Leadership Development In The Malaysian Army Management Essay

Leadership Development In The Malaysian Army Management Essay Before formulating the right strategy on leadership development in the Malaysian Army, there is a need do external analysis on environmental of Malaysia and comparative analysis on US and Singapore Army Leadership Development and the current Leadership Development in the Malaysian Army. Then the internal analysis on Malaysian Army Leadership Development on its organizational structure, vision, mission, roles and tasks and its Leadership Development efficiency has been conducted. From the finding on the external analysis of Malaysian environment there are some factors that affects Leadership Development Program in the Malaysian Army either political, economy, security, technology and government budget. These factors will shape the strategic direction of the Malaysian Army on its Leadership Development and to ensure that its leaders could adapt the challenging and demanding changes of the Malaysian environment to fulfill its roles and tasks especially on its expanding tasks and to keep its still relevant from the public perception. In term of the political factors, there are certain programs and initiatives that should be considered for the Leadership Development in the Malaysian Army such as Defense Policy formulated by the government, expanding roles on managing National Service Training Program, participation in NBOS, involvement in UN missions and involvement in promotion of LIMA and DSA. Therefore, Leadership Development Programs should include these additional tasks to ensure the leaders understand the requirement to fulfill these tasks. Leadership Development also could be developed through National Defense University by providing the serving officers the opportunity for self-education. Technical capabilities of the officers could be enhanced by active participation in defense industries to keep pace with the changing technology. The government also recognized the need for talented Army officers to develop the country and to achieve the Vision 2020 by appo intment as minister in the cabinet, chairman or president in Government Link Company (GLC) and also as High Commissioner or Ambassador which was happening before. In term of economy, it will affected the Malaysian Army in attracting talented people, retention and also its defense budget, salary and compensation. 106. For the external analysis, in order to benchmark for the best practice on the Leadership Development for the Army, the finding on comparative study on Leadership Development in US Army as a well developed Army and Singapore Army as neighbouring country of Malaysia has been conducted. The finding on the comparative analysis has shown that their macro environment in term of political, economy, security, technology and government budget has shaped their army and their macro environment are quite different from Malaysian Army. The US and Singapore Army Leadership Development Model and Process are based on their defence policy where their policy is well defined and make it easy for their army to develop the right strategy, commitment of the Government to build-up capable army which fully supported by their government, Army vision, mission and objectives that will generate the right strategy for their Leadership Development Model and Process, Army roles and tasks that are based on the ir vision, mission and objectives, allocation of defence budget where very high and will support their Army development programs, They also could attract talented people to join the army because of their good image and professionalism, public perception on the Army is very good and their Leadership Development Process will be tailored to their Leadership Development Model. 107. Based on the external analysis on the benchmark of Leadership Development in US and Singapore Army, there are some unique capabilities that could make a Leadership Development successful such as commitment by the Government to enhance Leadership Development, high budget allocation, the existence of defence universities, inter-agency/department co-operation with the Army, well defined public perception towards the Army, the need for Army officers to be well rounded and knowledgeable officers that could cope up any security situation challenges that arise, expanding roles of the Army especially in secondary roles on developing the nation to be addressed by the Army through their Leadership Development Programs to enhance the officers ability and capability to do these expanding roles, utilizing the technology better that could have significant advantages against its adversary, the Army of multiple skills and capability, the existence of Centre of Leadership Development, the need o f systematic and continuous training and education of the officer, commitment by all domains in Leadership Development, joint services integration of the Armed Forces, intellectual Army officers, multiple skills of Army officers, enhance the value of Army officers, efficiency and aggressive marketing and talented people attracted to join the Army. All of these unique capabilities should be considered by the Malaysian Army to come up with the right strategy for its Leadership Development Programs. 108. Compared to Malaysian Army internal analysis, its Leadership Development model is also based on Malaysian Defence Policy but the policy is not well defined and therefore the Army could not develop the right strategy for its leadership development. However, the Malaysian government is also committed to build-up capable Army that could perform its roles and tasks in defending the country from external threats though its General Defence Policy. The Malaysian Army also has vision, mission, objectives, roles and tasks that will generate the right strategy for their Leadership Development Model and Process. Allocation of Defence Budget is lower compared to US and Singapore Army and could hinder Malaysian Army modernization and development programs. Malaysian Army as profession could not attract talented people to join the Army because sceptical public perception on the Army even it has good image and professionalism since the public think that the military is just wasting the Governme nt money without any real external threats. 109. In term of comparison on Leadership Development Mission, Goal, Model and Programs in the US, Singapore and Malaysian Army as mentioned before, there are a set of criteria that have been analysed; Defence Policy, commitment of the government to build-up capable army, Army vision, mission and objectives, Army roles and tasks, allocation of defence budget, attraction to talented people to join the army, public perception on the Army, Leadership Development Model and Leadership Development Process. After analysing the comparison, The US and Singapore Army Leadership Development Model are based their defence policy same as Malaysian Army. Their governments are committed to build-up capable army especially on modernizing and developing their Army through high defence budget compared to Malaysian Defence Budget which is lower. US, Singapore and Malaysian Army have their own vision, mission and objectives that will generate the right strategy for their Leadership Development Model and P rocess based on the defence policy. All the Army has roles and tasks that are based on their vision, mission and objectives. All Army has their own Leadership Development Model and Process is quite similar. 