Many investors seem to be taking lightly the recent acquisition of McAfee by Intel Corp. (INTC). In fact, they seem bewildered by the move. Why in the world would a maker of chip sets want to own a data security software provider? Let me tell you why.

The days when we subscribed to a third-party service to download those clunky security patches will soon be gone -- and not missed. Those annoying downloads and incessant updates will go the way of the dinosaurs. Intel is preparing for the next generation of data security. Soon your data security will be provided as an integral part of your data handling and communication devices. It will finally be manufactured right into your chip sets. That's the way it should have been long ago.

Continue reading Intel Offers Investors a Safe Bet

Intel Offers Investors a Safe Bet originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gross domestic product growth slowed to a 2.4% pace, the slowest in nearly a year, the Commerce Department announced Friday. The reading of this measure of economic activity is too weak to push down unemployment. The quarter saw consumers spend less and retailers limit stock, this combined with the fact that the trade deficit had a larger impact on the economy and we have the formula for some rather unpleasant economic news.

Combine this report with the one indicating that the recession was worse than originally thought and our rosy picture of the economy takes a noticeably gray tint.

Continue reading Second-Quarter GDP Suggests Recovery Is Losing Steam

Second-Quarter GDP Suggests Recovery Is Losing Steam originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading U.S. Retail Sales Increase in March

U.S. Retail Sales Increase in March originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading NetApp reports healthy quarterly earnings on strong equipment sales

NetApp reports healthy quarterly earnings on strong equipment sales originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's tough to take on Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). The search engine behemoth owns 65% of the U.S. search market and has a commanding brand presence. Yet, the software maker up the coast isn't known to give up easily. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has cut a deal with microblogging site Twitter that should give it an edge in the battle to harness data and make it easier to find. A new deal will feed all those tweets into Bing, the Microsoft search engine.

Twitter is giving Microsoft full access to its data, in a deal announced Wednesday. Bing will provide search functionality for Twitter that you won't find in Google, which seems to have been outbid for the rights to the "tweet-stream." Under the deal, Bing will be able to index and display the tweets almost immediately as they are posted.

Continue reading Microsoft now in bed with Twitter

Microsoft now in bed with Twitter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

According to the Labor Department, initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 12,000 last week. Last week's advance pushed the total number of claims (669,000) to the highest level since October 1982.

Moreover, the 669,000 claims are up 72% from the same period last year. The four-week average of initial claims increased 6,500 to 656,750; hitting its highest point since October 1982.

For the week ending March 21, the number of people collecting state unemployment benefits increased 161,000 to 5.73 million. Not only is this level 96% higher than a year ago, but it is also a new record (should we sound bells and whistles?).

Continue reading New record for jobless claims

New record for jobless claims originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When it rains, it pours for Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD). As if an ailing stock price weren't enough for its chairman, Eddie Lampert, being named the Worst CEO of 2007. a huge slap in the face, a blog post went up over the weekend titled, Sears Exposes Customer Purchase History in Violation of Its Privacy Policy.

The well-written post gives clear, easy-to-understand instructions on how to figure out how much your next door neighbor paid for his plasma TV when he bought it at the neighborhood Sears. After a back and forth, Sears finally took the issue seriously and disabled the bug in their search function on the Sears website.

Turns out that the blog cited above is written by Ben Edelman, an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School in the Negotiation, Organizations, & Markets unit. In Edelman's bio (he's got four degrees from Harvard!), Edelman claims that he wrote about domain name politics, particularly in the context of expired domain names subsequently used for pornography and registered with false WHOIS data. He developed methods for testing internet filtering worldwide, without leaving his office, publishing reports on filtering in China and in Saudi Arabia.

He is a serious dude when it comes to Internet strategy and techniques. Maybe Sears should hire Edelman to run its online division?

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Author holds no positions in SHLD.

Sears (SHLD) exposes customer data originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Spectra Energy (NYSE: SEP) was initiated with a Buy rating and $32.50 target at Citigroup, with an Overweight rating and $32 target at Lehman Brothers and with an Overweight rating at Wachovia. Citigroup believes SEP provides investors above-average distribution growth driven by stable cash flows with little or no direct exposure to commodity prices. Wachovia is positive on SEP given its multi-year growth profile and high quality assets.

• ComScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) was initiated with an Outperform rating and $28 target at FBRC on valuation. The company was also initiated at Jefferies with a Hold rating and $25 target, citing valuation, although the firm believes the company is well positioned to benefit from the market demand for Web traffic data/analytics. Deutsche Bank initiated shares of ComScore with a Buy rating and $28 target.

• Data Domain (NASDAQ: DDUP) was started at Pacific Crest with an Outperform rating and $30 target and the firm expects growth to exceed 50% annually for at least the next two years.

• ThinkEquity started shares of Altair Nanotechnologies (NASDAQ: ALTI) with a Buy rating and $6 target.

• ThinkEquity transferred coverage of Blue Coat Systems (NASDAQ: BCSI) with a Buy rating and raised its target to $63 from $51.

• Stifel started shares of ICT Group (NASDAQ: ICTG) with a Buy rating and $20 target.

• B. Riley started shares of Charles & Colvard (NASDAQ: CTHR) with a Buy rating and $8 target.

