Omego, Obinna (2021) A multi-channel steganographic communication protocol : design, game-theoretic evaluation and application to a case study in SMS mobile banking. (PhD thesis), Kingston University, .
Abstract
In the twenty-first-century society, which focuses on digital technologies and services, systems such as mobile banking are progressively adopted by the worldwide population. Currently, the number of mobile banking subscribers worldwide exceeds 1.75 billion, representing 32 percent of the global adult population. Banks and payment institutions continue to provide accessible and reliable channels for payment transfer and seamless coordination of banking activities. Mobile banking has become one of the principal domains targeted by tech-savvy criminals due to the lack of user awareness and insufficient software security measures. In some parts of the world, SMS banking offers a convenient mobile banking service that is easy to implement. However, it is only feasible under the assumption that SMSservice providers provide secure SMS services to users. In this thesis, a novel secure SMS banking protocol based on steganography is proposed. The steganographic system proposed is based on a multi-channel security protocol that combines steganography by cover synthesis and steganography by cover modification. The new security protocol has been inspired and developed by protocols proposed for the security of Online Social Networks and Social Media Platforms. The resulting protocol considers the mobile characteristics and constraints, delivering confidentiality based on steganography with multiple channels but avoiding the need for hardware devices creating symmetric session keys as in traditional cryptographic protocol solutions. The secure system is designed in such a manner that it makes the protocol robust against various types of adversarial attacks. Furthermore, this novel protocol is evaluated with a theoretical framework by applying the concept of game theory to a range of steganographic protocol settings. The game theory models developed are based on two-player non-zero-sum complete information games in strategic standard form. A range of use cases is designed, simulating these game-theoretical models using Matlab.
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