Cybersecurity Awareness Month presents an ideal opportunity for all of us to reflect on our digital lives and safety practices. It serves as a reminder to reassess the tools, habits and systems that protect sensitive data and maintain our digital hygiene. Just like routine health checkups help prevent serious illness, regular cybersecurity check-ins are important in protecting our cyber health.
For organisations, it’s an opportunity to revisit security policies, update employee training programmes and refresh tools and information for customers. For individuals, it’s an opportunity to ensure device software is kept regularly updated, to use strong, unique passwords, and to be more vigilant when it comes to the methods used by scammers, such as phishing in all its forms. The common tactics used are examined in the report Fraud and Scams: Staying Safe in the Mobile World.
Scams are on the rise
The impact of scams is significant and felt globally. According to GASA’s Global State of Scams 2025 report, an estimated US $442 billion has been lost to scams worldwide in the last 12 months. However, it isn’t just about the cost, it is the significant and lasting emotional effect it can have on individuals and their lives. The same report states that 17% of adults experienced a drop in confidence and 14% claim to have heightened tension and stress in their family unit as a result of being scammed. It is also about the loss of trust in digital space, which can impede the uptake of important services.
How is the mobile industry responding?
Through innovation
The GSMA and mobile operators are always striving to improve cybersecurity and invest significant resources to innovate and deploy better versions of technology. One example is the GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative, where APIs are being developed to address fraud and scams to build trust for enterprises and their customers. For example, banks can use them to perform more checks to help prevent their customers from being victims of scams and create a safer digital experience.
The GSMA’s new Anti-Scam Use Case Library, which launched this year, showcases how mobile operators and partners are innovating to stop fraud and protect customers.
Through collaboration
With the increasing amount of personal information shared online, everyone in the mobile ecosystem must play their part. A great example is the GSMA-led Asia Pacific Cross-Sector Anti-Scam Taskforce (ACAST), which launched this year, bringing together mobile operators and digital platforms to address scams. Last month, the mobile operator members of ACAST asked governments and law enforcement agencies in the region for more support to combat the use of SMS blasters used to flood consumers with SMS that lead to fraud and scams.
Through intelligence-sharing
The GSMA works with industry to continually enhance the security support offered to mobile operators as new threats emerge. Intelligence sharing happens through many channels. The Fraud and Security Group (FASG), the Telecommunication Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (T-ISAC) and the GSMA Mobile Telecommunications Security Landscape report are central to sharing information on threats.
Through debate and dialogue with policymakers
The new GSMA capacity building course Cybersecurity in the context of mobile telecoms is available for governments and regulators to understand how the mobile industry deals with security challenges across the ecosystem. Security is also a regular topic at the Ministerial Programme at MWC, where governments, intergovernmental organisations, the mobile operators and wider mobile ecosystem players debate and discuss policy and regulatory issues. You can read some insights from MWC Barcelona 2025 here.
So, as the month draws to a close, we are reminded that cybersecurity is not a one-time effort but an ongoing responsibility for all of us to reinforce our individual and organisational resilience to face whatever threats or challenges may lie ahead.