VoIP service hacker receives 10 year prison term

A Venezuelan man has been sentenced to ten years in prison after stealing VoIP service minutes and selling them on for a profit.

Twenty-seven year old Edwin Andres Pena hacked into US VoIP networks and then sold over ten million minutes of unauthorised internet calls to unsuspecting customers.

The telecommunications companies who were affected by the attack lost services worth more than $1.4 million (£885,000).

"Theft is theft whether you rob a bank or hack into somebody else's network and steal their services," said Paul Fishman, the US Attorney in Newark.

"Hackers attacking new and emerging technologies should not assume that law enforcement cannot keep up with them, even when they operate from the shadows or from other countries."

Mr Pena fled the US after his initial arrest in 2006 to return to Venezuela before eventually being apprehended in Mexico last year.

He pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit computer hacking and wire fraud and one count of wire fraud.