centrifuges, a city’s entire resident database riding unencrypted in a bag, a hotel compromised by parking‑lot bait, a campus locked by ransomware, and a firm undercut after careless copying. Each tale shows how curiosity, haste, and habit can turn a helpful tool into a vector for loss.
We share the playbook that works: default to encryption (hardware or OS‑native), label and inventory every drive, whitelist trusted devices and block the rest, and train people to treat unknown USBs like untrusted code. We also map where flash still beats the cloud—air‑gapped labs, disaster zones, forensic chains, and anywhere “no third‑party server” is a requirement. If portability is power, prudence is the price. Listen to learn the origin myths, the price curves, the cultural shifts, and the simple habits that keep pocket power safe.
Enjoyed the story and the takeaways? Follow, share with a friend who loves tech history, and leave a quick review telling us your USB rule number one.
Interviews with Tech Leaders and insights on the latest emerging technology trends.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Support the show
Art By Sarah/Desmond
Music by Joakim Karud
Little chacha Productions
Juan Rodriguez can be reached at
TikTok @ProfessorJrod
[email protected]
@Prof_JRod
Instagram ProfessorJRod