EU Opens Antitrust Probe of Amazon

The European Commission has begun an investigation into whether clauses in Amazon’s contracts with European book publishers are anticompetitive.The clauses require publishers to inform Amazon — the largest distributor of e-books in Europe — when they offer more favorable or alternative terms to i...

By Matthew Heller • June 15, 2015

U.S. Digital Surveillance Hurting Tech Sector

The economic impact of digital surveillance practices on the U.S. technology sector will likely far exceed $35 billion as the government continues to fail to strengthen information security, a coalition of tech companies warn in a new report.The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, f...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • June 10, 2015

What You Must Know to Talk About a Data Breach

As a CFO, you are a top strategic partner to the board and the CEO. You are a de facto risk manager and communications specialist with a focus on the bottom line. Finance executives have an evolving role, and are more than ever concerned with new reputational risks — especially those related to I...

By Kate Fazzini • June 9, 2015

Response to Cyber Threats Found Lacking

Almost 70% of U.S. businesses experienced at least one hacking incident in the last year, but more than half of risk managers believe their company is not doing enough to combat cyber threats, according to a new survey.In a poll conducted at the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) confer...

By Matthew Heller • June 8, 2015

KFC Sues Over Food Safety Rumors in China

Yum Brands’ KFC unit said Monday it had sued three companies in China, alleging they spread false rumors on social media about its products, including that its chickens have eight legs.Yum, which has been fighting to regain customers lost as a result of two recent food safety scares, said the rum...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • June 1, 2015

U.S. Corruption Probe Nets 9 FIFA Officials

Pledging to rid FIFA of “rampant” corruption, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Wednesday that nine officials of world soccer’s governing body had been indicted on charges of receiving more than $150 million in bribes and kickbacks.Jeffrey Webb and Jack Warner – the current and former...

By Matthew Heller • May 27, 2015

Summer Rule-Making to Address Climate Change

Climate change is among the subjects that the Obama administration will address this summer as it tries to finalize as much energy and environmental regulation as possible before President Barack Obama leaves office, The Hill reports.The numerous high-profile rule releases planned for the summer ...

By Matthew Heller • May 26, 2015

Strong Dollar Plays Havoc with Multinationals’ Margins

Analyzing the variance in operating margin (OM) between plan and actual results is an important tool for finance professionals. This article will consider the potential OM variance related to fluctuating foreign exchange (FX) rates.As companies have reported their results for the first quarter of...

By Thomas E. Conine Jr. • May 15, 2015

Social Media Ratchets Up Risks from Angry Customers

For every unresolved negative experience a customer shares in social networks, it takes 12 positive experiences to get a company back to neutral with the public. Customer experiences shared countless times a day across a myriad of networks can reach more people than a Super Bowl ad. With mobile t...

By Donna de Winter • April 15, 2015

AIG Gets OK to Use Drones to Scan Disaster Areas

The Federal Aviation Administration has given AIG the green light by to operate drones, the New York City-based insurance company said Wednesday.AIG plans to use the remote-controlled aerial vehicles to help speed up surveys of disaster areas with high-resolution images for faster claims handling...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 8, 2015

Is Mickey-D Marketing Souring McDonald’s Bottom Line?

One time when I was interviewing the CFO of a coal-mining company, I suddenly wondered whether he ever felt any guilt, conflict or even mild unease over his choice of employer. After all, while today we have so-called “clean coal,” a more accurate term would be “cleaner” coal. Coal is still dirty...

By David McCann • Feb. 13, 2015

Anthem Discloses ‘Very Sophisticated’ Cyber Attack

Anthem, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, disclosed late Wednesday that its database of 80 million people was the target of “a very sophisticated external cyber attack.”According to a letter by Anthem’s president and chief executive Joseph R. Swedish
 posted on the Indianapolis company...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 5, 2015

Panama Canal Expansion a Boon for Midsize Companies, Too

When the much-anticipated expansion of the Panama Canal is completed late next year, cargo ships the size of aircraft carriers will ferry goods from Latin America and Asia directly to East Coast ports and back. These ships — up to two-and-a-half times bigger than those currently allowed — will up...

