Tech-enabled abuse involves harassment, stalking, impersonation, and monitoring through digital platforms. Often unnoticed due to lack of physical evidence and normalized online behavior, it remains under-recognized. Awareness efforts, including UCL’s Tech Abuse Conference and Kaspersky’s workshops, aim to address this gap, a press release said.
“Technology-enabled abuse is still not widely recognised as a distinct category of harm, in part because there is no shared understanding of what it includes, which this study vividly highlights. This lack of clarity means many experiences go unnamed, unreported, and unsupported. Without a common framework, it remains difficult to measure the scale of the problem or respond to it effectively”, says Dr Leonie Maria Tanczer, Associate Professor at UCL Computer Science and Head of the Department’s Gender and Tech Research Lab.
A Kaspersky study found 32% understand tech-facilitated abuse, while 45.7% have experienced it, showing a major awareness gap. Victims often face multiple abuse types, including exclusion, harassment, stalking, and doxxing. Stalkerware remains a growing global threat affecting thousands worldwide.
“Stalkerware, which can be easily downloaded and installed by anyone with an internet connection, allows perpetrators to remotely access a victim’s smartphone from anywhere. Since the software operates in the background without being visible, most victims remain completely unaware that their every move and action is being monitored. That’s why it is highly important to know how to identify such activity and what to do if users suspect stalking activity against them,” says Tatyana Shishkova, Lead Security Researcher, Acting Head of Research Center Americas & Europe at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT).
Read the full report here: https://lp.kaspersky.com/global/tech-enabled-abuse-1
Kaspersky co-founded the Coalition Against Stalkerware, uniting tech firms, NGOs, researchers, and law enforcement to combat cyberstalking. At the 2026 UCL Tech Abuse Conference, it will run a hands-on workshop on detecting stalkerware. Guidance includes using security tools, checking warning signs, and seeking safe support before removing threats.
