There’s a entire shady trade for individuals who need to monitor and spy on their households. A number of app makers market their software program — typically known as stalkerware — to jealous companions who can use these apps to entry their victims’ telephones remotely.
But, regardless of how delicate this information is, an growing variety of these firms are shedding large quantities of it.
Based on TechCrunch’s tally, counting the most recent information breach of SpyX, there have been at the least 25 stalkerware firms since 2017 which might be recognized to have been hacked, or leaked buyer and victims’ information on-line. That’s not a typo: Not less than 25 stalkerware firms have both been hacked or had a major information publicity lately. And 4 stalkerware firms had been hacked a number of occasions.
SpyX is the most recent stalkerware supplier reported this 12 months to have been breached, though the breach itself dates again to mid-2024. The breach reveals that the SpyX household of apps compromised the personal cellphone information of virtually two million victims on the time of its breach.
The SpyX breach comes after the information exposures of Spyzie, Cocospy, and Spyic surveillance operations that left messages, photographs, name logs, and different private and delicate information of tens of millions of victims uncovered on-line, in keeping with a safety researcher who discovered a bug that allowed them to entry that information.
Previous to this 12 months, there have been at the least 4 huge stalkerware hacks in 2024. The final stalkerware breach in 2024 affected Spytech, a little-known adware maker based mostly in Minnesota, which uncovered exercise logs from the telephones, tablets, and computer systems monitored with its adware. Earlier than that, there was a breach at mSpy, one of many longest-running stalkerware apps, which uncovered tens of millions of buyer assist tickets, which included the non-public information of tens of millions of its clients.
Beforehand, an unknown hacker broke into the servers of the U.S.-based stalkerware maker pcTattletale. The hacker then stole and leaked the corporate’s inner information. In addition they defaced pcTattletale’s official web site with the objective of embarrassing the corporate. The hacker referred to a current TechCrunch article the place we reported pcTattletale was used to observe a number of entrance desk check-in computer systems at a U.S. lodge chain.
Because of this hack, leak and disgrace operation, pcTattletale founder Bryan Fleming mentioned he was shutting down his firm.
Client adware apps like SpyX, Cocospy, mSpy and pcTattletale are generally known as “stalkerware” (or spouseware) as a result of jealous spouses and companions use them to surreptitiously monitor and surveil their family members.
These firms typically explicitly market their merchandise as options to catch dishonest companions by encouraging unlawful and unethical conduct. And there have been a number of court docket circumstances, journalistic investigations and surveys of home abuse shelters that present that on-line stalking and monitoring can result in circumstances of real-world hurt and violence.
And that’s why hackers have repeatedly focused a few of these firms.
Eva Galperin, the director of cybersecurity on the Digital Frontier Basis and a number one researcher and activist who has investigated and fought stalkerware for years, mentioned the stalkerware trade is a “delicate goal.”
“The individuals who run these firms are maybe not essentially the most scrupulous or actually involved concerning the high quality of their product,” Galperin advised TechCrunch.
Given the historical past of stalkerware compromises, that could be an understatement. And due to the dearth of care for safeguarding their very own clients — and consequently the non-public information of tens of 1000’s of unwitting victims — utilizing these apps is doubly irresponsible. The stalkerware clients could also be breaking the legislation, abusing their companions by illegally spying on them, and, on high of that, placing everybody’s information at risk.
A historical past of stalkerware hacks
The flurry of stalkerware breaches started in 2017 when a bunch of hackers breached the U.S.-based Retina-X and the Thailand-based FlexiSpy again to again. These two hacks revealed that the businesses had a complete variety of 130,000 clients all around the world.
On the time, the hackers who — proudly — claimed duty for the compromises explicitly mentioned their motivations had been to reveal and hopefully assist destroy an trade that they contemplate poisonous and unethical.
“I’m going to burn them to the bottom, and depart completely nowhere for any of them to cover,” one of many hackers concerned then advised Motherboard.
Referring to FlexiSpy, the hacker added: “I hope they’ll collapse and fail as an organization, and have a while to replicate on what they did. Nonetheless, I worry they could attempt to give start to themselves once more in a brand new type. But when they do, I’ll be there.”
Regardless of the hack, and years of damaging public consideration, FlexiSpy remains to be energetic right this moment. The identical can’t be mentioned about Retina-X.
The hacker who broke into Retina-X wiped its servers with the objective of hampering its operations. The corporate bounced again — after which it acquired hacked once more a 12 months later. A few weeks after the second breach, Retina-X introduced that it was shutting down.
Simply days after the second Retina-X breach, hackers hit Mobistealth and Spy Grasp Professional, stealing gigabytes of buyer and enterprise data, in addition to victims’ intercepted messages and exact GPS areas. One other stalkerware vendor, the India-based SpyHuman, encountered the identical destiny just a few months later, with hackers stealing textual content messages and name metadata, which contained logs of who referred to as who and when.
Weeks later, there was the primary case of unintended information publicity, somewhat than a hack. SpyFone left an Amazon-hosted S3 storage bucket unprotected on-line, which meant anybody may see and obtain textual content messages, photographs, audio recordings, contacts, location, scrambled passwords and login data, Fb messages and extra. All that information was stolen from victims, most of whom didn’t know they had been being spied on, not to mention know their most delicate private information was additionally on the web for all to see.
