As of today, more than one million Android phones and Google accounts have been breached by a new and rising malware campaign dubbed as "Gooligan." This is alarming, considering that infected devices can be vulnerable to information break that perpetrators can use for their illegal activities.

A research of Check Point revealed that "Gooligan" can access data from Google Play, Gmail, Google Photos, Google Docs, G Suite, and Google Drive, to name a few. Furthermore, it affects Android 4 and 5 devices that comprise 74% of devices in the market today. Likewise, 57% of these devices are located in Asia, 19% in America, 15% in Africa, and 9% in Europe.

To check if your Android device is infected, you can check it against the link provided by the research team, but if your phone is suddenly installing some apps that you have not permitted, better take action now rather than later. For the complete list of the malicious apps and more information on how Gooligan operates, please check the website.

For now, Google is strengthening the Android ecosystem security to take action against "Gooligan." This includes a deployment of "Verify Apps" that check against offending apps. Likewise, Google is also in the process of removing apps associated with the infection from its Play store.

For affected Android devices, Google already sent an email to users in order to provide them a list of instructions on how to get back to safety. Google is also teaming up with several Internet providers to take down the infrastructure of malware.

"This was a team effort within Google, across the Android security, Google Accounts, and the Counter-Abuse Technology teams. It also required close coordination with research firms, OEMs, and hosting companies. We want to thank those teams for their assistance and commitment during our ongoing efforts to fight Ghost Push and keep users safe," stated Andrian Ludwig, Android security at Google.

Stay tuned for more updates!

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