The price tag on the largest database breach on record moved higher Friday with TJX agreeing to pay nearly $41 million to settle with credit card companies and banks that were forced to issue new cards to customers of the retailer to prevent or recover fraudulent charges.

A New Zealand cybercrime police force nabbed an 18-year-old this week who goes by the cyber ID “AKILL,” officials said. While the New Zealand officials haven’t arrested the man, he is being interviewed in conjunction with a wider botnet crackdown involving the FBI and Dutch authorities. The FBI said AKILL is believed to be the ringleader of an elite international botnet coding group.

Sprint Nextel’s board reportedly turned down a proposal that would have installed former chairman Tim Donahue as chief executive and brought $5 billion from a South Korean telecom company. Donahue, who retired at the end of 2006, made the offer as part of a consortium that included SK Telecom and Providence Equity Partners, according to reports on The Wall Street Journal’s Web site late Thursday.

Wall Street gave Dell the smackdown early Friday, a day after the company issued a third-quarter report that showed solid revenue and earnings but acknowledged clouds on the horizon. The company’s shares took a nosedive largely because, despite reporting Q3 revenues that were up 9 percent year-over-year and operating income that was up 13 percent, Dell narrowly missed analysts’ earnings-per-share prediction.

Motorola CEO Ed Zander will step down from his post at the end of the year, a victim of a long and deep post-Razr market share slump at the top U.S.-based maker of mobile handsets. Zander would remain in his position of chairman of the board until next May, when the company’s shareholders are next scheduled to meet, the Schaumburg, Ill., company said.

Google is readying its application to participate in the Federal Communications Commission’s January auction of 700 MHz wireless spectrum, the company announced Friday, but it is acting alone, without any partners. The company will file its application on Monday, after which FCC rules prevent it from discussing the matter further until the auction ends, said Google’s Chris Sacca, head of special initiatives.

The wireless industry is embarking on a new era, with open networks and more choices for customers arriving as soon as next year. However, the consumer revolution comes with a price — one that may ultimately slow the pace of change. As major companies such as Verizon Wireless and Google start championing open phone networks, the wireless market is evolving to give consumers greater say in selecting a handset.

Organized criminal activity will continue to be a big risk on the Internet next year, but the growing tumors of cyber espionage and cyber warfare could metastasize, suggests security firm McAfee. In fact, it predicts that the rise in international cyber spying will pose the single biggest security threat in 2008.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 video game console finally outsold Nintendo’s Wii in Japan in November, helped by a price cut and a stronger lineup of games, the results of a survey released Friday show. Sony sold 183,217 PS3s in Japan in the four weeks to Nov. 25, while Nintendo sold 159,193 Wii consoles, according to magazine publisher Enterbrain.

A federal bankruptcy judge in Delaware has ruled that a trial can go ahead to determine whether the SCO Group owes Novell for licensing of the Unix computer operating system — a potential bill of $35 million for the Lindon, Utah-based company. Judge Kevin Gross approved a motion by Novell to go ahead with the trial in U.S. District Court in Utah.