110. The summary of comparison between US, Singapore and Malaysian Army is shown in Table 5. Criteria US Army Singapore Army Malaysian Army Defense policy Well defined Well defined No Defense White Paper Government Commitment Fully Committed Fully Committed Partially Committed Army VMO Defense of the country sovereignty and interest from external threats Defense of the country sovereignty and interest from external threats Defense of the country sovereignty and interest from external threats Army Roles and Tasks Based on VMO Based on VMO Based on VMO Defense Budget High (4.7% GDP) High (6.0% GDP) Lower (6.0% GDP) Talented People Likely to join the Army National Service Last Resort Public Perception Very Good Very Good Good Leadership Development Model Operational, Institutional and Self Development Institutional Training and Education, Duty Assignment and Self Development Institutional Training and Education, Duty Assignment and Self Development Leadership Development Process Based on the Model Based on the Model Based on the Model Table 5: Comparison of Leadership Development between US, Singapore and Malaysian Army Source: Author 111. From the comparison on Leadership Development in US and Singapore Army, there are some unique capabilities that could make a Leadership Development successful. There are few weaknesses form the comparison such as there is no Defence White Paper to provide Strategic direction and guidance on the defence of Malaysia, lower budget allocation that make the Leadership Development in the Malaysian Army lacking of funding on acquiring the latest military equipment and to enhanced its training institutions facilities and establishment of Centre of Leadership Development and the sceptical public perception on the Malaysian Army that make it difficult to attract talented people to join the Army. The Malaysian Government need to be more committed to the defence matters especially on defence budget allocation, coordinating inter-agency/department cooperation, educate the public the need to security and defence for the stability of the country for well defined public perception towards the A rmy, establishing of Centre of Leadership Development through budget allocation and additional non-military tasks given is based on the Armys capabilities. In term of Leadership Development Model, US, Singapore and the Malaysian Army are about the same. However, on Leadership Development Process there are some qualities that need to be considered by the Malaysian Army as mentioned earlier. SWOT ANALYSIS 113. Based on the external analysis on macro environment of Malaysia and comparative analysis on US and Singapore Army and then the internal analysis of the Malaysian Army, there are certain opportunities, threats, strength and weaknesses based on a SWOT- Matrix Analysis that effects Leadership Development in the Army as shown at Exhibit 11. STRENGTH/CAPABILITIES OF THE MALAYSIAN ARMY 114. Army is Professional, honorable profession and providing a secure job. Therefore, the Army has to do a proper marketing with focus on the Army as professional, honorable, secure job and clear career progression based on military courses requirement. At the same time the Army also is providing opportunity to officers for further education especially courses not related to military offered by the Defense University. 115. The Government provides the opportunity for officers to serve in the government as Minister or Ambassador as recognition of the capability of the Army officers that has been develop through Leadership Development but not all officers has the opportunity. Therefore, The Army has to continuously reviewing its Leadership Development Concept, Model and Program to ensure to develop its officers knowledge, skills and experience. Since the Government has established Defense University, it is a good opportunity to officers for further education especially courses not related to military offered by the University. However, it is depend on budget allocation and the capability of the university to offer more courses not related to military. 116. The Army has well structured organization, with clear vision, mission, objectives, clear purpose, roles and functions, even there is no Defense White Paper. However, the Army through Malaysian Armed Forces and Ministry of Defense should insist on the government to come up with Defense White Paper, additional defense budget for establishment of Leadership Development Centre and more further education opportunity, more inter-agency/department co-operation coordinated by the Government most probably by the Home Affairs Ministry that involve the Police Force, Immigration Department, Fire Engine Department, Custom Department, Civil Defense Department and other relevant department that normally will be working together on non-military tasks with the Army. 117. The Army also has to accept the expanding non-military tasks mandated by the government as secondary roles such as to curb smuggling activities, illegal logging, drug and human trafficking, illegal immigrants, environmental damage, trans-borders activities and search and rescue (SAR) of the civilians, etc, but it should be based on its capabilities. Therefore, a successful Leadership Development Concepts, Model and Process will be based on the requirement of military and non-military tasks. However, currently, the Army is well developed on establishing Leadership Development training on military tasks but still lacking on the training and education on non-military tasks. Therefore, Leadership Development in the Army has to be continuously kept pace the changing security environment and the expanding roles and tasks. At the same time, the Army also has to work together with The Malaysian Armed Forces for joint service training so that it will enhance the operational experience of the Army officers as what required in the Leadership Development and more inter-agency/department co-operation to perform its non-military tasks. WEAKNESSES/LACKING IN THE MALAYSIAN ARMY 118. Insufficient defense budget allocation for modernization, education and improvement on training facilities has effected Leadership Development in the Army. Therefore as mentioned earlier, the Army through Malaysian Armed Forces and Ministry of Defense should insist on the government to come up with additional defense budget for the modernization, establishment of Leadership Development Centre and more further education opportunity. If the Government recognizes the need for additional budget for further education to the officers it will provide better education and experience so that could enhance the value of Army officers. 119. In order to attract talented and intellectual people to join the Army and to avoid skeptical and not well defined public perception, as mentioned earlier, proper marketing has to be conducted. In term of Leadership Development, the Army has to improve its Leadership Development Process and Support Systems, ensure commitment by all domains, provide opportunity for the officers for duty assignment and operational experience especially on non-military tasks,, enforced self-development to the officers and accept the fact that additional tasks as part of the secondary roles in the Army to counter the identity crisis as warrior of war against doing non-military tasks. These Non-military tasks also should be covered in training institutions and further education. 120. Since the technical advancement provide the challenges to keep pace with old technologies and lack of defense industry participation, the Army should keep pace with technology advancement and provide opportunity for the officers to participate in defense industry activities. Since there is uncertainty of future security situation that needs to address continuously but at the same time additional tasks keep on expanding, the Army should be focusing on the immediate threat to the Malaysian sovereignty and how to face the uncertainty through Leadership Development Programs that will develop the officers on critical and analytical thinking capabilities based on the situation. 