By Doug Davidson • Jan. 5, 2015

Logistics Industry Inches Toward IT Relevance

Editor’s note: this is an expanded version of an article published on CFO.com on Aug. 14. It incorporates the views of several CFOs at third-party logistics firms regarding technology challenges facing the industry.Providers of third-party logistics (3PL) services are lifeblood for companies that...

By David McCann • Oct. 3, 2014

Hacking Incidents Grip Gaming Industry

The latest cyber threat for corporate America, which is alive and “well” in the online gaming industry, has taken an even more ominous turn. On Sunday, the hacking group known as Lizard Squad, which has caused trouble for a number of gaming services, grounded an American Airlines flight by tweeti...

By Iris Dorbian • Aug. 27, 2014

‘Heartbleed’ Bug Opens Hospital Chain to Cyber-Attack

Chinese cyber-criminals exploited an Internet security bug to steal personal information on 4.5 million patients at the for-profit U.S. hospital chain Community Health Systems, a source involved in a probe into the data breach told Bloomberg.The bug, known as Heartbleed, “allows hackers to steal ...

By Iris Dorbian • Aug. 20, 2014

Criminals Posing as CFOs to Commit Wire Fraud

A new, fast-proliferating type of online fraud is posing yet another security threat to small and large companies alike. Bank of the West, which is taking a leadership role in publicizing the threat, calls it “masquerading.”It’s a twist on a fraud attempt that became common in 2012, in which crim...

By David McCann • Aug. 13, 2014

Big Data, Little Security

Although many firms have jumped on the big-data bandwagon, not many have taken steps to secure these systems, according to a feature story on CIO.com (which was originally published by CSO). But that could be changing, even though experts admit that the process is “painfully slow.”There’s no ques...

By Iris Dorbian • Aug. 8, 2014

Mainframe Deficiencies Burden Big Companies

The business world’s burgeoning zeal for the cloud remains the hottest technology story of the day. And why not? There’s lots of news: new vendors, new services, new software, newfound uses for existing cloud software, new ways to integrate cloud applications.Mainframes aren’t as sexy. In fact, m...

By David McCann • March 14, 2014

Monetary Savings on Carbon-Emissions Cuts Sank in 2013

If you get turned on by both corporate profits and saving the environment, here is some good news: The percentage of companies that reaped savings from greenhouse gas emissions-reduction programs took a solid forward step in 2013.But curb your enthusiasm. The average amount of savings, among comp...

By David McCann • Jan. 23, 2014

Meet the Worst Violators of Cyber-Security Policies

When an internal information breach happens, the perception may be it’s the fault of lower-level staff ; yet senior managers, who have access to sensitive, unencrypted information, are often more likely to accidentally share information outside the boundaries of a company’s firewall.Fifty-eight p...

By Alissa Ponchione • Jan. 17, 2014

Compliance Mountains to Climb

Seen from an altitude of 30,000 feet, the compliance landscape that CFOs face in 2014 consists of two big mountains and a few challenging foothills.One of the two loftiest peaks, in the view of many finance chiefs, is complying with the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. The other is about ...

By David Katz • Dec. 6, 2013

Why Finance Chiefs Should Lead on Cyber-Security

It’s 4:03 a.m., and the CFO’s smartphone rings. Never a good sign.One of the company’s databases has been breached. Details are still sketchy, but it appears customer records, including credit card and Social Security numbers, have been stolen. It’s going to be a long day.CFOs, if you think this ...

By Tom McGrath and Terry Jost • Nov. 19, 2013

Finding Your Cyber-Security Weak Spots

While companies are embracing new technologies and systems, they also need to secure those systems. Cyber attacks are becoming more prevalent, and it takes more than a firewall and malware-protection software to prevent information breaches.According to an Ernst & Young survey that polled 1,9...

By Alissa Ponchione • Nov. 1, 2013

Who is Liable for a Data Breach?

Seeing an opportunity to make workflow more efficient, residents and physicians-in-training at Oregon Health & Science University started using cloud-computing service Google Drive to keep everyone up to date on patient information. After a faculty member discovered the staff was using the cl...

By Alissa Ponchione • Oct. 11, 2013