Low-cost Android phones are arriving with malware that owners can’t uninstall

What happened

People who buy low-cost Android phones from online marketplaces may be carrying malware (software written to damage a system or steal from it) that was placed on the device before it reached them, Bitdefender has found. The malware ships in the device firmware, is present before the owner switches the phone on for the first time, and can’t be uninstalled. The campaign, dubbed Midnight Mimosa, runs on budget Android devices from different brands built on MediaTek platforms. Google is a software and Internet company based in Mountain View, founded in 1998, and its products and services include Software tools.