121. The Army also should develop the inexperience officers in duty assignment and operational experience with more frequency in Army operations, training, exercises and involve in more inter-agency/department cooperation coordinated by the Government that involve the Police Force, Immigration Department, Fire Engine Department, Custom Department, Civil Defense Department and other relevant department that normally will be working together on non-military tasks with the Army. Therefore, as mentioned earlier the trainings should be focus on this inter-agency cooperation and should be included in Leadership Development in the Army. CHAPTER VI STRATEGY FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY FORMULATION 122. Malaysian Army as part of The Malaysian Armed Forces has the vision, mission, roles, tasks and functions based on the Armed Forces strategic guidance and eventually Malaysian Defense Policy as the main roles is to defense the country from external threats and secondary roles to perform additional tasks. In order to fulfill these tasks, the responsibility is on the officers of the Malaysian Army and a proper Leadership Development Program has to be developed for the officers to keep pace with the current and future security environment, military and additional tasks non- military tasks on supporting the country in nation building and development. Leadership Development in the Malaysian Army should be tailored with the external environment of Malaysia in term of political, economic, social, security and budget allocation. At the same time, the formulation of the Strategy also should be based on the internal analysis of benchmarking of other armies for the best Leadership Developme nt Concept, Model and Process. 123. The Malaysian Army has to develop a comprehensive Leadership Development Strategy to prepare officers to lead soldiers in the future. The current Leadership Development that consist: Leadership Development Concepts, Model (Institutional Training and Education, Duty and Operational Assignments and Self-Development), and Process (Responsibility, Integration, Sequences, Assessment, Feedback and Evaluation) are on the right track but need to be review and add some more details. This strategic direction for the training and education, operational experience and self development could create conditions for the development of its leader to perform their tasks in full range of primary and secondary tasks. The future operational environment would likely to be highly dynamic, complex and competitive that could be a challenge to the Malaysian Army. The focus of Leadership Development should be to enable officers to lead the soldiers, develop their subordinates and achieve the operational g oal. In order to develop the officers in Leadership Development, focus should be on training institutions and education, duty and operational assignment and self development and they need to be integrated successfully. 124. These domains has to be elaborate further down on how best the Army could fully develop its leaders within the limited resources and time to implement the strategy. The Strategy for Leadership Development in the Malaysian Army involve the commitment of training institutions, leaders and the officers themselves for a life long learning and development, balancing commitment to the training, education and experiences as component of Leadership Development, prepare officers for multiple threats and a full range of military missions through outcomes-based training and education, achieve balance and predictability in personnel policies and professional military education, manage the armys military talent to benefit both the institution and individual, prepare leaders by replicating the complexity of the operational environment in courses and units, produce leaders who are mentors and committed to developing their subordinates, prepare select leaders for responsibility at the national level and enhance their values, strengthen army leaders demonstrated understanding of their profession or arms and inspire commitment to the professional ethics. 125. The Army now needs Leadership Development that both meets immediate (short-term) requirements and long-term needs. An uncertain and complex future security environment continues to demand that Army Leadership Development Programs has to be review continuously and also prepare leaders to perform their tasks in future military or non-military tasks. The officers should be given the opportunity for their development through Leadership Development Programs to enable them to be confidence, competent, knowledgeable and skillful and experienced to lead their soldiers to the future. The Strategy for Leadership Development in the Malaysian Army will provide the characteristics for the Army leaders as they progress through their careers on how best to perform their tasks. The strategy should focus on aspects for the integration of policies, programs and initiatives to produce Army leaders. The strategy also could be guidance for career-long development of Army leaders through education, t raining and experience. The Leadership Development is not one time basis but also should be deliberate, continuous, sequential and progressive. The Army should create a learning organization that keep track of the changing security environment, future technologies, expanding roles in operation other than war and non-military tasks of supporting the government on nation building and development. 126. The Leadership Development strategy will consist of how best the Army institutions will adapt the way in which to develop leaders. There are challenges on external and internal environment that will affect the strategy on Leadership Development. What the Army must do in Leadership Development is to educate, train and provide necessary experiences either operational or non operational in order to perform their roles and tasks successfully. Therefore, there is a need for full commitment of three important domains in Leadership Development which is Training Institutions and Education, Duty and Operational Assignment and Self Learning. 127. However, there is a conflict between these domains such as to allow the officers development through education and training and at the same time to give enough operational experiences to the officers. At the same time self-development also will be difficult if they dont have the time. In order to be successful, there are certain aspects that need to be considered such as what leader qualities that the Army wants the leaders characteristics, leaders attributes and leaders core competencies. The Army has to increase the effort to develop each of the officers and ensure that it could manage most talented leaders to lead the Army in the future. There is also a need to establish The Centre for Army Leadership Development for the Malaysian Army which is currently The Malaysian Army does not have where this establishment could develop, review and refine the Leadership Development in the Malaysian Army continuously. 