Most disturbing tech stories of the week: shooting an iPhone, squeezing Nortel dry

Here’s a look back at this week’s most unsettling technology stories, as reported on by the staffs of Network World and its sister sites:

Ex-Nortel CEO seeks his cut before company vanishes 

Former Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski is seeking more that $12 million from the bankrupt company, according to a filing in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Zafirovski, who failed to turn around the once venerable telecom giant after an accounting scandal, a series of financial restatements and the economic recession, wants no less than $12,250,543.48 from Nortel. Nortel filed for bankruptcy in January, began liquidating assets in June, and saw Zafirovski resign in August. As Nortel sheds its businesses and assets, shareholders are not receiving any payback from their investments.

Lesson from this case: Be yourself on Twitter 

A U.K. lawyer is claiming victory after a court-ordered injunction delivered over Twitter has stopped his antagonist from impersonating him on the microblogging service. The mystery impersonator, who lives in the U.K., contacted him and has agreed to pay damages to Help for Heroes, a charity for injured soldiers, said Donal Blaney, owner of the Griffin Law firm based in Hawkhurst, England. Blaney said he knew the person. Terms of the deal are confidential, and the impersonator has not been publicly identified, Blaney said.

Spam rules the world 

PC Advisor UK reports that “worldwide spam has surged by nine times and now makes up 86% of all emails, says Symantec.” The good news? Just 4.5% of that contains toxic spam: that containing malware.

Man arrested for threatening to shoot his iPhone 

Network World blogger Yoni Heisler weighs in on the story of Donald Goodrich, who was arrested in the Cincinnati area for allegedly threatening to shoot his iPhone at an Apple Store because he was upset because the device wasn’t working properly. Heisler asks: “Will he plead the AT&T defense?”

Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail passwords stolen 

In the wake of the posting in online forums of stolen account and password information for thousands of Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo e-mail accounts, evidence emerged of yet more abuse that entails attackers exploiting that information to hack into compromised accounts over the last few days to send spam aimed at stealing credit cards. According to Patrik Runald, senior manager security research at Websense, the security firm noticed about a 40% surge in spam related to Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail accounts in recent days, with some of the spam being a phishing scam related to a fake Chinese electronics shopping site. Attackers have been taking advantage of the exposed account information for Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo to break into the victim's e-mail accounts and send out deceptive messages to the victim's contacts to promote the scam.

Google Voice: Win some, lose some 

AT&T buoyed the spirits of Google Voice fans this week by saying it would allow the application to run on its network, but later in the week word emerged that lawmakers want the FCC to look into whether Google Voice blocks calls to people in rural areas because they are expensive to connect. And guess which big carrier is encouraging the lawmakers in this pursuit?