In today’s digital landscape, A2P SMS is a rapidly expanding sector, with countless companies leveraging it to enhance customer communication, marketing and authentication process. Amidst this growth, SMS firewall solutions have become essential components of business strategies, driven by the increasing number of market players, subscriber complaints and regulatory pressures. A managed SMS firewall offers a comprehensive approach to control SMS traffic cost-effectively, through fraud prevention to protect subscribers from threats.
The Critical Role of SMS Firewalls
The global SMS firewall market is projected to reach USD 3.0 billion by 2025, spurred by security concerns and the significant revenue share of international SMS traffic. With growing enterprise demand for fraud detection, the necessity of SMS firewalls has never been more apparent.
Enterprises aim to expand and retain their customer base, build trust, and foster loyalty. However, threats like SMS spoofing, spam, and smishing undermine trust, potentially causing brands to lose customers permanently.
According to Statista, approximately 36% of global users have experienced SMS scams. The importance of an SMS firewall solution is underscored by the proliferation of grey routes and the escalating threat of fraudsters exploiting SMS networks. Grey routes, which lack commercial agreements between senders and mobile operators, lead to revenue leakage and damage brand reputation.
Combating Security Challenges with SMS Firewalls
Managed SMS firewalls employ high-performance scanning techniques to combat threats, scrutinizing every message, originator, source, and route. Through rule-based filtering and clear traffic segregation, SMS firewalls help with fraud prevention, enabling long-term capital gains.
Some of the frauds faced by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and enterprises include:
- Artificially Inflated Traffic: Bots generate one-time PIN requests to create undue costs and benefit fraudsters.
- Flubot: Similar to a flu outbreak, Flubot spreads through fraudulent links leading users to malicious sites, infecting phones with malware.
- Smishing: SMS phishing deceives consumers into revealing sensitive data.
- Grey Routes: These routes bypass MNOs’ charging systems, resulting in revenue loss and leaving users vulnerable to privacy risks.
- SMS Trashing: Unlike the other frauds, this type targets businesses and organizations, charging them for undelivered messages.
- SIM Farms & SIM Boxes: This type of fraud utilizes a large number of SIM cards to send illegal messages.
Securing the Future of Enterprise Messaging
In the highly regulated A2P SMS sector, security has become a crucial differentiator for carriers aiming to protect their business communication, safeguard subscribers, and boost A2P revenues. Implementing a robust SMS firewall solution provides bulletproof defense against a wide range of attacks. Proactive measures, including machine learning, cloud-based deployment, fraud response frameworks, and comprehensive reporting mechanisms, are vital to combating fraud. This helps prevent revenue leakages, ultimately securing trust and enhancing experiences.
To safeguard your network and ensure innovative, secure customer communications, get in touch with us to deploy our next-gen AI-capable SMS firewall, Armour. Enable innovation #ei and keep your customers safe with our robust network security solutions.
For more information on our A2P firewall solution, read to know how we have helped Tigo Tanzania, part of the AXIAN telecom group, to tackle frauds in their network, leading to revenue losses.