Stories by Network World staff

Despite economic uncertainty at home and abroad, enterprises IT budgets grew in 2011, although not by very much.

Anonymous had a busy year in 2011 pushing its hacker-activist agenda on companies around the Web, to the point where just the sound of the hacker group's name can send shivers down the spine of many a CIO.

The sheer number of cloud players - or companies that claim to be cloud players -- is staggering. By some estimates there are more than 2,000 software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies alone. At this early point in the cloud revolution, there are certainly front runners, but the field is wide open.

Network World's own Indiana Shaw goes through more than just the temple of doom to find gifts suitable for you or other techies on your list. Just like his more famous archeologist cousin who digs up ancient artifacts and treasures from around the globe, Indiana Shaw scours the globe and the Internet to dig up the greatest technology treasures.

From the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center:

We’ve always had a category covering the world of computers in our Cool Yule Tools holiday gift guide. But then computers gave way to <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2010/hgg/110810-coolyule-computers-notebooks.html">notebooks</a> (so we combined the category), and then tablets have entered the scene. With the arrival and success of the iPad and other tablets, many have said that “the PC is dead”, and we’ll admit, our choices of cool computers are fewer than in years past. But there are still some nice systems out there, here are a bunch of desktops, notebooks, and yes, tablets, that we think would make for some good gifts:

The home entertainment category in our Cool Yule Tools holiday guide used to be a part of the “After Hours” section, but with the explosion of high-tech features in the consumer electronics space, there’s a multitude of devices that will keep you entertained after a long day of work. Here are our picks for gift ideas that can keep you entertained and connected when you’re home:

While last year may have been the year of the tablet (with the introduction/invasion of the iPad), this year certainly qualifies as the year of the tablet accessory. Whether it’s a case, a pillow, stand or speaker system, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite devices to go along with our favorite tablets:

Making a big comeback in this year’s holiday gift guide is the <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2010/061110-fitness-tech.html">health and fitness</a> category. Whether you’re just starting out on the path of exercise, or are a veteran athlete, the number of consumer electronics products dedicated to a person’s health has increased steadily over the past few years. Here are some of our favorites that can make a good gift under the tree for your favorite fitness enthusiast:

There’s a lot of shiny and flashy gadgets and home entertainment devices that will entice most of the population during the holidays – cameras, music players, <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2011/hgg/112111-coolyule-photo-video-253136.html">camcorders</a> and <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2011/hgg/112111-coolyule-tablet-accessories-253145.html">tablets</a> are sure to be this season’s top sellers once again. But once gift recipients start to create content, listen to music, download apps or record videos, they will eventually need a good, safe and reliable digital place to store their stuff. That’s where storage comes in – it’s not always the sexiest product category, but there’s a lot of new innovations in storage that we think will make good gifts as well:

In our 12th year of presenting our Cool Yule Tools holiday gift guide, we’ve done our best to try to categorize the gift ideas into different groups – <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2011/hgg/112111-coolyule-portable-entertainment-253133.html">portable entertainment</a>, <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2011/hgg/112111-coolyule-travel-253156.html">travel gear</a>, etc. While many of these ideas could, in theory, be placed there, sometimes we just feel that the device/gift idea should just be placed in “miscellaneous.” So that’s what we did with some of these. Enjoy!

When we first started doing the Cool Yule Tools holiday gift guides, our “After Hours” section used to cover all of the “<a href="http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2011/hgg/112111-coolyule-home-entertainment-253138.html">entertainment</a>” devices, toys, gadgets and video games. With the explosion of home entertainment, personal entertainment and other consumer electronics, the entire guide is practically an “After Hours” section. Still, here are some of our picks of favorite video games and other “after work” distractions for you or your family:

Certain Web sites probe visiting browsers for data that can be used to help criminals craft phishing attacks that compromise the accounts of online banking customers, researchers have found.

1979: Novell Data Systems is founded in Provo, Utah, as a maker of computers and disk operating systems.

Experts in the inner workings of the Internet’s Domain Name System – which matches IP addresses with corresponding domain names — say the 27-year-old communications protocol does not appear to be the cause of Facebook’s high-profile outage last week.