Gateway security between Bluetooth and GSM/GPRS

Abstract

The amount of wireless technologies is getting bigger and wider. It is more and more common in everyday use for a huge amount of the people. A cellular phone is something that everyone got in addition to normal access the Internet. So, why not both at the same time. When data is transmitted over the Internet and are communicating with wireless technologies, there are several vulnerable points. There have to be secure data communication, and the security is only something that should lay behind which people do not have to think about. Unfortunately, this is not the way it is, there are different technologies that cover the security better than others. This master thesis covers some of the different technologies that is in everyday use. Where the concentration is on the wireless technologies and how to combine these securely. The technologies cowered are; Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS, IPSec and WTLS covered by WAP. One essential purpose of WAP is to provide a way to bring commercial applications into mobile terminals. Security mechanisms of GSM or GPRS do not necessarily provide enough security for all WAP applications. Additional security mechanisms need to be implemented to the mobile terminals and the network. Mobile terminals unfortunately usually have limited computing resources, and implementing efficient security mechanism can be difficult. Since both WAP enabled GSM/GPRS telephones and Bluetooth devices support the use of WAP and IP communications, it is nothing that says that WTLS and IPSec could not been used to secure the communication. Both, WTLS and IPSec support some kind of end-to-end security. This thesis covers some of the solutions that may be used together with the wireless technologies GSM/GPRS and Bluetooth. In the end there are an overview over different combinations and a suggestion to secure the data communication.