VOIP hacking alert

The arrest of two US citizens for running a scam in which they allegedly sold discount voice-over-IP services delivered secretly over other companies` networks, has highlighted a growing security risk few companies have been taking seriously, reports eWeek.

Edwin Andres Pena of Miami and Robert Moore of Spokane are accused of hacking into the networks of several companies and hijacking their VOIP bandwidth for resale. The report says while security vendors have been encouraging companies to make sure that their VOIP networks are protected, a lack of high-profile attacks on VOIP networks has caused some companies to take a wait-and-see approach.

Experts say along with viruses and phishing schemes that take advantage of the rapid adoption of VOIP, it`s likely that other criminal activities will proliferate rapidly.

Google has released a tool that will save Firefox bookmarks and settings on a server to enable users to synchronise browser settings, bookmarks, history, cookies and saved passwords continually across all computers, reports The Inquirer.

The report says the tool can be downloaded from Google, but warns that one downside is all data is stored in a server that users have no control over.

Google says the data is encrypted onto users` Gmail accounts and will not be shared.

A survey of over 5 000 people in 11 countries commissioned by Nokia to investigate how much people make use of the ever-growing list of functions crammed into mobile phones has found that the days of cameras, MP3 players and watches are numbered.

BBC News says the study found that globally 42% of people already use their handset as their main camera and 67% of those questioned said they expected their phone to replace their portable music player.

The research found around a third of people regularly browse the Net on their phone, 72% of those questioned in the survey use their phone as their alarm clock, 73% use it instead of a wristwatch, and 33% would rather lose their wallet or purse than misplace their mobile.

A survey of college students at 100 US colleges has sown that iPods are more popular than beer, reports Half Life Source.

The report says the New Jersey based Science Monitor has been conducting the same survey for the past 18 years. The results have constantly shown that beer is the most popular thing with college students, with the exception this year when iPod topped the list and in 1997 when the Internet squeezed out beer from the top spot.

This year 73% rated iPods as tops, with beer and the social-networking Web site Facebook.com tying for second place by receiving 71% of the vote.