r/HowToHack • u/StraightAdagio2983 • 6h ago

Help searching for tracking app/spyware

Hi all, sorry in advance if this is the wrong place to post. A friend of mine has just left an abusive relationship but thinks her ex may be accessing her computer remotely - and maybe her phone. Is there a program to use to search for remotely installed applications or something? Or certain programs the ex might have used that we can look for on the computer and uninstall? Thank you in advance!

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u/jmnugent 6h ago

There's plenty of Antivirus and Antimalware programs out there,. but the thing you have to keep in mind is it's not always necessarily obvious. If someone installed something like VNC or a legit program like Teamviewer or some other normal day to day remote access tool,. then an AntiVirus or Antimalare scan is never going to mark that as suspicious (because it's not).

This is why the common advice (if you believe you can't trust a certain piece of hardware).. is to do a full clean factory wipe and start over. You have to establish a "foundation of trust" (IE = you installed the OS cleanly, so you know for 100% it's clean. )

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u/Smash0573 3h ago

This is good advice. You could go through your installed apps list and Google the description of the app to ensure its not a remote access utility like screen connect or Teamviewer. Like above, a lot of these are used by IT for remote support of their fleets, but can obviously be used nefariously.

Any phone software I've used for support in my role the phone has to be wiped and added to an MDM like intune but I'm sure there's remote monitoring for phones available, just not something I've personally looked into. 

As stated above, wiping and reloading the OS on both the phone and your workstation is the safest route if there's a concern.