Wednesday Apple Rumors: Malware Targets Android Devices

by Christopher Freeburn | May 15, 2013 12:49 pm

daily apple rumors AAPL[1]Here are your Apple rumors[2] and AAPL news items for today:

Contagious: Viruses specifically designed to target smartphones and tablets are burgeoning[3], but are almost entirely aimed at devices running Google‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG[4]) Android OS, AppleInsider notes. The analysis comes from F-Secure Labs, which found that Android accounted for 136 out of 149 known malware threats. That’s 91.3% of all malware activity. The remaining threats were aimed at Symbian, Nokia‘s (NYSE:NOK[5]) mobile platform. No major malware threats were targeted at Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL[6]) iOS. Also avoided by major malware threats were BlackBerry‘s (NASDAQ:BBRY[7]) and Microsoft‘s (NASDAQ:MSFT[8]) mobile operating systems. Most malware threats — 76.5% — were conceived as money-making scams, installing spyware to obtain passwords or programming smartphones to place unauthorized calls. Researchers noted that the prevalence of Android-specific malware made the mobile OS resemble Windows in terms of malware threats.

Pricey: A cup of coffee with Apple CEO Tim Cook[9] costs $610,000, NPR notes. At least, that’s what the highest bidder in a charity auction was willing to pay for the chance to sit down and chat over coffee with Steve Jobs’ successor at the company’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. The auction was held on Charitybuzz, with the proceeds benefiting the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Apple had assigned an initial value of $50,000 to the auction. The auction’s winner has not yet been publicly identified.

Ringleader: The U.S. Department of Justice says that emails sent from Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs to other media companies show that the company was at the center of an e-book price-fixing scheme[10], the New York Times notes. In an email to News Corp.’s (NASDAQ:NWSA[11]) James Murdoch, Jobs suggests that the media conglomerate work with Apple to “create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99.” The DOJ sued Apple and five publishers in 2012 over anti-trust violations. The trial is set to begin on June 3 in a New York City court. The five publishers named in the original suit — Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster — have settled with the government, leaving Apple alone to pursue the litigation. Apple has denied any wrongdoing.

For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors[12] stories.

Endnotes:

  1. [Image]: https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/daily-apple-rumors-.jpg
  2. Apple rumors: https://investorplace.com/search/?q=Apple+Rumors&searchsubmit=Search
  3. designed to target smartphones and tablets are burgeoning: http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/05/14/mobile-malware-exploding-but-only-for-android
  4. GOOG: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=GOOG
  5. NOK: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=NOK
  6. AAPL: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=AAPL
  7. BBRY: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=BBRY
  8. MSFT: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=MSFT
  9. cup of coffee with Apple CEO Tim Cook: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/15/184168530/cup-of-joe-with-apple-ceo-goes-for-610-000
  10. at the center of an e-book price-fixing scheme: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/technology/us-now-paints-apple-as-ringmaster-in-its-lawsuit-on-e-book-price-fixing.html?_r=0
  11. NWSA: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=NWSA
  12. Apple Rumors: https://investorplace.com/2012/04/hot-topics/apple-rumors-stock-news/

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/05/wednesday-apple-rumors-malware-targets-android-devices/