Remove stalkerware from your PC

ACCORDING TO KASPERSKY’S LATEST ‘State of Stalkerware’ report, over 40 percent of those surveyed worldwide said they’d experienced stalking or suspected that they were being stalked.

- NATE DRAKE

YOU'LL NEED THIS

A WINDOWS PC

Stalkerware is a form of spyware, which is used by bad actors like domestic abusers to monitor people’s devices without their knowledge. While it’s most commonly found on mobile devices to harvest information like GPS data, your PC can also be infected.

Keyloggers, which silently record your keyboard activity, are a good example. Other forms of stalkerware may monitor your personal files, or even spy on you via your webcam.

Stalkerware is difficult to remove, as it’s deliberately designed to disguise itself as a legitimate program or system process.

In this guide, you’ll discover how to reboot your machine to safe mode, so the stalkerware can’t execute. You’ll also discover how to prevent it from launching, as well as how to remove malicious files from your web browser and system cache.

1 PLAYING IT SAFE

If you suspect that your machine has been infected, restart it immediately. On the sign-in screen, hold Shift to restart again. Next, choose ‘Troubleshoot’ > ‘Advanced Options’ > ‘Startup Settings’ > ‘Restart’. Tap ‘4’ to boot into safe mode.

» This mode starts with a minimal set of applications and drivers. This means that stalkerware can’t interfere with your attempts to remove it.

» It’s unlikely that malware will hide anywhere obvious, but to be on the safe side, type ‘Installed apps’ into the search bar to view the relevant section in Windows settings. Click the … options icon, and uninstall any you don’t recognize.

» Next, enter ‘startup’ into the search bar to view ‘Startup Apps’. Click the rocker switch to deactivate any unwanted programs.

» Malware can also use registry entries to launch undetected on startup. Enter ‘regedit’ into the search bar to open the Registry Editor.