From research to expanding our product portfolio, Avast has taken important steps throughout 2020 in support of privacy and data protection
2020 has been an odd year, to say the least. But one thing has stayed familiar: As we’ve moved more aspects of life online, cybersecurity and privacy threats have adapted to the new normal. We’ve seen an increase in phishing and credential-stuffing attacks, as well as the growth of both legitimate and illegitimate Covid-19 related apps and databases containing sensitive personal data, such as location and medical data.
With security and privacy software on over 400 million devices — and with a long history of combating cyber threats — Avast is particularly well positioned to respond to these emerging and growing threats. An increased amount of personal data is being collected in tandem with the higher rates of remote working, contact tracing and online shopping. This leads to an increased risk of personal data breaches, online scams, and abusive practices like digital stalking.
The use of ‘stalkerware’ – software running in the background on a device that can track people’s actions – has increased significantly during the pandemic. In July 2019, Google pulled eight such apps from the Play Store following research by Avast. Using our mobile threat detection platform apklab.io, Avast was able to identify eight malicious stalkerware apps and worked with Google to remove them from the Play Store. This year, we published guidance on privacy pandemic avast
