The Top 10 Stories in IT This Week

Attempts by Dutch authorities to take down the massive Bredolab botnet captured headlines this week, with infected PCs downloading fake antivirus software at week's end, and news surfacing that the suspected ringleader of the botnet was bringing in up to €100,000 (US$139,000) a month from his alleged illegal enterprise. In other news, Oracle's intellectual property lawsuit against SAP took a turn, but is still headed for trial on Monday.

1. Botnet-infected PCs downloading fake antivirus and Russian-Armenian botnet suspect raked in €100,000 a month: Although the Bredolab botnet was not entirely squelched by the Dutch efforts or the arrest of the group's alleged head in Armenia, security experts believe that the botnet is not likely to recover from the take-down operation. Dutch authorities warned that they expect to make more arrests.

2.Oracle-SAP case takes dramatic eleventh-hour turn SAP will no longer fight Oracle's contention that SAP contributed to copyright infringement carried out by its former subsidiary, TomorrowNow, the company said Thursday in a dramatic turn as it heads toward court on Monday.

3. New Firefox add-on hijacks Facebook, Twitter sessions and How to protect against Firesheep attacks: A new Firefox add-on called Firesheep allows its users to scan unencrypted Wi-Fi connections and take over access to Facebook, Twitter and other online services. While there are ways to protect against such online thievery, there is debate about whether those are actually foolproof.

4. FTC closes investigation into Google's Wi-Fi snooping and Italy investigates Google over claims about data gathering: While the U.S. Federal Trade Commission closed its probe into Google's Street View data gathering without bringing charges against the company, Italian authorities opened an investigation into Google's Wi-Fi snooping.

5. Oracle: Google 'directly copied' our Java code: Oracle went after Google again, updating an existing lawsuit to allege that Google "directly copied" Oracle Java code into some Android mobile-phone software code.

6. Biggest Intel chip factory opens in Vietnam: Intel's largest global chip testing and assembly factory, which cost a cool $1 billion, opened in Vietnam.

7. Apple takes fourth place in worldwide phone sales: Although Apple still lags substantially behind the three smartphone makers ahead of it in global market share, it made significant gains to break into the top five for the first time.

8. Departing Microsoft exec Ozzie paints new 5-year plan: As Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie prepares to depart Microsoft he called on the company to get with the post-PC world before it's too late to remain competitive.

9. Wall Street Beat: Enterprise spending boosts tech: Despite its apparent resistance to the post-PC era, Microsoft's earnings report was boosted by sales of Windows 7, Xbox consoles and Office 2010. SAP, BMC and other IT heavyweights also released strong earnings reports, boosting markets overall.

10. Acer plans to unveil multiple tablets on Nov. 23 in New York: Acer added an interesting twist to the emerging tablet market with word that it will unveil multiple tablets running different OSes next month. The company did not say, however, whether any of them will be Android tablets or what they will cost.