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In what was possibly an inside job, thieves worked a massive data breach on the Hannaford Brothers grocery chain, installing malware on servers in each of the company's 300 grocery stores. The software captured credit- and debit-card data when consumers swiped cards -- and sent the data overseas, the company reported on March 17.

The attack represents a "new and sophisticated" attack on computer networks, the company told the Massachusetts attorney general and the state's consumer-affairs agency.

The Hannaford breach is notable because -- unlike the notorious breach of The TJX Companies in 2006 -- the company did not store the customer data. Rather, the hackers captured the stream of data as card information was sent to banks for verification.

Inside Job?

The scheme may have compromised 4.2 million cards used at the stores between Dec. 7 and March 10, the company said. About 2,000 cases of fraud have been linked to the Hannaford breach.

The Hannaford breach appears to have been a professional, sophisticated attack, said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security, in an e-mail. "The means by which the malware was introduced and the data extracted only furthers the speculation that Hannaford was victim to a sophisticated attack," he said. "We have further information in the last few days that indicate this may have been an inside job, which seems to nicely explain some of the bigger questions."

The questions include how was the malware introduced and why was the attack so successful? "For example, it's unlikely that an outsider would have had such an incredibly high success rate at distributing the correct malware to all the correct systems," Storms said.

Furthermore, writing sophisticated software to intercept credit-card information at the time of a card swipe means "an attacker would have needed to have some prototype systems in-hand first to...

The much-awaited iPhone with 3G is coming in May, according to a report by the Bank of America. Both Apple and AT&T, its exclusive carrier partner in the U.S., have said a higher-speed version of the popular device is coming, but they haven't set a date. The BOA's research report was authored by analyst Scott Craig and cited Friday by the Reuters news service.

Three Million in May

Craig told Reuters that there will be "an initial small build in May," and "significant production" in June. Despite the report, AT&T and Apple declined comment. But June would be a good time for the release, as there is an iPhone developers' conference that month, as well as the release of new firmware.

Craig added that he expects production volume to be higher than earlier estimates, even his. He predicted the production run in May will be more than three million iPhones, with another eight million in the third quarter. Previously, he had projected eight million iPhones for all of 2008.

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with JupiterResearch, said he expects Apple to refresh the iPhone sometime this year, but he doubted outsiders know exactly when that might be. "Apple keeps it own schedule," he noted.

A refresh of any sort could help Apple meet its target of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of this year. As of January, Apple has said it had sold about four million.

3G on the iPhone "would be a nice addition," Gartenberg said, but the real question is what Apple or third-party developers would do with the additional bandwidth that they haven't already done with, for instance, AT&T's EDGE.

Web Sites, Business Users, Europe

The faster cellular bandwidth could give users more reliable access to media-rich Web sites. It could also enable third-party developers to create applications that assume some consistent access to...

The Semiconductor Industry Association reports that global semiconductor sales in February rose 1.5 percent from the year-earlier period to reach $20.44 billion. Though chip revenues fell 4.9 percent from January, the result was in line with normal seasonal patterns, the trade group said.

"Excluding memory products, worldwide semiconductor sales grew by nearly 10 percent year-on-year," noted SIA President George Scalise. Even better, total unit shipments for all semiconductor products "increased by 11.6 percent year-on-year, indicating strength in the end markets that drive demand for microchips," Scalise said.

DRAM's Drag

Despite a slowing U.S. economy, markets outside North America continued to show robust growth in demand for electronic products that drive semiconductor sales, the SIA said. However, the underlying strength in the month's global chip sales was masked by a continued decline in the price of DRAM memory chips, Scalise said.

"DRAM revenues declined by more than 40 percent year-on-year despite a 43 percent increase in unit shipments" and "average selling prices for DRAM chips declined by nearly 60 percent year-on-year," Scalise explained.

The SIA's latest report suggests that the surprising weakness in memory-chip sales that occurred in the fourth quarter is continuing to take the wind out of global chip sales. According to researchers at iSuppli, global DRAM revenue unexpectedly tanked 19.1 percent in last year's fourth quarter, exceeding the research firm's expectation of a 4.7 percent decline.

Moreover, NAND-flash revenue declined 3.9 percent in last year's fourth quarter, causing memory-chip revenue to decline 11 percent overall, iSuppli said. "This was a complete role reversal for memory semiconductors compared to 2006," when memory-chip "revenues helped to prop up the growth of the overall semiconductor industry," observed iSuppli Senior Vice President Dale Ford.

The poor results for memory chips in 2007 ended up restraining market growth, the iSuppli analyst said. "If memory were excluded...