Global Mobile Messaging Platform | zvelo Phishing & Smishing Detection
zveloDB with Phishing Detection Helps Client Drive Revenue and Boost Bottom-line Profitability by Closing Security Gaps and Delivering Enhanced Smishing Protection to a Global Network of Mobile Operators.
A mobile user is 18x more likely to be exposed to a phishing attempt than malware. And, channels like SMS and messaging apps are being leveraged at scale to distribute phishing links. (Wandera)
Client Profile
Client is a Global Communications Platform Provider within the Messaging Ecosystem.
The Challenge – Defending Against Smishing Threats
From Person-to-Person (P2P) and Application-to-Person (A2P) messages, tens of billions of text messages are sent and received daily, making SMS the most common form of communication globally. And, as mobile usage has increased, the threat landscape has evolved from phishing attacks via email, to include phishing attacks via SMS messaging — Smishing.
As a mobile messaging platform provider, the Client was detecting a growing volume of Smishing threats flowing through its network. Since security is a crucial differentiator for their messaging platform, the Client is challenged to constantly evolve it’s threat detection solutions to align with attack profiles. As the volume of Smishing threats continued to rise, there was growing concern over Smishing threats they might be missing. They wanted to discover how they could enhance the platform further to ensure their global Operators were able to intercept and block these increasingly sophisticated Smishing attacks.
Business Requirements
The Client already had a good infrastructure with sound processes in place for identifying threats using data gathered from all parts of the network, and include all messaging types — on-net mobile originated, application originated and mobile terminated traffic from offnet sources. Given the existing environment, the Client had a lengthy list of requirements which had to be met before they would consider evaluating external solutions for Smishing detection.
Compatibility. Compatibility was a highly critical element for the Client. In addition to requiring that a solution be compatible with it’s own infrastructure, the Client also needed to find a solution which would be compatible with most third-party SMS Firewalls.
Scalability. The explosive growth of mobile devices, as well as SMS messaging for both P2P and A2P drove the Client’s need for a highly scalable solution which could quickly and efficiently process extremely high volumes of data to meet the demand for real-time Smishing threat detection.
Real-Time Threat Detection. The very nature of messaging is immediate, thus absolutely requires real-time threat detection to block Smishing attacks.
Coverage. The Client’s messaging platform serves mobile Operators around the world so finding a solution required extensive coverage of global network traffic.
Accuracy. The Client was adamant in their demand for high accuracy when it came to Smishing detections. The Client needed a solution which would maximize identifications while maintaining a consistently low rate of False Positives (FPs).
The Solution
When the Client initially contacted zvelo, they knew they needed a solution to enhance Smishing detection for their platform, but weren’t certain which solution would be the best fit. After a series of discussions between the Client and zvelo’s Cyber Threat Intelligence experts, the Clients decided to move ahead with zvelo’s Phishing Detection.
Compatibility. zvelo’s Engineering team worked closely with the Client’s team to fully understand all of the requirements which would ensure compatibility between zvelo’s Phishing Detection and the Client’s infrastructure. zvelo covers the broadest spectrum of flexible and easy-to-integrate deployment options including REST API.
Scalability. The zveloDB provides exceptional throughput and lookup performance, with scaling to support billions of queries daily.
Real-Time Threat Detection. Real-time detection of Phishing and Smishing threats with continuous updates for maximum security and safety.
Coverage. Over 99.9% coverage of the active web traffic, incorporating URLs visited by zvelo’s global network of more than 1 billion end users.
Accuracy. zvelo leverages highly curated and validated third party feeds to enrich its own database of threat detections from the ActiveWeb traffic across its global network resulting in phishing detections with high veracity, high accuracy and low false positive rates.
The Results
After an arduous evaluation process, the end result for the Client is a powerful messaging platform with unrivaled threat and Smishing protection which delivers a safe, secure environment to Mobile Operators. Early results have proven advantageous for the Client in terms of strong third quarter revenue growth and significant future revenue opportunities.
“During the early discussions, zvelo’s Team shared findings which revealed that there was very little overlap between all of the third-party threat feeds that zvelo ingests. That insight helped us to identify additional gaps in our existing coverage, ultimately strengthening our platform even further than we had originally anticipated.”
– VP Engineering, Client Company
