Generic placeholder image

Recent Advances in Computer Science and Communications

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 2666-2558
ISSN (Online): 2666-2566

General Research Article

ASMA: An Advanced Secure Messaging Application

Author(s): Ankur Gupta*, Purnendu Prabhat and Arun Sharma

Volume 15, Issue 5, 2022

Published on: 13 October, 2020

Article ID: e060422186849 Pages: 8

DOI: 10.2174/2666255813999201013165309

Price: $65

Abstract

Background: User-generated digital content, typically from mobile devices, can be of a personal nature. There have been several instances in which this personal content, including but not limited to, photographs, videos, messages and personal information, has been misused by the recipients. The misuse has ranged from violating privacy through unauthorized sharing to manipulating/ modifying the original content and finally forgery and fraud.

Objectives: The study aims to create an Advanced Secure Messaging Application (ASMA), allowing personal digital content to be shared across mobile devices in a secure, controlled and privacypreserving manner. The application allows the user to explicitly specify a micro-policy to control the way digital content sent by the user, is consumed, shared or modified by the recipient(s). The users should be able to check the veracity of a shared news item besides controlling group formation and enforcing content sharing guidelines within a group.

Methods: A micro-policy based novel mechanism is introduced for exercising fine-grained control over the manner in which digital content generated by users is shared and distributed among their contacts. Fact-checking is supported by cross-checking the message content against credible news sources.

Results: Measurements of message throughput show a consistent and manageable overhead, due to a per-message micro-policy travelling with the message data compared to traditional message sharing applications. The high user-ratings received from users in a pilot test establish acceptance of the app and the need for its advanced features. Moreover, the overheads in implementing additional security features are imperceptible at the user level.

Conclusion: ASMA is a highly secure and privacy-preserving messaging application, as demonstrated by experimental results and the pilot usability study. It offers novel security and content control features, which are not available in existing mobile messaging applications.

Keywords: Mobile message, sharing applications, fake news, message level micro-policy, ASMA mobile app, secure messaging, privacy-preserving messaging app.

Graphical Abstract

[1]
"Facebook", https://www.facebook.com/
[2]
"Twitter", https://twitter.com/
[3]
"WhatsApp", https://www.whatsapp.com/
[4]
"Telegram", https://telegram.org/
[5]
"WeChat", https://www.wechat.com/en/
[6]
"Abrar Al-Heeti", https://www.cnet.com/news/whatsapp-65-billion-messages-sent-each-day-and-more-than-2-billion-minutes-of-calls/
[7]
J. Clement, Most popular global mobile messaging apps 2019. Statista, 2020.https://www.statista.com/statistics/258749/mostpopular-33 global-mobile-messenger-apps/
[8]
A. Hutchinson, Facebook Messenger by the Numbers 2019 [Infographic].https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-messenger-by-the-numbers-2019-infographic/553809/
[9]
"QQMobile", https://www.imqq.com/
[10]
"Skype", https://www.skype.com/en/
[11]
"Snapchat", https://www.snapchat.com/
[12]
"Viber", https://www.viber.com/
[13]
C. Smith, 65 Amazing WhatsApp Statistics and Facts (2019)| By the Numbers DMR Business Statistics,, 2020.https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/whatsapp-statistics/
[14]
"Press Trust of India, Sebi on WhatsApp leak: It’s clear info leaked from companies, 2017", https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/sebi-on-whatsapp-leak-its-clear-info-leaked-from-companies/articleshow/62282169.cms
[15]
F.E. Online, "Tamil Nadu half-yearly question papers leaked on WhatsApp, FIR registered, 2018", https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/tamil-nadu-half-yearly-question-papers-leaked-on-whatsapp-fir-registered/1415983/
[16]
J. Shin, "4 Challenges Facing the Messaging Industry", https://www.tyntec.com/blog/4-challenges-facing-messaging-industry
[17]
V. Kapoor, "The Study of Mobile & Whatsapp: Usage and Trends", Indian Police Journal, Vol, vol. 63, no. 2-3, pp. 106-121, 2016.
[18]
"Hike", https://hike.in/
[19]
"ShareIt", https://shareit.one/
[20]
A. Gupta, A Method of Controlled Sharing Of Personal Digital Content On Mobile Devices Indian Patent Application 1454/DEL/2015.
[21]
M. Tambuscio, G. Ruffo, A. Flammini, and F. Menczer, "Fact-checking effect on viral hoaxes: A model of misinformation spread in social networks", In: Proceedings of the 24th international conference on World Wide Web, 2015, pp. 977-982.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2740908.2742572]
[22]
A. Gupta, A System and Method of Automated authenticity checking of information shared on mobile message sharing applicatins Indian Patent Application 201711003132.
[23]
A. Gupta, P. Prabhat, R. Gupta, S. Pangotra, and S. Bajaj, "Message Authentication System for Mobile Messaging Applications", In: 2017 International Conference on Next Generation Computing and Information Systems (ICNGCIS), 2017, pp. 147-152.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICNGCIS.2017.32]
[24]
"Google news API", https://newsapi.org/s/google-news-api
[25]
"ANI news", https://www.aninews.in/
[26]
IBM Watson, https://www.ibm.com/watson
[27]
"Firebase NoSQL Database", https://firebase.google.com/docs/database

Rights & Permissions Print Cite
© 2024 Bentham Science Publishers | Privacy Policy