Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai and Joseph Cox report:
Morgan Marquis-Boire is a security researcher who has spent months digging into the consumer spyware industry, and has seen it used in domestic violence cases first hand. He has also spent years researching spyware used by governments. For him, the former kind of surveillance, which can be also called stalkerware or spouseware, deserves more attention because it’s more common and widespread than many may think, and “the victims are everyday people,” he said.
Sophisticated government malware or cyberattacks on individuals are like “a rare bloodborne pathogen,” whereas consumer spyware is more like “the common cold” or flu. It’s not as exotic, but “it does kill a lot of people every year,” Marquis-Boire told Motherboard.
Read more on Motherboard.