Intrusion detection in Bluetooth enabled mobile phones

Abstract

Bluetooth plays a major role in expanding global spread of wireless technology. This predominantly happens through Bluetooth enabled mobile phones, which cover almost 60% of the Bluetooth market. Although Bluetooth mobile phones are equipped with built-in security modes and policies, intruders compromise mobile phones through existing security vulnerabilities and limitations. Information stored in mobile phones, whether it is personal or corporate, is significant to mobile phone users. Hence, the need to protect information, as well as alert mobile phone users of their incoming connections, is vital. An additional security mechanism was therefore conceptualized, at the mobile phone's user level, which is essential in improving the security. Bluetooth Logging Agent (BLA) is a mechanism that has been developed for this purpose. It alleviates the current security issues by making the users aware of their incoming Bluetooth connections and gives them an option to either accept or reject these connections. Besides this, the intrusion detection and verification module uses databases and rules to authenticate and verify all connections. BLA when compared to the existing security solutions is novel and unique in that it is equipped with a Bluetooth message logging module. This logging module reduces the security risks by monitoring the Bluetooth communication between the mobile phone and the remote device.