Despite SMS’s widespread use and popularity, it is susceptible to a range of attacks including phishing, smishing, SIM swapping, and SMS pumping. As such, businesses need to implement robust security measures for SMS, including smart bot management solutions along with end-to-end encryption, secure transmission protocols and other complementary security technologies.

SMS threat detection service involves attackers posing as legitimate business organizations that recipients know, such as their banks or their mobile provider. They trick victims into clicking a link, directing them to a fake website to gather sensitive information such as login credentials, credit card details or social security numbers. The attackers may also try to download malware onto the victim’s device and steal data from them directly.

Other threats include spoofing the sender ID of an SMS message and directing victims to a fake website or other malicious application to acquire personal or financial information. Other tactics such as SMS toll fraud, where attackers exploit a business’s SMS workflows to trigger massive volumes of SMS messages that terminate on premium rate numbers, and then collide with rogue MNOs to share in the illicit revenues, can cause serious financial losses for businesses that cannot afford the telecom charges.

With SMS threat detection service, business can protect their users against these types of attacks, without imposing undue friction for genuine customers. For example, using smart SMS threat detection, it’s possible to enable MFA with SMS for enhanced security and provide a second factor of authentication that uses an app-based authenticator or hardware token, removing the need for SMS codes or OTPs. It’s also possible to implement time limits for code or OTPs sent through SMS so that they expire within a short period, mitigating the risk of intercepted or stolen code.