In Brief

BUYER, BEWARE You like to shop online, but is your billing information vulnerable to hackers? Credit-card issuers, who often absorb the expense of fraudulent purchases, are working on a remedy. American Express and Visa are joining other Web businesses in offering antifraud strategies for online shopping, including everything from assigning shoppers aliases to offering temporary credit-card numbers for one-time use only.

LOST CHECK? If you are missing a pension payment, it may be owing to mismanagement at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Last week Senators Charles Grassley and Kit Bond held hearings to determine why the agency, which has been charged with underwriting retiree pensions, allowed some serious missteps. Some former Pan Am workers received misinformation about the very existence of their benefits, and one woman received a half-million-dollar payment in error. Having trouble with a PBGC account? Call 800-400-7242.

KILLING RISK Bucking an 18-year ban on trading stock futures, the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have agreed to allow such trading--pending congressional approval. Futures allow stock traders to purchase the option of buying or selling a stock at a specific price on a future date, regardless of market price. The allure of these options is that they help neutralize the risk of trading. Given the markets' gyrations lately, any hedge against the unexpected is probably worth looking into.