Sharon Gaudin

Identity theft continues to plague online users and it’s taking a toll on lenders, who are being urged to fight online fraud more aggressively. Last year, there were 161,819 cases of identity theft reported to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC also reported that identity fraud complaints were the most common type of […]

Worldwide IT spending is expected to pick up speed and return to positive growth in 2003 — if the war with Iraq is short and other regional economies strengthen, according to a new report from industry analyst firm IDC. Economic and geopolitical uncertainty has had a dramatically negative impact on IT spending since the fourth […]

Despite economic and political turmoil, a major analyst firm is predicting that software spending will end its decline and stabilize this year. Gartner Dataquest predicts, in a report released today, that the software industry will return to positive, stabilized growth in 2003. The stabilization is based on expectations that end-user spending will grow 3.5 percent […]

Although IT spending is no longer in free-fall, expectations for a real improvement are premature, according to a survey of Fortune 1000 IT managers. IT spending in 2003 remains flat with no sign of an upturn, notes a report from investment company Goldman Sachs, which polled 100 IT managers in mid-February. The report adds that […]

While PC unit sales are expected to grow this year, that growth is being stunted by the current economic instability and the threat of war with Iraq, according to a new report from Gartner Inc. Economic and political uncertainty is clouding the global PC market, lowering the industry analyst firm’s expectations for PC sales in […]

About two-thirds of online stores have ineffective search engines, leaving customers frustrated and apt to do business with a competitor, according to a new study. While a few top e-retailers, like Lands’ End, Petco and L.L. Bean, are rated highly for their sites’ search capabilities, the majority of online stores treat search engines like an […]

A large majority of companies expect to maintain or even increase their IT spending levels this year, according to a study just released by analyst firm, International Data Corp. The study shows that 85% of IT leaders in the U.S., Europe and Asia expect their budgets to stabilize, if not grow, throughout 2003. Many companies, […]

U.S. companies are failing at online customer service, forcing consumers to bypass email service for the telephone, according to a new study from Jupiter Research. The study shows that 88% of consumers surveyed expect a response to email inquiries within 24 hours. The problem is that only 54% of companies meet that expectation — the […]

Child pornography is hidden on virtually every large corporate network, according to security experts. While it’s common to hear stories of workers being fired for downloading pornographic images onto their systems, and it’s even more common to hear people complain of pornographic spam, industry watchers say the problem goes even further. Child pornography — explicit […]

The IT security market is expected to more than double between 2001 and 2006, according to a new report just released by industry analyst group International Data Corp. The total market, including software, hardware and services, is expected to jump from $17 billion in revenues in 2001 to $45 billion three years from now, according […]

A hacker group attacked and struck down servers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory just hours after the Columbia space shuttle was lost, according to a London-based security company. The attack, allegedly pulled off by a group calling itself the Trippin Smurfs, temporarily staggered nine servers running on the Sun Solaris operating system, according to a […]

In the wake of the Slammer attack, a new report reveals that network administrators had to deal with nearly 82% more vulnerabilities last year than the year before. The number of software bugs or vulnerabilities found and reported skyrocketed in 2002, according to a semi-annual report released today by security company Symantec Corp. Mike Higgins, […]