Hardwood Executive 

How to protect against ‘Smishing’

Text Messaging! What a succinct way to communicate with family, friends and colleagues – especially busy ones – not to mention the ease of ordering “products or services from e-commerce, or receiving updates on delivery status, appointment confirmations, etc. Ultra-effective, right? But the pros at LastLine Cyber Inc. want you to know, there can be a downside.

Beware of ‘Smishing’
“Smishing is a specific type of social engineering which uses convincing looking text messages aimed at tricking people into clicking on links. Clicking on a link in a Smishing message – urgent package delivery info; claim your prize; someone you know has tested positive for the virus - could download malware onto your mobile device which can affect your phone’s performance, or worse, gain access to your sensitive information like photos, usernames and passwords, banking info, text messages… anything.”

What to do …
If you receive unsolicited messages from people/companies you do not know, be suspicious.

• “Know the signs: Urgency in message, Unrecognized Sender, Message contains links
• Do Not click on links!!! And never enter personal information if you are not 100 percent sure a message is legitimate.
• Immediately delete smishing/phishing messages.
• Block the suspected smishing number or email.”

Visit www.lastlinecyber.com to learn more about how to protect against ‘smishing’ and the evolving cyber threat landscape.