11 December – Five Stories You Need to Read

According to the New York Times, “smaller online retailers, and those with strong gift-certificate sales, are being especially hard hit” this holiday season by fraudulent orders, which usually involve credit card numbers stolen offline or in email scams.

eWeek.com reports that “ICANN officials ended a week-long marathon of meetings in Brazil on Dec. 8 [which] produced a number of results, including ICANN’s first ever Regional At Large Organization, the approval of the three registry agreements and the birth of the dot-asia top level domain.”

“A Microsoft-commissioned study estimates that Windows Vista could create 100,000 new IT-related jobs in the United States”, according to CNetNews.

MercuryNews.com writes that “Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and other high-tech companies are preparing to push for data-privacy legislation next year to replace what they consider an outdated patchwork of state and federal laws that are inconsistent and burdensome”.

The International Herald Tribune points to an interesting study tracking digital convergence in the UK and elsewhere.