Encrypted smartphone with advanced encryption standard 256

Abstract

With the advancement of technology and the introduction of smartphones, recent mobile handsets have transcended beyond the simple task of answering and picking up calls. Today, mobile users have the opportunity to make use of the short message service (SMS) when on the go. Almost every mobile phone produced over the last few decades has the SMS function built into the handset. Mobile users are enticed by this secondary form of mobile communication because of its generally low cost when compared to making a phone call. However, in this digital age, mobile users cannot take the confidentiality of data transfer for granted because of the presence of hackers and the threats that exist. In today’s market, various encryption suites are available for mobile users to send their SMS “safely” and offer different ways of encryption and decryption such as symmetry cryptography and asymmetric cryptography. It can be quite dangerous when sending confidential data over an unsecured GSM mobile network as the confidential data may land in the hands of unintended party. In this project, the student is tasked with developing a security based SMS cryptography application based on Google’s Android and designing a proper user-interface for the application as well. The cryptography algorithm used in this project must be Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), achieving the key strength of 256 bits, the highest known currently. Through the use of java programming, the application should enable a mobile user to send encrypted message to the intended party; the intended party upon receiving the message should decrypt the encrypted message with relative ease.