Messaging security company Cloudmark has released the results of a mobile spam survey of 12 top mobile operators across Europe. All 12 mobile say they expect mobile spam volumes to rise as adoption of mobile social networking and mobile email increases. Remarkably however, only 16% are considering how to best guard against spam through the mobile Internet and email.
As the use of mobile messaging continues to surge, users of text and multimedia messaging are also encountering a corresponding increase in the number of unsolicited messages sent to their mobiles. Currently, mobile operators across Europe admit that up to 20% of their users are affected by mobile SMS spam, yet 83% of them dont yet have a filtering system in place to prevent its effects on customers.
Whilst all the surveyed operators acknowledge the problem, the survey found that most are not yet  planning to implement a solution. A quarter of those surveyed claimed they dont have the necessary budget, and a further 25% argued that they didnt believe the problem to be big enough, or that they would deal with it at a later date.
Neil Cook, Head of Technology Services, EMEA, at Cloudmark, says its imperative that mobile operators take all spam seriously and implement security solutions now to prevent losing customers.
In a related survey we conducted earlier this year, to thirds of customers (said they) would consider leaving their mobile network due to spam, so the threat of losing customers as a result of increased spam is one that providers should take seriously, says Cook. This reactive tactic may prove costly for operators striving to maintain low levels of customer churn. As the problem grows beyond simple spam attacks, to identity theft, phishing and fraud, customer safety will decrease, exacerbating dissatisfaction and churn. Without providing additional messaging security now, mobile operators will unnecessarily put their customers and businesses at risk.