128. With all the discussion on the External Analysis and how they effected the Leadership Development in the Malaysian Army and comparative analysis on Leadership Development of US and Singapore Army and their unique capabilities, and also on Internal Analysis of the Malaysian Army organization, vision, mission, roles, function, ethos and current Leadership Development Concepts, Model and Process, therefore the Strategy for Leadership Development in the Malaysian Army should be formulated based on the followings: a. Commitment by the Government to the Army. (1) The government has provided general Defense Policy but there is no Defense White Paper. Therefore, the government should come up with Defense White Paper to provide proper direction and guideline on the main roles and tasks of the Army as shown in the US and Singapore Army. What is happening now is the government keeps adding additional tasks on supporting and assisting the government for nation building and development. (2) In term of budget allocation, the government should give sufficient budget allocation to the Army so that the training establishment could upgrade the facilities to implement Leadership Development Programs better especially for tertiary education with various fields of study to pursue the best development strategy and plan to be implemented in the Army. (3) The Government has established National Defense University to train officers and commissioned them to the Armed forces as officers. It also provides the opportunities for the Army officers to further their studies in other fields rather than war strategy and broadened their knowledge as shown by the US Army. It will also provide the Army officers the chance for higher level of education but it needs sufficient budget allocation. However, the university has to offer more courses because currently the courses offered are quite limited. (4) In term of security and stability of the country, there is a need of cooperation between the Army and other agencies such as public services, NGO and private sectors especially when dealing with internal threat to the security Therefore, the Government should coordinate these cooperation. b. Commitment by the Army. (1) Attract talented youth to joint the Army as Officers. The current situation in Malaysia now is military profession is the last resort for job seekers. Compared to US and Singapore Army, talented people would like to joint the Army because the good image and challenges provide by the organizations. (2) Well Defined Public Perception Towards Malaysian Army. The Army has to build up a good image and professional in performing their roles and tasks that will enhance a good reputation and perception from the public. The Army roles and tasks are not only protecting the country from any external aggression but also helping the nation in developing the country. (3) Uncertainty of Security Situation in the Future. The uncertainty of security situation in the future will demand the Malaysian Army officers to be well rounded and knowledgeable officers that could cope up any security situation challenges that arise. . (4) Military Institution and Officers Facing New Challenges. Expanding Roles of the Army especially in secondary roles on non-military tasks of assisting the Government on nation building and development make the Army to do several tasks at the same time. These non-military tasks need to be addressed by the Army through its Leadership Development Programs to enhance the officers ability and capability to do these expanding roles. (5) Technical Advancement. The Future warfare will involve modern, sophisticated and advance technology that needs the Army officers keeping pace with the changes. However the technology acquired by the Army is based on the defense allocation. The Malaysian Army should include in its Leadership Development focusing on officers to enhance their knowledge and expertise in technology in keeping abreast with the latest technology to face the future wars and challenges. (6) The Trend towards Small Army with Multiple Skills and Capabilities. The Malaysian Army has reducing the strength to become small army with multiple skills and capability as what most of the armies do. These trends will need leaders that very capable to lead the Army that could fulfill the vision, mission, roles and tasks with limited personnel. (7) Intellectual Army Officers. The Army has to develop intellectual officers in its Leadership Development Program that have the ability of critical, analytical and creative thinking to cope with unpredictable situations that they are facing so that they could make quick and right decision to address the situations. (8) Multiple Skills of Army Officers. The Leadership Development should consider the requirement to enhance the knowledge, skills and experiences of the Army officers not only in military tasks but also in non-military tasks in the future that will demand different knowledge, skills and experiences to address the situations. (9) Enhance the Value of Army Officers. A successful Leadership Development Programs will create a true professional officer with knowledge, skills and experiences where they will be respected by the public and will enhance their value especially when they retired and they can work with prestige private sector companies. (10) Training and Education. Training is very crucial in Leadership Development in the Army especially at the beginning of officer career and should continuously developed throughout the career. These training will be imparted through courses in army training institution (career and functional courses), unit training, exercises and involvement of different types of operations. However, most of the courses conducted in the training institutions are on the military subjects. Non-military tasks have to be included also as part of the subjects in the courses offered to the officers so that they could enhance their knowledge not only on military but also on non-military tasks. The Leadership Development in education is imparted through tertiary education in various field offers the officers that will broaden their knowledge and skills and not just related to their respective arms and services and about warfighting. (11) Commitment by All Domains in Leadership Development. The Malaysian Army Leadership Development Domains which include training institution and education, assignments and operational experience and self-development should focus on the Leadership Development start from the basic level at their cadet school to instill the right leadership qualities and traits and throughout the officers career. (12) Joint Services integration of the Armed Forces. The leadership development in the Malaysian Army should focus on joint service integration between the Navy and the Air Force. (13) Leadership Development Model and Process. The Army should review its Leadership Development Model and Process by benchmarking of the best practices by other armies in order to keep pace with the changes in the security environment and its roles and tasks. STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION 129. The strategy implementation will consist of Short and Long Term Plan that will be based on the findings on External Analysis of the Malaysia Army that comprises macro environment in geo-strategic security situation and political, economy, technology and government budget of Malaysia and the benchmarking of Leadership Development of the Army in other countries. The strategy also will be based on the Malaysian Army Internal Analysis in term of its organization, vision, mission, roles, function, ethos and current Leadership Development Concepts, Model and Process. The strategy needs to consider the primary roles on military tasks of the Malaysian Army and its secondary roles in non-military tasks that keep expanding which is the expectation of the public for the Army to be more involved since there is no perceive threats to the country. The plan also should include the need of the Armys efficiency in Leadership Development continuous improvement by reviewing and updating its Leader ship Development to keep pace on the future security challenges on its doctrine, tactics, techniques, procedures and warfighting philosophy for its military tasks. In performing on its expanding non-military tasks (such as to curb smuggling activities, illegal logging, drug and human trafficking, illegal immigrants, environmental damage, trans-borders activities and search and rescue (SAR) of the civilians, etc.), there is a need for the Army for not working in silos and has to cooperate with other public services (such as the Police, the Immigrations, the Customs, the Fire Brigade, Forestry Department, National Drugs Agency,

