(image source: lidiia, via Adobe Stock)
Victims of abusive relationships are all-too-familiar with stalkerware — spyware sometimes used by abusers to track their victims' conversations and locations. Eva Galperin, who heads the Threat Labs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been pressing antivirus companies to treat stalkerware as a serious problem for some time.
Now she's finally seeing progress. Last week, EFF and nine other organizations united to launch the new Coalition Against Stalkerware, which aims to spread awareness and help affected victims.
"Our goal is to have a definition, standards for detection, and to get AV companies to change the norms of how this software is treated," says Galperin.
This is just one of the ways Galperin has used her security knowledge to assist vulnerable populations. She is an outspoken advocate for using security for altruistic purposes. To put it simply: hacking for the greater good.
"Hacking is curiosity," she says. "It is the act of taking things apart and seeing how they work. Ideally this is followed by putting something back together so it can work better. [That] can apply to a product – but it can also apply to societal issues. It does not need to be confined to an office."
Security professionals are needed and should feel called on to use their experience to help others and impact larger societal issues ..
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