cyber

Civil liberties groups: Proposed cybersecurity bill is too broad

The cybersecurity bill introduced last week in the Senate is too broad, say privacy experts who worry that it could authorize wiretapping and curtail civil liberties.

The Cybersecurity Act of 2012, introduced last week by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut), John D. Rockefeller IV (D-West Virginia), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Dianne Feinstein (D-California), is designed to protect the nation's critical infrastructure, which provides vital services such as water, energy, and transportation. It calls on the Department of Homeland Security to work with network operators to develop security standards, a provision that Republican lawmakers, including Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), object to … Read more

DHS disputes memo on purported railway computer breach

The Department of Homeland Security is disputing a government memo obtained by Nextgov.com that said a targeted attack on the computer network of a railway company in the Northwest disrupted train service in early December.

"Following more in-depth analysis, it appears that the potential cyber incident did not in fact target a transportation entity," a senior DHS official told CNET today. "DHS worked with the affected entity, the FBI, and the Transportation Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) to resolve the issue and send alerts to notify the community of the anomalous activity as it was … Read more

Middle East cyberwar hits Israeli banks, stock exchange, airline

Hackers in Israel and other Middle Eastern countries are in the middle of a cyberwar that has led to disruptions of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, several Israeli banks, and an airline. As a result, some Israeli banks have blocked or are threatening to block international access to their sites to avoid attack.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks Monday that crippled the Web sites of the Tel Aviv bourse Web site and El Al Airlines, as well as the marketing sites of the First International Bank of Israel (Fibi), Massad bank, and Otzar Hahayal bank, according to … Read more

California unveils new unit to fight cybercrime

Along with being home to Silicon Valley, California is also an epicenter of cybercrime.

That led California Attorney General Kamala Harris to announce today the creation of a new state Justice Department unit to combat crimes that enlist technology.

The eCrime unit aims to "make sure that vulnerable populations are safe, that consumers are safe, and that we allow good behavior to occur," Harris said at a news conference in San Jose, Calif (see video of news conference below). "But where there are predators and predatory practices, we want to ensure we have the skills and technology … Read more

Online holiday spending shows continued strength

U.S. consumers continue to turn to the Internet for their holiday shopping, according to new figures released today by market researcher ComScore.

Online sales for the holiday season to date (since November 1 to Friday) totaled $24.6 billion, a 15 percent increase over the $21.4 billion spent during the same period last year, ComScore reported. Last week's spending totaled $5.9 billion, also a 15 percent increase over the corresponding period last year.

"These highlights represent another very positive sign for the holiday shopping season, as the week following 'Cyber Week' often experiences relative softness … Read more

Free shipping spurs e-commerce momentum

E-commerce spending has held its Cyber Monday momentum and remains strong courtesy of free shipping deals, according to ComScore.

The research firm noted the following:

E-commerce sales are up 15 percent for the week ending Dec. 2; The last week featured three $1 billion plus days; 64 percent of transactions included free shipping.

Coming up: Great Debate: Is e-commerce killing brick and mortar?

ComScore provided the following charts:

A few observations to ponder:

ComScore’s data—along with other information from IBM’s CoreMetrics and ShopperTrak—will likely contribute to the clicks-killing-bricks argument for retail. We have a Great Debate … Read more

Reporters' Roundtable: Holiday tech buying update

We are in the middle of the holiday buying season right now, between the first rush of gift-buying that happened on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and the "Oh, crap, I need to start buying presents!" feeling that happens in about a week.

This is the most important month for the consumer tech economy, but this December will be different from all the ones that came before it.

Why? Mobile devices, online shopping, social networking, improved analytics, changing tax laws, and changing behaviors among both buyers and sellers, among other reasons. Today we are talking about how the gadget economy is evolving.

My guests are: Claire Cain Miller, a reporter at The New York Times who's been writing about this topic, and a returning guest to the Roundtable; and Mike Fridgen, CEO of one of my favorite tech startups, Decide.com. This company runs a service that can tell you if the price of a tech item you're looking at is good today and if it will be going up or down in the near future.

Subscribe: iTunes (MP3)iTunes (320x180)iTunes (640x360)Podcast RSS (MP3)Podcast RSS (320x180)Podcast RSS (640x360)

Controversy, confusion over Carrier IQ

week in review Controversy over a mobile data-logger flared this week despite confusion over how the software works and what data it transmits. Some security experts said the privacy threat was overblown and it turns out Carrier IQ was falsely accused of "keylogging" in a rush to virtual judgement.

Carrier IQ, a startup that provides tracking tools to carriers and phone vendors, came under fire for allegedly monitoring Android- and iOS-based smartphones. According to Android researcher Trevor Eckhart, an outspoken critic of the company's technology, the company's software running on Android devices can record and relay … Read more

AT&T enjoys post-Turkey Day sales rush

Once AT&T got past the awkwardness of Thanksgiving, the rest of the weekend went pretty well.

The Dallas telecommunications giant said today that new online orders between Black Friday and Cyber Monday rose 15 percent over a year ago, as traffic to its Web site increased by nearly a third. Traffic in AT&T stores also saw a significant hike as well.

It was a long weekend to be thankful for, particularly after Thanksgiving itself, when AT&T sneaked in its request to the Federal Communications Commission to withdraw its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA and took a $4 billion charge to cover the potential collapse of the deal. … Read more

Cyber Monday rules U.S. commerce with $1.25B in sales

Cyber Monday officially rules the U.S. online-shopping season, racking up $1.25 billion in sales yesterday--a 22 percent increase over the previous year, according to ComScore data.

Monday's spending reflected both an 11 percent increase in the number of people shopping online and a significant jump in how much they spent. More than 10 million people bought something online yesterday, the online-marketing research firm said. Those shoppers made an average of 1.9 purchases apiece, in total worth an average of nearly $125--a 9 percent increase over per capita spending on Cyber Monday 2010.

The ComScore data differs … Read more