Security

Do you remember the "Perfectly Normal Beast" from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide series? If you haven't read about it, the Perfectly Normal Beast is a fictional creature -- kind of like a buffalo -- that migrates twice a year across the fictional "Anhondo Plain." It's -- ironically -- called "pe...

E-mail and other forms of electronic communications have become pervasive and essential to business growth and operational productivity. This new dependency on messaging has created a whole new spectrum of major risks, vulnerabilities and requirements for companies of all sizes. "Postini customers t...

E-mail and other forms of electronic communications have become pervasive and essential to business growth and operational productivity. Today, with more than 170 billion e-mails and 580 billion IMs exchanged daily, companies have seen a 334 percent annual increase in bandwidth, processing and stora...

Lately, corporate interest in Web services has been rising -- and justifiably so. The advent of this new way of building applications promises to almost magically allow organizations to exchange information within their own systems with partners and customers. While the potential benefits are notewo...

Ask anyone what comes to mind when they think of TJX Companies, and they'll almost certainly mention the infamous data breach earlier this year that exposed more than 45 million customer credit and debit cards to hackers. That's the kind of publicity most companies can do without, but it's also the ...

For startup e-commerce companies, protecting customer data doesn't always come naturally. Small matters such as getting a business idea out of the starting gates and into the race -- not to mention winning those very first customers -- tend to overshadow the many liabilities associated with collecti...

Today's online shoppers may be more cautious than they were two years ago. Some are waiting up to 35 hours before completing a shopping cart transaction. A study of consumers' Internet buying habits suggests that online merchants face stiffer competition and new hurdles in closing sales over the Web...

Credit card and ID thieves are turning to charities to help them validate credit card numbers, says computer security company Symantec. The drill involves making a small donation to a non-profit to see if the transaction is successful, described Symantec security response engineer Yazan Gable in a c...

Google will buy on-demand Web security provider Postini for $625 million in cash, a move that the search giant hopes will help lower a key hurdle to broader adoption of its on-demand, Web-based applications targeted at business users. Privately held Postini serves some 35,000 businesses around the w...

Microsoft will release six security updates next week as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday update, the company announced Thursday. Three of the updates being rolled out on Tuesday have been labeled "critical," two were called "important" and one was named "moderate" in importance. They are for vulne...

Some 30 percent of businesses in the UK leave data, some of it sensitive, on their PCs when they dispose of them, according to research findings released this week by computer maker Lenovo. In the survey of 300 businesses commissioned by the UK-Ireland arm of the company, 29 percent of IT managers i...

Letting employees have unbridled access to free, consumer-level instant messaging applications running on their workplace computers is a security disaster waiting to happen. Instant messaging applications are easy targets for hackers taking advantage of vulnerabilities. It is critical for businesses...

Consumer-grade instant messaging applications such as Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Windows Live Messenger can become significant security holes when used by workers on corporate networks. Instant messaging applications are easy targets for hackers taking advantage of vulnerabilities. I...

The Internet has emerged as a great place to shop for someone looking for a good deal. Price comparison sites ensure that consumers pay as little as possible, so they often end up with tremendous bargains. However, the adage "If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is" applies to some of t...

Buyers are naturally cautious when considering whether or not to make a purchase from unfamiliar merchants. Even if this anxiety is not justified, the effect on online retailers is often detrimental. Shopper anxiety creates a complicated challenge for online merchants, especially ones without nation...