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SMS is used for login codes and alerts, but text messages can be intercepted, spoofed, or redirected through phone-account attacks.

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SMS (Short Message Service) is a standardized mobile-network service for sending short text messages between phone numbers. It is widely used for person-to-person communication, service notifications, and one-time authentication codes, but messages are generally not end-to-end encrypted and may be visible to mobile operators or infrastructure handling delivery.

Security concerns include smishing—phishing delivered by text—along with sender-ID spoofing, malicious links, and social engineering. Account recovery and SMS-based multi-factor authentication can also be undermined when an attacker takes control of a phone number through SIM swapping, abuses carrier processes, or exploits signaling-system weaknesses. Organizations should avoid treating SMS as a high-assurance authentication factor where stronger options are practical, restrict sensitive content in texts, monitor number-change and authentication events, and train users to verify unexpected messages through a trusted channel.

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AT&T Corp. disclosed today that a new data breach has exposed phone call and text message records for roughly 110 million people -- nearly all of its customers. AT&T said it delayed disclosing the incident in response to "national security and public safety concerns," noting that some of the records included data that could be used to determine where a call was made or text message sent. AT&T also acknowledged the customer records were exposed in a cloud database that was protected only by a username and password (no multi-factor authentication needed).

Krebs on Security 13 Jul 2024, 6:12 a.m. Authentication Breach Cloud Database Disclosure Exposure Incident MFA SMS Theft