Sometimes malware on your smartphone or PC is there to simply spy on your activities. Unfortunately, this stalkerware as it’s known, can be used by anybody, even those close to the target.
In its State of Stalkerware in 2021 report, Kaspersky found that, while instances of stalkerware on its users had fallen, violence against those who had been stalked hadn’t.
First, the good news. Kaspersky reveals that 32 694 of its users were affected by stalkerware globally. This is a decrease from the 53 870 users that were affected in 2020.
Sadly, the number is where the good news ends because Kaspersky suspects that the pandemic and lockdowns in 2021 may have meant that abusers didn’t need digital solutions.
“As people have continued to socialize less and spend more time at home, perpetrators feel more in control, possibly making them less prone to installing stalkerware to spy on their partner. In addition, abusers, unfortunately, have a wider range of means, in the form of smart devices, to spy on or stalk their victims,” Kaspersky explained in its report.
What informs this position? The firm compared results from this research with results from its Digital Stalking survey that it conducted at the tail-end of 2021. The survey found that 24 percent of respondents had been stalked using technology while 25 percent of respondents reportedly been abused or suffered violence at the hands of a partner.
Of course this correlation doesn’t imply causation but it is interesting to see these two figures side by side.
As regards what sort of stalkerware abusers are using, Kaspersky says the most commonly used are:
- Reading SMS, MMS and call logs
- Getting lists of contacts
- Tracking GPS location
- Tracking calendar events
- Reading messages from popular messenger services and social networks, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Viber, Instagram, Skype, Hangouts, Line, Kik, WeChat, Tinder, IMO, Gmail, Tango, SnapChat, Hike, TikTok, Kwai, Badoo, BBM, TextMe, Tumblr, Weico, Reddit etc.
- Viewing photos and pictures from phones’ image galleries
- Taking screenshots
- Taking front (selfie-mode) camera photos
While Android devices are more likely to have stalkerware installed iPhones are not immune. While the walled-garden approach does make installing stalkerware trickier, a jailbroken iPhone can remove that wall. Of course this requires physical access to the handset but abusers could gift a compromised device to their victim as a means to control them.
Indicators that your handset could be compromised include a battery that drains faster, new apps that look suspicious and the setting to install apps from unknown sources is enabled.
The firm also recommends those who suspect they may be compromised make use of an open source solution called TinyCheck. While it doesn’t check for indicators of compromise in real time, it is useful to have access to this to consistently check if your device has been compromised. You can find TinyCheck here for free.
Should you find stalkerware installed on your device, it’s advised that you don’t remove it. For one, this could escalate instances of abuse but for another it could damage potential evidence needed in legal proceedings.
You can find Kaspersky’s State of Stalkerware in 2021 report in full here.
[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]
