More than 29,000 people worldwide have been affected by stalkerware

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – In 2022, Kaspersky data revealed that more than 29,000 people around the world were affected by the stalkerware or tracking program, a number that shows a relatively low compared to the previous year, as more than 32,000 people were affected in 2022. 2021.

The State of Stalkerware is an annual report from Kaspersky Security Network, a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company. The report aims to provide a better understanding of the number of people globally affected by this type of digital stalking or digital tracing. Stalkerware is commercially available software that can be installed separately on smartphone devices, allowing perpetrators to monitor or track every step in people’s private lives without their knowledge.

Kaspersky has detected stalking cases in 176 countries around the world using stalkerware, proving that digital stalking remains a global phenomenon and affects all countries. More broadly, the data covers the number of Kaspersky users affected, with the global number of affected individuals likely to be much higher. On average, 3,333 new users each month were affected by stalkerware, according to the study.

In 2022, Russia, Brazil, India, Iran and America were the five countries most affected by stalkerware. It was followed by Turkey, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and finally Mexico in the list of the ten most affected countries.

Because the perpetrator or perpetrator requires physical access (and code) to the hardware, stalkerware is often used in abusive or violent private relationships. Although the data collected by Kaspersky is anonymous, other research has shown that women are primarily affected by this form of digital violence. Kaspersky noted the importance of considering that the digital dimension is another dimension of violence, and should be understood as a continuum of offline violence with real and negative impacts on the victims.

Here in the above infographic are the top 10 countries in terms of the number of users affected by the tracking or monitoring program Stalkerwar in the world.