Washington  - The holiday season is fast approaching in many parts of the world, which means gift givers will soon be compiling their shopping lists. This year, though, the emphasis is likely to be on frugality - thanks to economies around the world that are weak and getting weaker. But never fear: Tech gifts are available in all price categories, and less expensive does not have to mean less interesting or less fun. In fact, searching for low-priced tech products that will make a big impact as gifts just might lead you to look at products that are too often overlooked. Read on for some ideas.

Darmstadt - Hackers are always refining their methods of sniffing out other people's passwords. That's why experts advise that you always select tough-to-crack passwords. That means using different passwords for different web sites. Luckily, special programs are available to help you remember them all.

"There are two prime ways to steal users' passwords," explains Ruben Wolf from the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT) in Darmstadt, Germany.

Dortmund, Germany - Twenty-first century office workers are so preoccupied with their e-mail accounts that do not have enough time for their actual job, according to Germany's Federal Institute for

Mainz, Germany  - Spam is losing none of its annoyance and is becoming even more dangerous, according to analysts at Sophos - a German security software firm.

During the third quarter, one out of every 416 e-mails contained a potentially dangerous attachment compared with one in every 3,333 e-mails in the second quarter, Sophos said.

The increase can be linked to a large series of malware-spam attacks over the summer. Fake mails were doctored to appear as if they were coming from delivery company UPS and designed to steal money or online identities. All the bigger attacks targeted computers running Windows.

Hamburg  - Fans of online role-playing games will have even more worlds to explore this autumn when game publishers release expanded versions the most popular titles.

World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online and Everquest are all set to release expansion packs this autumn. The Chronicles of Spellborn marks the introduction of at least one brand new online world. And for players who want to stay offline, there will be an apocalyptic world to explore in Fallout 3. If you just want to race a car, there's Need for Speed - Undercover.

Washington  - Kids love the Internet. Unfortunately, as every parent knows, there's a lot of trouble they can get into while wandering through cyberspace. The challenge is to allow youngsters to learn from and enjoy the Internet while keeping them safe from harmful influences. That's the focus of this week's questions.

Q: My kids have their own accounts on my computer. I would like to set up their Web browsers so that a kid-friendly search engine appears automatically. Can you recommend some?