technology

Gooligan malware effects more than 1 million android devices

World’s most popular Operating system-Google’s Android has been facing public ire for its security vulnerabilities, and looks like that is bound to c for some more time. Now, security researchers from Check Point Software Technologies have found this new malware family, that it calls Gooligan (probably inspired by hooligans) has comprised about 1 million accounts.

It is found in at least 86 apps that are available in third-party marketplaces. Once installed, it uses a rooting process to gain privileged access to your system. It is said to affect devices running version 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, and KitKat) and also version 5 (Lollipop). It should be noted that the vulnerable versions account to 74 percent of users.

So, the rooted devices will then download and install the software that steals authentication tokens, and giving it access to the device owner’s Google-related accounts sans the need to enter the password. These tokens will work on several Google products including Gmail, Google Photos, Google Docs, Google Play, Google Drive and G Suite.

“This theft of over a million Google account details is very alarming and represents the next stage of cyber-attacks,” said Michael Shaulov, Check Point’s head of mobile products.

“We are seeing a shift in the strategy of hackers, who are now targeting mobile devices in order to obtain the sensitive information that is stored on them.”

Check Point said researchers discovered Gooligan’s code in an application last year and that a new variant appeared in August 2016, affecting some 13,000 devices per day. About 57 percent of those devices are located in Asia and about nine percent are in Europe.

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