<p>Sleek and powerful touchscreen devices with continuous access to high-bandwidth wireless data networks have transformed mobile into a first-class development platform. Many applications (i.e., "apps") written for these platforms rely on remote services such as Dropbox, Facebook, and Twitter, and require users to provide one or more passwords upon installation. Unfortunately, today's mobile platforms provide no protection for users' passwords, even as mobile devices have become attractive targets for password-stealing malware and other phishing attacks.</p><p>This dissertation explores the feasibility of providing strong protections for passwords input on mobile devices without requiring large changes to existing apps.</p><p>We propose two approaches to secure password entry on mobile devices: ScreenPass and VeriUI. ScreenPass is integrated with a device's operating system and continuously monitors the device's screen to prevent malicious apps from spoofing the system's trusted software keyboard. The trusted keyboard ensures that ScreenPass always knows when a password is input, which allows it to prevent apps from sending password data to the untrusted servers. VeriUI relies on trusted hardware to isolate password handling from a device's operating system and apps. This approach allows VeriUI to prove to remote services that a relatively small and well-known code base directly handled a user's password data.</p> / Dissertation

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The past few years have witnessed a significant evolution in mobile computing and communications, in which new trends and applications have the traditional role of computer networks into that of distributed service providers. In this thesis we explore an alternative way to form wireless ad-hoc networks whose topologies can be customized as required by the users’ software applications. In particular, we investigate the applicability of mobile codes to networks created by devices equipped with Bluetooth technology. Computer simulations results suggest that our proposed approach can achieve this task effectively, while matching the level of efficiency seen in other salient proposals in this area. This thesis also addresses the issue of service discovery in mobile ad-hoc networks. We propose the use of a directory whose network location varies in an attempt to reduce traffic overhead driven by users’ hosts looking for service information. We refer to this scheme as the Service Directory Placement Algorithm, or SDPA. We formulate the directory relocation problem as a Markov Decision Process that is solved by using Q-learning. Performance evaluations through computer simulations reveal bandwidth overhead reductions that range between 40% and 48% when compared with a basic broadcast flooding approach for networks comprising hosts moving at pedestrian speeds. We then extend our proposed approach and introduce a multi-directory service discovery system called the Service Directory Placement Protocol, or SDPP. Our findings reveal bandwidth overhead reductions typically ranging from 15% to 75% in networks comprising slow-moving hosts with restricted memory availability. In the fourth and final part of this work, we present the design foundations and architecture of a middleware system that called WISEMAN – WIreless Sensors Employing Mobile Agents. We employ WISEMAN for dispatching and processing mobile programs in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Our proposed system enables the dynamic creation of semantic relationships between network nodes that cooperate to provide an aggregate service. We present discussions on the advantages of our proposed approach, and in particular, how WISEMAN facilitates the realization of service-oriented tasks in WSNs.

Kassel, University, Diss., 2006. / Erscheinungsjahr an der Haupttitelstelle: 2005.

Zugl.: Bochum, University, Diss., 2006.

Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2005--Darmstadt.

Thesis (MEng) - Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Advanced Internet Architectures, 2005. / [A thesis submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements of for the degree of ] Masters of Engineering by Research, Centre for Advanced Internet Architectures (CAIA), Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, 2005. Typescript. Bibliography p. 153-159.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 234-249.

Stuttgart, Univ., Diss., 2007.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Glasgow, 2006. / Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Faculty of Information and Mathematical Sciences, University of Glasgow, 2006. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.