Attack Android systems with malware – The Sun of Mexico

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• Over a million Google accounts have been affected through smartphones
• Hackers have changed their attack methods by means of phones smart

WASHINGTON, USA. A malicious software designed to attack smart phones with Android system has reached the accounts of more than a million users of Google, said yesterday security researchers.

According to the report of the firm Check Point Software Technologies, the malware baptized Gooligan attacked devices with Android 4.0 and 5.0, which account for nearly 74 percent of the mobile devices that use the operating system with Google technology.

through the attacks can steal email addresses, and authentication data stored in the devices to gain access to the most sensitive data of the accounts of Gmail, Google Photos, Google Docs and other services, said Check Point.

"This theft of more than a million data of Google accounts is very alarming and represents the next phase of the cyber attacks," said Michael Shaulov, chief of mobile products at the Check-Point.

"We are seeing a shift in the strategy of the hackers, who are now targeted to mobile devices in order to obtain the confidential information that is stored in them," he said.

Researchers at Check Point discovered the Gooligan in an application the last year and a new variant appeared in August of 2016, which affects up to about thirteen thousand devices daily. About 57 percent of cell phones with those systems are in Asia and about nine percent are in Europe.

"The infection starts when a user downloads and installs an infected application by Gooligan on an Android device vulnerable, or clicking on malicious links that come in messages such as phishing," the company said in a statement.

Check Point said it sent the details of the malware to Google. The internet giant did not respond immediately to requests from AFP.