Short Message Service (sms) security solution for mobile devices

E. 
SECURE SMS APPLICATIONS 
The previous Sections have shown that the entire SMS system is riddled 
with security issues. Yet, many businesses are accepting the risk because the 
benefits of SMS far outweigh the potential cost of information compromise. If the 
security of SMS can be improved and the security risk reduced, many more 
applications may be able to reap the benefits of the matured GSM networking 
technology and SMS messaging system. The rest of this Section discusses why 
security is required in applications such as IMAS and some potential uses of 
SMS in military operations. Chapter IV describes the implementation of one such 
application. 
1. 
Integrated Mobile Alert System (IMAS) 
The IMAS [25] project was conceptualized at the Naval Postgraduate 
School (NPS) and is currently under development. The aim of the project was to 
provide a common method for people to stay connected in order to receive alerts 
across a wide variety of platforms. The project uses an extended online calendar 
to capture user’s context information. Besides the date, time, location and event 
information in the online calendar, the user can also describe how he can be 
reached when certain events occur, what events to which he would like to be 
alerted, and what he needs to know about the event.
Although the objective sounds logical and straightforward, the project 
makes use of some key concepts that are crucial for enabling true mobile 
computing. First, the system must possess information value awareness by 
which to recognize, first of all, what is urgent or important to the user. Second, 
the system must be aware of the device that the user is holding and the network 
connectivity of that device. Based on these factors, the IMAS can then repurpose 

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the content and deliver the alert to the user in its most usable form. The IMAS 
architecture is shown in Figure 11.
Figure 11. Integrated Mobile Alerts System Architecture (From Ref. [25]) 
Currently, the online calendaring and user profiling part of the system 
have been implemented and tested [26]. The User Profile allows the user to 
specify devices available during his various context settings. For example, a user 
may state that when he is in an off-site meeting the only way of contacting him is 
his cell phone. In this mode, he would like to receive urgent emails as SMS.
SMS as an alert delivery mechanism in IMAS has also been implemented. In this 
case the security of SMS is of paramount importance because urgent emails that 
require immediate attention are likely to be sensitive in nature and need to be 
protected against eavesdropping.

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