Preventing Location-Based Identity Inference in Anonymous Spatial Queries

The increasing trend of embedding positioning capabilities (for example, GPS) in mobile devices facilitates the widespread use of Location-Based Services. For such applications to succeed, privacy and confidentiality are essential. Existing privacy-enhancing techniques rely on encryption to safeguard communication channels, and on pseudonyms to protect user identities. Nevertheless, the query contents may disclose the physical location of the user. In this paper, we present a framework for preventing location-based identity inference of users who issue spatial queries to Location-Based Services. We propose transformations based on the well-established K-anonymity concept to compute exact answers for range and nearest neighbor search, without revealing the query source. Our methods optimize the entire process of anonymizing the requests and processing the transformed spatial queries. Extensive experimental studies suggest that the proposed techniques are applicable to real-life scenarios with numerous mobile users

Location based file encryption

U ovom radu istražuju se načini i metode korištenja lokacije prilikom kriptiranja podataka na mobilnim uređajima. Opisani su osnovni tipovi kriptiranja podataka, sigurnosni mehanizmi Android i iOS uređaja, te način na koji je implementirano kriptiranje u Android uređajima. Cilj rada je, koristeći neke od metoda opisanih u teorijskom dijelu, načiniti Android aplikaciju koja kriptira datoteke koristeći lokaciju. Aplikacija je načinjena u programskom alatu Android Studio koristeći programski jezik Java i opisni jezik XML. U aplikaciji, korisnik može odabrati lokaciju za koju će se datoteka kriptirati. Datoteka je kriptirana AES/CBC algoritmom s nasumičnim inicijalizacijskim vektorom i lokacijom kao ključem kriptiranja. Kriptiranu datoteku moguće je dekriptirati samo kada je Android uređaj na lokaciji odabranoj za kriptiranje. Aplikacija je laka za korištenje, iako postoji problem u korisničkom iskustvu kod upotrebe odabira lokacije. Smatra se kako bi lokacija trebala biti dodatak prilikom kriptiranja umjesto da se na lokaciji bazira cijeli sustav.This thesis explores ways and methods of using location for encrypting data on mobile devices. Basic types of encryption, security mechanisms in Android and iOS devices, and ways of encryption implemented on the Android system are described in this paper. The goal is to create an Android application which uses some of the methods described in theoretical part. The application is created via the programming tool Android Studio which uses Java programming language and XML markup language. When a user chooses a file to encrypt, he can choose the location this file will be encrypted for. The file is encrypted using AES/CBC algorithm with randomized initialization vector and location as encryption key. The encrypted file is possible to decrypt only when the Android device is located at the chosen encryption location. The application is easy to use, although problems with user experience exist while picking encryption location. It is considered that the location should be used as an extra layer of protection while encrypting instead of being used as a basis of the whole system

ABAKA : a novel attribute-based k-anonymous collaborative solution for LBSs

The increasing use of mobile devices, along with advances in telecommunication systems, increased the popularity of Location-Based Services (LBSs). In LBSs, users share their exact location with a potentially untrusted Location-Based Service Provider (LBSP). In such a scenario, user privacy becomes a major con- cern: the knowledge about user location may lead to her identification as well as a continuous tracing of her position. Researchers proposed several approaches to preserve users’ location privacy. They also showed that hiding the location of an LBS user is not enough to guarantee her privacy, i.e., user’s pro- file attributes or background knowledge of an attacker may reveal the user’s identity. In this paper we propose ABAKA, a novel collaborative approach that provides identity privacy for LBS users considering users’ profile attributes. In particular, our solution guarantees p -sensitive k -anonymity for the user that sends an LBS request to the LBSP. ABAKA computes a cloaked area by collaborative multi-hop forwarding of the LBS query, and using Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE). We ran a thorough set of experiments to evaluate our solution: the results confirm the feasibility and efficiency of our proposal

Implementing Geo-Encryption in GSM Cellular Network

The “geo-encryption” or “location-based encryption” is a security algorithm that limits the access or decryption of information content to specified locations and/or times. This algorithm does not replace any of the conventional cryptographic algorithms, but instead adds an additional layer of security to exist stack. GSM is chosen as a case study to implement geo-encryption in its key generation part due to its many properties that are beneficial to this protocol. GSM's BTSs are distributed across the network and their signal can reach places like urban canyons and indoor environments inside the network. In GSM, data stream between mobile subscriber (MS) and BTS is encrypted by A5 encryption algorithm. A5's encryption and decryption key (kc) is generated base on MS's SIM card parameter (ki) and a random number, RAND. In the symmetric ciphers its better to use transient key instead of constant key for this at this project we have used MS's location information to generate this key by geoencryption algorithm idea. Encrypted data only in the MS's location, that just GSM network is aware of it, can be decrypted and its accuracy depends on used positioning algorith