Kaspersky Lab Will Warn You If Your Phone is Infected With Stalkerware (cnet.com) 31
Kaspersky Lab said today it would start flagging stalkerware as malicious, and warn people through its Android app when stalkerware is installed on their phones. In 2018 Kaspersky Lab detected stalkerware on 58,487 mobile devices. From a report: Stalkerware is frequently used by stalkers and abusers to spy on people through their phones. It essentially turns victims' phones into surveillance devices, letting an attacker track a person's every step and listen in on every word. Stalkerware is quietly installed on people's devices, and then accesses personal data including GPS location, text messages, photos and microphone feeds. You don't have to be an expert to get your hands on it -- stalkerware is sold online, for as little as a few hundred dollars. Some purveyors offer subscription plans for $68 a month, according to Kaspersky Lab.
Kaspersky Lab said it was motivated to start flagging stalkerware apps after speaking with Eva Galperin, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's head of cybersecurity. "As a result, we now flag commercial spyware with a specific alert which warns users of the dangers stalkerware poses," Alexey Firsh, a security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said in a statement. "We believe users have a right to know if such a program is installed on their device."
Kaspersky Lab said it was motivated to start flagging stalkerware apps after speaking with Eva Galperin, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's head of cybersecurity. "As a result, we now flag commercial spyware with a specific alert which warns users of the dangers stalkerware poses," Alexey Firsh, a security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said in a statement. "We believe users have a right to know if such a program is installed on their device."
So it warns permanently right from the start (Score:3)
Sounds not that value-adding to me.
Re: (Score:2)
It's difficult to believe Kaspersky anyway, after their debacle with the US Gov. Don't trust anyone, just put your phone in a Faraday bag.
Who's the market here? (Score:1)
Aren't ALL apps stalkerware these days?
Four questions. (Score:3, Informative)
1. Why did Kaspersky (apparently) not previously mark this "stalkerware" as malware? Since it is, you know... malicious? Makes no sense. Why even make the distinction between "stalkerware" and "malware" at all? Both are the same thing.
2. Does this mean that Kaspersky will show warnings on 100% of all "mobile phones", then, since 100% of these surveillance devices are used for stalking you?
3. How can this "stalkerware" be said to "turn[s] victims' phones into surveillance devices" when they already *are* surveillance devices by design, and impossible to escape? No sane human being walks around with these things, or talks to anyone who wears one or has one nearby.
4. How does this "stalkerware" end up on the victims' surveillance devices in the first place?
Bonus question: can somebody tell me of an .onion that lets me enter any phone number and then get a JSON blob with the last 10,000 GPS positions for that phone? Payments over Bitcoin, please.
Re: (Score:2)
2. Most nations police/gov/mil have had that support for decades. File access, live mic, camera... voice prints.
3. A person installing software to find/track their own smartphone. ie expected results.
4. Pushed down onto the smartphone if its malware.
Stalkers and Abusers (Score:2)
Stalkerware is frequently used by stalkers and abusers to spy on people through their phones.
And it's more frequently used by people who want to catch their spouse cheating on them before they file for divorce so they don't get screwed (in court).
You can argue about whether or not that's right or not, but the "stalkers and abusers" line is mostly bullshit. It's people prepping for divorce and gathering evidence.
Re: (Score:2)
That's still a direct attack against the phone's user.
Re: (Score:2)
Stalkerware is frequently used by stalkers and abusers to spy on people through their phones.
And it's more frequently used by people who want to catch their spouse cheating on them before they file for divorce so they don't get screwed (in court).
You can argue about whether or not that's right or not, but the "stalkers and abusers" line is mostly bullshit. It's people prepping for divorce and gathering evidence.
Do you have a source for that claim? Divorce isn't handled like in the US everywhere and afaik stalkerware isn't only prevailing in countries where infidelity is a factor in a divorce court.
what about facebook? (Score:2)
the biggest stalker app off all, but some others are not far off either.
will it report these apps, my biggest guess is 'no', even though it should.
all this will do is create a false sense of security/privacy.
Sadly, I know someone that needs this (Score:1)
Her ex-BF installed tracking crap on her iPhone when she was asleep. He unlocked the phone using the fingerprint sensor and we already found him tracking her in some software but god knows what else he did.
Oh, her phone also stopped doing cloud backups because he connected her phone to his computer and backed it up. Apparently when you do a local backup, cloud backups automatically stop until you tell it to go back to cloud backup. So he downloaded all her info that was on the phone.
Why so many exploits go undetected for so long (Score:1)
Why was such application behavior not flagged from the start by every security software company to begin with? The Spyware-As-A-Service business model is really getting out of hand. That’s probably one major reason why so many serious exploits go undetected for as long as they do. Security software can’t differentiate between spyware and “legitimate” applications because the “legitimate” applications exhibit the same behavior.