According to the report of GSMA, an organization dedicated to the analysis of the mobile market worldwide, between March and December 2010, 70% of spam by messages from...
Threats to mobile devices are constantly growing, as we had already announced when forecasting the 2011 trends with the ESET Latin America Laboratory team. This time, a new external report brings us new evidence about the growth of a particular threat: computer fraud, or scam.According to the report of GSMA, an organization dedicated to the analysis of the mobile market worldwide, between March and December 2010, 70% of spam by mobile text messages (SMS) is financial fraud. That is to say, the use of unsolicited messages to propagate advertisements has declined, to the benefit of the use of these resources for criminal purposes.
While one in ten SMS spams were of adult or pornographic content, as already mentioned, most of these corresponded to fraud attacks, which according to the report can be grouped into three categories:
Faced with this threat, it is recommended that users be aware of the links in the text messages received on their cell phones, and can use anti-spam tools, as well as take into account good security practices on mobile devices. The combination of technologies and education is, as in everything related to security, the key to success, to prevent against these threats.As mobile devices are very personal means, SMS spam feels more personal, and users are often tricked into falling victim to fraud or other attacks.
The mobile community is working on eradicating this threat, [...] and proactively controlling SMS spam, operators will be able to have a better relationship with their customers.
Source: ESET Latin America
