- The companies have issued security updates based on the researchers’ reports.
Cyber Fraud: Often people believe that text messages are completely secure and the name visible on the phone is that of the person who has sent the message. But a serious security flaw that came to light recently raised questions on this trust. Taking advantage of this weakness, cyber criminals could fake the identity of any trusted person and send a message that looked absolutely genuine.
Now with the help of researchers and mobile companies, this problem has been resolved, which has brought relief to millions of smartphone users.
How did this hidden flaw work?
Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego discovered this weakness. This issue was present on both Android and iPhone platforms and many major mobile networks were affected by it.
Actually this flaw was related to an old feature called Email-to-Text service. Through this facility, any email could be directly converted into SMS and sent to the mobile number.
Mixing of email and SMS becomes a cause of trouble
Email and text messaging are based on different technologies. When an email is converted into SMS, network companies have to translate a lot of information.
This is where the problem arose. During this process, the information related to the identity of the sender was not completely clear. Cyber criminals could take advantage of this weakness to hide their real identity and send messages in the name of another person.
Phone contacts could also be made victims of fraud
According to researchers, attackers could confuse the phone by using special characters and changes in the email address. After this, the messaging app of the smartphone would assume that the message has come from a saved contact.
The result was that the name of a friend, relative or colleague would appear on the screen while the message was actually sent by an unknown person.
Fake messages could enter old chats also
The most worrying thing was that in some cases, fake messages could also be added to an already ongoing conversation. In such a situation, the user feels that the message has been sent by the same person with whom he was already chatting. Because of this, fraudulent messages appeared more credible and people were more likely to fall into the trap.
Although the attackers could not read the user’s replies, being able to send messages by imitating a trusted person was a big threat in itself.
Big companies did security updates
After this research came to light, many mobile network and smartphone companies made changes in their systems. New security measures were implemented to better verify the information of the message sender.
Besides, necessary improvements were also made in the messaging services of Android and iPhone so that such spoofing incidents can be prevented in future.
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