28 August 2006, 15:48

McAfee warns of "SMiShing" attacks

The US security specialists McAfee have warned of a new trend, which they are calling "SMiShing" (phishing via SMS). The company claims that more and more mobile phone users are receiving this type of SMS, "We confirm that you have registered for our services. You are paying 2 US dollars per day, until you unsubscribe at www.example.com." According to McAfee, the people behind these messages to date have been botnet operators. If the user visits the URL cited, he is instructed to start a download and is then infected with a trojan bot.

McAfee thinks that companies are at particular risk from this new form of phishing. "Many large companies have thousands of employees, who use many different devices to access the internet." Users do not take anything like the same care with mobile phones as they do with access using a laptop. "Mobile end devices represent a serious challenge for data protection - they have the potential to infect both carrier and company networks."

(ehe)

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