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Governments at both the state and federal level in the U.S. are getting serious about addressing the void in the legal framework for fighting "spyware." To begin with, we need to define the term "spyware," due to the fact that this term has been used to describe everything from keystroke loggers, to...

Internet security firms are gearing up for an onslaught of new attacks that hackers will hurl at inboxes and against Web sites. As the computer industry awaits the release of Service Pack 2 of Microsoft's Windows XP -- which will feature improved security capabilities -- hackers are waiting too. The...

Your most critical business decisions often come down to prices: how much to charge and how much to pay. Prices have been driven down in the South Asian call center industry in the last two years, thanks to a flood of new entrants into the industry, a glut of low-end capacity, and improvements in te...

Consumers spent a whopping US$8.8 billion in online shopping purchases this holiday season, a 24 percent increase over the year-ago period from Thanksgiving through December 27, according to VeriSign. It's a record-breaking year, and analysts said the future of e-commerce looks bright. The average p...

In a crushing blow to Microsoft's bid to establish its Passport service as a standard for access across the Web, auction giant eBay has said it will drop support for the service, as well as a second Microsoft-built service that provides updates and alerts through the .NET platform. EBay announced th...

Samsung has announced that it will set aside US$100 million in case the U.S. government finds it guilty of fixing dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) prices. The U.S. Department of Justice has been looking into allegations of price fixing in the memory industry for more than two years. Infineon Tech...

A popular online community for selling goods and finding jobs and housing is diverting $50 million to $65 million annually in classified advertising from newspapers in the San Francisco Bay area, according to Classified Intelligence, a consulting firm in Altamonte Springs, Florida. The firm released...

The holiday shopping season data just keeps rolling in as analysts begin to decipher what it means for next year. The latest monitor to offer its data is Hitwise, reporting that shopping and classifieds Web sites accounted for 9.1 percent of all U.S. Internet visits between November 1 and December 2...

Entertainment and media giant Time Warner is reportedly in talks with Sprint on a deal that would allow it to add cell phone service to the growing menu of offerings it dangles before its cable customers. The potential deal would be significant because it would make Time Warner the first cable compa...

Dutch authorities have announced that country's first fines against spammers, including one person and two companies who sent unsolicited e-mails and mobile telephone text messages. This marks the first action against spammers since the Netherlands government agreed in May to officially ban unsolici...

In a move to grab a larger share of consumer appliance sales, the world's largest home improvement retailer announced plans today to expand its store-based home appliance business onto the Web. Home Depot is launching a new online initiative that allows consumers to purchase more than 1,800 products...

Variants of the Santy worm have started to appear that use Google -- which is credited with moving quickly to thwart the original attack -- and other search engines to spread, and then infect and deface Web bulletin boards. The original Santy appeared just before Christmas and was meant to use Googl...

So you've landed a business deal. Do you know how to sign the contract and move on? Also, how should confidential data collected during an IT outsourcing project be protected? Contract signing procedures will be covered first, followed by data protection. Contract etiquette varies by country, with N...

Shoppers might not have left the mall completely behind during the 2004 holiday shopping season, but it is clear that consumers did more shopping from the comfort of their living rooms than ever before. Amazon.com was among the first to declare festive earnings in this year's record-breaking holiday...

Revisiting a well-worn trend of consolidation in the information technology analysis industry, Gartner has said it would acquire Meta Group in a deal worth US$162 million. The all-cash deal, which Gartner said it would fund with money it has on hand and a line of credit, values Meta Group stock at $...