More than one million Google accounts attacked by malware

Hackers under the collective name of "Gooligan" have managed to breach over one million Google accounts of people who use Android operating systems.

The malware technology has broken into mobile devices using the system to steal information from such programmes as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive.

The Gooligan strain has operated in order to steal info from the apps, and force users to download fake apps in a fraudulent scheme, which can make them up to $320,000 per month.

Since its introduction at the beginning of November, the Gooligan malware has grown to affect as many as 13,000 people per day, according to internet security researchers Check Point.

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

"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," Shaulov added.

The news comes just months after one of the biggest data breaches ever recorded, in which 500 million user accounts were stolen from Yahoo customers, which the company believed to be caused by a "state-sponsored" source.