SMS Spam Delivers More Malware, Scams

Every lesson we should have learned from our experiences with spam and fraudulent email is quickly being replicated in SMS messaging, according to a threat report produced by the GMSA in conjunction with messaging security provider Cloudmark.

According to the report, there were 350,000 attack variants and more than 50,000 unique attacks in December 2012 alone, demonstrating the rapid increase in attacks, Cloudmark CTO Neil Cook said. He added that the industry is now seeing a 300% year-over-year growth.

Most of these threats are in the form of bulk marketing, especially in places like India and China, whereas in North America and Europe the attacks are more insidious, resulting in the loss of personal data. These attacks take the form of gift offers, iPad giveaways, and payment protection insurance (PPI) in the U.K.

Cook said that there was even an Android botnet attack, known as the SpamSoldier botnet. For more, watch the video embedded below.

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