Stalkerwares are the tools and apps that are used for monitoring users without their knowledge, and it also records the information of the online activities of the users. The latest findings from ESET say that the stalkerware is more dangerous than you think because these apps on Android OS also have vulnerabilities. Stalkerware apps have gained much popularity over the past few years because ESET detected more than 5 times Android stalkerware in the year 2019 than in 2018, and the numbers of installing these apps on the devices of users even increased up to 48% in the year 2020.
These apps are often attracting many people online by showing them that these are monitoring software of employees or parental control software. However, the developers of these software write the word “SPY” on their websites to let the prospective trackers know their real purpose. These stalkerware programs can monitor the GPS location of the device of the user, including the conversation history, their online activities, etc. ESET planned to analyze that how stalkerware apps protect the information gathered from the users. ESET analyzed about 86 stalkerware apps from 86 different suppliers.
When ESET analyzed almost 56 stalkerware apps on Android devices, it found that there are about 158 security and privacy flaws that can have an adverse effect on the user, what is even worse is that the stalkers of these apps are also at risk because of the vulnerabilities in the apps. ESET found that the bad actors can take the benefit of these flaws and make use of it while getting control of the victim’s device, they can also hijack the accounts of stalkers, interrupt the data of prey, achieve remote code implementation on the device of the victim and even surround a victim by uploading fictional evidence.
ESET has also informed the vulnerabilities of these apps to developers and almost 6 of them have fixed these issues while 44 suppliers have not even bothered to reply, 7 suppliers have made a promise that they will fix these vulnerabilities as soon as possible. The malware expert at ESET warn the future customers of stalkerware apps to review those software before installing. It can reveal the private information of the user there is also the risk of cyber-attack. There can be a close connection between the user and the stalker, so the information of the stalker can also be disclosed by the scammer.
Read next: Microsoft 365 Users Face Extreme Breaches in The Past One Year
These apps are often attracting many people online by showing them that these are monitoring software of employees or parental control software. However, the developers of these software write the word “SPY” on their websites to let the prospective trackers know their real purpose. These stalkerware programs can monitor the GPS location of the device of the user, including the conversation history, their online activities, etc. ESET planned to analyze that how stalkerware apps protect the information gathered from the users. ESET analyzed about 86 stalkerware apps from 86 different suppliers.
When ESET analyzed almost 56 stalkerware apps on Android devices, it found that there are about 158 security and privacy flaws that can have an adverse effect on the user, what is even worse is that the stalkers of these apps are also at risk because of the vulnerabilities in the apps. ESET found that the bad actors can take the benefit of these flaws and make use of it while getting control of the victim’s device, they can also hijack the accounts of stalkers, interrupt the data of prey, achieve remote code implementation on the device of the victim and even surround a victim by uploading fictional evidence.
ESET has also informed the vulnerabilities of these apps to developers and almost 6 of them have fixed these issues while 44 suppliers have not even bothered to reply, 7 suppliers have made a promise that they will fix these vulnerabilities as soon as possible. The malware expert at ESET warn the future customers of stalkerware apps to review those software before installing. It can reveal the private information of the user there is also the risk of cyber-attack. There can be a close connection between the user and the stalker, so the information of the stalker can also be disclosed by the scammer.
Read next: Microsoft 365 Users Face Extreme Breaches in The Past One Year
