Advanced Real-time URL Filtering for Smishing Protection
Real-time URL filtering for text messages is essential for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) providers to maintain compliance and safeguard subscribers. Detecting malicious links in text messages is critical for smishing protection and is an essential feature of any messaging firewall.
Highlights
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Blocks smishing messages in real-time
The Adaptive Messaging Firewall effectively blocks or flags messages containing URLs classified as malicious by its real-time URL analysis.
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Catches “zero-day” scams
The firewall can detect even previously unseen malicious URLs within milliseconds, enabling it to block messages containing “zero-day” smishing links.
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Protects privacy
Privacy is safeguarded because no human intervention is involved, and no data has to be sent off-site for the URL analysis.
Smishing Detection and the Race Against Spammers
Smishing (from “SMS phishing”) is a type of cyberattack where criminals use fraudulent text messages to trick individuals into clicking malicious links or revealing sensitive information. This tactic is becoming increasingly concerning, as spammers are opting for text messaging over traditional email as their preferred method of communication. For Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) providers, implementing effective smishing protection is crucial to ensure compliance and maintain subscriber satisfaction.
However, spammers mimic legitimate messages to lend credibility to their scams, which makes it challenging to detect smishing attempts using only text-based filtering. Most smishing messages contain a URL that can be analyzed to detect smishing attempts.
Spammers often create new phishing URLs to sustain their smishing operations. As malicious URLs are identified and added to lists of known phishing links, they become blocked by browsers and firewalls. Once a URL is recognized as a phishing link, its effectiveness for the spammers diminishes. But spammers exploit this reactive approach by rapidly and programmatically generating new URLs and domains for their malicious activities, allowing them to bypass existing filters. The brief period until a newly created URL is identified as a smishing link provides enough time for scammers to send out smishing messages, sustaining their activities.
True Real-Time Filtering of Zero-Day Scam URLs
The Adaptive Messaging Firewall addresses this issue by implementing real-time URL filtering. It automatically blocks or flags messages with URLs it classifies as smishing links.
The messaging firewall can even detect smishing URLs that have never been encountered before, known as “zero-day” smishing links. This real-time URL analysis eliminates the time advantage that spammers previously held, adding an additional layer of security to the messaging firewall’s scam protection. It works alongside fingerprinting and behavior-based filtering to achieve the highest possible accuracy.