SMS Firewall | Products

SMS Firewall

Enhance SMS security, monetize messaging and protect subscribers.

Mobileum’s SMS Firewall Solutions

Improving short message service (SMS) security is a must for today’s Mobile Operators. SMS is generally considered to be a very well-established, safe, efficient and cost-effective communications channel. However, the presence of fraudsters and hackers could harm the very trust you have worked so hard to build, and damage a valuable revenue stream. Mobileum SMS firewall solutions use advanced technology to address messaging threats and security breaches.

A2P SMS Grey Route Protection

The fraudulent practice of avoiding termination charges by bypassing application to person (A2P) messages through alternative “grey” routes is negatively impacting operator revenues. This occurs when A2P traffic is intentionally mixed with valid person-to-person (P2P) traffic and routes with the intent of avoiding payment for A2P charges. Mobileum SMS firewall has a proven solution that delivers positive revenue results for Mobile Operators by preventing carriers from grey routing their SMS traffic.

SMS SPAM Protection

Mobileum’s SMS Firewall solution reduces unwanted SMS spam by providing mobile network operators with a safe, spam-free network environment that their subscribers can trust, while reducing customer complaints due to unsolicited messages. Our SMS Firewall not only provides protection for your subscribers, but also reduces the overhead cost of processing these illicit messages.

URL Scanner - fighting back against bad URLs

Across the globe, the frequency of SMS attacks is steadily rising, with a notable presence of malicious URLs in these messages. This trend has prompted the introduction of substantial regulations and laws that mandate decisive measures by telecommunications operators. While certain markets outright prohibit SMS messages containing URLs, the prevailing expectation in most markets is for operators to implement filtering mechanisms to weed out malicious URLs.

Mobileum’s URL scanner is a real-time solution for identifying and scoring the reputation of a URL using a multitude of attributes of the underlying domain. In a matter of seconds, a score is calculated indicating whether the domain is good or bad and whether the message should be blocked or not. Once a score is calculated, enforcement can take place in the operator’s firewall in milliseconds. Mobileum’s URL scanner is offered as a standalone hosted service and can be integrated with existing SMS firewalls or Mobileum’s SMS firewall.

Regain control over how your SMS traffic is monetized

Many mobile network operators (MNOs) are losing significant profits to so-called grey routes and fraudulent messaging schemes. Although total grey-route traffic is dropping, it still accounts for a whopping 47.7% of total A2P SMS messaging traffic. Application-to-Person (A2P) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) messaging can still be considered growing sources of revenue for mobile operators. However, many are leaving the door open for fraudsters to flood their network with text messages, causing them to miss out on valuable termination fees. While the sending operators collect substantial revenue from this traffic, the operator that actually delivers the SMS is left without compensation. With Mobileum SMS firewall, you will always be able to collect the fees you deserve.

Two fraud prevention techniques combined - for predicting SMS spam with greater accuracy

Unlike today’s emails that travel through strict spam filters, SMS spam filters are not as sophisticated. This is because most solutions that classify SMS spam suffer from the limitations of relying upon an inefficient, rules-based approach. Mobileum’s SMS firewall combines SMS spam prevention rules with the latest in machine learning techniques, where several layers of information are processed in stages to automatically identify suspicious patterns. Additionally, the solution’s unsupervised learning feature improves accuracy by minimizing classification errors.

Advanced protection against Smishing

Smishing is a type of cyber-security attack which utilizes SMS to steal the personal credentials of mobile users. Smishing is particularly dangerous because people tend to trust text messages more than emails and will often click on harmful links or respond to fraudulent requests. Our SMS firewall uses machine learning algorithms to classify messages based on malicious keywords, combined with additional SMS content analysis performed using text pre-processing and analyzing techniques to detect the presence of URLs, Phone Numbers, e-mail IDs, and other keywords within the messages.

SMS Firewall Case Study

Check how a Tier-1 Australian Operator used Mobileum's Firewall to secure their SMS operations and unlock new revenues.

Stop Smishing and protect your subscribers from fraud

Smishing messages can include a link to click on or a phone number to call. The call to action is, of course, fraudulent, and it attempts to violate the recipient’s privacy by handing thieves access to a subscriber’s bank balance or persuade them to make to calls to premium rate services. Combined with our Fraud Management Solution, Mobileum’s SMS firewall can protect your subscriber customer base against several types of fraud by performing contextual analysis between security and fraud management feeds.

