There is an increase in voice calls exploitation incidents that aim to steal money. According to the responses of more than 2,000 consumers and 300 business professionals, 75% of Americans surveyed were targeted by scammers over the past 12 months. In 2020, more than 50 billion spam calls were made to Americans and more than 157 billion spam calls were made in North America and Europe – 58% of which were fraudulent. Here are the stats:
- 40% of all respondents reported losing money to phone scams in 2020;
- more than 7% of Americans reported losing more than $500 to phone scams last year
<p>The primary function of a smartphone is clearly being exploited here where individuals or companies aren’t fully embracing mobile security. Threat actors are getting more sophisticated in their approach, with the addition of ‘vishing’ to attackers SMS and social media campaigns. Often, attackers successfully convince users to install malware, allowing them to combine text and voice messaging with surveilanceware or spyware to carry out fraud and other illegal activities.</p> <p> </p> <p>Predominantly these attacks are designed to get the user to inadvertently install malware, where the user sees no icon on their home screen, and are lacking mobile security. They are not privy to the capabilities of malware which may exfiltrate data, monitor user activity and allow for remote command and control.The majority of attacks focus on financial gain, however there is nothing stopping threat actors pursuing other harmful activities, with worrying increases in attacks focussed on reputational damage, political or diplomatic gain and disruption in major infrastructure.</p>