Most tech companies open, under tight security

As the world paused in the aftermath of a series of terrorist attacks Tuesday that toppled New York's World Trade Center towers and part of the Pentagon building in Washington, major technology companies around the country worked to keep their operations going under heightened security.

What U.S. government officials have called an apparent act of terrorism is feared to have left tens of thousand of people dead and injured in New York, where two hijacked commercial airliners slammed into the twin, 110-story World Trade Center towers. In the nation's capitol, a third commercial jet crashed into the Pentagon, while another attack was reported at the U.S. State Department there.

Chaos and uncertainty following the events closed major U.S. stock exchanges, halting the trading of securities before it even began Tuesday. The New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq stock market and American Stock Exchange said they would remain shut Wednesday. However, most of the major technology companies that are listed on those exchanges remained open for business, with most of their employees at work. Many said that required increased security at their facilities.

"Any company that's not on alert right now is being very shortsighted," said Bill Eyres, founder of The Eyres Group LLC, a security consulting firm in Pacific Grove, California. Eyres is the former director of security at IBM Corp., and headed the company's security operations through the 1980s, when the Armonk, New York-based company was the victim of a series of terrorist attacks from a group called the United Freedom Front.

"Most of the medium and large companies have crisis control teams that come into play in these situations," said Eyres. "That's the thing that they need to do for the next day or two."

Taryn Lynds, a spokeswoman with the American Electronics Association (AeA), a trade group representing some of Silicon Valley's largest technology companies, echoed Eyres' comments. "Many of our member companies do have crisis plans that they are able to implement if need be," she said, noting that big technology companies have procedures to deal with natural disasters. "They can be modified to fit this situation."

Lynds said the AeA, which is headquartered in Washington, where employees of the trade group were evacuated early Tuesday, could not yet assess what fiscal damage to the technology industry Tuesday's events might spawn.

"The financial infrastructure is going to be hammered over the next week or so," Eyres said. "I don't think the hardware folks are going to have a problem. I think its going to be a financial, perhaps insurance issues as opposed to a hardware issue.

"The biggest thing I think you will see is that employees aren't going to travel," he added.

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