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NOTE The following text is a quote: Extradited Hacker Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Masterminding First-Ever Hack Into Internet Phone Networks Defendant Also Ordered to Pay Over $1 Million in Restitution NEWARK, NJ—The first individual ever charged with hacking into the networks of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers and reselling hacked VoIP services for a profit was sentenced today to 120 months in prison, United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Edwin Andres Pena, 27, transmitted over 10 million minutes of unauthorized telephone calls over the victims' networks. Pena, a Venezuelan citizen, fled the United States...

I'm looking to save some bucks on the telephone. I've checked into VOIP, Voice Over Internet Phone, but I haven't taken the plunge. I live in a rural area and get DSL through my local, tiny, rural phone company. The cost for simply having a phone line has gone up from $14 a month to over $40. We don't make many local calls. The biggest chunk of calls is by my wife to her relatives in Germany. So, we have telephone line costs and long distance costs.

It's likely your home phone is such familiar technology that you barely think about it. Maybe it's time you did. Lots of people are giving up the traditional household "land line" in favor of Internet phone service, also known as Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP. Many more would like to try VOIP - if they could do so cheaply and without sacrificing their current phone line - at least until they see how this new alternative works out. And that's where the Internet telephone provider SunRocket comes in. SunRocket (www.sunrocket.com) is aggressively positioning itself as a low-cost VOIP provider...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Internet phone services have drawn millions of users looking for rock-bottom rates. Now they're also attracting identity thieves looking to turn stolen credit cards into cash. Some Internet phone services allow scam artists to make it appear that they are calling from another phone number -- a useful trick that enables them to drain credit accounts and pose as banks or other trusted authorities, online fraud experts say. "It's like you've handed people an entire phone network," said Lance James, who as chief technology officer of Secure Science Corp. sees such scams on a daily basis. The...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. regulators ruled Tuesday that providers of Internet-based phone call services fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government, exempting them from some key regulation by states. The Federal Communications Commission voted 5-0 in favor of Vonage Holdings Corp. of Edison, N.J., which had asked the agency to declare the company's product an interstate service, giving the FCC regulatory control. Vonage has been battling public utilities officials in Minnesota who want the company to register in the state as a telecommunications service, subjecting it to rate regulation and other state rules. The FCC ruling applies to cable, phone...