Welcome to day two of our Christmas CyberSecurity Tips – today our tips relate to Mobile malware and Smishing:
Mobile malware
Probably the one piece of technology that gets the most amount of use over the festive period, is the mobile phone.
Unfortunately, it’s not much safer than desktops or tablets thanks to the enormous rise in mobile malware.
As Lukáš Stefanko, malware researcher at ESET, recently said: “Mobile malware is a huge problem. [Because] users have more personal and sensitive information on their smart devices, including text messages, contacts, photos, emails etc, [they are increasingly under threat].”
Christmas CyberSecurity Tip #3: Keep your phone and other mobile devices up to date, run a mobile antimalware solution if you’re on Android. There is no equivalent program for iPhone/iPad. 🙁
Smishing
Many of us are well-aware of phishing attempts via email but have you heard about phishing attempts over SMS? This less talked about variant of phishing via SMS is known as ‘smishing’ sometimes also known referred to as ‘SMSishing’.
Typically, you’ll receive an SMS apparently from a trusted source – like Apple or a friend – advising you to click on a link and enter some type of personal details. However, that SMS is forged and not from that trusted source at all.
Earlier in the year, there was a large amount of Apple ID smishing – for an example, with screenshots, view the We Live Security blog article.
Christmas CyberSecurity Tip #4: Links within SMS messages can be hard to check out – if links use a shortener service, do not trust them. If in doubt, CALL the supposed source. Report all smishing to your mobile provider, do not just delete and ignore them. Being active in reporting these attacks helps the mobile provider to block further malicious SMS messages and might save someone else from getting caught out!