The role of empathy in the fight against stalkerware

In today’s social media-dominated world, the word stalking has been flipped to mean being harmlessly followed online, getting a ‘like’, getting a retweet, having your profile viewed constantly, among others. In fact, some even see it as a good thing because it shows how interesting one’s life is. But, that’s just one side of the coin.The other side is dark. Stalkers use technology to abuse their victims emotionally by tracking and controlling their every move  – everyone they call, text, or share intimate details with. It's a tactic abusers use to scare, deter, control, or hurt people by stripping off their privacy.While it may start off as harmless in many cases, the ending can turn out very violent as we’ve seen in many cases. And by this, I mean kidnappings, domestic abuse, extortion, and exposing private information, among others.However, there are solutions that can prevent unauthorized access to personal devices or alert you if you were already being spied on. Our guest today is Eva Galperin, Director of Cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founder of the Coalition Against Stalkerware. Inspired by victims who reached out for help, Eva has been helping people identify and secure their devices against stalkaware applications.In this episode, you’ll hear about who uses stalkerware and why – and what is being done to keep our devices secure from this kind of tracking and intrusion. You’ll also learn more about the people working behind the scenes to help victims and prevent future attacks. Additionally, you’ll get straightforward examples of howempathy gives cyber security a higher and even more important role than you realize it has.In this episode, you will learn:How empathy for victims determined Eva to advocate for stalkerware detection, removal, and blocking (01:11)The people that Eva works with and their contribution to helping those most vulnerable (06:27)A personal experience that led Eva to analyze and fight against stalkerware (10:12)How she approaches the stalkerware conversation when talking to non-technical people (18:45)Resources: Wired.com (Stalkerware article)Coalition Against StalkerwareElectronic Frontier FoundationTech Crunch (Stalkerware article)Helping Her Get Free: A Guide for Families and Friends of Abused Women (Book)The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Book)Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men (Book)APT - Advanced persistent threat (Concept definition)PCAP - Packet Capture (Concept definition)Forensic analysis (Article)Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announcement for stronger privacy  (Article)Connect with Eva:WebsiteTwitterConnect with Dave:WebsiteLinkedInTwitterConnect with Andra:WebsiteLinkedInTwitter