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Get a Demo5 Types of Smishing Attacks and 5 Ways to Prevent Them
August 5, 2024
Last Updated:
August 28, 2024
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What Is Smishing (SMS Phishing)?
Smishing, or SMS phishing, is a type of malicious attack delivered via text messages aiming to deceive recipients into revealing personal information, such as passwords or credit card numbers. Typically posing as urgent communications from reputable sources, these messages often contain links that, when clicked, install malware or redirect to phishing sites.
Unlike email-based phishing, smishing exploits the widespread use of mobile phones and exploits a sense of immediacy prompted by the SMS format. These attacks capitalize on the trust that users place in text messaging as a direct and personal communication method.
Because individuals tend to react quickly to text messages, especially from seemingly legitimate sources, smishing schemes have a notably high success rate. This form of attack continues to evolve, adopting increasingly sophisticated techniques to bypass conventional security measures.
This is part of a series of articles about cybersecurity.
The Risks of Smishing Attacks
Smishing poses significant risks, including the potential for massive personal and financial information loss. Attackers use this gathered data for identity theft, unauthorized transactions, and gaining further access to victims’ networks.
Beyond individual impacts, smishing can compromise entire business networks if employees inadvertently disclose credentials or other sensitive company information. This can lead to broader security breaches, operational disruptions, and substantial financial losses. The pervasive nature of mobile channels also complicates tracking and mitigating these attacks.
How Smishing Attacks Work
Initially, attackers craft a deceptive text message, often impersonating a trusted entity like a bank, social media platform, or government agency. The message usually contains urgent language prompting the recipient to take immediate action, such as verifying account information, confirming a transaction, or solving a supposed security issue.
Once the recipient engages with the message by clicking on a link or providing requested information, several outcomes are possible. The link may direct the recipient to a phishing website designed to harvest sensitive data like usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers. Alternatively, it might prompt the download of malicious software, which can steal information directly from the device, monitor user activity, or provide remote access to the attacker.
In some cases, the text message includes a phone number to call. This number connects the victim to a fraudulent call center where attackers posing as customer service representatives solicit confidential information or direct victims to install malware.
Tips From the Expert
In my experience, here are tips that can help you better defend against smishing attacks:
- Implement SMS filtering rules
Use security software that supports custom filtering rules for SMS messages. Set rules to automatically flag or block messages containing specific keywords associated with common smishing tactics. - Monitor unusual data patterns on mobile networks
Continuously monitor for unusual outbound data patterns on your organization’s mobile network, which may indicate a compromised device sending sensitive data to an attacker. - Employ SIM-based authentication for critical operations
Integrate SIM-based authentication (e.g., SIM swapping protection) for performing critical actions, ensuring that even if an attacker has device control, they can’t easily exploit it for financial gains or unauthorized access. - Enhance URL verification techniques
Implement enhanced URL verification that checks the legitimacy of domains at the DNS level before users can interact with them. This adds another layer of protection beyond simple link scanning. - Isolate SMS traffic in a secure container
For corporate devices, isolate SMS and other messaging apps in a secure container that limits their access to sensitive data and prevents unauthorized data transmission if compromised.
Smishing vs. Phishing vs. Vishing
Smishing, phishing, and vishing are all forms of social engineering attacks, each exploiting different communication channels.
Smishing targets users through text messages. It leverages the personal and urgent nature of SMS to prompt quick responses, often resulting in the immediate compromise of personal data.
Phishing is the original technique that uses email to deceive recipients. These emails often contain links to fake websites or attachments that install malware. Phishing campaigns usually target a large number of recipients in hopes that a few will fall for the scam.
Vishing (voice phishing) involves phone calls. Attackers impersonate legitimate entities, such as banks or government agencies, and use social engineering techniques to extract sensitive information. Vishing can be particularly convincing as it involves real-time interaction, making it harder for victims to discern the deception.
Related content: Read our guide to anti phishing (coming soon)
5 Types of Smishing Attacks
Here are five common attack vectors that include smishing attacks.
1. Account Verification Scams
Account verification scams mimic communications from known services like social networks or email providers. Victims receive texts urging them to verify their accounts by clicking on a provided link. These links lead to fake login pages that harvest user credentials.
2. Tech Support Scams
Tech support scams inform recipients that a virus or another issue has been detected on their device. The message typically instructs the user to install an app to fix the problem, leading to malware installation. Alternatively, it may direct them to a fake support hotline that requests remote access to the device. Victims, believing they are addressing a genuine security concern, unknowingly grant cybercriminals the means to infiltrate their devices.
3. Bank Fraud Alerts
In bank fraud alert smishing, attackers send messages posing as financial institutions, warning of suspicious account activity. The text prompts recipients to verify their identity by following a link, which again leads to a fraudulent website to capture banking credentials. These scams exploit the trust customers place in their banks to protect their financial assets, making the urgency to respond seem justified.
