People who own Android phones are being urged to check their devices after security experts recently discovered a new threat putting personal information at risk.
Taking aim at Android phones with millions of users at risk, according to the Mirror, the latest attack was spotted by McAfee Mobile Security team.
It is said to be able to infect popular applications with a malicious software library and begin performing tasks without the smartphone owners' consent.
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Once a contaminated app is installed, it can be used by criminals to see Wi-Fi history, what Bluetooth devices are connected to a phone, which apps are being used and even look at nearby GPS locations, allowing them to see exactly where you are and where you've been.
Criminals can also make money from this if they click on rogue advertisements in the background. This type of attack is also known to slow devices down, with phones often becoming overworked and overloaded with data.
It is thought that infected apps may have been downloaded millions of times.
Commenting on the security risk, McAfee said: "The research team has found more than 60 applications containing this third-party malicious library, with more than 100 million downloads."
The Research Team has already informed Google of the issue with the US technology giant telling developers to fix their apps or see them banned from its app store.
Whilst some have co-operated at speed, it seems over 30 have now been blocked as the apps were still found to contain the malicious software library.
"We reported the discovered apps to Google, which took prompt action," said McAfees' SangRyol Ryu.
"Google has reportedly notified the developers that their apps are in violation of Google Play policies and fixes are needed to reach compliance. Some apps were removed from Google Play while others were updated by the official developers."
The issue is mainly targeting users in South Korea and there are no reports of UK users being hit by the bug, but Android users are being reminded to take care before installing new apps onto their devices.
Advice includes always checking the reviews, making sure the developer is trusted and if your phone's behaviour changes after an installation, it might be worth considering hitting the delete button.
It's also a bad idea to download applications from third-party providers as this software often doesn't go through the same rigorous checks made by Google's Play Store.
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