There are all sorts of malware that can impact your daily life, but stalkerware is one of the most dangerous out there with all things having been considered and taken into account. A study conducted by Avast revealed that stalkerware has seen a massive 239% increase since 2020, which makes it even more of a threat than might have been the case otherwise. Let’s take a look at what stalkerware actually is and how it can affect users of the internet.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that stalkwerware uses location tracking and activity monitoring on smartphones to develop a profile of the victim. Malicious actors can keep track of text messages that the user exchanges, calls that the user makes and much more.
According to a threat analyst working at Avast, this level of growth in stalkerware is concerning to say the least. The main issue here is that apps that contain stalkerware actually seem rather innocuous to the untrained eye. They can be anything from a simple calculator all the way to a child monitoring app, and they are facilitating a wide array of dangerous behaviors.
Users might find themselves getting stalked and harassed due to these apps, but in spite of the fact that this is the case not all that much work has been done to stem their seemingly out of control growth rate. Tracking apps should always be downloaded with caution because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up containing stalkwerware without your knowledge.
The only real way to protect yourself from stalkwerware is to go through the permissions that have been granted to each app. Unless you are absolutely certain that a given app is trustworthy, it is essential that you do what you can to delete it or at the very least rescind its permissions. The pandemic did a lot to give these apps a boost, and it might take a while before their growth rate starts to wind down and become more manageable.
Image: Freepik/rawpixel
Read next: New Report Exposes Alarming Security Risks in Popular Mobile Applications
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that stalkwerware uses location tracking and activity monitoring on smartphones to develop a profile of the victim. Malicious actors can keep track of text messages that the user exchanges, calls that the user makes and much more.
According to a threat analyst working at Avast, this level of growth in stalkerware is concerning to say the least. The main issue here is that apps that contain stalkerware actually seem rather innocuous to the untrained eye. They can be anything from a simple calculator all the way to a child monitoring app, and they are facilitating a wide array of dangerous behaviors.
Users might find themselves getting stalked and harassed due to these apps, but in spite of the fact that this is the case not all that much work has been done to stem their seemingly out of control growth rate. Tracking apps should always be downloaded with caution because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up containing stalkwerware without your knowledge.
The only real way to protect yourself from stalkwerware is to go through the permissions that have been granted to each app. Unless you are absolutely certain that a given app is trustworthy, it is essential that you do what you can to delete it or at the very least rescind its permissions. The pandemic did a lot to give these apps a boost, and it might take a while before their growth rate starts to wind down and become more manageable.
Image: Freepik/rawpixel
Read next: New Report Exposes Alarming Security Risks in Popular Mobile Applications
