A Tiered Security System for Mobile Devices

TL;DR

This paper presents a flexible, tiered security system for mobile devices that allows users to define custom security triggers and actions, accessible via browser or directly on the device, with sharing capabilities across multiple devices.

Contribution

It introduces a novel tiered security framework with user-friendly configuration, supporting diverse security scenarios and actions, and enabling cross-device sharing without server dependency.

Findings

Supports various security scenarios from theft to misplacement

Allows configuration via web or device directly

Enables sharing configurations across devices

Abstract

We have designed a tiered security system for mobile devices where each security tier holds user-defined security triggers and actions. It has a friendly interface that allows users to easily define and configure the different circumstances and actions they need according to context. The system can be set up and activated from any browser or directly on the mobile device itself. When the security system is operated from a Web site or server, its configuration can be readily shared across multiple devices. When operated directly from the mobile device, no server is needed for activation. Many different types of security circumstances and actions can be set up and employed from its tiers. Security circumstances can range from temporary misplacement of a mobile device at home to malicious theft in a hostile region. Security actions can range from ringing a simple alarm to automatically erasing, overwriting, and re-erasing drives.