Top 6 SMS threats:
why every Mobile Operator should have a SMS firewall.

Messages from foreign short message service centers (SMSCs) are delivered directly to subscribers, and operators are generally unable to adequately control this incoming traffic. This lack of control often leads to a variety of risks:
Impact on customer satisfaction
Blocking of spam and fraudulent SMS messages creates a better customer experience and improves customer retention.
SMS SIM box
Prevent SIM Box fraudsters exploiting ‘unlimited’ consumer text packages.
SMS becomes a less trusted channel
Customers will tend to limit their use of SMS on your network.
Brand perception
SMS security is a factor when customers choose a telecom provider, especially when SMS security has an impact on 3rd party services, like banking.
Loss of revenue
Monitoring and filtering SMS traffic and blocking grey routes leads to more A2P SMS monetization opportunities.
Regulatory requirements
Text messages are distributed over heavily regulated cellular phone networks, which means they fall under many of the rules and regulations that govern the wireless industry.

Mobileum SMS Firewall solution

Mobileum’s SMS firewall offers protection against SMS spam and A2P messages that are sent over SS7 signaling networks, including international, domestic and on-net traffic. The solution also detects misuse of the short message peer-to-peer protocol (SMPP) working as a feed for Mobileum Solutions to protect against security threats relying upon the base of several fraud mechanisms. The Mobileum security solution includes critical analytics functions that are provided with both the signaling firewall and the SMS firewall.

How is Mobileum’s SMS Firewall going to help you

Mobileum’s SMS Firewall provides carriers with unrivaled protection.
  • AI and ML based protection – discover unknown threat paterns for quicker protection
  • Reduces Spam – stop large amounts of unwanted messages from reaching subscribers
  • Stops A2P grey route traffic – monetize your network by blocking non-commercialized traffic where there is no agreement between the sender and the receiving network.
  • Prevents Wangiri SMS Fraud – stop fraudulent attacks sent through malicious links
  • Protects against Viruses – stop messages with binary common content
  • Eliminates SMS fraud – prevent SMS messages from unauthorized sources

Market-proven SMS firewall

Mobileum SMS firewall is responsible for processing billions of messages every day. We have the knowledge and experience to secure any customer’s SMS service. Mobileum has a Wide range of deployments, ranging from large tier-1 service providers to small MVNOs. With more than 750 customers in over 150 countries, including large operator groups, Mobileum has been acknowledged as the #1 innovator in a recent independent survey of over 180 solution providers.

Mobileum Security Intelligence Portfolio

Discover why CSPs all over the world, trust on Mobileum' solutions to implement a multilayered security program to prevent ongoing theft of subscriber data, and exposure of sensitive personal information.

Other solutions

Our signaling firewall is just one part of our security solutions. Mobileum offers a full portfolio of protection.
Cross-Protocol Signaling Firewall
Mobileum has a state-of-the-art signaling firewall as part of its security threat detection portfolio, protecting against malicious attacks under network signaling systems like SS7, CAMEL, Diameter, MAP, GTP, SIP and 5G HTTP/2.
Pen Testing
Mobileum’s pen testing solution determines if your network is secure from unauthorized access or other malicious activity.
Bypass Fraud
Leverage security feeds to tackle bypass fraud, one of the most damaging and costly type of fraud, particularly affecting countries where the costs of terminating international calls are very high.

Transform you Firewall Management with Mobileum’s Managed Services

Effective management of your company’s firewall architecture can be the difference between having an effective, layered defense, or becoming the latest in a long string of companies to have suffered a massive data breach. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution to cybersecurity. Every business has different needs that impact how your firewalls should be configured. Instead of blindly applying the same managed firewall solution to every MNO regardless of their needs, our managed services team leverages their experience to create and operate a customized firewall that provides optimal protection with minimal disruption.

Powered by advanced threat intelligence

Mobileum SMS firewall includes an advanced threat intelligence capability in order to produce a worldwide defense to the CSPs. With advanced threat intelligence, Mobileum’s solution has the capability to protect the operator based on its signaling data but also cross this info with worldwide signaling info coming from Mobileum’s extensive footprint. Mobileum’s recognized data science capability, will give CSPs an accurate and up to date protection for SMS SPAM and SMS grey route.