Analyst initiations: ALTI, BSCI and SCOR originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a move to appease officials of the European Union, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has announced that it will again shorten the amount of time it keeps individual user statistics. Previously, Google kept user data indefinitely. It then shortened the time frame to a maximum of two years. Now, Google has again announced a reduction in the data retention time frame to a maximum of 18 months, but Google's privacy attorney Peter Fleischer, in a letter to a group of officials advising the European Union on privacy policy, cautioned that the time frame may need to be increased again to conform with future data retention laws.

So, when thinking about Google and what data it may or may not be keeping about you, bear in mind that in some ways it is duty bound by law to keep those records. Not all data retention issues are decided at Google's home office. Google knows full well that for its own consumer profiling purposes a 120 day time frame is quite sufficient to create a profile that would successfully outline a consumer's habits and enable Google to then provide personalized data returns based on those usage habits.

If you're nervous about what data may be kept regarding your internet usage habits, you're better served by taking "Big Brother" to task about it rather than Google. In most instances, it's a matter of government regulation and it's not just a Google issue.

Google shortens the privacy issue thread originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 14 Jun 2007 08:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Texas Instruments' in-line quarterly update originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Fed's dilemma: Mature economies slowing, emerging markets strong originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 17 May 2007 11:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Word continues to come through the financial news wire that major software and Internet companies are rapidly expanding their outsource business information storage and processing systems. It's obvious to me that this is one of the focus intents of Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) expansion in data centers. More companies are opting for outside warehousing of data storage and processing. More office desks are becoming populated with networked "dumb" terminals in place of the networked PC.

I myself utilize more than one outside source for the storage of data. Photobucket hosts a selection of my digital images as backup and I have text data backups in a few key places. For me the practice is limited to the storage of duplicate copies of non-proprietary information but for many it's becoming an essential part of business as usual.

The worldwide market for data storage and processing services is predicted to reach nearly $20 billion by 2011. I think that's a conservative estimate. I'm of the belief that the proposition is to become much more than just online file cabinets. Companies such as Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) can typically assist in reducing business data storage costs by as much as 12% and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Outside data handling frees up in house resources making them available for increased productivity and improved performance capabilities. In the very near future, the nature of in house data systems will begin to be looked at from a much more streamlined perspective.

Online data storage is all the rage originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 May 2007 15:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last week, the Transportation Security Administration became aware that an employee lost an external hard drive containing employment records of 100,000 TSA employees from January 2002 through August 2005.

Oops.

The data, which included names, social security numbers, dates of birth, payroll information and bank account routing information, among other things, was discovered missing from the TSA Headquarters Office of Human Capital. The names included various personnel and even U.S. Sky Marshals.

I'm not going to discuss how this puts our Sky Marshals, the travel industry and the American public at great risk, but you all know the potential Pandora's Box that was just opened.

While the TSA notified the FBI and Secret Service to help find the lost hard drive, they failed to notify their workers with as much haste.

If you didn't know by now, the TSA, a division of the Homeland Security Department, is responsible for the security of the nation's transportation system, including airports and train stations. The TSA has not yet mastered protecting computer hardware and their employee's private information.

Despite the fact that the TSA claims it follows strict data protection laws and has "zero tolerance for employees not following policies on data protection," they still earned a D in computer security from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. To make things even worse, 2006 was the first year the Department of Homeland Security scored a passing grade.

This past Monday, the Washington Post scolded the TSA and the government saying, "This is getting ridiculous," and "... Uncle Sam's track record is horrendous."

But the TSA is not the only government organization losing things.

• The IRS lost 490 laptops during 2003-2006, many with unencrypted data
  

• The U.S. Department of Transportation lost a laptop with the personal information of 133,000 Florida residents in July of 2006.

• Personal data from 26.5 million U.S. military veterans was stolen from a Department of Veteran Affairs data analyst who took information home last May (The data was later recovered).

• The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Agriculture exposed 63,000 farmers to Identity theft last month.

For additional security breaches from the government see here.

It's true that most Americans worry about identity theft. If you happen to be one of the victims that I mentioned above, or fear that your own identity is at risk, Crediteria.com has a great worksheet for you.

Identity theft continues to haunt the American people originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 09 May 2007 17:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

No need to rush into housing originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 01 May 2007 13:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mixed economic signals -- Time to take some money off the table? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Several weeks ago, AOL admitted it "screwed up" by releasing 20 million search records of over 600,000 AOL users. Yesterday the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission asking the FTC to investigate AOL's breach of consumer privacy. The complaint also wants the FTC to require AOL to strength its privacy protection policies in light of the inadvertent release. The Electronic Frontier Foundation maintains that there was enough information released to allow a few individual users to be identified.

AOL removed the data set from the website intended for academic research purposes, but the information had already been copied and possibly circulated by the time AOL acted. AOL spokesperson Andrew Weinstein stated "AOL did not provide any personally identifiable information to a third party," according to Ellen Nakashima of The Washington Post. The Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted a confidential brief to the FTC asserting that AOL did just that. In addition to the complaint regarding invasion of privacy, the Electronic Frontier Foundation also lodged a complaint against AOL for deceptive or unfair trade practices.

AOL targeted by Internet privacy group originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.