Hisham Sarwar
Nowadays, Google has come under attacks of malware infection that is spreading on a massive level. Up till now, this malware has affected over one million Android users across the globe. According to security researchers, the “Gooligan” malware steals the authentication tokens of the users to access data from Google Play, Drive, Photos, G Suite, Gmail, Docs, and more.
The infection is continuously spreading infecting over 13,000 additional devices on daily basis. This time attackers are not limited to just stealing personal information of the users. As part of their fraud scheme, hackers are now installing malicious apps from Google Play to make money up to $320,000 per month from ad revenue. According to analysts, hackers are now shifting their strategy by targeting mobile devices for accessing sensitive information stored on the devices.
But the spokesman from Google stated that upon investigation, no evidence of Gooligan accessing any sensitive user information was found. The motivation behind all such apps is their promotion not stealing user’s information.
The spokesperson also informed that Gooligan belongs to a malware branch named as Ghost Push. The basic purpose of this malware branch is to sneak in the malevolent software and then installing numerous infectious apps from the Play Store. StopWatch, Perfect Cleaner, and WiFi Enhancer are few of the malware-infested apps.
Google has informed its users that all such malicious apps have been removed from the Play Store. Moreover important steps have also been taken in order to stop the further spreading of this infection. This is not the first time for Google to come under such attacks but Gooligan has been recorded as the major Android breach on record.
Stagefright, Android’s multimedia library was warned for such attacks earlier this year. It was predicted to put 275 million devices at risk but the real number of effected devices was never revealed. Big G quickly dealt with its malware issues.
If you find anything suspicious regarding your devices then you can either run a quick check on Check Point’s website or install a clean copy of Android on your device along with restating your Google passwords.
