Private Chats, Photos of Celebs Exposed in Suspected Stalkerware Leak

Key Points:

• Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered a massive leak of 86,859 private photos, screenshots, and messages linked to a prominent European celebrity and several social media influencers, stored in an unprotected public database.
• The leak included data captured via stalkerware—spyware secretly installed on victims' phones—that recorded private chats from apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, along with sensitive information such as phone numbers, email addresses, and ID documents.
• Fowler suspects the stalkerware operator failed to secure the storage folder with a password, allowing anyone with internet access and knowledge of misconfigured servers to retrieve the private files.
• Stalkerware operates covertly, enabling attackers to monitor GPS location, read texts, and activate cameras or microphones, often requiring only brief physical access to the victim’s device for installation.
• Fowler advises users to watch for signs of spyware infection such as rapid battery drain or overheating, use strong passwords, avoid unsupervised phone access, and if infected, check for suspicious apps, run antivirus scans, review device permissions, and perform a factory reset.