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A Canadian small-business owner discovered that a hacker broke into his company’s phone voice-mail system and placed hundreds of calls to Bulgaria, costing him $43,000. Alan Davison, owner of HUB Computer Solutions in Winnipeg, ironically offers security products and solutions. However, the only barrier for the hacker was a 4-digit password. Once in, the hacker needed to only use the outbound-transfer feature to place calls overseas.

Davison now is asking Manitoba Telecom Services for a discount on the bill, but the phone company says that since HUB owned all its internal phone-networking equipment, the small business may be liable for the whole thing. Davidson is saying he might have to lay off at least one of his employees to afford this bill. The phone company admitted that they do not believe Davidson made the calls, but they are not in the position to monitor everyone’s usage of the phone system.

A new car ignition key can preclude teenagers from talking on mobile phones or sending text messages while driving. The invention, by researchers at the University of Utah, is called Key2SafeDriving and is targeted at cutting down on road fatalities. It relies on Bluetoothor RFID to wirelessly connect phones to keys. Motor vehicle accidents are the 5th leading cause of all deaths in the US. Among teens, vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death.  While at any given moment, 6% of drivers on the road are talking on a mobile phone, 10% of teenagers do the same. Incoming calls and texts are automatically answered with a voice message: “I am driving now. I will call you later when I arrive at the destination safely.”

The university has obtained initial patents and licensed the invention to a private company that is intending to market it within 6 months at a cost lower than $50 per key plus monthly service fee. The system components include a device that encloses a car key. To turn on the engine, the driver must either slide the key out or push a button to release it. Subsequently the device sends a signal to the driver’s mobile phone, placing it in “driving mode” and displaying a “stop” sign on the phone’s screen. The setup could allow parents  to pay lower insurance fees.

A new hovering robot meant to shoot down enemy ballistic missile is currently being developed by the US army. Video of a December 2nd flight test conducted at the Edwards Air Force Base in California by defense contractor Lockheed Martin has made it online, and it does have the appearance a machine from the “Terminator” movies. Rival defense contractor Raytheon is also working on its own version of a multiple-kill-vehicle program.

Inside a sizeablesteel enclosing, Lockheed’s MKV lifts off the ground,  moves to the sides, quickly firing while at the same time flames shoot out of its bottom and sides. The plan is to mount several MKVs onto carrier missiles, which would then take off into space in order to engage enemy nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles at the highest points of their trajectory arcs. Once in space, the MKVs would be released from the carrier vehicles, and subsequently utilize very accurate targeting computers to shoot large bullets - or as the military calls them “kinetic interceptors” - to destroy the enemy warheads prior to them going back down to Earth.

Users of social-networking sites have been warned to be alert after Facebook was targeted by a virus known as “Koobface.” The Koobface video virus utilizes the social network’s messaging system to infect computer system and then attempts to gather sensitive data such as credit card numbers. It is the latest attack by hackers looking to profit from the success of social-networking websites where e-mails and messages appearing to be coming from friends are more likely to be opened, exposing the user to the virus. Facebook currently has a user base of more than 120 million members. According to the Facebook spokesman, very small percentage of users had been affected by these viruses.

The Koobface virus infects computers by sending notes to friends of someone whose computer has already been infected. The messages, with subject lines such as “You look just awesome in this new movie,” direct recipients to a website where they are requested to download a supposed update of Adobe Systems’ Flash player. Once  they download the software, users end up with an infected system, which then takes users to contaminated sites when they try to use search engines from Google, Yahoo, MSN, according to security experts. Numerous versions of the virus have been around since August.

A manufacturer of over-the-counter cold and flu remedies launched a program this week for the T-Mobile G1, known as the “Google phone,” that warns users about how many people in an area are suffering colds. The “Zicam Cold & Flu Companion” will state, for example, that 8 to 14% of the people in a zip code have respiratory illnesses, representing a “moderate” risk level. To give hypochondriacs and germophobes even more information to ponder, it also will describe what symptoms are common, such as coughing and sore throat. Users can additional request the application to provide information about risk levels in other zip codes, so they can steer clear of, for example, Atlanta, one of the five most infected cities in the nation currently, according to Zicam.

Matrixx Initiatives Inc., the Arizona company that manufacturers products under the Zicam brand, receives the information on disease levels from Surveillance Data Inc. - which inturn gets its data from polling health care providers and pharmacies. The “Companion” is available for free from the Android Marketplace, the directory of downloadable programs for the G1. Notably, later this month, the program will be available for the iPhone, according to Matrixx. Google which created the G1’s operating system, launched its own national and state web-based flu tracker recently. This information is based on the number of people conducting flu-related searches into Google’s search engine.

Facebook has managed to win a $873 million verdict against a Canadian citizen who showered users with millions of unsolicited messages about drugs and adult material. Jeremy Fogel, the U.S. District Judge, signed the judgment papers last Friday, resolving a lawsuit that Facebook filed in August against a Montreal resident, Adam Guerbuez and his business called Atlantis Blue Capital. Facebook stipulated that Guerbuez had tricked users into disclosing their passwords so he could send them and their friends more than 4 million messages that included promotions for marijuana.

Facebook, the Palo Alto-based company predicted the judgment will be difficult to collect on, but is hoping that its size discourages future abuses at its website.