Internet telephony

A hacker broke into a federal Homeland Security Department telephone system during the weekend and racked up about $12,000 in calls to the Middle East and Asia.

The hacker made more than 400 calls on a Federal Emergency Management Agency voice-mail system Saturday and Sunday, according to FEMA spokesman Tom Olshanski. FEMA is the principal government agency for helping victims of natural disasters.

The agency is part of Homeland Security, which in 2003 put out a warning about such a vulnerability.

Jill Smart, an Accenture executive, was skeptical the first time she stepped into the consulting firm's new videoconferencing room in Chicago for a meeting with a group of colleagues in London. But the videoconferencing technology, known as telepresence, delivered an experience so lifelike, Smart recalled, that "10 minutes into it you forget you are not in the room with them."