Ebay Australia

The proliferation of Internet-based services and commerce has dramatically changed the world we live in, and many of these changes have been for the better, with consumers able to make almost any transaction imaginable on line. Unfortunately, these computing advances also create a fertile ground for fraudulent activities and thus increase the pressing need for computer security. Testimony included in this hearing includes reports from executives of large software firms (Microsoft, Oracle), as well as major vendors (eBay and others). Issues covered include not only fraudulent scams, spam and viruses, but the threat of identity theft, and possible means to address these threats. ... [Read More]

Ireland

At end-2004, 490 IDA-assisted U.S. companies were operating in Ireland, employing 89,158 workers, representing roughly 75 percent of the total number of workers employed by IDA-supported foreign firms and 5 percent of total Irish employment. In 2003, Ireland secured 64 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects, and, of these, 65 percent were by U.S. firms, including: Google, Overture, Ebay, PayPal, Centorcor, and Altera. The following U.S. firms are engaged in major expansion projects: Intel, Symantec, Wyeth, MBNA, Abbott, Cenzyme, Medtronic, Xilinx, Pepsi, Guidant, Merit Medical, Cook, and Pfizer. There are 120 companies with R&D investment plans in Ireland for the 2003-2005 period, and of these, 70 percent are U.S. firms, including, notably, IBM, HP, and Bell Labs. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that U.S. companies' average return on investment (ROI) in Ireland is 24 percent. ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Transcript: Pentagon Spokesman's Regular Briefing, Feb. 15

The first is on last week's cyber-attack against Yahoo and eBay and other web-based sites. As we discussed last Thursday from here, from the podium, as of close of business last Thursday we put out a message to all parts of the Department of Defense asking them to check their computer systems, with a deadline of a week, which would be this coming Thursday, to make sure that none of the denial-of-service tools had not been inadvertently loaded onto our own systems. And I wanted to just give you kind of an update on that today. ... [Read More]

Recent Reports of Looting, Theft, Prosecution and Recovery on the World Wide Web

U.S. Customs Press Release, New U.S. Customs Art Recovery Team Announced . Customs Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly announced the creation of a New York City-based team to investigate art fraud and smuggling. November 2000 U.S. Customs Press Release, Customs Returns Artifact to Peru. In a special repatriation ceremony, U.S. Customs returned a priceless 18th century statue of the Virgin Mary to the Ambassador of Peru. The statue was identified on Ebay and, after an investigation, forfeited to the Federal Government. ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Text: Eizenstat on Internet Taxation and E-payments

I would like now to discuss two issues that are particularly within the purview of the Treasury Department: electronic payments and internet taxation. Despite the expansion of the Internet into so many areas, there is no legitimate option at this time for businesses to pay each other over the Internet. Most e-commerce shoppers use credit cards which involve a 2-6% expense to the seller. For shoppers, credit cards only work on line for certain classes of payments. A college student who successfully bids on this weekend's basketball tickets on eBay has to spend additional money to FedEx his check to the seller. According to one study, in 1999, consumers spent $19 billion on-line. But the amount they ordered off-line after doing their browsing on-line came to $103 billion. ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Text: Senator Jon Kyl on Cyber Crime

The latest attacks on 8 well-known Internet sites like eBay, Yahoo, and CNN raised public awareness, and hopefully will serve as a wake-up call about the need to protect our critical computer networks. Uncertainty caused by the attacks contributed to a 258 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and halted a string of 3 days of consecutive record-high closes of the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index. As the New York Times noted in an editorial, "Just when Americans have begun to get accustomed to the pervasive influence of the Internet, a wave of anonymous assaults on Web Sites has roiled the stability of the newly emerging cyberworld." Although disruption to these sites was substantial, the damage did not even approach what it could have been, based on the Internet's known vulnerabilities. ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Text: Senator Patrick Leahy on Cyber Crime

Leahy and other senators present at the hearing also cited the well-publicized February attacks on popular Worldwide Web sites such as Yahoo, eBay, Amazon.com and others. ...

Yet all these physical barriers can be circumvented using the wires that run into every building to support the computers and computer networks that are the mainstay of how we communicate and do business. This plain fact was amply demonstrated by the recent hacker attacks on E-Trade, ZDNet, Datek, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon.com and other Internet sites. These attacks raise serious questions about Internet security - questions that we need to answer to ensure the long-term stability of electronic commerce. More importantly, a well-focused and more malign cyber-attack on computer networks that support telecommunications, transportation, water supply, banking, electrical power and other critical infrastructure systems could wreak havoc on our national economy or even jeopardize our national defense. We have learned that even law enforcement is not immune. Last month we learned of a denial of service attack successfully perpetrated against a FBI web site, shutting down that site for several hours ... [Read More]

USIS Washington File: TRANSCRIPT: CLINTON AND GORE ENCOURAGE GROWTH OF E-COMMERCE

To the members of the business community who are present, I'm not going to acknowledge everybody because there is such a wide array of leaders here. John Chambers, I'm going to introduce in a moment, from Cisco Systems. But there are a lot of other CEOs who are present. Meg Whitman will speak also, CEO of EBAY. ...

In this emerging digital marketplace nearly anyone with a good idea and a little software can set up shop and then become the corner store for an entire planet. Who would have imagined that someone who simply wanted to find other people who were also interested in collection Pez candy dispensers -- you remember them -- would become EBAY, one of the fastest-growing companies today. ... [Read More]