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The design and implementation of a private message service for mobile computers

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Abstract

Even as wireless networks create the potential for access to information from mobile platforms, they pose a problem for privacy. In order to retrieve messages, users must periodically poll the network. The information that the user must give to the network could potentially be used to track that user. However, the movements of the user can also be used to hide the user's location if the protocols for sending and retrieving messages are carefully designed. We have developed a replicated memory service which allows users to read from memory without revealing which memory locations they are reading. Unlike previous protocols, our protocol is efficient in its use of computation and bandwidth. In this paper, we will show how this protocol can be used in conjunction with existing privacy preserving protocols to allow a user of a mobile computer to maintain privacy despite active attacks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, 14853-7501, Ithaca, NY, USA

    David A. Cooper & Kenneth P. Birman

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  1. David A. Cooper
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  2. Kenneth P. Birman
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Additional information

The work reported was supported by ARPA/ONR grant N00014-92-J-1866 and a grant by Siemens Corp. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent the opinions of ARPA/ONR or Siemens Corp.

This paper is a revised and extended version of “Preserving Privacy in a Network of Mobile Computers” presented at the 1995 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.

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Cooper, D.A., Birman, K.P. The design and implementation of a private message service for mobile computers. Wireless Netw 1, 297–309 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01200848

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