EU Fines Microsoft $731 Million for Removing Browser Choice Option

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39 Million SSDs Sold in 2012, 83 Million Projected for 2013

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Apple Sells Three Million New iPads over Launch Weekend

Apple has released an amazing figure that will surely be remembered among the hallowed numbers of its product launches. The company sold 3 million new iPads over the weekend since its March 16 launch, with Apple SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller calling this the company’s “strongest iPad launch yet.”

No numbers were available for the first weekend sales of the iPad 2 (since there was an extremely short supply of units at the time), but analysts estimated that the number hoevered somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million units. To put things into context, this means the new iPad launch did roughly three times as well as the iPad 2's launch last year.

Back in 2010, over 300,000 original iPads were sold on the tablet’s launch day, and it took the company 28 days in total to move 1 million units. It then took Apple 80 days to sell 3 million iPads.

During an early morning conference call held Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted that the company experienced a “record weekend” for the new iPad, but declined to report any hard numbers. Turns out he may just have wanted to keep his audience in suspense: Eight hours later, Apple officially announced the staggering 3 million figure.

In comparison, 4 million units of the iPhone 4S were sold in its first weekend, though it’s worth noting that the iPhone 4S had a lower $199 price. At this point, it almost seems like the juggernaut Apple can do no wrong.

via Apple

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U.S. Charges Latvian Hacker in $2 Million Stock Scam

A Latvian man has been charged by the U.S. financial regulator for an alleged online stock fraud that cost investors more than $2million (£1.3 million), and may have enabled him to profit over half a million pounds.

The SEC accuses Igor Nagaicevs, 34, of hacking the accounts of electronic broker-dealer firms and illicitly trading stocks through them as part of a "brazen stock price manipulation scheme."

The regulator alleges the Latvian hacked into the accounts and made unauthorized trades of securities 159 times between 2009 and August 2010, racking up total profits of $874,896 (£557,000) through an operation it says enabled him to "consistently derive quick trading profits" even when prices were only slightly manipulated.

As a result of his activity the prices of over a hundred NYSE and Nasdaq-listed stocks were affected and investors lost large amounts of money.

The SEC complaint, lodged in federal court in San Francisco, claims that Nagaicevs's scheme followed the same pattern on each occasion. This started by establishing a long or short position in a traded security through unregistered brokerage firms, who provided him with anonymous and direct access to the US securities market.

He then hacked into the online accounts of other broker-dealer companies, using their client investors' cash to make unauthorized trades of stocks and securities in order to manipulate market prices. This left him in a position to reap huge gains - in effect by buying back or selling the same stocks at artificial prices, thereby realizing a profit on transactions.

In one such incident it is alleged Nagaicevs generated profits of $14,000 in just 32 minutes by driving up the stock price of a NYSE-listed company before liquidating his position. The losses of all investors who fell prey to his scheme were reimbursed by the broker-dealer firms they held accounts with.

The SEC charge sheet did not however detail exactly how Nagaicevs gained access to the compromised accounts. FINRA, the self-regulatory body for broker-dealers in the U.S., has since warned investors to be viligant of email hack attacks that can lead to theft from investor accounts.

Also facing charges are the four brokerage firms that gave Nagaicevs access to the markets, which the SEC says consequently lent a veneer of legitimacy to his transactions. These are Alchemy Ventures, KM Capital Management, Mercury Capital and Zanshin Enterprises, which are accused of flouting federal rules that require brokerage firms to be registered and of breaching the requirement to gather information on customers and their trading.

Mercury and Zanshin have settled the charges, but Alchemy and KM Capital are understood to be contesting them.

Nagaicevs is charged with obtaining money fraudulently under the Securities Act, and the SEC is seeking restitution plus interest for victims and a civil penalty. Nagaicevs is yet to comment.

The news comes days after a settlement reached by U.S. hedge fund Diamondback Capital in a separate case. Diamondback is paying $9 million to settle groundbreaking charges around the participation of two former employees in the $62 million (£40 million) insider trading of Dell and Nvidia stock.

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Massive Android Malware Op May Have Infected 5 Million Users

The largest-ever Android malware campaign may have duped as many as 5 million users into downloading infected apps from Google's Android Market, Symantec said today.

Dubbed "Android.Counterclank" by Symantec, the malware was packaged in 13 different apps from three different publishers, with titles ranging from "Sexy Girls Puzzle" to "Counter Strike Ground Force." Many of the infected apps were still available on the Android Market as of 3 p.m. ET Friday.

"They don't appear to be real publishers," Kevin Haley, a director with Symantec's security response team, said in an interview today. "These aren't rebundled apps, as we've seen so many times before."

Haley was referring to a common tactic by Android malware makers to repackage a legitimate app with attack code, then re-release it to the marketplace in the hope that users will confuse the fake with the real deal.

Symantec estimated the impact by combining the download totals -- which the Android Market shows as ranges -- of the 13 apps, arriving at a figure between 1 million on the low end and 5 million on the high. "Yes, this is the largest malware [outbreak] on the Android Market," said Haley.

Android.Counterclank is a Trojan horse that when installed on an Android smartphone collects a wide range of information, including copies of the bookmarks and the handset maker. It also modifies the browser's home page.

The hackers have monetized the malware by pushing unwanted advertisements to compromised Android phones.

Although the infected apps request an uncommonly large number of privileges -- something that the user must approve -- Haley argued that few people bother reading them before giving their okay.

"If you were the suspicious type, you might wonder why they're asking for permission to modify the browser or transmit GPS coordinates," said Haley. "But most people don't bother."

Android.Counterclank is a minor variation on an older Android Trojan horse called Android.Tonclank that was discovered in June 2011.

Some of the 13 apps that Symantec identified as infected have been on the Android Market for at least a month, according to the revision dates posted on the e-store. Symantec, however, discovered them only yesterday.

Users had noticed something fishy before then.

"The game is decent ... but every time you run this game, a 'search icon gets added randomly to one of your screens," said one user on Jan. 16 after downloading "Deal & Be Millionaire," one of the 13. "I keep deleting the icon, but it always reappears. If you tap the icon you get a page that looks suspiciously like the Google search page."

Android users have hammered one of the infected apps with low review scores, calling it 'crap.'

All 13 suspected apps are free for the downloading.

Symantec's researchers have told Google of their discovery, said Haley. Google, however, did not immediately reply to questions and a request for confirmation on the security firm's claims.

Haley said Symantec's researchers are still "peeling back the layers of the onion," and added that the company would publish more information on the threat as it unearthed details. "What's interesting here is that instead of taking legitimate apps, [malware authors] have created apps similar to legitimate ones," said Haley. "That, and the big numbers of downloads, of course."

Symantec has published a list of the 13 infected apps on its website.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer , on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.

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