Smishing vs Phishing vs Vishing: Why SMS Is the Hardest Channel to Defend

This report explains why smishing (SMS-based phishing) is uniquely difficult to detect and defend against compared with email phishing and vishing, highlighting the absence of protocol-level sender authentication, inconsistent carrier filtering, direct delivery to endpoints (often personal devices), truncated mobile UX, and urgency-driven message design; it concludes that enterprises need new visibility and control mechanisms for the SMS channel.