Stalkerware-type detections hit record high in 2021, but fell in second half

After having tracked stalkerware for years, Malwarebytes can reveal that in 2021, detections for apps that can non-consensually monitor another person’s activity reached their highest peak ever, but that, amidst the record-setting numbers, the volume of detections actually began to significantly decrease in the second half of the year.

This decrease in stalkerware-type activity never reached the lower levels in 2019 that Malwarebytes recorded before the start of the global coronavirus pandemic, which was recognized in 2020 and which spread quickly across the globe beginning in the months of February, March, and April. During that year, it appeared as though the increase in physical, regional lockdowns coincided with the increase in detections of stalkerware-type apps, which Malwarebytes records as “Monitor” and “Spyware.”

Documented to have a clear intersection with situations of domestic abuse, it was not only stalkerware-type activity that increased during the global pandemic, but also cases of domestic abuse as reported by state and federal prosecutors and by shelters.

In 2021, Malwarebytes recorded a total of 54,677 detections of Android monitor apps and 1,106 detections of Android spyware apps. This represents a 4.2 percent increase in monitor detections and a 7.2 percent increase in spyware detections year-on-year, making 2021 even worse than 2020, and the worst year for stalkerware so far.

However, although the overall numbers are up, detections have taken an unmistakable downward turn since the peak of May and June 2020.

In the second half of 2021, average monthly detections for monitor apps fell by 39 percent, to just 3,459 detections per month, compared to an average of 5,654 detections per month in the first half of 2021. The same trend happened with spyware too: Average monthly detections fell by 20 percent in the second half of the year compared to the first half.

What’s at play here?

When stalkerware saw its distressing uptick in 2020, Malwarebytes, in consultation with other domestic abuse support networks, hypothesized that the increased stalkerware activity came about because of the real-world physical restrictions put in place to combat COVID-19 around the world. The increase was also detected by other members of the Coalition Against Stalkerware, and coincided with news reports of increased calls to domestic abuse agencies.

In 2021, many governments loosened their coronavirus restrictions, allowing the public to mix and travel more freely. And, just as the sudden increase in stalkerware detections mirrored the sudden, mass imposition of restrictions, the gradual decline in detections appears to reflect their gradual easing.

The tidal wave of stalkerware in 2020 also led to increased awareness of the stalkerware problem, which turned into action in 2021. Last year the Federal Trade Commission issued its second-ever enforcement action against a stalkerware developer, and Google removed several ads that promoted stalkerware.

The decline in stalkerware is welcome, but the causes for it are not clear and it is too early to celebrate. It is increasingly easy for abusers to monitor their targets using off-the-shelf technology designed for other purposes. Abusers may simply have turned to other forms of technology as stalkerware became more widely detected. Or they may have returned to previous patterns of control and abuse as restrictions eased.

Thankfully, the Coalition Against Stalkerware continued to grow in 2021, increasing its contributors and accepting more expertise so as to expand its stalkerware detection threat list, which antivirus vendors can use to improve their own detection tools. As a founding member, Malwarebytes will continue to share intelligence with the Coalition Against Stalkerware to improve industry-wide detections while also guiding the domestic abuse support networks within the coalition through thorny, technical questions of detection, removal, and prevention.

You can read more interesting stats from the last year in the Malwarebytes 2022 Threat Review.

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