2005 saw the most computer security breaches ever, subjecting millions of Americans to potential identity fraud, according to a report published Thursday. Over 130 major intrusions exposed more than 55 million Americans to the growing variety of fraud as personal data like Social Security and credit card numbers were left unprotected. The Treasury Department says that cyber crime has now outgrown illegal drug sales in annual proceeds, netting an estimated $105 billion in 2004.

The White House and National Security Agency have been caught tracking visitors to their Web sites in ways that may violate official US guidelines. The organizations have been using different techniques to spot return visitors and monitor what they are looking at. Although widely used on commercial Web sites, US federal guidelines prohibit official use of such tools.

Sony BMG has struck a deal with the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit over copy-restriction software it used in music CDs, according to a settlement document filed at a New York court. The record label has agreed to compensate buyers of CDs that contained the XCP and MediaMax DRM programs and to provide software utilities to allow consumers to uninstall both types of software from their computer.

A new Trojan horse program was infecting PCs on Wednesday, exploiting a hole in Windows systems to sneak onto computers, then dropping adware or spyware or turning them into zombies, according to several Internet security companies. The Trojan, dubbed Exploit-WMF (Windows Meta File), was rated a category 2 level risk, meaning it had the potential to continue to spread, said Dave Cole, director of security response at Symantec.

Microsoft’s reporting a new and very nasty exploit. Patch your systems, update your antivirus, and be careful. This could be a nasty one. We’ll tell you more once we know more from Microsoft. Damn!

Five years into the 21st century, as the world of IT continues to change, one thing remains constant: TechTarget’s annual summation of the past year’s winners and losers. From Oracle’s buying spree to confidential customer information scandals, there were plenty of candidates at both ends of the spectrum.

This is the initial release of a new set of methods and practices to understand, to implement, and to oversee the management and control of Enterprise initiatives segmented into Portfolios. These practices provide portfolio management introductory material, step-by-step guidance in five high-value areas, and a group of examples and templates.

A virus masquerading as a new beta version of Microsoft’s MSN Messenger has begun circulating, antivirus company F-Secure said on its blog Tuesday. The virus, which F-Secure calls Virkel.F, comes as a file called BETA8WEBINSTALL.EXE that can be downloaded from a Web site. Running the program installs not a new MSN Messenger beta, but rather a virus that sends download links to a computer user’s MSN Messenger buddies. The virus falsely labels the link as "MSN Messenger 8 Working BETA."

eWEEK editors offer their take on the top stories that shaped 2005, including Hurricane Katrina’s wave of destruction and Google’s efforts to woo the enterprise.

Several online merchants reported record sales during the holiday shopping season, including online retail giant Amazon.com, which said popular items were iPod music players, video games, coats and jewelry. Amazon said it had its best holiday sales season ever, with more than 108 million items ordered. The company’s holiday statistics cover the period from Nov. 1 through Dec. 21. The busiest day for the world’s largest online store was Monday, Dec. 12, when more than 3.6 million items were ordered, or 41 items per second. The most expensive item purchased during the period was a pair of diamond earrings worth $94,000.