Mobile Telephone Firewall and Compliance Enforcement System and Method

• US 20090325615A1
• Filed: 06/28/2009
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ManTech Advanced Systems International, Inc. (Mantech International Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oceans' Edge, Inc. (Mantech International Corporation)
• Inventors: McKay, Robert, Hildner, Steven, Emara, Sam, Mihaylova, Mihaela, Lukin, Jay, Shanley, Thomas, Berzins, Tim, Klonoski, Nathan, Bahr, Terry, Driver, Wesley
• Granted Patent: US 9,071,974 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/02 for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0853 using an additional device, e.g. smartcard, SIM or a different communication terminal cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving additional secure or trusted devices H04L9/3234
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/14 for detecting or protecting against malicious traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/106 Packet or message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/128 Anti-malware arrangements, e.g. protection against SMS fraud or mobile malware
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

Methods, systems, and software for mediating SMS messages, and especially type 0 SMS messages, in a wireless mobile communications device configured to send and receive data using a GSM protocol and including a subscriber identity module (“SIM”) including electronic hardware and computer software executed by the hardware such that the SIM is configured to send, receive, and process messages using a Short Message System (“SMS”) between the wireless mobile communications device and a communications network. One aspect includes a method for mediating SMS messages comprising: configuring electronic hardware on the wireless mobile communications device to implement a firewall on the wireless mobile communications device, the firewall configured to identify and optionally mediate infrastructure SMS messages.

Claims

1. A wireless mobile electronic communications device comprising:

electronic apparatus configured to send and receive signals using a GSM protocol;

a subscriber identity module (“

SIM”

) device, said SIM including electronic hardware and computer software executed by said electronic hardware such that said SIM is configured to send, receive, and process messages using a Short Message System (“

SMS”

) between said wireless mobile electronic communications device and a communications network; and

electronic hardware and computer software executed by said electronic hardware effective to provide a firewall on said wireless mobile electronic communications device, said firewall configured to identify and optionally mediate substantially all infrastructure SMS messages.

2. The wireless mobile communications device of claim 1, wherein said firewall is configured to identify and optionally mediate substantially all “

type 0”

SMS messages.

3. The wireless mobile communications device of claim 1, wherein said firewall is embedded into the operating system of said wireless mobile communications device.

4. The wireless mobile communications device of claim 3, wherein said firewall is a design feature of said operating system.

5. The wireless mobile communications device of claim 3, wherein said firewall is a modification of said operating system of said wireless mobile communications device.

6. The wireless mobile communications device of claim 1, wherein said firewall is separate from said operating system of said wireless mobile communications device.

7. The wireless mobile communications device of claim 6, wherein said firewall is an application instantiated on said wireless mobile communications device.

8. The wireless mobile communications device of claim 1, wherein said firewall is a component of the SMS message processing scheme of said wireless mobile communications device.

9. The wireless mobile communications device of claim 1, wherein said firewall mediates substantially all infrastructure SMS messages sent between said SIM card and said electronic apparatus.

10. The wireless mobile communications device of claim 9, wherein said firewall mediates substantially all “

type 0”

messages sent between said SIM and said electronic apparatus.

11. In a wireless mobile communications device configured to send and receive data using a GSM protocol and including a subscriber identity module (“

SIM”

) including electronic hardware and computer software executed by said hardware such that said SIM is configured to send, receive, and process messages using a Short Message System (“

SMS”

) between said wireless mobile communications device and a communications network, a method for mediating SMS messages comprising;

configuring electronic hardware on said wireless mobile communications device to implement a firewall on said wireless mobile communications device, said firewall configured to identify and optionally mediate infrastructure SMS messages.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said configuring comprises providing said wireless mobile communications device with computer software configured to enable said hardware to implement said firewall.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said providing computer software comprises providing an operating system including said software for said wireless mobile communications device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said providing computer software comprises modifying said operating system of said wireless mobile communications device to include said software.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein said providing computer software comprises providing a software application configured to implement said firewall on said wireless mobile communications device.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein said infrastructure messages are “

type 0”

SMS messages.

17. The methods of claim 16, further comprising mediating said infrastructure SMS messages sent between said SIM device and said electronic apparatus.

18. The methods of claim 11, further comprising mediating said infrastructure SMS messages sent between said SIM device and said electronic apparatus.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein said computer-readable program code devices further comprise computer instructions for configuring said wireless mobile communications device to identify and optionally mediate “

type 0”

SMS messages.

19. A computer-readable medium containing computer-readable program code devices thereon, said computer-readable program code devices configured for execution on computer hardware of a wireless mobile communications device, said wireless mobile communications device configured to send and receive data using a GSM protocol and including a subscriber identity module (“

SIM”

) including electronic hardware and computer software executed by said hardware such that said SIM is configured to send, receive, and process messages using a Short Message System (“

SMS”

) between said wireless mobile communications device and a communications network, said computer-readable programmed code devices comprising computer instructions for configuring said wireless mobile communications device to implement a firewall on said wireless mobile communications device, said firewall configured to identify and optionally mediate infrastructure SMS messages.