Understanding Stalkerware: Identification & Removal Strategies - SecureTechGuide

Do you wonder if your web activities, phone calls, texts, and everything you do on your smartphone or computer are being tracked by someone? Though this might seem far-fetched or fictional, with Stalkerware, it has become possible.

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In this post, we will know in detail what Stalkerware is, how it can be infiltrated into your devices, and what are different ways to detect, remove, and prevent Stalkerware from your devices.

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What is Stalkerware?

Stalkerware or Spyware is a general term used to describe an application that is specifically designed to track all or specific activities on your devices. This malware uses the GPS in your device to track your location. This software can be installed on smartphones, tablets, laptops, and even desktop PCs, without your consent or knowledge and remain hidden in the device.

In some cases, Stalkerware also takes complete control over the victim’s devices by spying on them through its camera and recording any audio conversations taking place around it.

Stalkerware is mostly developed for mobile devices; however, you might find many such programs for Windows and macOS too.

Who uses Stalkerware Apps?

Here is the list of people who commonly install Stalkerware:

• Spouse or partner who can’t accept the end of a relationship, who wants to know your every move, and one who is desperate enough to hire someone to do all this for them.
• Parents who are suspicious about their children’s activities online. They want totrack their kids without revealing that they are spying on them.
• The employer who wants to track his/her employees’ activities and ensure the productivity of the workforce.
• Law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, CIA, and NSA can use it for monitoring threats from other countries or criminal activities occurring inside a country. They might also use it to spy on their citizens to keep a check on any potential threats before they arise.
• Hostile governments that want to keep an eye on political dissidents, journalists, activists, etc., in their own country or those who have fled from fear of persecution and are residing in another country as refugees. They might be using Stalkerware or spyware apps for tracking phones belonging to these people without getting caught by foreign governments or agencies.

How does Stalkerware App work?

The most basic way in which Stalkerware can infiltrate your devices is by tricking you into downloading and installing them. Once the installation of this application is complete, you won’t be able to find out whether it has installed itself on your phone or not. Also, since the developers of this software are using advanced algorithms that are specifically designed for spying purposes, it might not get detected by antivirus applications or anti-malware.

On the other hand, if there is physical access to your device then all a hacker needs to do is install an infected SIM card on their own phone and enter some specific commands on their own phone to get spy features on your smartphone without alerting you.

How does Stalkerware affect your privacy?

If you think that you will never get attacked by such an application, then let us tell you that such applications are spreading like wildfire throughout the world. There has been a rapid increase in malware threats against mobile phones in the past few years. Malware developers are disrupting the security of our mobile phones by developing highly advanced spyware like Stalkerware to disrupt our privacy.

Stalkerware apps can track your location, record all conversations you make on your phone, access personal photos and videos, read your messages (SMS & WhatsApp), capture keystrokes , collect passwords for websites or bank accounts, etc., to name a few. These activities will take place without you even knowing about them.

The worst part is that Stalker has no limits; once this application is installed on your device, there is no stopping it from sending private data over the internet. Your information might be used in ways that you cannot even think of. You might not know what use they might put your data to. It might be used for commercial purposes, or they can pass it on to another person who will then use it for illegal activities such as identity theft, etc.

It is also possible that hackers could access your private images and videos and start blackmailing you with them online. This application has the potential to ruin your life.

How does Stalkerware enter your device?

A Stalkerware program can infiltrate your device like any other malware. Here are the most common ways:

1. Downloading free third-party apps infected with malicious stalking codes.

2. Clicking on any phishing links available online or opening an email that has a malicious file attached.

3. Using cracked versions of paid mobile applications without knowing that these were created using leaked source codes.

4. Installing unauthorized software/applications from third-party sources other than Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

5. Opening attachments in spam emails sent by hackers under the name of banks, credit card agencies, etc., offering large sums of money or just to wish you luck for winning the lottery. These attachments might contain computer programs designed purely for spying purposes to access your device without leaving any evidence behind

6. Accessing torrent websites using unsecured public Wi-Fi connections or hotspots without using any virtual private network (VPN) server.

How to Remove Stalkerware Apps from your Android device?

If you think that your Android phones are infected by Stalkerware, then you should immediately remove it. Otherwise, the consequences will be extremely grave for you. Here is what you need to do.

1. You should immediately uninstall the infected app. To uninstall suspicious applications on Android phones, follow these steps:
   • Go to Settings and then click on Apps (or Application Manager).
   • Now look through your Installed Apps list and see if there is anything suspicious listed there – a name that you do not recognize, an app with no name, etc. If so, go ahead and uninstall it.
   • Reboot your device normally afterward just to be sure that the infection has been eradicated from your device.
2. Remove any downloaded files from your mobile device and scan them for viruses using a reliable antivirus application.
3. Change all passwords for your mobile, social networking & email accounts that you think might be vulnerable to misuse or hacking attempts.
4. Back up personal data and files if possible and use an effective data erasure solution to wipe off all traces of highly sensitive information from your computer hard drive and other storage media before discarding or donating them to others.
5. Report the incident to the Federal Trade Commission so that authorities can take appropriate action against such hackers.
6. Review app permissions you have provided to different installed apps.
7. Lastly, perfrom malware scan using a robust Android antimalware MalwareFox .

How to Detect Spyware on Android Phone

How to remove Stalkerware from Windows?

