What Is Stalkerware? Here’s What You Need to Know

Introduction

Hey guys, welcome to the week of When You Need Them, Ask Neadom. I'm Neadom Tucker, owner of Kotori Technologies, and today we're gonna take a look at stalkerware. What is it? Ooh sounds freaky—well, it actually is. Stay tuned and we'll tell you what it's all about.

What Is Stalkerware?

Hey guys, welcome back. So yeah, stalkerware—it's a thing. I mean, it really is. It's software that gets installed on a mobile device to keep track of what you're doing and where you're at.

Now, this can be done in a very innocent way. Maybe you want to keep family members well-informed about where your family is at, where your kids are at—things like this. This is considered stalkerware.

The Malicious Side of Stalkerware

The malicious part of this is that if it's installed unbeknownst to yourself and someone is keeping track of you—tracking your text messages and things like this.

For example, I use a product like this on my kids. I've got four kids, so I've got some application on their phones. I can keep track of what they're doing. Are they doing safe things? Are these opportunities for me to be a good parent and talk to them?

But on the malicious side, if we were gonna actually do this to a girlfriend or a boyfriend or a colleague at work because I'm keeping track of them, this would be malicious. And stalkerware it's out there.

How It Works

A lot of times once it gets installed, sometimes you can or cannot know about it. So, it really kind of depends. You gotta be safe out there to figure out what's on there. Be wary of who you're giving your phone to and what's installed. Take a look at what your recent apps are to see what's out there.

Stalkerware gives the person the ability to see where you are, potentially who your text messaging, what your text messaging, maybe what photos you're taking, what you're posting on Facebook, what you're posting on any of these—Snapchats, anything like that. These solutions can do that.

Commercial Availability and Device Security

Now, these are commercially available products you can buy and get installed on a device. It doesn't require hacking or jailbreaking for an iPhone. These are the systems that allow this to happen.

iPhones are a little bit harder versus Android, so if you're an iPhone user, you've got a little bit of security there. But understand the technologies that are making it easier to be done. And again, these are legitimate software packages.

Stay Safe

So, guys, really just be safe out there. Be aware of these products out there. There's a lot of information that you can share out there with these pieces of software.

So, keep your phone guarded, keep your information safe, and make sure you're putting passwords on your phone so no one can just open your phone up and get access to it.

Conclusion

We want you to be safe out there. If you guys have any questions, please reach out to us online at Kotori Technologies.