Defining Family in a Law Context

Defining Family in a Law Context 1. Introduction The term family is a fluid concept[1], used to describe different forms of expressions regarding the intimacy shared in private life based on care and interdependence. It comprises of diverse relationships, including homosexual or heterosexual couple with or without children, cohabiting with or without legal formality.[2] Therefore, if the family is the core social environment in society, then family law is any form of governing and supporting those close emotional relationships between adults, children and the state.[3] However, it is difficult to define the family law due to changes in social norms and standards. There is also a wide range of laws, such as immigration law and employment law[4], that may have significant influence on family life, therefore family law usually is considered as an ambiguous and incoherent subject.[5] To explore the question of what family law is, this paper will seek to address two main issues. First, to discuss the ways to define the concept of family within the law. Second, to evaluate what family law is from several different theoretical approaches. 2. Changing ideas of family in law The traditional concept of family in law takes the idea of the nuclear family, which comprises of a married heterosexual couple with children.[6] Apart from the context of marriage, it was considered an abuse of the English language to include other relationships.[7] According to the statistics provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)[8], the number of the nuclear family has decreased 500 thousand compared to the data from 2000 to 2015 while the cohabiting couple family has become the fastest growing family type reaching 3.2 million in the past decade. Meanwhile, the most common family type changes from the idealised family into the form of the married couple or civil partner couple without any children.[9] This situation pushes the law to respond to this gap[10] by shifting from the traditional nuclear family into the idea of New Families.[11] The concept of New Families[12] begins with the recognition of unmarried couples regardless of children, but still requires an appropriate degree of apparent permanence and stability.[13] Same sex relationships has recently been accepted as a family in Fitzpatrick v Sterling Housing Association,[14] where longstanding, close, loving and faithful, monogamous homosexual relationshipsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦is deemed to make someone a member of a family.[15] Lady Hale also highlights that widening the scope of the family, regardless of the sex, could recognise the importance the principles of dignity, humanity and equality.[16] Therefore, the law does not limit the definition of family life and accepts the different forms of family as long as they can establish the degree of intimacy and stability and sharing of lives. However, the law has categorised an exclusion, friendship has been refused as the relationship of the family due to lack of degree of intimacy and stability.[17] Arguably, Diduck argues that there are blurring lines between family and friends in contemporary society, as friends become lovers and lovers become friends [18]. 3. What is Family Law? This section examines how the family law works in relations to the family. The functions have been briefly divided into four main categories: protection, regulation, radiating message and promotion of equality, and further use several theoretical approaches respectively for evaluation. i. Protection and Support A Good parent in a family is usually considered as a person who provides physical, emotional and financial support for their children. They also protect the children and family members from harm.[19] In terms of the functionalist approach, family law has a series of goals to be fulfilled.[20] Eekelaar has suggested that the main objectives of family law are the enforcers of protection and support to the family.[21] As an example, the most common situation encountered by law is domestic violence. According to the research by the ONS, there are over 78% of incidents of the domestic abuse involved violence.[22] The introduction of Family Law Act 1996 is one of legislation for allowing the victims to obtain the help for protection. It attempts to bring consistency to the civil remedies and emphasises the protection of the human rights for safeguarding victims from domestic violence.[23] The application of this law yielded positive results, as the data provided by the ONS showed the numbe rs of domestic violence have generally decreased by 0.7 million over the past decade.[24] However, difficulty arises when it is assumed that the law is the only factor to influence the family. [25] By using the above example, the law influence may not be the sole reason for the reduction of domestic violence, thus there are other possible factors to improve the domestic violence situation, such as government support and educational policy.[26] The uncertainty of family law further arguably undermines this approach where it is difficult to simplify the laws into one single goal. In the case of the 1996 Act on divorce claims that it is pursuing both contrary goals, including, to encourage marriage and to make it possible to break down the marriage with as little bitterness as possible, therefore, it cannot precisely assess the effectiveness of family law. ii. Regulation and Adjustment of family life The relationship between law and family has been described as the protector of private life.[27] However, the traditional division of public and private sphere have given rises to debates of whether it is appropriate to regulate the private life by the law. The opinion of traditional liberal position suggests that it is improper for the state to regulate and intervene on private affairs.[28] For example, if the law illegalises adultery, it might violate the privacy of family life. It also seems impossible and difficult for the law enforcers to control all private properties for the adultery issue. Respecting private life upholds the principle of autonomy. The traditional liberal position respects individuals decisions about how they wish to develop their own beliefs and personality on the family issue.[29] Arguably, the promotion of autonomy principle does not necessarily mean that the law should be entirely cast out of the private sphere. Some undesirable [30]forms of family life, such as child abuse, might require and deserve the intervention to regulate and adjust to the private family life. For example, there has been an increase of criminal law used against parents whose children misbehave. Therefore, it is not a clear picture to distinguish one of intervention or deregulation. Although the law is difficult to have clear-cut for public and private intervention to family life, it seems to endorse the shift to privatisation. The law attempts to regulate the private life less and less.[31] The law encourages divorcing couples to use mediation for the family and financial dispute resolution, rather than settling it through court. The current Government also gives the clear direction about the role of the court that the law should focus on protecting the vulnerable from abuse, victimisation and exploitation and should avoid intervening in family life except where there is clear benefit to children or vulnerable adults in doing so.