Government and Economy Has the US Become the New Russia? In the May issue of the Atlantic Monthly, Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the IMF and a professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT compares the “financial oligarchy” running US policy with the business elites in emerging countries. FT.com SBA Lending Assistance Stalling T he parts of the federal government's stimulus program aimed at small-business owners aren't working as they should, say local owners and small-business experts who are trying to figure out what to do about the problem. Management and Fina... [Read Full Article]

Have you ever gotten a pop-up window that tells you that viruses have been detected, offers you a free scan and then, after giving you an impossible list of viruses, worms, Trojan horses, adware, spyware, and all manner of malware; tells you that by downloading the their anti-malware application for just $49.95, you can clean your system and save yourself the headaches of computer sluggishness and the scourge of identity theft? If you have—and you probably have—then you have been a target of scareware, which can be defined as a type of advertising-related malware that scares you into ordering a product you neither want nor need. Being a target is one thing, but you have to fall for the gag to be a victim.  Victims think they are going to get more protection than they already have—they don’t—and thereby maintain the health of their computer system. Again, they don’t. By offering their contact and credit card info, they open themselves up to the sort of id... [Read Full Article]

Let me tell you a story: There you are, checking the latest Fantasy Football stats and suddenly a pop-up appears to announce that the “Doom32” Trojan has been discovered, among other things, on your machine and that if you just follow the link provided, you can scan your system for free and learn how you can clean out the malware once and for all. You stare a moment at the Norton icon at the bottom of your screen and wonder why this expensive suite of defensive software couldn’t stop something called “Doom32” and then click on the link. The link takes you to a website that seems a typical product sale site. They show the box of the anti-malware software, features and comparisons with products like McAfee and Norton, and after scanning through all that you see the free scan button. You hit it and the scan begins. While it progresses, you see a slideshow that details how wonderful the featured anti-virus product is and all the things it can take care of. The... [Read Full Article]