Three New Attacks Threaten Mobile Phones

SMiShing, Battery Draining and SMS Interception – Three New Attacks Threaten Mobile Phones.

A new threat is emerging; phishing via SMS or SMiShing. In the most recently discovered form victims receive an SMS message stating that they’ve been subscribed to a dating service and will be charged $2 per day to their mobile phone bill. They are then directed to a website address in the event they wish to cancel this subscription. Since most consumers are loathe to pay an extra $60 per month in premium service charges they visit the site via their mobile just to be safe.

Unfortunately, what happens next is that the site uploads a trojan to the users phone and this trojan can then compromise security on the phone itself and potentially on the victims PC the next time he or she syncs their mobile device.

In yet another exploit it appears that your SMS messages can be intercepted without your knowledge, however this exploit requires both that the victim and attacker have a CDMA phone and that the attacker has physical access to the victim’s phone in order to reprogram the device in order to divert the SMS messages it receives to the attacker’s phone in addition to displaying them normally on the phone of the unsuscpecting individual.

When in doubt, don’t click, don’t download and don’t leave your phone unattended in places where people you don’t know, or whom you know can’t be trusted can gain access. You’ll be glad you did.

Read full article at: http://mobilecrunch.com/2006/09/03/smishing-battery-draining-and-sms-interception-three-new-attacks-threaten-mobile-phones/

Regards,

Sachin Palewar
Palewar Techno Solutions (Mobile Software Development)