Google turned on its kill switch, which is able to remove those malicious applications from the phones. There were 58 malicious apps downloaded to 260,000 Android smartphones, according to Google Mobile Blog.

“For affected devices, we believe that the only information the attacker(s) were able to gather was device-specific (IMEI/IMSI, unique codes which are used to identify mobile devices, and the version of Android running on your device). But given the nature of the exploits, the attacker(s) could access other data.” announced Google Mobile Blog.

The kill switch is actually software that’s downloaded onto an Android smartphone and installed automatically, removing the apps in question with no user action required.

Google Mobile Blog announced “If your device has been affected, you will receive an email from android-market-support@google.com over the next 72 hours. You will also receive a notification on your device that “Android Market Security Tool March 2011” has been installed. You may also receive notification(s) on your device that an application has been removed. You are not required to take any action from there; the update will automatically undo the exploit. Within 24 hours of the exploit being undone, you will receive a second email.”