China is among the countries worst-affected by 'HummingBad' malware
More than a million devices have been hit by malware linked to an analytics firm
China, India, the Philippines and Indonesia have the highest "HummingBad" infection rates out of the 10 million Android devices that have been infected by the malware, according to researchers at Check Point, a cybersecurity software firm.
The report showed that China had more than 1.6 million infected devices, followed by India which had more than 1.3 million. The Philippines and Indonesia had about 520,000 and 489,000 infected devices respectively.
This malware, which was first reported about by CNET, gains administrative control over Android devices. It then generates fraudulent ad revenues and installs fraudulent mobile apps without the user's knowledge.
For users of Android devices concerned about this malware infection, there are simple steps that could be taken, said Michael Petit, Middle East and Asia head of mobility at Check Point Software Technologies.
"What Android phone users can do is look at their downloaded apps, and see if there are any apps they didn't install themselves," Petit said.
If the phone user detects anything out of the norm, the next step would be to reset the android device to factory settings, Petit says. He adds that a phone restart will not get rid of the malware.