Number of ‘Stalkerware’ cases have largely increased since the pandemic started

Over the years we all have noticed the massive growth in technology and internet, well this growth surely did contribute a lot to the economic world and our personal life as a whole, we all rely on technology for every other thing we do and we sure cannot think of spending a day without using technology and social media. The internet is one important invention without which the world would still have lacked the advances it has made today, but like every other thing with its benefits the internet does have disadvantages, the major one being hacking and stealing of data which are now made easy as every other person is on the internet without proper measures to safe guard the information stored on their device.

According to statistical data things like, phishing, ransomware, data breaching and malwares have been experiencing a big increase with each passing year, making it more and more important to keep your device and data safe from such things, one such malware is the ‘Stalkerware’ or 'Creepware', the number of Stalkerware cases have risen exponentially ever since pandemic started, more and more devices are now being infected with the Stalkerware, as reported by Nortonlifelock.

For those that don’t know Stalkerware is a malware which once downloaded on your device can be used a spying tool, it can be used by the person that installed it into your phone to intercept text messages and calls moreover to also access your location and track where you are going, the fact that Stalkerware can detect a person’s location makes this malware really dangerous since it can be used by someone that wants to harm you in anyway. This malware also makes someone know when a person leaves their home thus allowing inviting crimes like stealing.

You might wonder, from where does the Stalkerware find its ways into user devices, well it’s the apps that people download on their devices, not all apps have the Stalkerware planted into them, it’s usually apps that are downloaded from a third party service other than the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, these apps are usually a clone of apps and are made for the purpose of stealing user information while hiding behind a façade.

Data suggests that Stalkerware is not always installed accidentally on a device rather it is a partner that does this, romantic partners install these apps into each other devices without the other one knowing so that they can silently keep a watch on their partner and the people they talk to, when surveyed three in five people admitted to installing applications that have Stalkerware in them on their partners phone, while two in five of them believe that their partner can or may have installed such apps on their phone.

With the ever increasing number of Stalkerware cases what is it that you can do to protect your device against it? Well the best possible solution is to keep checking your device settings and check whether some fishy apps have permission to things like your phone book and gallery etc. apart from that you can also download antivirus apps so that it constantly keeps reviewing your phone for malwares like these.

Read next: $2 million of Monero have been mined through 222K devices that were attacked by this malware

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