Evan Schuman

With the latest allegations that the White House and the National Security Agency have been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, backers of the program have routinely cited a legal concept known as “expectation of privacy.” The phrase references a 1979 U.S. Supreme Court decision that narrowly concluded that […]

There are few things harder to deliver in a provable and concrete way than a good return on investment. Its what CEOs and CFOs insist that IT departments deliver, and yet its incredibly hard to prove. Smelling an opportunity, tons of hardware, software and services vendors are trying to lock in sales with promises of […]

When Wal-Mart moves into any new area, it spreads fear into the hearts of retailers, who see any move by the $312 billion store chain as inherently dangerous. But Wal-Marts recent effort to move more aggressively into the computer business is unlikely to merit panic. It will still cause a lot of it, but it […]

Joel Hansen, a 45-year-old Texan, was visiting his local Wal-Mart last week to purchase some food at about 5:30 p.m.. After what everyone seems to agree was an unpleasant human-computer interaction, the self-checkout terminal had a smashed-in monitor, courtesy of the fist of the consumer. Hansen was charged with criminal mischief by Tarrant County Sheriff […]

As one of the newest members of the Fortune 500, Standard Pacific Homes has seen more than its share of growth and, accordingly, small companies that it acquired to fuel its growth. When Rob Kelle, the CIO of the $5 billion home builder, began his CIO tenure about 18 months ago, he says he knew […]

When federal authorities started unsealing court documents on April 4 about the Secret Services Operation Rolling Stone, they also gave a peek inside how they are trying to combat cyber-crime. Although the operations name is unfortunate—the last thing Homeland Security wants to do is project the image of an aging rock band trying to keep […]

In sharing information about an undercover federal investigation of Web frauds involving credit cards and stolen tax refunds, the Secret Service demonstrated that it can adapt with the times. The seven initial arrests stemming from what the Secret Service has dubbed “Operation Rolling Stone” show that federal investigators have started to learn how to crack […]

Although the market for content for cell phones and PDAs is still in its infancy, the two applications that are expected to seize major market-share the fastest are reservations for airplane seats and hotel rooms. Given that generally accepted fact, the people at the worlds largest hotel company, the $14 billion Intercontinental Hotels Group, were […]

Visa recently sent a confidential memo to selected business partners advising them of a potentially major security threat involving Fujitsu POS software. We all know this because the memo was leaked to the Wall Street Journal, which prompted tons of media—including eWEEK, of course—to cover the story. The culprit seemed to be a tracer testing […]

Like every major sales and communications advance that preceded it, e-commerces 12-year existence has moved along in phases, as it slowly abandoned earlier methods to accept the new reality. Offline and online brands were initially kept distinct, then they were awkwardly merged. Initial e-commerce efforts were flashy brochure sites, with rudimentary shopping carts and checkout […]