SMS Security in Mobile Devices: A Survey

The Short Message Service (SMS) is one of the frequently used mobile services with universal availability in all GSM networks. The current SMS hasnt achieved secure transmission of plaintext between different mobile phone devices. SMS doesnt have its own build-in mechanism to secure the transmitted data because security isnt considered as a priority application for mobile devices. Many SMS security schemes have been proposed by the researchers. This survey presents the existing schemes used to secure SMS message communication. State of the art SMS security solutions for mobile devices is presented from the period 2006-2013. Literature research of those security schemes is conducted and presented in this survey. The effect of each security scheme on mobile devices performance is also observed. Finally, a general summary of all security schemes with their limitations is presented.