SIMSSP: Secure Instant Messaging System for Smart Phones

Abstract

Hand held smart devices such as smart phones, Personal Digital Assistant (PDAs) and tablets are ubiquitous and touch almost all people’ life functions. In most cases, Hand held devices can be categorized as messaging-centric that conveying information in many form of electronic messages i.e. e-mail, Short Message Service (SMS) and instance messaging (IM). IM software exchange large amount of messages (e.g. plain text, images and files) over insecure communications networks for example wireless and internet communication networks. IM data are transferred through communication networks in different locations. Thus, the potential for unauthorized access, abuse, or fraud is not limited to a single location but can occur at any access point in the communication network. The objective of this work is to provide a secure effective platform for encrypting and decrypting IM data. The proposed platform is based on pre-shared secure key mechanism and Vernam algorithm in order to guarantee secure transmission and storage functions for IM applications through a well-established Application Programming Interface (API) that provides seamless integration with existing IM software.