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The Australian Government has successfully blocked scam texts masquerading as legitimate government sender IDs through several initiatives.
“I am very pleased that so many scam texts appearing to come from legitimate government sender IDs, including Centrelink, myGov and the ATO are being blocked,” Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts Paul Fletcher said.
“The success of this initiative is timely, given the use of MyGov has increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have written to NBN Co, Australia Post and the banks strongly encouraging them to apply the same process to text messages they send.”
Under the goal of reducing scam texts, the Australian Government’s pilot program to capture texts “originating” from government agencies has blocked over 2,500 scam texts in the past 12 months.
Aside from this, the Reducing Scam Calls Code has resulted in over 214 million scam calls blocked since December 2020.
Minister for Defence Peter Dutton said that, with phishing messages being the most common way for cybercriminals to compromise users, the initiatives have been successful in preventing scam texts from getting through to phones.
“This collaboration between the Australian Cyber Security Centre, Services Australia and Telstra and the telecommunications sector is an excellent example of the Australian Government and industry working together to develop solutions to stop cybercriminals from exploiting Australians en masse,” Minister Dutton said.
Currently, the Australian Cyber Security Centre is working with the telecommunications sector for an industry-wide solution that will increase protection.
Minister for Government Services, Senator Linda Reynolds said the success of the pilot is an important milestone.
“Services Australia is continuing to develop and refine security measures to prevent against scams, which have the potential to cause such enormous harm, particularly to those not overly familiar with technology,” Minister Reynolds said.
“This is a welcome step as we continue to work with law enforcement agencies and industry to keep Australians safe from harm.”
This post was first published on Public Spectrum
Eliza Sayon is an experienced writer who specialises in corporate and government communications. She is the content producer for Public Spectrum, an online knowledge-based platform for and about the Australian public sector.
