Authors:
Thomas Zefferer
;
Arne Tauber
and
Bernd Zwattendorfer
Affiliation:
E-Government Innovation Center Austria, Austria
Keyword(s):
SMS, m-Government, Electronic Signatures, SMS based Services, Austrian Mobile-phone Signature, Security Analysis.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Applications
;
Artificial Intelligence
;
e-Business
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Government
;
Internet Technology
;
Knowledge Management and Information Sharing
;
Knowledge-Based Systems
;
Mobile Information Systems
;
Mobile Media Sharing Systems
;
Society, e-Business and e-Government
;
Symbolic Systems
;
Web Information Systems and Technologies
;
Web Security and Privacy
Abstract:
SMS is still one of the most popular mobile communication technologies. Simplicity, cost efficiency, and low bandwidth requirements account for the SMS technology’s continuing success. Besides the private sector, also public sector organisations aim to take advantage of SMS technology’s current popularity. In numerous countries all over the world, governments and public administrations already offer citizens SMS based m-Government services. However, most of these services are rather simple and do not include security enhancing mechanisms such as cryptographic methods. This renders the use of SMS based approaches for complex transactional m-Government services with higher security requirements difficult. We tackle this issue by proposing the use of electronic signatures in SMS based services. The technical feasibility of our approach is demonstrated by means of a prototypical application. This application allows citizens to generate, electronically sign, and deliver electronic documen
ts by sending well-defined SMS messages. The proposed method’s capability to meet given security requirements of transactional m-Government services is assessed in the course of a detailed security discussion.
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