[32] In other words, the law can focus on the regulation and adjustment of the family in crisis. [33] iii. Sending Message to the Public With collaboration with the family regulation policy, the Law Commission recognises the ability of family law was to send the message to the public about the desirable behaviour of good family living.[34] Law upholds the traditional values of nuclear families with unrestrictive form, underlining those qualities as an ideal family model. Therefore, the law encourages the former partners of the divorced family and lone parent families to go on to make a new family[35], rather than focusing on the remedying the broken family. The government policy takes this approach to achieve good divorce, now defined as one that creates the separate-but-continuing family.[36] The message sent by the law can be reviewed through the usage of judicial language and style in the judgments.[37] Traditionally, the expression of paternalism or welfare highlight the breadwinner in a traditional patriarchal family was responsible for supporting continually his pre-separation marital obligation after the breaking-down of marriage.[38] In the 1990s, the judgment starts to shift to the language of equality or rights, which supports and assumes a diverse and democratic form of family. The breadwinner became obliged to share what became re-conceived as the fruit of the marital partnership. [39] The language radiates the message that the law shifts to emphasise the principle of non-discrimination, mutuality, right or entitlement and equality. iv. Promotion of Equality Family law positively promotes the principle of equality and non-discrimination. The widening scope of what is a family, by allowing diverse relationships is a significant indication of justice, equality and inclusivity.[40] The enforcements of Civil Partnership Act 2004 and Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 grant most of the rights and responsibilities of marriage to the registered same-sex couples to enjoy the equal right and status for family life[41] as the heterosexual marriage couples. [42] Arguably, there are still some limits on equality and discrimination. On 21st February 2017, the Court of Appeal rejected heterosexual couples entering into civil partnerships.[43] The judgment fails to allow the couples to seek fairness and equality and to eliminate discrimination between heterosexual and homosexual couples. The judgment has further potentially violated the human rights under Article 14 taken with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)[44]. The couples might not make their personal family choices. Hence, Lord Arden further urged the need to change the law by the Parliament. To further argue regarding inequality within the law. Historically, the law has discriminated against women in divorce where the husbands are able to divorce their wives on the basis of adultery. However, the wives are only able to divorce their husbands based on the grounds of the incestuous adultery.[45] Therefore, the law seeks to emphasise the concept of equality before the law that both men and women are on equal footing [46]and to avoid men abusing their gender to obtain an unfair advantage. The law also ensures everyone in society could equally access safety and justice through the law. In terms of domestic violence, the evidence provided by the Rights of Women, mentions that there are up to 40% of women who could not satisfy the restrictive requirements of Legal Aid.[47] On 23rd Feb 2017, the removal of the five-year limit and the admission of fresh categories of evidence aims to help large numbers of women and also men, who were previously been deprived of legal advice and representation, can obtain legal aid for family disputes.[48] Estelle du Boulay, Director of Rights of Women commented that this renew commitment is both victory for women and also for common sense.[49] The law is lowering the thresholds for more people to seek the justice through law. However, feminist perspectives argue that there is still a loophole between gender equalities. They criticise the disadvantages from the assumption of the traditional gender role in society: the father is the active breadwinner whilst the mother is the traditional day to day carer. [50] Yet, SRJ v DWJ [51] invokes the entitlement of monetary value for the contribution of the wife that she gave up her work as a teacher to concentrate on her family. The court attempts to redress the gender imbalance that exists in the traditional family-based discourses. Therefore, the parties respective responsibilities to each other base on the discourse of rights, compensation, mutuality, and gender equality.[52] 4. Conclusion Family law is a special law due to the wide scope of families and wide ranges of issues it deals with throughout its historical and contemporary period. This paper has examined family law from four different categories: Functional, adjustive, radiating message and equality. Although these four categories might not cover all issues, it briefly summarises the main principles of family law and further evaluates its effectiveness regarding on concerned issues. References Bowcott O, Court Rules Against Heterosexual Couple Who Wanted Civil Partnership The Guardian (2017) accessed 7 March 2017 Bowcott O, Legal Aid Shakeup Hands Lifeline To Domestic Violence Victims The Guardian (2017) accessed 26 February 2017 Dewar J, The Normal Chaos Of Family Law (1998) 61 Modern Law Review Diduck A and Kaganas F, Family Law, Gender And The State: Text, Cases And Materials (3rd edn, Oxford: Hart 2012) Diduck A, Shifting Familiarity (2005) 58 Current Legal Problems Diduck A, What Is Family Law For? (2011) 64 Current Legal Problems Eekelaar J, Family Law And Social Policy (2nd edn, Weidenfield and Nicholson 1984) Dyson Holding Ltd v Fox [1976] QB 513 European Convention on Humans Right, Art 8 and 14 Families And Households- Office For National Statistics (Ons.gov.uk, 2017) accessed 24 February 2017 Family Law Ground For Divorce (1990) accessed 26 February 2017 Fitzpatrick v Sterling Housing Association [2001] 1 AC 27 Harris-Short S and Miles J, Family Law: Text, Cases And Material (2nd edn, Oxford 2011) Herring J, Family Law (7th edn, Longman 2015) Human Rights Act 1998, Art 8 Gamman v Ekins [1950] 2 KB 328, 331 Mendoza v Ghaiden [2004] UKHL 30 Minow M, All In The Family In All Families: Membership, Loving, And Owing (1993) 95 WVLR Norgrove D, Family Justice Review Final Report (2012) accessed 12 March 2017 Re G (Education: Religious Upbringing) [2012] EWCA Rights of Women, Evidencing Domestic Violence: Nearly 3 Years On (2015) accessed 26 February 2017 Shannon G, Family Law (1st edn, Oxford University Press 2011) Smart C, Stories Of Family Life: Cohabitation, Marriage And Social Change (1st edn, 2000) SRJ v DWJ [1999] FCR 153 CA Starting In School To End Domestic Violence (Refuge For Women and Children Against domestic violence, 2017) accessed 7 March 2017 The Guardian, Marriage Has Changed Throughout Its History. Making It Equal Changes It For The Better (2015) The Matrimonial Causes Act 1957 c85 Travis A, Domestic Abuse Accounts For One In 10 Recorded Crimes ONS The Guardian (2016) Woodhouse J and Dempsey N, Domestic Violence In England And Wales (House of Commons Library 2016) [1] Carol Smart, Stories of Family Life: Cohabitation, Marriage and Social Change (2000) 17 CJFL 20 [2] Alison Diduck, What Is Family Law For? (2011) 64 Current Legal Problems 289 [3] Jonathan Herring, Family Law (7th edn, Longman, Essex 2015) 16-17 [4] ibid. [5] John Dewar, The Normal Chaos Of Family Law (1998) 61 Modern Law Review 467 [6] Herring (n 3) 4 [7] Gamman v Ekins [1950] 2 KB 328, 331 [8] Families And Households- Office For National Statistics (Ons.gov.uk, 2015) accessed 24 February 2017. [9] ibid. [10] Alison Diduck and Felicity