Security experts have discovered a new threat taking aim at Android phones with millions of users now being encouraged to check their devices immediately.
The latest attack, which was spotted by the team at McAfee Mobile Security, is able to infect popular applications with a malicious software library and begin performing tasks without the smartphone owners' consent.
Once a contaminated app has been 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. That means a crook could know exactly where you've been.
Worse still, Android owners might actually be making hackers money without ever knowing as the bug is able to perform ad fraud by clicking 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.
The new threat appears to be a major issue with it thought that infected apps may have been downloaded millions of times.
"The research team has found more than 60 applications containing this third-party malicious library, with more than 100 million downloads," McAfee confirmed.
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."
YOU CAN SEE THE FULL LIST OF APPS HERE
The issue is mainly targeted users in South Korea and there are no reports of UK users being hit by the bug, but it's still a reminder to all Android users to take care before installing new apps onto their devices.
Always check the reviews, make sure you trust the developer and if you notice your phone's behaviour change 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.
