Editorial

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Open AccessEditorial

Special Issue on Mobile Systems, Mobile Networks, and Mobile Cloud: Security, Privacy, and Digital Forensics

by Lei Chen, Wenjia Li and Rami J. Haddad

Information 2017, 8(3), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/info8030099 - 15 Aug 2017

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The use of smartphones and mobile devices has become an indispensable part of everyone’s daily life and work [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mobile Systems, Mobile Networks and Mobile Cloud: Security, Privacy and Digital Forensics)

Research

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Open AccessArticle

Efficient Listening and Sleeping Scheduling Mechanism Based on Self-Similarity for Duty Cycle Opportunistic Mobile Networks

by Feng Zeng, Yueyue Dou, Zhigang Chen and Hui Liu

Information 2017, 8(3), 87; https://doi.org/10.3390/info8030087 - 20 Jul 2017

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4179

Abstract

In opportunistic mobile networks (OppNets), nodes should be in listening state to discover the neighbors for opportunistic message forwarding. While in OppNets, contacts between nodes are sparse, most of the node’s energy is consumed in idle listening state, which highlights the need for [...] Read more.

In opportunistic mobile networks (OppNets), nodes should be in listening state to discover the neighbors for opportunistic message forwarding. While in OppNets, contacts between nodes are sparse, most of the node’s energy is consumed in idle listening state, which highlights the need for energy saving in contact probing. Duty cycle operation can be applied to address this problem. However, it may cause the degradation of network connectivity when the state of node is turned to be sleeping. In this paper, we propose an adaptive scheduling mechanism based on self-similarity, in which LMMSE predictor is used to predict the future contact information. The state of a node will be set as listening or sleeping adaptively according to the predicted result of future contacts with other nodes. Finally, we validate the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism by conducting a large amount of trace-driven simulations, which show that the proposed mechanism outperforms the random working mechanism and periodical working mechanism in terms of the number of effective contacts, delivery ratio, transmission delay and cost. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mobile Systems, Mobile Networks and Mobile Cloud: Security, Privacy and Digital Forensics)

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564 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Lightweight RFID Grouping-Proof Protocol Based on Parallel Mode and DHCP Mechanism

by Zhicai Shi, Xiaomei Zhang and Yihan Wang

Information 2017, 8(3), 85; https://doi.org/10.3390/info8030085 - 19 Jul 2017

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3925

Abstract

A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) grouping-proof protocol is to generate an evidence of the simultaneous existence of a group of tags and it has been applied to many different fields. For current grouping-proof protocols, there still exist some flaws such as low grouping-proof [...] Read more.

A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) grouping-proof protocol is to generate an evidence of the simultaneous existence of a group of tags and it has been applied to many different fields. For current grouping-proof protocols, there still exist some flaws such as low grouping-proof efficiency, being vulnerable to trace attack and information leakage. To improve the secure performance and efficiency, we propose a lightweight RFID grouping-proof protocol based on parallel mode and DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) mechanism. Our protocol involves multiple readers and multiple tag groups. During the grouping-proof period, one reader and one tag group are chosen by the verifier by means of DHCP mechanism. When only a part of the tags of the chosen group exist, the protocol can also give the evidence of their co-existence. Our protocol utilizes parallel communication mode between reader and tags so as to ensure its grouping-proof efficiency. It only uses Hash function to complete the mutual authentication among verifier, readers and tags. It can preserve the privacy of the RFID system and resist the attacks such as eavesdropping, replay, trace and impersonation. Therefore the protocol is secure, flexible and efficient. It only uses some lightweight operations such as Hash function and a pseudorandom number generator. Therefore it is very suitable to some low-cost RFID systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mobile Systems, Mobile Networks and Mobile Cloud: Security, Privacy and Digital Forensics)

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Open AccessArticle

Protecting Touch: Authenticated App-To-Server Channels for Mobile Devices Using NFC Tags

by Fernando Kaway Carvalho Ota, Michael Roland, Michael Hölzl, René Mayrhofer and Aleardo Manacero

Information 2017, 8(3), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/info8030081 - 06 Jul 2017

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 6061

Abstract

Traditional authentication methods (e.g., password, PIN) often do not scale well to the context of mobile devices in terms of security and usability. However, the adoption of Near Field Communication (NFC) on a broad range of smartphones enables the use of NFC-enabled tokens [...] Read more.

Traditional authentication methods (e.g., password, PIN) often do not scale well to the context of mobile devices in terms of security and usability. However, the adoption of Near Field Communication (NFC) on a broad range of smartphones enables the use of NFC-enabled tokens as an additional authentication factor. This additional factor can help to improve the security, as well as usability of mobile apps. In this paper, we evaluate the use of different types of existing NFC tags as tokens for establishing authenticated secure sessions between smartphone apps and web services. Based on this evaluation, we present two concepts for a user-friendly secure authentication mechanism for mobile apps, the Protecting Touch (PT) architectures. These two architectures are designed to be implemented with either end of the spectrum of inexpensive and widely-available NFC tags while maintaining a reasonable trade-off between security, availability and cost. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mobile Systems, Mobile Networks and Mobile Cloud: Security, Privacy and Digital Forensics)

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Open AccessArticle

Insecure Network, Unknown Connection: Understanding Wi-Fi Privacy Assumptions of Mobile Device Users

by Bram Bonné, Gustavo Rovelo, Peter Quax and Wim Lamotte

Information 2017, 8(3), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/info8030076 - 01 Jul 2017

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 8494

Abstract

Smartphones and other mobile devices have proliferated in the past five years. The expectation of mobile device users to always be online has led to Wi-Fi networks being offered by a variety of providers. Using these networks introduces multiple security risks. In this [...] Read more.

