SMS Security in Mobile Devices: A Survey

SMS Security in Mobile Devices: A Survey Muhammad Waseem Khan Department of Computer Science, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Wah Cantt Email: [email protected] -------------------------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT-------------------------------------------------------------The Short Message Service (SMS) is one of the frequently used mobile services with universal availability in all GSM networks. The current SMS hasn’t achieved secure transmission of plaintext between different mobile phone devices. SMS doesn’t have its own build-in mechanism to secure the transmitted data because security isn’t considered as a priority application for mobile devices. Many SMS security schemes have been proposed by the researchers. This survey presents the existing schemes used to secure SMS message communication. State of the art SMS security solutions for mobile devices is presented from the period 2006-2013. Literature research of those security schemes is conducted and presented in this survey. The effect of each security scheme on mobile device’s performance is also observed. Finally, a general summary of all security schemes with their limitations is presented.