Authors:
Alireza P. Sabzevar
and
João Pedro Sousa
Affiliation:
George Mason University, United States
Keyword(s):
Remote PC Access, Mobile Computing, Security, SoonR.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Cloud Computing
;
e-Business
;
Embedded Communications Systems
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Mobility
;
Platforms and Applications
;
Software Architectures
;
Telecommunications
Abstract:
Cell phones are assuming an increasing role in personal computing tasks, but cell phone security has not evolved in parallel with this new role. In a class of systems that leverage cell phones to facilitate access to remote services, compromising a phone may provide the means to compromise or abuse the remote services. This paper presents the background to this class of systems, examines the threats they are exposed to, and discusses possible countermeasures. A concrete solution is presented, which is based on multi-factor authentication and an
on-demand strategy for minimizing exposure. This solution is built on top of a representative off-the-shelf commercial product called SoonR. Rather than proposing a one-size-fits-all solution, this work enables end-users to manage the tradeoff between security assurances and the overhead of using the corresponding features. The contributions of this paper are a discussion of the problem and a set of guidelines for improving the design of sec
urity solutions for remote access systems.
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