Smartphones and other mobile devices have proliferated in the past five years. The expectation of mobile device users to always be online has led to Wi-Fi networks being offered by a variety of providers. Using these networks introduces multiple security risks. In this work, we assess to what extent the privacy stance of mobile device users corresponds with their actual behavior by conducting a study with 108 participants. Our methodology consists of monitoring Wi-Fi networks that the participants’ devices connect to and the connections made by apps on these devices, for a period of 30 days. Afterwards, participants are surveyed about their awareness and privacy sensitiveness. We show that while a higher expertise in computer networks corresponds to more awareness about the connections made by apps, neither this expertise nor the actual privacy stance of the participant translates to better security habits. Moreover, participants in general were unaware about a significant part of connections made by apps on their devices, a matter that is worsened by the fact that one third of Wi-Fi networks that participants connect to do not have any security enabled. Based on our results, we provide recommendations to network providers, developers and users on how to improve Wi-Fi security for mobile devices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mobile Systems, Mobile Networks and Mobile Cloud: Security, Privacy and Digital Forensics)

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Open AccessArticle

Pokémon GO Forensics: An Android Application Analysis

by Joshua Sablatura and Umit Karabiyik

Information 2017, 8(3), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/info8030071 - 23 Jun 2017

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 10457

Abstract

As the geolocation capabilities of smartphones continue to improve, developers have continued to create more innovative applications that rely on this location information for their primary function. This can be seen with Niantic’s release of Pokémon GO, which is a massively multiplayer online [...] Read more.

As the geolocation capabilities of smartphones continue to improve, developers have continued to create more innovative applications that rely on this location information for their primary function. This can be seen with Niantic’s release of Pokémon GO, which is a massively multiplayer online role playing and augmented reality game. This game became immensely popular within just a few days of its release. However, it also had the propensity to be a distraction to drivers, resulting in numerous accidents, and was used as a tool by armed robbers to lure unsuspecting users into secluded areas. This facilitates the need for forensic investigators to be able to analyze the data within the application in order to determine if it may have been involved in these incidents. Because this application is new, limited research has been conducted regarding the artifacts that can be recovered from the application. In this paper, we aim to fill the gaps within the current research by assessing what forensically-relevant information may be recovered from the application and understanding the circumstances behind the creation of this information. Our research focuses primarily on the artifacts generated by the Upsight analytics platform, those contained within the bundles directory and the Pokémon Go Plus accessory. Moreover, we present our new application-specific analysis tool that is capable of extracting forensic artifacts from a backup of the Android application and presenting them to an investigator in an easily-readable format. This analysis tool exceeds the capabilities of the well known mobile forensic tool Cellebrite’s UFED (Universal Forensic Extraction Device) Physical Analyzer in processing Pokémon GO application data. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mobile Systems, Mobile Networks and Mobile Cloud: Security, Privacy and Digital Forensics)

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Open AccessArticle

The Diffraction Research of Cylindrical Block Effect Based on Indoor 45 GHz Millimeter Wave Measurements

by Xingrong Li, Yongqian Li and Baogang Li

Information 2017, 8(2), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/info8020050 - 02 May 2017

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4673

Abstract

In this paper, four kinds of block diffraction models were proposed on the basis of the uniform geometrical theory of diffraction, and these models were validated by experiments with 45 GHz millimeter wave in the laboratory. The results are in agreement with the [...] Read more.

In this paper, four kinds of block diffraction models were proposed on the basis of the uniform geometrical theory of diffraction, and these models were validated by experiments with 45 GHz millimeter wave in the laboratory. The results are in agreement with the theoretical analysis. Some errors exist in the measurement results because of the unsatisfactory experimental environment. Single conducting cylindrical block measurement error was less than 0.5 dB, and single man block measurement error in the school laboratory was less than 1 dB, while in the factory laboratory environment, the peak to peak error reached 1.6 dB. Human body block attenuation was about 5.9–9.2 dB lower than that of the single conducting cylinder. A human body and a conducting cylinder were used together as a block in model (c) and model (d), but the positions of the cylinder in the two models were different. The measurement results showed that the attenuation of model (d) is about 3 dB higher than that of model (c). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mobile Systems, Mobile Networks and Mobile Cloud: Security, Privacy and Digital Forensics)

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1137 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Security Awareness of the Digital Natives

by Vasileios Gkioulos, Gaute Wangen, Sokratis K. Katsikas, George Kavallieratos and Panayiotis Kotzanikolaou

Information 2017, 8(2), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/info8020042 - 08 Apr 2017

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 6727

Abstract

Young generations make extensive use of mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, while a plethora of security risks associated with such devices are induced by vulnerabilities related to user behavior. Furthermore, the number of security breaches on or via portable devices [...] Read more.

Young generations make extensive use of mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, while a plethora of security risks associated with such devices are induced by vulnerabilities related to user behavior. Furthermore, the number of security breaches on or via portable devices increases exponentially. Thus, deploying suitable risk treatments requires the investigation of how the digital natives (young people, born and bred in the digital era) use their mobile devices and their level of security awareness, in order to identify common usage patterns with negative security impact. In this article, we present the results of a survey performed across a multinational sample of digital natives with distinct backgrounds and levels of competence in terms of security, to identify divergences in user behavior due to regional, educational and other factors. Our results highlight significant influences on the behavior of digital natives, arising from user confidence, educational background, and parameters related to usability and accessibility. The outcomes of this study justify the need for further analysis of the topic, in order to identify the influence of fine-grained semantics, but also the consolidation of wide and robust user-models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mobile Systems, Mobile Networks and Mobile Cloud: Security, Privacy and Digital Forensics)

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