Long gone are the days of simple mass phishing SMS and emails containing simple spelling mistakes: today’s attacks focus on social engineering and are becoming increasingly professional, argues LuxTrust CISO, Mohammed Marrou. “These attacks are designed to deceive users into divulging sensitive personal information, posing thus significant risks to their digital security and privacy,” he explains. “Beyond individual harm, successful phishing attempts can erode public trust and generate negative media coverage.”
LuxTrust is a certification authority and an acknowledged European Qualified Trust Services Provider that supports companies in their digital transformation journey. LuxTrust’s mission is to empower individuals and businesses to secure and take control of their digital assets while fostering a trusted digital environment. To this end, LuxTrust is actively collaborating with key stakeholders such as authorities, telecom providers and banks to proactively prevent phishing attacks and protect their clients.
Partnership-driven defence
In a phishing campaign, cyber attackers often impersonate a company’s name and branding to deceive users into providing their authentication or personal information. This can sometimes lead to the perception that the company itself is responsible for the attack. While user vigilance in not sharing their confidential information remains essential, LuxTrust has invested significant resources and efforts into innovative anti-phishing SMS and website solutions with trusted partners like POST Telecom and DEEP. “LuxTrust sees it as a key element of its trust and security mission to protect users”, acknowledges Marrou.
For this reason, M. Marrou is excited about the strategic collaboration LuxTrust launched in November 2024 with DEEP, a recently created entity that consolidates the know-how of four POST Luxembourg Group subsidiaries: EBRC, Elgon, Digora Luxembourg, and POST Telecom’s B2B activities. Through its partnership with DEEP, LuxTrust is able to leverage DEEP’s Telecom Intrusion Detection System (TIDS) to block phishing SMS campaigns. “This collaboration has yielded good results,” confirms Marrou, “with blocking rates, depending on campaign complexity and timing.” While he cannot divulge percentages, the SMS blocking rate was “very high” on the roughly 1 million malicious SMS attacks that occurred in August alone.
Our multi-layered approach - combining telecom partnerships, advanced detection systems, and user awareness - has made measurable progress in reducing phishing threats
“Innovation, collaboration and vigilance”
But this is just one of many actions LuxTrust takes as part of its multi-layered cybersecurity strategy. M. Marrou also notes the growing number of phishing attempts targeting banks, and highlights LuxTrust close collaboration with the Luxembourg banking association, ABBL, and law enforcement authorities to ensure a coordinated defence against those attacks.
Meanwhile, LuxTrust regularly and proactively monitors the Internet in order to identify websites misusing its brand assets, its logo, name and/or visual identity, and receives real-time alerts. These trigger rapid takedown procedures making those websites inaccessible for possible users. It also communicates via its website and social media accounts and it has run campaigns, sometimes jointly with other Luxembourg major players, in a bid to raise general public awareness about such threats. One such campaign is the recently launched cyberfraud.lu platform, which provides tips such as finding the right contact for different cyber fraud scenarios. LuxTrust’s own customer service support on phishing issues is also available 24/7.
“Our multi-layered approach - combining telecom partnerships, advanced detection systems, and user awareness - has made measurable progress in reducing phishing threats,” he adds. “While challenges remain, our commitment to innovation, collaboration, and vigilance positions us as a leader in digital trust and security.”