Cybersecurity Glossary
Smishing
Phishing delivered by text message.
What Smishing means
A smishing message impersonates a delivery company, a bank, a tax authority or a colleague, and includes a link or a request to reply. Text messages have no sender verification and often arrive on personal phones that carry no company security controls, which makes them attractive to attackers.
Why Smishing matters for small businesses and nonprofits
A common pattern targets staff directly: a message claiming to be from the chief executive, asking for gift cards or an urgent transfer. It feels informal enough to bypass the caution people apply to email.
What to do about Smishing
- Tell staff that leadership will never ask for payments or cards by text message
- Report and delete rather than replying, because a reply confirms the number is live
- Extend multi factor authentication to accounts reachable from personal phones
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