Spotlight Features

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...

It seems like everybody's talking about e-discovery nowadays -- just take a look at any IT trade journal or IT news source and you're likely to see at least one article about what e-discovery is and how to prepare for it. However, despite all this attention, both in IT and legal circles, there are s...

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...

A method for screening new hires that counts the likes of Google among its adherents may create some fertile ground for future employment lawsuits. That's the opinion of two attorneys writing the New York Law Journal this week. The attorneys, Robert Ottinger and Carrie Kurzon, of The Ottinger Firm i...

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...

Search advertising is like an onion -- simple on the outside but increasingly complex inside. Online advertising is discussed today the way bandwidth was discussed during the 1990s. Everybody is talking about it, nobody can get enough of it and much of people say about it is either nonsense or wishf...

Viral marketing may be relatively new on the Internet, having emerged roughly a decade ago in its high-tech form, but it's by no means a novel promotional technique, and it certainly doesn't depend on technology. "Viral marketing is about generating buzz," Orvel Ray Wilson, coauthor of the legendary...

This past May, the country of Estonia was hit hard by what its authorities called a "virtual war." This war took the form of an attack on the country's computer infrastructure. Many governmental and commercial sites were hit. The attacks on the country's commerce seemed to focus on the country's med...

The three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court has upheld a ruling that grants extensive new privacy protections for e-mail users. It is an ambitious decision -- said to be the first for the Circuit Courts -- and one that is almost surely headed to the Supreme Court for review. In Warshak v. Unite...

Ethernet has been steadily extending its influence as it continues to evolve beyond the local area network. The ongoing development of virtual local area network, or VLAN, standards, is paving the way for Ethernet to play a key role in next-generation networking. As networks expand, so do opportunit...

With all the press rogue Internet pharmacies have received in recent months for selling prescription drugs illegally, it's tempting to assume that there must be similar sites -- or maybe even the same ones -- trafficking in illicit drugs as well. After all, with all the anonymity the Internet provid...