4. Prize or Reward Scams
Prize or reward scams promise unexpected rewards or contest winnings, asking recipients to click a link to claim their prize. These links lead to phishing sites where personal details are harvested under the guise of verifying the recipient’s identity to release the prize. The attractive nature of receiving a reward makes this type of smishing particularly effective.
5. Service Cancellation
Service cancellation smishing scams tell recipients that a subscription or service will be canceled unless they take immediate action. The provided link directs them to a site where sensitive details, like payment information, are requested allegedly to prevent the cancellation.
How to Prevent Smishing Attacks
There are several measures that can help protect individuals and organizations from smishing attacks.
1. Exercise Vigilance and Skepticism
Preventing smishing requires constant vigilance. Be skeptical of unsolicited messages, especially those that press for immediate action. Verify the authenticity of any message by contacting the purported sender through official channels, not by phone numbers or links provided in the message itself.
Educating employees about the typical features of smishing can also help them avoid scams. Recognizing the patterns, like urgent requests or offers too good to be true, can be an effective defense against SMS-based deception.
2. Use Multi-Factor Authentication
Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) can significantly reduce the risk of smishing, as it adds a layer of security beyond just the password. Even if a smishing attack obtains an individual’s password, the additional authentication factor can prevent unauthorized access.
Organizations should enforce MFA wherever possible, particularly in accessing email, social media, and financial accounts. This practice secures individual accounts and provides additional defenses against potential data breaches throughout the network.
3. Install Anti-Phishing and Smishing Tools
Using anti-phishing tools and security software that includes smishing protection can help block malicious messages and alert users to potential threats. Many of these tools analyze incoming messages for known phishing links or suspicious phrases, providing an automatic layer of protection.
Regular updates to these tools are important as attackers continuously develop new tactics. Keeping the software up-to-date ensures that the latest threats are known and guarded against by these protective technologies.
4. Conduct Simulated Smishing Tests
Organizations can conduct simulated smishing tests to gauge employee readiness and educate them on recognizing smishing attempts. These controlled exercises demonstrate typical attack vectors and help in assessing the current stance of the workforce against such threats.
Feedback from these simulations can guide further training programs, strengthening the overall security posture of the organization against actual smishing attacks.
5. Conduct Security Awareness Training
Security awareness training programs should include comprehensive sections on recognizing smishing and other forms of social engineering attacks. Regular training sessions can improve individuals’ ability to identify and appropriately respond to such threats.
Training should be continuous, adaptive to new threats, and include practical examples. This provides employees and individuals with knowledge and strategies to protect themselves and their organizations from smishing attacks.
Email Security with Cynet
Cynet Email Security is a holistic security solution that provides mail protection for Cloud Email Gateways. It combines a variety of capabilities including attachment and URL scanning to ensure your inbox stays safe, real-time link protection which allows scanning the original target in real-time each visit, attachment extension filtering to block risky attachments and avoid malware disguised as harmless files, and policy controls letting you block what’s bad and allow what’s trusted using customizable allowlists and blocklists.
Cynet Email Security provides the following capabilities:
- Automatically configure your Office365 gateway to be used with Cynet Email.
- Email attachment protection.
- Email link protection (including real-time checking of link targets when you open them).
- Tag emails that were sent from a domain that doesn’t match the administrator’s Office365 domain as External emails. You can also add domains that you consider “safe” and don’t need to be tagged as external.
- Create allowlists and blocklists for emails using the following parameters:
- Domain (URL)
- Sender email
- Recipient email
- File SHA256
Mobile Security with Cynet
Cynet Mobile protects users against both mobile-based phishing and smishing attacks by identifying phishing attempts with 99.99% accuracy, including zero-day phishing attacks. Cynet Mobile is able to detect malicious domains in a zero-day fashion, without any external indicator.
The Cynet Mobile machine learning engine proactively stops these links and renders these attacks completely ineffective. Moreover, this is performed without requiring any engine or heuristics database file update and is effective even for devices using our ‘on-device’ only phishing solution.
In addition, Cynet provides cutting edge capabilities:
- Advanced endpoint threat detection—full visibility and predicts how an attacker might operate, based on continuous monitoring of endpoints and behavioral analysis.
- Investigation and validation—search and review historic or current incident data on endpoints, investigate threats, and validate alerts. This allows you to confirm the threat before responding to it, reducing dwell-time and performing faster remediation.
- Rapid deployment and response—deploy across thousands of endpoints within two hours. You can then use it to perform automatic or manual remediation of threats on the endpoints, disrupt malicious activity and minimize damage caused by attacks.
Learn more about the Cynet security platform.