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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Background for this topic.
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.
Telegram users in Uzbekistan are being targeted with Android SMS stealer malware, and what's worse, the attackers are improving their methods.
Threat actors have been observed leveraging malicious dropper apps masquerading as legitimate applications to deliver an Android SMS stealer dubbed Wonderland in mobile attacks targeting users in Uzbekistan