CYBER SECURITY
www.mrca.org  —  Midwest Roofer
16
Y
our phone is at risk as 
cybercriminals shift to a 
“mobile-first attack strategy,” 
having discovered you are far 
more likely to fall victim on your 
phone than a larger device. And 
given the amount of time we spend 
on our phones, an “insidious new attack vector 
— the pairing of social engineering with mobile 
devices,” is making the threat worse.
Today’s new report from the research team at 
Zimperium warns attacks on tens of millions 
of phones are now moving “beyond just 
traditional banking and payment fraud,” to “more 
treacherous” mishing (mobile phishing) lures that 
include “the downloading of malware capable 
of hijacking OTP (one-time-passwords) and 
verification codes, mimicking screen interfaces 
and the ability to steal enterprise application 
credentials.”
Behind this threat is a change of tactics, as 
devious new methodologies are developed, 
tested and then rolled out. This includes 
malicious links in emails that direct to legitimate 
websites when opened on PCs but dangerous 
websites when opened on mobiles, given it’s so 
much harder to detect on a small screen, and the 
increasing use of Quishing attacks, where QR 
codes replace links given the inherent trust in 
QR codes. All of which mandates new levels of 
wariness amongst iPhone and Android users.
Zimperium says such threats are amplified by 
the widespread use of employees’ own devices 
within the companies they work for, logging into 
corporate networks and accessing corporate 
systems. “This convergence has created an 
environment where a successful mishing attack 
can compromise both personal and enterprise 
security, potentially providing attackers with a 
direct access to critical corporate infrastructure 
and data.”
Nico Chiaraviglio, Zimperium’s Chief Scientist, 
warns that “mishing is not just an evolution of 
traditional mobile phishing tactics — it is an 
entirely new category of attack engineered to 
exploit the specific capabilities and vulnerabilities 
of mobile devices, such as cameras. Our 
research shows that attackers are increasingly 
By: Zak Doffman, Forbes Contributor
‘MOBILE FIRST’ 
WARNING AS PHONE EMAIL, SMS, 
MESSAGING ATTACKS SURGE

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