Roy Mark

Is the information technology industry a bastion of white males? A new study released Wednesday says women and most racial minorities are ”significantly underrepresented” in the IT workforce. According to the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), the percentage of women in IT declined by 18.5 percent since 1996 while some minorities are underrepresented in […]

WASHINGTON — Corporate America is acting irresponsibly in protecting consumer data, Orson Swindle of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said today. The payback for that irresponsibility, he predicted, will be painful. In impromptu comments made during a think-tank panel discussion on international cyber crime, Swindle, a Republican FTC commissioner, took broad swipes at both private […]

Big Blue is encouraging its 320,000 worldwide employees to join the blogosphere. They are also being warned to be careful. In a post to the company’s intranet site today, IBM posted draft rules for employees when they write on IBM-related topics, whether at work or on their own time. On official IBM blog sites, employees […]

WASHINGTON — For Bill Gates, it’s just another week: Host Bono over the weekend, give an almost two-hour keynote at WinHEC on Monday and tweak Congress today. What’s politically eating at Microsoft’s chairman and chief software architect? H1B visas. Gates was on Capitol Hill to promote science education, research and development funding and to participate […]

TechNet, the political networking group of technology CEOs, has raised its visibility in Washington by naming White House official Lezlee Westine as its new president and CEO. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based organization also announced plans to open its first Washington office when Westine, who currently serves as the White House director of public liaison and […]

Companies could be losing millions of dollars every year by not factoring tax considerations into IT purchases, according to a new report by IDC and Deloitte Consulting. The report says with the emergence of Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPPA regulations, new management groups focusing on compliance, risk management and taxes are increasingly joining the traditional IT, finance, […]

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved its fast-track anti-spyware legislation today, pushing the bill out for a full House vote. But not before amending its language. Again. At a January hearing on the legislation, several lawmakers, who otherwise strongly supported H.R. 29, the Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act (SPY ACT), […]

Internet telephony firms praised Thursday’s action by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to fine a small telecom for blocking Voice over Internet Protocol traffic, but said problems of keeping broadband networks open to all IP applications remain. Over the last six months, both consumer VoIP provider Vonage and wholesaler Nuvio complained to the FCC about […]

While the U.S. House of Representatives has initially focused on anti-spyware measures in the early days of the 109th Congress, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) this week targeted phishing in one of the first technology bills introduced in the upper chamber. Phishing is a form of identity theft launched by cyberspace con artists. It usually begins […]

UPDATED: Although President George W. Bush has not announced a replacement for Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael K. Powell, who announced his resignation last week, four names emerged over the weekend as the leading candidates: FCC Commissioners Kevin Martin and Kathleen Abernathy; Assistant Commerce Secretary Michael Gallagher; and former Texas Public Utility Commission Chairwoman […]