ATLANTA -- It's too early to know if Equifax's massive data breach will have a significant impact on the U.S. economy, but it's not too soon to worry, economists say.

The Atlanta-based company recently acknowledged that information on 143 million people was commandeered by hackers. That's not the largest such breach -- information from more ...Read more

Q: My desktop PC has started turning itself off less than five minutes after I turn it on. But when I restart the PC, it stays on with no problem. I run anti-malware software daily. What's wrong?

-- Maggie Freese, Plymouth, Minn.

A: If your PC has an electrical short circuit that's causing it to shut off, fixing it will be a job for a repair ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration's ban on the use of a Russian cybersecurity firm's software is heightening suspicion worldwide that private internet firms might be in league with their home governments, an industry leader said Wednesday.

The Trump administration last week told U.S. government agencies to remove Kaspersky Lab products ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- With three weeks to go until the explosive Waymo v. Uber trial begins, court-watchers got a peek Wednesday at the hefty price tag Uber could face if it loses.

Waymo is seeking $2.6 billion in damages for just one of the nine self-driving car trade secrets it claims Uber misappropriated, lawyers disclosed at a hearing in ...Read more

Advertisers on Facebook no longer can use offensive search terms such as "Jew hater" and "how to burn Jews" to target specific audiences, the company said Wednesday.

The new policy comes a week after ProPublica published a story demonstrating how advertisers could reach thousands of Facebook users by entering hateful search terms on the social ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- General Mills Inc.'s latest results disappointed investors, but executives said the company is on track to meet financial goals for its new fiscal year and revealed a potential hit product -- chocolate peanut butter Cheerios.

Recalibrating a financial model gone slightly awry, General Mills executives and staffers are now trying ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it would start slowly reducing the trillions of dollars in bonds it bought to try to stimulate the economy, another milestone in the central bank's efforts to return to a normal monetary policy after the Great Recession.

The long-awaited reduction in the Fed's $4.5 trillion balance ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Britain's secretary of state on Wednesday ruled that the bid by Rupert Murdoch's media company to control the European satellite TV service Sky must undergo more rigorous regulatory scrutiny.

Karen Bradley, Britain's secretary of state for culture and media, formally referred 21st Century Fox's bid to consolidate the Sky service ...Read more

HONG KONG -- Bitcoin is looking increasingly likely to splinter off again in November, creating a third version of the world's largest cryptocurrency as miners and developers pursue separate visions to scale its rapidly growing marketplace.

Major industry players, including the bitcoin investor Roger Ver, known as "Bitcoin Jesus" for ...Read more

Coincidence or not, China appears set to ease restrictions on foreign automakers and banks amid sustained pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to open up its economy.

China's central bank is said to be drafting a package of reforms that could include allowing foreign firms to take control of local joint-ventures in the nation's $40 ...Read more

Earlier this month, Apple promised an "incredible" TV experience. It delivered a snooze fest.

Starting at $179, the new Apple TV, dubbed the Apple TV 4K and available on Sept. 22, is an upgrade worth skipping.

Really, for that price, all you get is the fourth-generation Apple TV with support for super-high resolution content, aka 4K. Otherwise...Read more

When I bought my powerful new iMac, I had one task in mind: editing old home movies. Most are on ancient VHS tapes, needing to be digitized. Some digitizing devices, including One Touch Video Capture from Diamond Multimedia, which I bought online, cost less than $50. As I've explained in earlier columns, they work as a bridge between a VHS ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The National Association of Home Builders has already created ads to either support or oppose a U.S. tax-code overhaul, depending on how Congress and President Donald Trump propose to treat its favorite tax breaks.

"We're at DEFCON One," said Jerry Howard, president of the trade group that represents 140,000 builders. "But we're ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Intelligence Committee expects representatives of Facebook Inc. to testify at a public hearing examining Russia's use of social media to influence last year's U.S. presidential election.

The panel hasn't yet determined all of the issues that will be covered or invited company representatives, Chairman Richard Burr, R-N....Read more

Family health insurance premiums rose an average 3 percent this year for people getting coverage through the workplace, the sixth consecutive year of small increases, according to a study released Tuesday.

The average total cost of family premiums was $18,764 for 2017, according to a survey of employers by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the ...Read more

MIAMI -- Taking a lesson from Hurricane Irma, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is asking airlines to proactively limit the cost of their flights for travelers trying to get out of Hurricane Maria's path.

And airlines are agreeing.

On Monday, Nelson sent a letter to CEOs at 10 major U.S. airlines asking them to regulate the prices of their flights to ...Read more