Chris Nerney

If it seems to you that the phishing/spam problem has gotten worse lately, it (unfortunately) isn’t your imagination. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry association, reports a “massive increase in the amount of phishing sites” beginning in early October. Altogether, there were 1,142 reported phishing sites on the Web last month, more than double the […]

Six months ago I figured jobs outsourcing would play a larger role than it has in this year’s presidential election. It’s certainly a major issue — especially for Democratic challenger John Kerry as he campaigns in economically hard-hit battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. But, overall, the topic has received less attention than Iraq, […]

Did you know that I won a spelling bee in my second-grade class? Or that I’m partially color-blind, especially when it comes to green/brown shades? Or, that I’ve been to 47 states, and am determined to hit them all before my grad-school roommate Doug, who only has two to go? Well, you might have known […]

A late-day increase in crude oil prices, along with a weak manufacturing report, erased most of the gains posted by U.S. stocks Thursday, though major indexes managed to finish in the black. Stocks surged early in the day when crude oil prices declined. Hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico has raised concerns about U.S. […]

The tech-heavy Nasdaq took a pounding in morning and early-afternoon trading Friday following chipmaker Intel Corp.’s midquarter warning that Q3 revenues would fall short of previous estimates. After falling as low as 1841 by late morning, the Nasdaq recovered slightly by early afternoon to 1844, down 29 points, or 1.6%, from Thursday’s close. Shares of […]

Alright, the anticipation and excitement are over. It’s time to get over Google’s messy IPO and focus on the company’s market position and prospects. If you believe much of what you’ve read about Google’s long-awaited initial public offering, you’d think the search-engine giant was headed for the rocks. Words like “disaster,” “bungled,” “amateurish” and “comedy […]

Hewlett-Packard’s pre-trading announcement of unexpectedly low third-quarter earnings set a bleak tone for stocks Thursday as all major indexes began and ended in the red. Missing Wall Street estimates by seven cents, HP reported Q3 earnings of 24 cents per share. The company announced its Q3 results nearly a week earlier than scheduled, and blamed […]

The alarming growth of phishing has spawned a variety of responses, including technological, organizational and, lately, legislative. President Bush just signed legislation to increase penalties against phishing and other identity theft-related cyber crimes. While the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act, or ITPEA, doesn’t win awards for having a compelling title (unless the word “enhancement” is […]

Strong second-quarter results from General Electric and an upgraded forecast from software giant SAP helped keep stocks in the black Friday from the opening bell. The Dow Jones gained 41.7 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 10213, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 11 points, or 0.6%, to 1946. The S&P 500 ended Friday up 3.7 […]

It has all the elements of a high-profile tech-industry scandal: A famous company, an audacious alleged crime and a scourge that millions of Internet users cope with and curse every single day. And it gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, “Your company could be the next AOL.” Federal investigators revealed on Wednesday that […]

Stocks struggled Friday to shake off the effects of revised government reports suggesting more modest economic growth than previously believed as well as higher inflation. When the final trading bell rang, the Dow was down 72 points, or 0.7%, to 10372, while the S&P 500 slipped 6.3 points, or 0.6%, to 1134. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, […]

Stocks ended trading in the black on ‘Freaky Friday,’ despite losing most of the gains made in an early-morning surge. Friday saw one of the market’s four “triple-witching” sessions — when contracts for stock index futures, stock index options and stock options expire simultaneously — occurring every year (the third Friday of March, June, September […]