In November 2025, Eastwind participated in the Zain Risk Forum and held our annual planning session with Zain Kuwait—an existing EW SMS Firewall client. We exchanged insights with Zain Group teams on using AI & ML to secure messaging traffic, explored solution enhancement opportunities, and gathered valuable feedback on active projects.
Eastwind Team at the Zain Risk Forum
This year, the Zain Risk Forum was held for the sixth time. The conference took place in Bahrain. The event gathers Zain Group mobile operators and solution partners who share hands-on expertise in information security, covering everything from risk management to data protection.
Zain is a telecommunications group serving more than 50 million mobile voice and data subscribers. Its network includes operators in Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sudan, Morocco, and the UAE.
At the forum, Eastwind showcased how the EW SMS Firewall enables operators to shield subscribers from fraud and minimize financial losses. We shared real-world use cases from Zain Kuwait:
- How EW SMS Firewall detects and blocks spam and fraud with heuristic analysis and URL scanning
- How the AI module strengthens fraud protection through deeper, real-time traffic analysis
After deploying the AI module, one of our clients saw its solution block significantly more fraudulent activity
Following the presentation, we offered participants the opportunity to experience the AI module in action by testing it on historical SMS traffic and exploring the resulting analytics. The initiative attracted strong interest from attendees.
The EW SMS Firewall traffic speed test requires no system deployment or upfront investment. Mobile operators only need to provide raw data, which we analyze using our AI Anti-Fraud module. Within a few days, we deliver a detailed report covering volumes and schemes of detected fraud, estimated financial losses and blocking recommendations.
We already conduct such assessments for our clients. They do not affect live traffic and are intended solely to compare the performance of the customer’s current solution with EW SMS Firewall.
Zain Kuwait Year-End Summary: AI Module Pilot, Voice Traffic Insights, and Launch of URL Scanner
Following the forum, the Eastwind team visited Kuwait for our third annual strategy session with Zain Kuwait. Together we reviewed year-end results, assessed current solutions, and mapped out future development for the EW SMS Firewall.
Our partnership follows a managed service model: Eastwind supports the entire lifecycle of the SMS Firewall, from rule setup to traffic analysis. During the session, we presented yearly results across four strategic focus areas.
Managed Services
We outlined the types of threats that were prevented by the EW SMS Firewall and detailed the steps our Customer Success Manager took to ensure these outcomes.
- Shared insights into detected fraud schemes
- Reviewed the response rules we implemented throughout the year
- Demonstrated how traffic analytics guided our actions and decisions
We also met with several Zain Kuwait department leads interested in traffic intelligence. Based on these discussions, we’ll deploy customized dashboard panels and organize a training session on leveraging data for deeper insights.
In Kuwait this year, we faced a familiar type of fraud: attackers used SIM boxes to route international A2P traffic through P2P channels. To evade detection, they altered SMS texts by substituting letters with numbers. Such schemes can be uncovered either through testing or with the help of AI.
Testing captures a limited range of A2P services, which raises the risk of overlooking OTP code substitution. To address this, we selected an AI module that can scan the full volume of SMS traffic.
The AI Anti-Fraud module adapts to each client’s environment, including the languages used in the country. It rapidly detects A2P codes within message content, allowing us to quickly uncover fraud and shut down the channel.
We plan to continue enhancing the AI module to detect additional fraud schemes, including social engineering and cases where A2P SMS messages contain a code but no brand name.
Irina Timofeeva,
Customer Success Manager, Eastwind
AI Anti-Fraud
Following a successful pilot of the EW SMS Firewall AI module at Zain Kuwait, we brought its capabilities to life in our latest session with a live demo using historical traffic. Now, we’re moving forward with full integration into the production environment.
AI Against SMS Fraud: Successful Pilot Completed, Implementation in Progress
URL-Scanner
Last year, the operator began commercial deployment of the EW SMS Firewall URL Scanner, a module that blocks SMS messages with phishing links. At the meeting, we reviewed its performance results and defined next steps to update the algorithms and enhance the module’s functionality.
This year, we faced a wave of large-scale spam attacks targeting residents of Kuwait. Attackers leveraged increasingly sophisticated tactics to deceive users and evade existing defenses:
- Links mentioning the national currency to make messages appear legitimate.
- Domains disguised to mimic Kuwait’s national domain and boost user trust.
- Sophisticated techniques to evade standard URL checks. For instance, they used Cloudflare to block automated scanning and prevented blocking by IP addresses tied to leading security providers, making spam mitigation significantly more challenging.
The URL Scanner’s operation at Zain Kuwait demonstrated that anti-phishing databases, even from leading industry providers, fail to keep pace with threats of this nature. As a result, we began developing and integrating a zero trust approach into the module’s algorithms. This will enhance the URL Scanner’s effectiveness and strengthen subscriber protection against phishing links.
Andrey Alemastsev,
EW SMS Firewall Product Manager, Eastwind
Voice Traffic Analysis
Zain Kuwait had already deployed a voice monitoring system from another provider but was experiencing operational challenges. To address these issues, we carried out a voice traffic assessment using Eastwind’s Voice Firewall module.
The test uncovered signs of flash calls and other types of fraud that had gone unnoticed by the existing solution. Based on these findings, we helped refine the anti-fraud rules to more effectively block suspicious activity—and confirmed plans for continued collaboration to improve voice traffic security.
Looking Ahead to 2026: Strengthening the URL Scanner, Expanding Automation, and Advancing Analytics
We wrapped up the session by mapping out where EW SMS Firewall is headed in 2026. Here’s what’s coming next:
- Enhancing the URL Scanner’s capabilities based on the Zero Trust model.
- Building out new analytics dashboards.
- Implementation of Agentic AI: moving to an operating model where a Multi-Agent ML system autonomously analyzes SMS traffic from multiple angles, generates filtering rules, and enforces them within EW SMS Firewall without requiring managed services intervention.
Our visit to the Middle East reaffirmed the value of our solutions and gave us deeper insight into the needs of mobile operators—both broadly and for our client specifically. The feedback we received will drive further development of EW SMS Firewall and enhance our traffic protection expertise.
