FEI Telediscussions: Corporate Reporting, Internet Security.

• Position: Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

FEI's two most recent teleconferences provided participants with a year-end corporate reporting update and, in light of the burgeoning e-economy, a discussion of Internet security. Both are available as text documents and audio files in the teleconference archive at FEI's web site, www.fei.org.

"No more poolings." That was the short answer regarding the FASB and the anticipated future of business combinations from Norm Strauss, national director of accounting standards with Ernst & Young, during the Jan. 18 conference call on corporate reporting. Strauss, who also is a representative on the FASB Emerging Issues Task Force and a member of the advisory council to the Financial Accounting Standards Forum, went on to synopsize about 25 additional accounting-related topics.

"Natural tension." There's "a natural tension between the inherent nature of the Internet and what we're using it for today, which is to conduct reasonable business with a sound fundamental system control." So said Bruce Murphy, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers who oversees PWC's security consulting practice focusing on e-business issues, during the Jan. 20 telediscussions on Internet security (initiated by FEI's Committee on Finance and Information Technology). Major concerns, he added, include ease of access; taking advantage of reduced costs; the speed at which transactions are conducted; ensuring that new environments integrate and interact appropriately with legacy and enterprise-wide applications...