Different stalkerware firms that over time have irresponsibly left buyer and victims’ information on-line are FamilyOrbit, which left 281 gigabytes of private information on-line protected solely by an easy-to-find password; mSpy, which leaked over 2 million buyer data in 2018; Xnore, which let any of its clients see the non-public information of different clients’ targets, which included chat messages, GPS coordinates, emails, photographs and extra; MobiiSpy, which left 25,000 audio recordings and 95,000 pictures on a server accessible to anybody; KidsGuard, which had a misconfigured server that leaked victims’ content material; pcTattletale, which previous to its hack additionally uncovered screenshots of victims’ units uploaded in actual time to a web site that anybody may entry; and Xnspy, whose builders left credentials and personal keys left within the apps’ code, permitting anybody to entry victims’ information; and now Spyzie, Cocospy and Spyic, which left victims’ messages, photographs, name logs, and different private information, in addition to clients’ e mail addresses, uncovered on-line.
So far as different stalkerware firms that really acquired hacked, other than SpyX, there was Copy9, which noticed a hacker steal the information of all its surveillance targets, together with textual content messages and WhatsApp messages, name recordings, photographs, contacts, and brows historical past; LetMeSpy, which shut down after hackers breached and wiped its servers; the Brazil-based WebDetetive, which additionally acquired its servers wiped, and then hacked once more; OwnSpy, which gives a lot of the back-end software program for WebDetetive, additionally acquired hacked; Spyhide, which had a vulnerability in its code that allowed a hacker to entry the back-end databases and years of stolen round 60,000 victims’ information; Oospy, which was a rebrand of Spyhide, shut down for a second time; and the most recent mSpy hack, which is unrelated to the beforehand talked about leak.
Lastly there may be TheTruthSpy, a community of stalkerware apps, which holds the doubtful document of getting been hacked or having leaked information on at the least three separate events.
Hacked, however unrepented
Of those 25 stalkerware firms, eight have shut down, in keeping with TechCrunch’s tally.
In a primary and to date distinctive case, the Federal Commerce Fee banned SpyFone and its chief government, Scott Zuckerman, from working within the surveillance trade following an earlier safety lapse that uncovered victims’ information. One other stalkerware operation linked to Zuckerman, referred to as SpyTrac, subsequently shut down following a TechCrunch investigation.
PhoneSpector and Highster, one other two firms that aren’t recognized to have been hacked, additionally shut down after New York’s lawyer normal accused the businesses of explicitly encouraging clients to make use of their software program for unlawful surveillance.
However an organization closing doesn’t imply it’s gone ceaselessly. As with Spyhide and SpyFone, among the identical house owners and builders behind a shuttered stalkerware maker merely rebranded.
“I do assume that these hacks do issues. They do accomplish issues, they do put a dent in it,” Galperin mentioned. “However if you happen to assume that if you happen to hack a stalkerware firm, that they may merely shake their fists, curse your identify, disappear in a puff of blue smoke and by no means be seen once more, that has most positively not been the case.”
“What occurs most frequently, while you truly handle to kill a stalkerware firm, is that the stalkerware firm comes up like mushrooms after the rain,” Galperin added.
There may be some excellent news. In a report final 12 months, safety agency Malwarebytes mentioned that using stalkerware is declining, in keeping with its personal information of shoppers contaminated with such a software program. Additionally, Galperin studies seeing a rise in damaging opinions of those apps, with clients or potential clients complaining they don’t work as meant.
However, Galperin mentioned that it’s doable that safety companies aren’t pretty much as good at detecting stalkerware as they was, or stalkers have moved from software-based surveillance to bodily surveillance enabled by AirTags and different Bluetooth-enabled trackers.
“Stalkerware doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Stalkerware is an element of a complete world of tech-enabled abuse,” Galperin mentioned.
Say no to stalkerware
Utilizing adware to observe your family members isn’t solely unethical, it’s additionally unlawful in most jurisdictions, because it’s thought-about illegal surveillance.
That’s already a major motive to not use stalkerware. Then there may be the problem that stalkerware makers have confirmed time and time once more that they can’t maintain information safe — neither information belonging to the purchasers nor their victims or targets.
Aside from spying on romantic companions and spouses, some folks use stalkerware apps to observe their youngsters. Whereas such a use, at the least in america, is authorized, it doesn’t imply utilizing stalkerware to snoop in your children’ cellphone isn’t creepy and unethical.
Even when it’s lawful, Galperin thinks dad and mom mustn’t spy on their youngsters with out telling them, and with out their consent.
If dad and mom do inform their youngsters and get their go-ahead, dad and mom ought to keep away from insecure and untrustworthy stalkerware apps, and use parental monitoring instruments constructed into Apple telephones and tablets and Android units which might be safer and function overtly.
Recap of breaches and leaks
Right here’s the entire checklist of stalkerware firms which have been hacked or have leaked delicate information since 2017, in chronological order:
Up to date on March 19, 2025, to incorporate SpyX as the most recent breach of a stalkerware supplier.
In the event you or somebody you recognize wants assist, the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) gives 24/7 free, confidential assist to victims of home abuse and violence. In case you are in an emergency state of affairs, name 911. The Coalition Towards Stalkerware has assets if you happen to assume your cellphone has been compromised by adware.
