Some cheap Android phones are shipping with malware baked in

What happened

TL;DR Researchers have uncovered a malware (software written to damage a system or steal from it) campaign affecting some low-cost Android phones, including devices from Doogee and Cubot. Dubbed Midnight Mimosa, the malware is embedded in device firmware and can install apps, grant permissions, evade Play Protect, and turn phones into botnet (a network of hijacked machines controlled by one operator) nodes. The campaign has been seen on thousands of devices across more than 150 countries, and removing the malware isn’t easy because it lives in the system partition. Google is a software and Internet company based in Mountain View, founded in 1998, and its products and services include Software tools.