Kaganas, Family Law, Gender And The State: Text, Cases And Materials (2nd edn, Hart publishing 2017), p.9 [11] Herring (n 3) 7-12 [12] ibid. [13] Dyson Holdings Ltd v Fox [1976] QB 513 [14] Fitzpatrick v Sterling Housing Association [2001] 1 AC 27 [15] ibid 32. [16] Mendoza v Ghaiden [2004] UKHL 30 [17] Martha Minow, All in the Family in All Families: Membership, Loving, and Owing [1992-1993] 95 WVLR 319 [18] Alison Diduck, Shifting Familiarity (2005) 58 Current Legal Problems 250 [19] Geoffrey Shannon, Family Law (1st edn, Oxford University Press 2011). [20] Herring (n 3) 17 [21] John Eekelaar, Family law and social policy (2nd edn, Weidenfield and Nicholson, London 1984) 24-26 [22] Alan Travis, Domestic Abuse Accounts For One In 10 Recorded Crimes ONS The Guardian (2016). [23] Herring (n 3) 299 [24] John Woodhouse and Noel Dempsey, Domestic Violence In England And Wales (House of Commons Library 2016) 5 [25] Herring (n 3) 17 [26] Refuge For Women and Children Against domestic violence, Starting In School To End Domestic Violence accessed 7 March 2017. [27] Herring (n 3) 21 [28] ibid. [29] Herring (n 3) 22 [30] Sonia Harris-Short and Joanna Miles, Family Law: Text, Cases And Material (2nd edn, Oxford 2011) 12 [31] Herring (n 3) 24 [32] David Norgrove, Family Justice Review Final Report (The Ministry of Justice, the Department for Education and the Welsh Government 2012) accessed 12 March 2017. [33] Harris-Short and Miles (n18) 12 [34] Law Commission Report No.192, Family Law Ground For Divorce (1990) accessed 26 February 2017. [35] Diduck (n 17) 238 [36] ibid. [37] Diduck (n 2) 292 [38] ibid. [39] Diduck (n 2) 293 [40] Diduck (n 22) 239 [41] Article 8 of Human Rights Act 1998, Right to respect for private and family life [42] The Guardian, Marriage Has Changed Throughout Its History. Making It Equal Changes It For The Better (2015). [43] Owen Bowcott, Court Rules Against Heterosexual Couple Who Wanted Civil Partnership (the Guardian, 2017) accessed 7 March 2017. [44] Article 14 of ECHR, Prohibition of discrimination Art 8 of ECHR, Right to respect for private and family life, [45] The Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 c.85, XXVII, On Adultery of Wife or Incest, and of Husband, Petition for Dissolution of Marriage may be presented. [46] Munby LJ, Re G (Education: Religious Upbringing) [2012] EWCA, para 24 [47] Rights of Women, Evidencing Domestic Violence: Nearly 3 Years On (2015) accessed 26 February 2017. [48] Owen Bowcott, Legal Aid Shakeup Hands Lifeline To Domestic Violence Victims (the Guardian, 2017) accessed 26 February 2017. [49] ibid. [50] Minow (n 17) 313 [51] SRJ v DWJ [1999] 3 FCR 153 CA [52] Diduck (n 2) 297

personal narrative Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Growing up as an only child I made out pretty well. You almost can’t help but be spoiled by your parents in some way. And I must admit that I enjoyed it; my own room, T.V., computer, stereo, all the material possessions that I had. But there was one event in my life that would change the way that I looked at these things and realized that you can’t take these things for granted and that’s not what life is about.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When I was seventeen years old and going into my senior year of high school I was given the opportunity to go on a trip to Spain with my school. It was a two week trip during the summer, visiting different cities and historical sites throughout the country. While we where there we went to see a Flamenco dance show in Seville which is about an hour and a half outside of Madrid, the city where we were staying. It was a Wednesday around one o’clock when we left and the ride up there was really beautiful. We were driving through the country side passing some small villages on the side of the road. We arrived there around 3:30 and sat down for the show. It was really cool they had all the ladies with their bright dresses and fruit in their hair dance around while we ate lunch. And the show ended around five and we started to head home. On the way home we were driving through the countryside along side a small village when all of a sudden we heard a loud bang and the bus started slowing down. After a couple of ...

Racism in Tracking Essay -- essays papers

Racism in Tracking Ideally, the education system in the United States aims to serve as the great equalizer in the constant struggle to counter decades and centuries of historical oppression against those of non-European descent. The ideology of education as a great equalizer purports a pedagogy as a starting point for those oppressed and separated by such forces as race and class to have access to a quality education, and hence an equal chance at all the US has to offer. It attempts to bring children from disparate realms in a place that serves them all equitably. This ideal constantly challenges the broader values of equality, liberty and democracy considered to be at the core of American ideology. In interpreting this conception, two questions are indirectly answered by examining our educational practices: Does equality in education simply foresee that all students are treated the same, despite their different needs? Or, does it intend to challenge and rectify past inequalities for a truly equ itable educational system? The ideology of education as the great equalizer rests on several assumptions. The first, as stated by bell hooks, is the idea that, "To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn" (hooks, p.13, 1994). hooks expresses well the understated notion that, education as a democratic practice, available for all, is based on the assumption that all children, all people, are capable of learning. Another assumption is that children have different needs, and at its best, aims to provide resources according to need. Most importantly, naming this ideology "the great equalizer" in itself assumes that education has the potential to be the key force to counter inequality in society. Though a powerful assumption to make, it can fail to acknowledge the need to reconstruct all other institutions affecting children. The assumptions that everyone can learn, and that schools have the potential to transform a country with a tradition of hatred and an unequal distribution of wealth, extend from the vision of education as a democratic practice where there is "a struggle for both change and the freedom to change" (Irwin, p. 51, 1991). The change is about transforming an exclusive, often oppressive and disempowering system into a more inclusive, equal, and equitable one that is accessible to children from ... ...ike democracy, is a process, and not an end in itself. In my view, system-wide, large-scale reform is needed to achieve the goal of "getting all young people as close as possible to their upper limits of learning potentialities" (Perrone, p. 15, 1991). This is crucial to ensure change because "trying to transform schools within the existing structure is a contradictory process" (Murphy, p. 38, 1991). The first step is to involve the traditionally voiceless at all decision-making levels to best determine what the needs of the least privileged are, if we are truly committed to providing opportunities that respond to children's needs. I specify, "opportunities" through funding based on my assumption and belief that money can improve education through attracting and keeping good teachers, reducing class sizes, establishing programs to respond to different needs, and maintaining healthy facilities and quality resources. Equitable funding, where all children have the chance to receive a high-quality education, is the first step towards ed ucation acting as the great equalizer in a country where oppression limits, dehumanizes, and disempowers in virtually every other life realm.

