Ep 16 Smishing

**16 Smishing What is Smishing and how to protect yourself from an attack

https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-emerging-threats-what-is-smishing.html

Hello and Welcome back to USB our Guest, Cyber Security Tips. Thank you for adding us to your routine

Today's tip is about SMS phishing, also known as Smishing. Norton has a good article on this and a link to it will be in the show notes

What is Smishing? Well, as we covered in a previous episode, phishing is the nefarious practice of sending emails masquerading as legitimate companies to fool someone into revealing personal info like a credit card number. Smishing is the when a cyber thief tries to fool you into divulging personal info over SMS, text or DM.

Smishing will often use social engineering, like pretexting, where the cyber criminal will tell you an ellaborate story to get your attention. Once they have your attention, they will try to trick you into divulging personal information such as your bank account number.

Such an attack would be where the cyber criminal pretends to be a bank executive in charge of an large inheritance. They say that they have been trying to deposit money to your account but they must have the routing number or account number incorrect. All they need is confirmation of your bank information to complete the transaction. Once they have your bank info, they can withdraw all of your funds.

Use the following tips to avoid being phished

Don't reply to text messages from people that you don't know.

Never click on links in messages from people that you don't know. And even use a bit of caution when you receive them from people that you do know. Contact them on another channel to make sure that they actually sent it to you.

Never install an app from a link in a text message. Always look up the app on the phone's offical app store.

Never respond to text messages from people that you do not know. Don't even send 'STOP' if requested by the message.

Delete suspicious texts

Also, remember that SMishing attacks can occur over text, sms, and Direct messages on most social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

That's all for today. On a final note. Please take a minute and leave us Voice note at https://anchor.fm/usbog/message. I'd appreciate any feedback on or topic suggestions for the flash briefing and soon to be podcast. The links will be in the show notes also.

Thank you again for listening and we'll talk to you tomorrow.**