Top 10: A week full of security news

Well, we knew that the Black Hat and Defcon 08 conferences in Las Vegas would bring in plenty of security news this week, and sure enough the hacker extravaganzas gave us headlines aplenty. But the U.S. Department of Justice added to the mix, announcing it has indicted 11 people in a global ID theft ring that the DOJ says was responsible for a massive ID theft scheme that involved security breaches targeting nine U.S. retailers and included the TJX breach that started in the middle of 2005 and was revealed by the company in January 2008.

[ Video: Catch up on the week in tech news with the World Tech Update ]

1. Black Hat and Defcon 08 Revealing new security threats: The widely publicized DNS flaw had top billing at the Black Hat conference this week, but it turns out there are other ways to go after the DNS. That isn’t likely much of a surprise to anyone who has followed the flaw saga, or even to those who haven’t paid much attention. Assorted and sundry other attacks, vulnerabilities, aspects of malware and even some press-room snooping garnered headlines from Black Hat and Defcon.

2. ID theft ring attacked retailers on multiple levels and TJX data breach: Ignore cost lessons and weep: The U.S. Department of Justice indicted 11 people for hacking the systems of nine major retailers to steal and then sell more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers. The massive breach was carried out by an international ring of identity thieves in a case that underscores how global, and organized, hacker groups have become. The hackers cost the retailers tens of millions of dollars and also took a big chunk out of their reputations, too.

3. Technology at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing: The Olympics officially opened in Beijing Friday, amid pageantry and controversies that in this Olympiad go beyond doping scandals and whether gymnasts are old enough to qualify for the games. Internet censorship by the Chinese government and attendant protests continue to be a story out of Beijing, where the games are being produced entirely in high definition — a first. China is billing these as a high-tech Olympics.

4. Facebook stamps out malware attack: Facebook blocked links between malware-ridden Web sites and its popular social-networking site after security company Sophos warned that Facebook users were vulnerable prey. Hackers have targeted Facebook’s Wall feature, where social networkers can leave messages for each other. Hackers planted malware in links that falsely claim to lead to a video on a site hosted by Google. The links instead take unsuspecting Facebook users to a Web page containing a malicious download.

5. Linux patent pool to push for ‘defensive publication’: The Open Invention Network is launching a Web site soon that will provide a place for inventors to file documents that let details of their inventions become public as a way to keep others from making patent claims down the road. The vendor-backed company aims to “act now to stop the granting of patents that threaten Linux and open-source in general,” said CEO Keith Bergelt.

6. Former prosecutor: UFO hack looked like terrorist attack: Not long after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the computer network at the Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey was hacked into and crashed in an attack that investigators at first thought might be linked to terrorism or organized by a nation state. Eventually, the hack was traced to Gary McKinnon, an unemployed system administrator in the U.K., who was charged with hacking into 92 U.S. government and military computer systems. McKinnon has been fighting extradition to the U.S. to face charges, but recently a British court ruled against his latest appeal.

7. Mozilla invites people to design Web’s future: If you’ve ever had a hankering to design future Web technologies, now is your chance. Mozilla is inviting Web users to participate in a conceptual series that envisions such future design, including browser and user-interface advances.

8. Politics 2.0 heats up traditional summer doldrums: Even with a presidential campaign under way, August in particular is usually a quiet political month, what with Congress on recess, but this summer in the U.S. is proving anything but in this era of “Politics 2.0” with politicians of all stripes making use of Web 2.0 technologies.

9. Cloud computing: Is Midori sour or sweet? Word that Microsoft is working on an OS that will move applications and data from desktops to the Internet — following the hot cloud-computing model — provoked quite a response. While the idea drew a lot of ire among Internet chatters, cloud computing has some advantages, as well as some disadvantages.

10. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports big drop in tech jobs: The “information industry” lost 13,000 jobs in July, with telecommunications losing 5,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which said in a report. In the last 12 months the industry has lost 44,000 jobs.