E-Commerce

Two weeks after its launch, a Web site created by BitPass Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based micropayments startup, has attracted nearly 100 bands and other musicians selling single songs and tracks at prices ranging from a quarter to $1.50. Designed for so-called independent musicians seeking an outlet for their music …

With Internet merchants increasingly demanding transaction capabilities beyond credit cards, acquirers and processors are starting to look into ways to simplify and standardize the introduction of such payment alternatives as electronic checks, debit cards, and third-party billing. The latest such effort comes from the nation's biggest transaction processor. Denver-based First …

Lightbridge Inc., a Burlington, Mass.-based provider of software and transaction services to wireless telecommunications carriers, today announced it is buying Authorize.net for $82 million in cash in a deal expected to close by June 30. Eight-year-old Authorize.net is an American Fork, Utah-based subsidiary of InfoSpace Inc., Bellevue, Wash. It provides …

Target Corp., which has opened more than 9 million accounts for its cobranded Visa smart card since the program's launch in November 2001, has announced it is shutting down the chip function on the card owing to lack of use. Target said in a statement today the phase-out will begin …

With chargeback rates running well in excess of 1% on Internet transactions, Visa International and MasterCard International have for some time been pushing a form of online cardholder authentication, called 3D Secure, that is intended to make cardholders, issuers, acquirers, and merchants feel confident that Web payments are legitimate. But …

A survey of consumers released today reveals that while most say they are more informed about identity theft, they feel no safer from it than they did a year ago, and more consumers are reluctant to give online retailers personal data than was the case last year. The survey of …

Fears concerning computer security are resulting in setbacks for the movement toward electronic voting. Most recently, the Pentagon has scuppered plans to allow Americans living abroad to cast ballots on the Internet. At the same time, some county and state elections officials, bowing to worries about computer viruses and the …

MyDoom, characterized by many experts as one of the most virulent viruses ever to hit the Internet, has had only a slight impact on Web transaction speed and page availability, according to Keynote Systems Inc., a San Mateo, Calif., company that measures Web site performance. Keynote analysts credit the nature …

Already the second-largest deployer of electronic ticketing machines at airports, Continental Airlines Inc. plans to add another 150 units this year, including some at international destinations. The first airline to deploy self-service ticketing kiosks nine years ago, Continental now has 779 online at 130 domestic airports, trailing only Delta Air …

As network security managers scramble today to combat the so-called MyDoom virus, one of the most malicious network attacks security experts have seen yet, the Boston-based consulting firm Yankee Group has released a report predicting that the frequency and virulence of such incidents will create a flourishing new market in …