Most of those working with security, and probably greater parts of the general public are aware of the term phishing at what it means. You will find lots of information about phishing on this web site.

Last year we discussed the releated term "vishing" which is phishing using the voice-over-IP protocol.

Now another clever use of the phishing term is seen - the neologism SMISHING - SMS phishing. This can be loosely defined as phishing using the SMS technology on mobile phones to trick a user into action that may expose him to fraud.

Unlike conventional phishing, which uses email as the carrier, smishing has a substantial disadvantage. Email is free, and it is no extra cost involved in sending to one million recipients compared to only ten people. As we all know, this is not the case for the SMS technology. However, the pricing for such messages is being lowered constantly, and criminal groups may find it worthwhile to conduct a semi-targeted smishing attack.