economy

Did you know that you can buy a keystroke logger for $23 or pay $10 to have someone host your phishing scam? Having a botnet at your fingertips will cost you $225, and a tool that exploits a vulnerability on a banking site averages $740 and runs as high as $3,000.

That's according to the Symantec Report on the Internet Underground Economy due to be released Monday.

Symantec researchers spent a year observing the chat among cybercriminals on IRC channels and forums on the Internet between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008 and were able to piece … Read more

The Consumer Electronics Show has become a mammoth event every January in Las Vegas, but the down economy is paring it back as Cisco Systems, Yahoo, and other companies scale back their presence.

CES remains a useful way for technology companies to meet with retailers, press, and the media. But for some in the current economic climate, it's not useful enough to pay $35 per square foot for a sprawling booth on the Las Vegas Convention Center's cavernous interior.

"This was to have been Cisco's first time as a formal exhibitor," said spokesman Jim Brady. "Given (Cisco's) focus on reducing costs, the company has decided to scale down its participation in CES in Las Vegas in January 2009." Instead, the networking giant is sticking with a more modest space rented at the Venetian Hotel supplemented with videoconferencing technology.

Cisco isn't the only one to scale back. Also on the list are Yahoo, Seagate, Logitech, and Belkin, company representatives confirmed. Philips won't have a space on the CES show floor, either, though Funai, which has taken over manufacturing and selling TVs under the Philips brand in the United States, will pick up some of the slack.

The Consumer Electronics Association, which runs the show, said the show will be the third largest in terms of floor space, shrinking from its size the peak years of 2007 and 2008.

"The economy is causing some companies that may have had booths to say, 'Maybe we want to be in a meeting room instead,'" said association spokeswoman Tara Dunion. Despite it, the total number of exhibitors is level from 2008's show at about 2,700. "We're also seeing companies on the show floor for first time," including Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Iomega, and Mattel, she said.

And there's a silver lining, too. "Vegas hotel rates are coming down because tourism travel to Vegas is slower than it's been in years. That provides an opportunity for business professionals," she said.

Incentives to show But the organizers are working hard to keep the show as lively as possible. One promotion is aimed at technology buyers--the middlemen who buy all those TVs, gadgets, cameras, and other devices before selling them to ordinary folks.

… Read more

Updated at 1:37 p.m. PT with comments from earnings call.

Dell on Thursday reported third-quarter profit of $727 million, or 37 cents per share, and revenue of $15.16 billion.

Profits were down 5 percent from the same quarter a year ago, though earnings per share improved 9 percent. Revenue was down 3 percent.

Most analysts had been anticipating earnings of 32 cents per share and $16.3 billion in sales.

A year ago, Dell earned $766 million, or 34 cents per share, on $15.65 billion in sales.

Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said on a call … Read more

There's not a lot of good news about the PC industry lately.

Gartner is predicting that IT spending will be down, and Intel says it sees significantly lower demand for its chips. Now add to that iSuppli's doom-and-gloom prediction that PC shipments will rise only 4.3 percent in 2009, and 7.1 percent in 2010.

It's a pretty dramatic change from what the industry analyst company had previously forecast: shipments rising 11.9 percent next year, and 9.4 percent in 2010.

The PC market has been growing at rates of at least 10 percent per … Read more

Hewlett-Packard just showed its cards early, revealing Monday that next week it's going to inform its investors of some pretty impressive revenue gains during the third quarter.

That comes despite the faltering economy and increasingly ominous signs that when it comes to tech, this recession will hit the PC market the hardest. As we reported here earlier, HP is certainly well-positioned to weather a downturn, while rival Dell is still in the midst of a turnaround, and is on slightly shakier ground.

Judging by analyst predictions and industry reports, Dell's earnings won't be nearly as impressive. Both … Read more

Consumer spending on e-commerce sites grew just 1 percent during October compared with the same month a year ago, according to ComScore.

In fact, last month was the worst growth month for online retail spending since ComScore began keeping track in 2001.

Rising prices and unemployment rates, and the psychological impact of the chaos of the financial markets are to blame, according to ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.

But the dip in spending can't be too much of a shock to those who watch ComScore's monthly reports carefully. The preceding six months featured declining growth rates--April saw 15 percent … Read more

Commercial and consumer spending on technology is expected to fall off in the next year, and the PC industry is bracing for the impact.

Already beginning to feel the effects of sagging average selling prices, thinning margins, and oversaturated markets in North America and Europe, there's clearly going to be a shakeout among the biggest players as the economy enters a full-blown recession. (Of course, many believe we're already in one.)

Intel's warning this week that the company sees "significantly" lower demand for its chips signaled that the worst is still to come for PC … Read more

Investment bank UBS has cut its estimates on digital-ad growth, in conjunction with gloominess about the overall advertising industry. The sector will continue to grow, a report said, but it will slow down significantly.

"UBS estimates that Internet will remain the only segment with positive growth until 2010," a release from the company read, "though the growth rate could drop as low as 10.4 percent in 2009." That's still optimistic compared with some folks in the industry, like Gawker Media founder Nick Denton, who released his own predictions this week that Internet advertising will … Read more

On this week's EIC Squared podcast, ZDNet's Larry Dignan and I talk about the tanking economy, the challenges facing an Obama administration CTO, and Microsoft's search quests with Verizon Wireless and Yahoo.

The holiday shopping season is looking grim as Circuit City files for bankruptcy and Best Buy lowers its forecast for its fiscal year. When will it ever end?

President-elect Obama has called for a national CTO. Given the complexity of technology infrastructure, the abundance of projects, the squeeze on budgets, and policy controversies, this will be an extremely challenging position.

We also discuss Microsoft's … Read more