Prior to the 2004 presidential elections, the Department of Homeland Security regularly issued warnings of imminent terrorist attacks. These warnings often correlated with low poll numbers; they probably scared people, and they certainly cost the government money due to additional police and other protection. But it was never clear to me how real these warnings were so I am not sure whether to be thankful for the benefits of government vigilance or jaded by it because of the false warnings.

Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security warned of attacks this month on stock trading and bank web sites. Anonymous sources suggested that a group calling itself "ANHIAR al-Dollar" is calling for Denial of Service attacks "to avenge 'Muslim brothers in the crusaders' Guantanamo prison camp.'" But this warning came with a special warning label of its own -- "the threat was unconfirmed and seemed to pose no immediate danger."

The financial community has concluded that Homeland Security is crying wolf again -- with markets showing little or no reaction. Today's warning raises many questions:

• If the threat is not credible why scare people by promoting it?
• Why issue the warning without suggesting actions for citizens to take to protect themselves?
• If a group really was serious about taking down our financial systems, would they really advertise it online?
• Regardless of whether terrorists or hackers wanted to bring down our financial systems, how vulnerable are these systems?
• If such an attack did happen, what can bank and online trading account holders do to protect themselves?
• Do account holders have any insurance protection in the event of such an attack?

Rather than repeatedly crying wolf, it would be great if The Department of Homeland Security could warn and protect the public from real attacks.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, and a Professor of Management at Babson College.

Time Warner closed at $16.42, down .01 at end of regular trading, but up .08 in after hours trading. The stock ended the week exactly where it began: $16.50.

This flat result came despite the fact that Time Warner announced several important strategies for the immediate future of AOL Video as a premier video search and view destination. Viewers will be able to access a virtually limitless array of amateur videos and video clips, as well as hundreds of hours of TV programming on demand. Additionally, AOL will offer downloadable movies on demand from 20th Century Fox, Sony, NBC Universal, and Time Warner's own Warner Brothers. Time Warner beat both Apple Computer Inc. and Amazon.com to the punch for video accessibility. Yet investors continue to flame Time Warne's efforts while Apple's lithium-ion battery powered notebooks are the fire hazard.

Time Warner unit CNN announced that on the five-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it will make available free of charge replays of its coverage of events on September 11, 2001. CNN Pipeline will provide live coverage of memorial services at Ground Zero in NYC and DC. Viewers can also access the replay feed of 9/11/2001 from 8:30 A.M. until midnight. For those still unable to watch events of 9/11/2001, CNN will also have a number of interactive but less graphic elements on its site.