Over 58,000 Android users had stalkerware installed on their phones last year

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Over 58,000 Android users had "stalkerware" installed on their phones last year, researchers from Kaspersky Lab have revealed today.

Of these, more than 35,000 had no idea about stalkerware being present on their Android devices until they installed Kasperksy's mobile antivirus, which flagged the infection.

Kaspersky's findings come to confirm a growing trend in the information security industry, where security researchers are seeing an increase in the use of stalkerware-like products, from both normal users and companies alike.

Stalkerware, also known as spouseware or "legal spyware," is a term used to describe a particular class of spyware. These are applications sold by legally-registered companies under various pretenses, such as child monitoring or employee tracking solutions.

Some of these apps are used for legitimate purposes, but in the vast majority of times, they are not. Legitimate apps are those who display visible markers to users letting them know they are being watched.

The bad apps, and the ones detected by antivirus companies and normally banned from the official app stores, are the ones that hide themselves from view.

In a press release today, following the publication of its report about the commercial stalkerware landscape, Kaspersky said that its Android antivirus will now deal with stalkerware in a new and more transparent way.

"There is no need to prove the negative effects that commercial spyware brings, as its initial concept is completely unethical," Kaspersky said. "Despite all the findings listed above, most cybersecurity vendors still don't detect commercial spyware as a threat due to vague legal positioning on commercial surveillance."

The company plans to show a special alert whenever its product finds a known stalkerware app installed on a user's device, so the user will be fully aware of the stalkerware app's full capabilities.

The role of this new alert, Kaspersky says, is to raise awareness in regards to the danger that the user might be in.

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Image: Kaspersky Lab
 

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