I think it is normally designated as "EMP" -- Electro-magnetic-pulse -- weapons.
The effect is a risk from ground detonated nuclear weapons as well as nuclear weapons detonated in space. The ionizing radiation from fallout too would be pretty destructive to a lot of our modern electronics.
There are also non-nuclear EMP weapons.
It's not something I spend much time "worrying" about -- I'm more afraid of things like the gamma radiation, heat and blast effects from nukes -- but it is worrisome to think about how so much of our modern society would come to a grinding halt if some power could carry out a significant attack using EMP weapons.
I'm not sure how far back technologically one has to go to find electronics not affected by EMP, but do know that the Russians continued to use tube-based electronics in many of their aircraft because of its resistance to EMP. (Some used to laugh at the Russians for having such "primitive" electronics, not understanding the logic behind their use of tubes.)
I just searched on the term "emp shielding" and got this excellent article on the subject written by Duncan Long:
http://standeyo.com/News_Files/NBC/EMP.protection.html