Authenticated and Secure End-To-End Communication Channel Using SMS Messages

ABSTRACT One of the key issues of modern cryptography is the problem of establishing a secure end-to-end communication over an insecure communication channel. Short Message Service (SMS) is a hugely popular and easily adopted communications technology for mobile devices. Users conduct business, disclose passwords and receive sensitive notification reports from systems using this communication technology. SMSs by default are sent in clear text form within the serving GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) network, Over The Air (OTA), and potentially over the public Internet in a predictable format. This allows anyone accessing the GSM system to read, and or modify the SMS content even on the fly. In this paper, we present an approach mainly consists of two steps, first, SHA-1 authentication is used to generate a message digest that is combined with previous message digest and a shared secret key to form an initial key stream. Secondly, this key 2 will be used as input to a mathematical equation derived in prefix notation from randomly selected set of operators and functions supported by the software platform extracted from special table. The final key stream is the output of this equation which is a one time pad to encrypt the original message text. Lastly, encrypted SMS message will be sent and a randomized operation will be then applied to that table. A one-time pad, considered to be the only perfectly secure cryptosystem, secures an SMS message for transport over any medium between a mobile device and the serving GSM network and through it too

An Intelligent Mobility Prediction Scheme for Location-Based Service over Cellular Communications Network

One of the trickiest challenges introduced by cellular communications networks is mobility prediction for Location Based-Services (LBSs). Hence, an accurate and efficient mobility prediction technique is particularly needed for these networks. The mobility prediction technique incurs overheads on the transmission process. These overheads affect properties of the cellular communications network such as delay, denial of services, manual filtering and bandwidth. The main goal of this research is to enhance a mobility prediction scheme in cellular communications networks through three phases. Firstly, current mobility prediction techniques will be investigated. Secondly, innovation and examination of new mobility prediction techniques will be based on three hypothesises that are suitable for cellular communications network and mobile user (MU) resources with low computation cost and high prediction success rate without using MU resources in the prediction process. Thirdly, a new mobility prediction scheme will be generated that is based on different levels of mobility prediction. In this thesis, a new mobility prediction scheme for LBSs is proposed. It could be considered as a combination of the cell and routing area (RA) prediction levels. For cell level prediction, most of the current location prediction research is focused on generalized location models, where the geographic extent is divided into regular-shape cells. These models are not suitable for certain LBSs where the objectives are to compute and present on-road services. Such techniques are the New Markov-Based Mobility Prediction (NMMP) and Prediction Location Model (PLM) that deal with inner cell structure and different levels of prediction, respectively. The NMMP and PLM techniques suffer from complex computation, accuracy rate regression and insufficient accuracy. In this thesis, Location Prediction based on a Sector Snapshot (LPSS) is introduced, which is based on a Novel Cell Splitting Algorithm (NCPA). This algorithm is implemented in a micro cell in parallel with the new prediction technique. The LPSS technique, compared with two classic prediction techniques and the experimental results, shows the effectiveness and robustness of the new splitting algorithm and prediction technique. In the cell side, the proposed approach reduces the complexity cost and prevents the cell level prediction technique from performing in time slots that are too close. For these reasons, the RA avoids cell-side problems. This research discusses a New Routing Area Displacement Prediction for Location-Based Services (NRADP) which is based on developed Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). The NRADP, compared with Mobility Prediction based on an Ant System (MPAS) and the experimental results, shows the effectiveness, higher prediction rate, reduced search stagnation ratio, and reduced computation cost of the new prediction technique

Towards securing 3G mobile phones

Third-generation (3G) mobile phones are capable of high data rate Internet connection and promise seamless connectivity for a free roaming user. They can provide an always on Internet, and make a range of services, traditionally available on desktop computers, accessible to mobile users, irrespective of their location. Providing adequate security for these phones and the services that they offer is a central concern for their acceptability and uptake. We briefly review the security of second generation mobile phones and then discuss security architecture proposed for 3G phones. The new security issues that are of importance because of the combination of their advanced capabilities and limitations are discussed