Trust in SMS and mobile social networking falters

SMS is seen as a less secure channel than a year ago.

In a survey of one,000 UK consumers by Cloudmark, 19 per cent viewed SMS as being less secure, while greater than half (52 per cent) said they don't have enough trust within the security in their mobile device to exploit it to pay for goods and services.

Speaking to SC Magazine, Alan Ranger, vice-president of mobile marketing at Cloudmark, said the cause of lack of trust in SMS was greater awareness of ways easy this is for attackers to exploit the channel.

He said: “A year ago you just desired to receive trusted messages, but within the last year there were more text messages asking in case you had an accident or desired to reclaim PPI, and those that have had accidents get worried that their data was leaked. So that they have woken up and questioned if SMS is as safe because it was once.

“There is a rise in malware and attackers are using SMS to propagate that. Outside of the united kingdom there was an enormous increase in scams within the US â€" lottery fraud and faux payday loans, where people give away their details.

“No one trusts email anymore, you do not click links, so attackers have moved to mobile. If the recipient thinks a message is from a chum they act on it; it is going to say 'you have a brand new voicemail' â€" in case you dial it, it's a premium-rate number.”

The survey also found that trust in mobile social networking could also be declining, with 22 per cent stating they're increasingly disillusioned with instant messaging services, and 38 per cent claiming to have less trust in social networks' security.

Ranger said that on a mobile, social networking sites are quite open, and Apple iMessage and BlackBerry Messenger were gaining popularity alternatives.

Jacinta Tobin, chief marketing officer at Cloudmark, said: “The inherently personal nature of the mobile device is obviously fostering a high level of trust among consumers, but when the possibility of the channel as a platform for engaging consumers with value-added, opt-in services is to be realised, it's critical that this high level of trustworthiness is upheld.”