Sharon Gaudin

The Internet was recovering Monday from a virulent worm attack that slowed or halted Web traffic around the world this weekend. The new worm, dubbed SQL Slammer, hit the Internet on Saturday, taking advantage of a known vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.’s SQL 2000 Web servers. The worm, which doesn’t damage the infected machine or delete […]

IT salaries have stopped falling and demand is up for workers specializing in networking, data security, object programming and wireless communications, according to a new study. That’s good news for an industry that has been hit hard by the slumping economy and wave after wave of dramatic job cuts. According to the Information Technology Association […]

A majority of users want the government to step in and make spamming illegal, according to a new Harris Interactive survey. The Harris Poll shows that 80% of online users today find spam `very annoying’. Because of that frustration level, 74% say they favor making spamming illegal. And the poll shows that percentage holds independent […]

Despite the fact that consumers spent record amounts of money doing their holiday shopping online this year, online retailers only earned a ‘C’ rating for customer satisfaction. The mediocre grade comes in even as more than half of online shoppers say they were ‘highly satisfied’ with their experience this year, according to ForeSee Results, an […]

Spam pummeled users over the holidays, exploding about 1,000% since Thanksgiving. And January’s numbers aren’t expected to deflate to pre-holiday levels either. ”We have seen a more than 1,000% increase in spam for our customers, while only about a 500% increase in total email messages,” says Brad Bradley, a production manager for Brightmail, Inc., a […]

Fraud will cost online retailers about $500 million during this holiday season, according to a new study out by industry analyst giant Gartner, Inc. Suspect transactions and credit card fraud will nail the e-commerce industry, according to Gartner’s recent survey of 50 leading e-commerce outlets. The analyst firm also predicts that U.S. online sales will […]

This has been the worst year in the history of IT, according to a new report released by the Framingham, Mass.-based analyst firm International Data Corp. The IT industry suffered its largest decline ever in 2002, actually showing a negative growth rate of 2.3%. The dramatic fall was spurred by declines in the worldwide systems […]

While the Internet proved itself resilient and an important communications resource on Sept. 11, a new report warns that ISPs need to further prepare themselves to handle future emergencies. The overall damage to the Internet on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorist attacks collapsed the World Trade Center and punctured the Pentagon, destroying networks and communications […]

PC sales are expected to pick up speed early in 2003, according to a new report from Meta Group. While PC purchasing levels won’t return to the blockbuster numbers they rang in three years ago, a mild increase is expected in the first quarter of the year based on clients’ moves to buy, according to […]

Nearly 1 million IT-related jobs will move offshore over the course of the next 15 years, according to a new report released by Forrester Research, Inc. And that will leave some U.S. IT workers — largely base- to mid-level programmers — out in the cold if they don’t upgrade their skills and move up the […]

Online retail sales fell in the third quarter for the first time in e-commerce history, and holiday sales are expected to be unimpressive, according to a new study out by Forrester Research. “The sagging economy finally took its toll on consumer spending in Q3, punctuated by a weak back-to-school season,” says Carrie Johnson, an analyst […]

The IT industry’s economic slide is showing signs of slowing down, with analysts predicting that high-tech will continue to hobble along toward the start of a slow recovery next year. Several industry and economic indicators have come in this week, giving some analysts hope that economic tensions are easing their stranglehold on the IT sector, […]