[liberationtech] This week's Stanford cyber reading

[Yosem Companys]

The Tools and Tactics Used in Intimate Partner Surveillance: An Analysis of
Online Infidelity Forums

Abusers increasingly use spyware apps, account compromise, and social
engineering to surveil their intimate partners, causing substantial harms
that can culminate in violence. This form of privacy violation, termed
intimate partner surveillance(IPS), is a profoundly challenging problem to
address due to the physical access and trust present in the relationship
be-tween the target and attacker. While previous research has examined IPS
from the perspectives of survivors, we present the first measurement study
of online forums in which (potential) attackers discuss IPS strategies and
techniques. In domains such as cybercrime, child abuse, and human
trafficking, studying the online behaviors of perpetrators has led to
better threat intelligence and techniques to combat attacks. We aim to
provide similar insights in the context of IPS. We identified five online
forums containing discussion of monitoring cellphones and other means of
surveilling an intimate partner, including three within the context of
investigating relationship infidelity. We perform a mixed-methods analysis
of these forums, surfacing the tools and tactics that attackers use to
perform surveillance. Via qualitative analysis of forum content, we present
a taxonomy of IPS strategies used and recommended by attackers, and
synthesize lessons for technologists seeking to curb the spread of IPS.

https://www.usenix.org/system/files/sec20-tseng.pdf
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