However, the rise of instant messaging applications on smartphones via the Internet, starting in 2010 (such as WhatsApp, Telegram or Facebook Messenger), caused SMS to fall into disuse. Who does not remember when the alternative of sending short messages was a great innovation that facilitated immediate communication?
The short message service or simple message service, better known as SMS (for the acronym of the English Short Message Service), is a service available on mobile phones that allows the sending of short messages (with a character limit) between phones mobiles.
This service was invented in 1985 by Matti Makkonen, together with the global system for mobile communications (GSM). SMS was originally designed as part of the GSM standard for digital mobile telephony, and is now available on a wide variety of networks, including 4G networks. SMS works for landlines and other handheld devices.
The first SMS message was sent over Vodafone’s GSM network in the UK on December 3, 1992, by Neil Papworth of Sema Group (now Mavenir Systems) using a personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone. The text of the message was “Merry Christmas”.
Despite the fact that SMS is a “legacy” technology, its use is still in force and growing rapidly in the A2P mode, driven by the need for companies that require fast and effective communication with their users and customers to provide them with information immediately such as bank movements, authentications (OTP), logistics service notifications (transportation, messaging), promotions, collection campaigns, etc., thanks to its high opening rate, close to 100%; the short response time that increases the link and business relationship with users (engagement), as well as a good conversion rate for marketing purposes; a high percentage of interaction and the preference of users to receive commercial communications through this channel.
Another of the uses that SMS currently have are automatic notifications of bank movements that alert us about purchases of our accounts or cards. This has a great impact in preventing financial fraud. Two-factor authentication (or two-step authentication), which consists of adding a second layer of protection to the password, an attribute of SMS, makes identity theft more difficult.
Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security to allow access to the account, financial transaction or service on the Internet in order to prevent other people from entering it even if they have access to your password.
Currently, one of the most popular mechanisms is the sending of one-time verification numeric codes via SMS, called OTP (One Time Password). Today it represents one of the main uses given to SMS, which we previously used to send personal messages to our contacts and which we have now replaced with the use of applications called OTT (Over the Top) that provide services of messaging with features not available in SMS such as sending photos, videos, group chats, etc.
This is especially important today, because during the first Webinar “Cybersecurity, a digital challenge”, held last week, it was announced that Mexico is the country with the highest number of cyber attacks in Latin America, estimating that there were more than 60 billion attempted cyberattacks in the first half of last year, which places the country in first place in the region against this type of threat.
Luis Lima, general director of Information Security Supervision, of the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV), explained that threats evolve, but so do prevention tools.
In this context, the “resurrection” of SMS stands out, now with the great task of being a protagonist in cybersecurity, which has become a true scourge for people and companies.