Although in today’s world, mostly smartphones are targeted with Stalkerware apps, if you are a Windows user, you shouldn’t be carefree. Your Windows PC can also get infected with Stalkerware and you might not even know that. You have to find and remove it from your Windows device.

If you suspect your PC is infected with Stalkerware, here are the steps to remove it:

Uninstall Suspicious Applications

The Stalkerware can be hidden in any application which is pretending to be useful. To remove it, uninstall all the suspicious applications you can find on the device.

Here are the steps to uninstall applications from Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Windows 10Windows 11

Uninstall Suspicious Apps on Windows 10

1. Right-click on the taskbar and select the Task Manager.
   

2. Watch out for the applications that are consuming the system memory even though you did not install or launch them.

3. Right-click on the suspicious application and open its file location.
   

4. Delete the file from its root location.

5. Open Control Panel and click on Uninstall a program and check for suspicious apps. One by one, select and uninstall them.

Uninstall Suspicious Apps on Windows 11

1. Right-click on the Start button and select Task Manager from the list.

2. Look out for the applications which are unnecessarily consuming the system resources without actively running.

3. Right-click on such applications and open their file location.

4. Delete all files from the targeted folder. Some files won’t be deleted as the application is still active.

5. Open Control Panel and click on Uninstall a program.

6. Check for suspicious apps. One by one, select and uninstall them.

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Reset Web Browser Settings

Browsers are the Gateway for Malware like Stalkerware, Trojan, Adware, browser hijackers, and others. Stalkerware can enter your system in many ways, but mostly browsers are the gateway for them. There is definitely a risk involved when you download a file from unofficial websites or an attachment from an unsolicited email. Along with that, security vulnerabilities in the web browser programs themselves might sometimes lead to malware exploit.

It is best to reset the browser to its original state after the trojan infection. Here are the ways to reset different web browsers.

Google ChromeMozilla FirefoxMicrosoft Edge

Reset Google Chrome Browser

Here are the steps to reset the Google Chrome browser:

1. Launch Google Chrome, click on three dots at the top right corner, and choose Settings from the menu.
2. On the Settings page, click on the Advanced at the left pane.

3. Under Advanced settings, click on Reset and clean up.
4. Next, click on the Reset Settings button to finish resetting the Chrome Browser.

How to Control a Chrome Extension’s Permissions

Reset Mozilla Firefox Browser

Follow these steps to reset the Mozilla Firefox:

1. Open Mozilla Firefox, click on the menu button at the top right corner, and select Help.
2. Under Firefox Help, choose More troubleshooting information.
3. On the Troubleshooting Information page, click on the Refresh Firefox button under Give Firefox a tune up. This is on the right side of the page.

4. On the warning pop-up, click on Refresh Firefox.

Reset Microsoft Edge Browser

On Microsoft Edge, follow these instructions to reset it:

1. Launch Edge browser, click on three horizontal dots at top right corner, and select Settings from the menu.
2. Under the settings page, click on Reset settings on the left pane.

3. Click on Restore settings to their default value.
4. Next, on the Restore settings pop-up, click on the Reset button.

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Install an Antimalware and Perform a Scan

Manually removing malware can be a tedious task, and it takes a lot of time and effort on our part. Sometimes, it may get irritated for you if you are not much into the technology. There is no need to worry; you can get a robust antimalware like MalwareFox that will scan for malware and remove it.

Though Stalkerware tends to hide from the security programs or disable them, that’s not the case with MalwareFox. It is reliable security software that promises to protect your system and helps to handle malware and viruses. MalwareFox will scan, detect, and remove Malware and offers real-time protection. It also protects your PC from the most dangerous malware such as Ransomware, Zero-Day Attack protection, Grayware, Keyloggers, etc.

1. Download Malwarefox Spyware Remover and install it.
2. Perform a full system scan to get rid of every malware that is troubling your system.

How to prevent Stalkerware?

Prevention is better than cure. This line has even more significance in the case of Stalkerware. It is best to prevent it from entering your device rather than dealing with it after infiltration.

Here are some preventive tips to keep Stalkerware away from your devices:

• Install a powerful antivirus solution on your device and always keep it up-to-date.
• Do not download files from untrusted third-party sources or torrents as they might contain Stalkerware.
• Also, do not click on suspicious pop-up ads that appear while surfing the web because they might lead you to phishing sites that can trick you into downloading and installing malicious apps on your device.
• Keep checking the App permissions before you install an app because any suspicious behavior with the Android app is a clear sign of Stalkerware at work.
• Do not also allow third-party users to connect your phone or PC to their devices via USB cable, Bluetooth, or WiFi, as it can transfer malware from one device to another.
• Most importantly, keep updating Windows Security updates if you are using Windows Operating System so that your system security doesn’t get compromised by hackers who are constantly developing new kinds of threats for PCs.

Conclusion

If you have already have been victimized by Stalkerware, hopefully, this blog post will help you in one way or the other. We are here to provide you with useful information about all kinds of cyber threats out there in order to keep yourself well-informed. Hope this blog post gave you an insight into what is Stalkerware, how it enters your system, and how to remove it entirely from your device.

Can Stalkerware be detected?

It is pretty difficult to detect a Spyware program as they are designed to trespass the security program and silently work in the background. However, you can detect and remove them using robust antimalware like MalwareFox.

Can spyware be transferred to a new phone?

If the infected application is transferred to the new phone the spyware will get activated.

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