{"id":13490,"date":"2025-10-01T14:18:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T13:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/security\/?p=13490"},"modified":"2025-10-01T15:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:25:10","slug":"mobile-telecom-security-landscape-blog-october-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/security\/latest-news\/mobile-telecom-security-landscape-blog-october-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobile Telecom Security Landscape Blog: October 25"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Welcome to our October blog.\u00a0Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October is recognised as a dedicated month for promoting security and safety and encouraging both public and private sectors to work together to raise cybersecurity awareness.\u00a0This security blog focuses on the\u00a0Cybersecurity Awareness Month\u00a0theme of &#8220;Secure Our World&#8221;, focusing on actions individuals and businesses can take to protect themselves online, particularly focusing on social engineering.\u00a0To\u00a0add detail to the topic, this blog post introduces some of the areas where social engineering plays a significant role.\u00a0In turn, these areas will be further developed\u00a0by related GSMA\u00a0content\u00a0during Cybersecurity Awareness month, that\u00a0cover:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Phishing (including spear phishing)&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Smishing&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Vishing&nbsp;(including \u2018deep&nbsp;fakes\u2019&nbsp;and&nbsp;wider use of AI in social engineering)&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Users of mobile technologies are targeted by a variety of actors \u2013 whether it be low-level fraud via phishing, smishing, or through social engineering against them or call centres. As our technology becomes more secure, the human is targeted because they are seen as the weakest link.\u00a0Scams and fraud can take many forms, and some of these\u00a0exploit mobile devices as an attack\u00a0channel. These include\u00a0attacks such as service fraud (e.g. identity fraud or\u00a0mobile money fraud), mobile spam and, increasingly\u00a0scams\u00a0or \u201csocial engineering\u201d fraud, which trick victims into\u00a0revealing sensitive information about themselves and\u00a0the services they consume, without realising they\u00a0have compromised their own security.\u00a0Often, the scammer will\u00a0attempt\u00a0to impart a sense of urgency,\u00a0so that the target rushes\u00a0to act.\u00a0This urgency is often a signal that a\u00a0scam\u00a0is\u00a0being\u00a0attempted.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phishing is the term used to describe a social engineering practice by fraudsters to imitate legitimate companies or trustworthy sources in unsolicited e-mails to entice people to&nbsp;click on&nbsp;links to malware,&nbsp;share personal identity data and financial account credentials such as online banking passwords and credit-card numbers.&nbsp;Deceptive emails often involve impersonation, where criminals pretend to be a trustworthy entity, such as a bank, government agency,&nbsp;employer&nbsp;or well-known organisation.&nbsp;Highly targeted phishing attacks&nbsp;are&nbsp;aimed at senior executives disguised as a legitimate email (so-called \u2018whaling\u2019 attacks)&nbsp;or to target specific individuals such as&nbsp;administrators with&nbsp;high levels&nbsp;of system access (so-called \u2018spear phishing\u2019).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Smishing attacks&nbsp;are&nbsp;where malware is&nbsp;attempted&nbsp;to be delivered through&nbsp;website URL links on&nbsp;SMS&nbsp;messages&nbsp;(in a similar fashion to links sent in phishing emails).&nbsp;Phishing-as-a-service platforms give even unskilled fraudsters access to effective&nbsp;website&nbsp;and SMS templates for spoofing&nbsp;localised&nbsp;service providers (postal services, toll free, tax agencies), using single-click deployments and \u2018user\u2019-friendly backends. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vishing attacks\u00a0are\u00a0voice calls are used to\u00a0attempt\u00a0scams\u00a0targeting authorised push payments.\u00a0Social engineering fraud uses manipulation to influence a person to take harmful actions such as divulging personal details or passwords. Scammers that engage with their intended victims\u00a0typically build rapport and confidence, at times by\u00a0leveraging\u00a0publicly available information.\u00a0Scammers and fraudsters are constantly seeking new opportunities and adapting their\u00a0scams\u00a0very quickly and even becoming\u00a0business-like in their approach.\u00a0The use of\u00a0technological advancements,\u00a0such as Generative\u00a0Artificial Intelligence (GenAI),\u00a0not\u00a0only provides\u00a0productivity efficiencies for attackers,\u00a0new automation to increase the volume of attacks,\u00a0and\u00a0new attack tools,\u00a0but\u00a0they\u00a0also provide new techniques,\u00a0such as\u00a0synthetic identity frauds\u00a0(\u2018deep fake\u2019\u00a0audio and video). \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cybersecurity Awareness Month\u2019s&nbsp;\u2018Secure Our World\u2019&nbsp;theme&nbsp;emphasises&nbsp;four key&nbsp;behaviours: using strong passwords, enabling multifactor authentication, updating software, and&nbsp;recognising&nbsp;phishing.&nbsp;Look out for more&nbsp;GSMA&nbsp;content to be shared this month&nbsp;that focuses&nbsp;particularly&nbsp;on recognising phishing.&nbsp;Additional information can&nbsp;also&nbsp;be found in the recent GSMA&nbsp;document&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/gsma_resources\/fraud-and-scams-staying-safe-in-a-digital-world\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fraud and Scams: Staying Safe in the Mobile World<\/a>,&nbsp;whilst the&nbsp;wider security context can be examined in detail by reading the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/security\/gsma-mobile-telecommunications-security-landscape-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2025 GSMA Mobile Telecommunications Security Landscape Report<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/security\/latest-news\/cybersecurity-awareness-month-unlock-essential-tips-to-secure-our-digital-world\/\">Explore more<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to our October blog.\u00a0Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October is recognised as a dedicated month for promoting security and safety and encouraging both public and private sectors to work together to raise cybersecurity awareness.\u00a0This security blog focuses on the\u00a0Cybersecurity Awareness Month\u00a0theme of &#8220;Secure Our World&#8221;, focusing on actions individuals and businesses can take to protect [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":13140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1505],"tags":[],"algolia_discover_type":[1549,1553],"class_list":["post-13490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","algolia_discover_type-article","algolia_discover_type-resource"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mobile Telecom Security Landscape Blog: October 25 - Security<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/security\/latest-news\/mobile-telecom-security-landscape-blog-october-25\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mobile Telecom Security Landscape Blog: October 25 - Security\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Welcome to our October blog.\u00a0Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October is recognised as a dedicated month for promoting security and safety and encouraging both public and private sectors to work together to raise cybersecurity awareness.\u00a0This security blog focuses on the\u00a0Cybersecurity Awareness Month\u00a0theme of &#8220;Secure Our World&#8221;, focusing on actions individuals and businesses can take to protect [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/security\/latest-news\/mobile-telecom-security-landscape-blog-october-25\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Security\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-01T13:18:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-01T14:25:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/security\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1494104760.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2309\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1299\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"phau@gsma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"phau@gsma.com\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mobile Telecom Security Landscape Blog: October 25 - 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