Stalkerware applications, which domestic abusers rely on to monitor their romantic partners’ devices without their consent, often fail to secure the personal information collected during their use, according to ESET research published Monday. Stalkerware, which is frequently advertised as benign parental controls or employee monitoring software, can surveil targets’ geolocation, texts, phone calls, cameras and more, all without obtaining targets’ consent. ESET examined 86 stalkerware applications, only to identify 158 serious security and privacy issues, according to findings presented at the virtual RSA Conference this week. The most common security issue affecting the applications was the insecure transmission of stalkers’ and targets’ personally identifiable information from devices to app servers. This vulnerability could allow outsiders to intercept text messages, call logs, contact lists, keystrokes, browsing histories, recorded phone calls, pictures and screenshots, according to ESET. Other issues included applications storing sensitive information on external media, and exposing data like Facebook […]
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