Friendship in Wordsworths Tintern Abbey :: English Literature Essays

Friendship in Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey Of all the topics Wordsworth covered in his poetic lifetime, friendship stands out as a key occupation. His own personal friendship with Coleridge led to the co-writing of Lyrical Ballads in 1789. The poem â€Å"On Friendship,† written to Keats after an argument in 1854, states, â€Å"Would that we could make amends / And evermore be better friends.† In â€Å"Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,† we find the purest expression of Wordsworth’s fascination with friendship. Written on the banks of the Lye, this beautiful lyric has been said by critic Robert Chinchilla to â€Å"pose the question of friendship in a way more central, more profound, than any other poem of Wordsworth’s since ‘The Aeolian Harp’ of 1799† (245). Wordsworth is writing the poem to his sister Rebecca as a way of healing their former estrangement. Rebecca Wordsworth was, as many writers have pointed out, distressed at Wordsworth’s refusal to hold a full-time job—like many a youth after him, Wordsworth was living the carefree life of the artist. Rebecca wanted him put to rights. He should become an adult now. â€Å"Tintern Abbey† is Wordsworth’s attempt to explain himself to Rebecca, but also, in crucial ways, to himself. As the poem opens, Wordsworth is standing a few miles above the ruined Tintern Abbey. He states: Five years have past; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! and again I hear These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs With a soft island murmur. Despite his position, Wordsworth can hear the â€Å"soft island murmur† of the mountain springs. As â€Å"five long winters† suggests, Wordsworth is cold and dreary—London, we must remember, is a bitter place. He longs for the islands: the sand, sun, and warm waters that those murmurs suggest. The coldness of winter could be brought about by Rebecca’s distance from her brother; they had been, at the time of the poem’s writing, separate for five long years. But he can hear reconciliation coming just at the edge of hearing: he can spot the horizon of friendship. But no sooner does friendship appear in the poem than it is thwarted by these lines: Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke Sent up, in silence, from among the trees! With some uncertain notice, as might seem Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire The Hermit sits alone.

Sms Banking

Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479 SMS BASED SECURE MOBILE BANKING Manoj V, Bramhe Department of Information Technology, RTM Nagpur university St. Vincent Pallotti College of Engg. And Technology, Nagpur, India [email  protected] com Abstract— M-banking has emerged as one of the main division of m-commerce. Mobile banking services consists of information inquiry, notifications and alerts, applications and payment transfer. Mobile based application is used for connecting customer handset with bank server for all such services.Current M-banking applications used by banks are facing security challenges for payment transfer banks are using secure payment gateway and other security measures which increases cost and infrastructure for bank but major day-to-day banking applications are inquiries, notifications and alerts. The problem with current banking applications is that they send data directly to customer in plain te xt form compromising with security. We present SMS based secure mobile banking which enhances security with minimum cost.In this approach bank hides customer transaction data is secure SMS using AES symmetric cryptographic algorithm and send it customer application supported handset. Customer application decrypts data in secure manner. Keywords: M-banking, MD5, AES, MPIN I. INTRODUCTION M-banking system is one which provides all daily banking operations to customer with one click of his mobile handset with supported application. M-banking system has potential to provide access or delivery of very specific and highly necessary information to customer as given in [2].Growth in the M-Banking is driven by various facilities like convenience of banking operations, greater reach to consumers and Integration of other m-commerce services with mobile banking. In M-banking there is no place restriction, it is highly penetration coefficient as growth of mobile phones are more than computers, i t is fully personalized and private increasing transaction authenticity and is 100% available all the time with users. However, there are several challenges that need to be addressed to completely utilize the benefits of the M-Banking like handset compatibility, security, scalability, reliability.Due to increase in use of mobile handsets for many m-commerce applications, Chances of mobile hacking for financial benefits are heavily increased. Currently mostly all banks in India and outside are sending text SMS directly to the customer handset for basic bank services without any security which can be accessed by any malicious person and can use this information for getting access to customer account. OTA (Over-the-air) mobile data can be hacked in network path from bank to customer mobile handset including MPIN, a password use for user identification in M-banking.Thus there is a need of secure and cost effective solution which can be easily provided on all types of handsets. Our objec tive is to provide cost effective, secure, fast M-banking solution combining features of cryptography. In this paper we have presented SMS based secure mobile banking with minimum cost using cryptography. II. M-BANKING CHANNELS M-banking can be executed using various channels like SMS, USSD, GPRS, WAP; Phone based Application, SIM Application. All of these channels are used separately or combined for various banking operations ISSN : 0975-4024 Dec 2011- Jan 2012 472Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479 A. Short Message Service (SMS) SMS is the simplest form of mobile banking. It is largely used for information-based services. SMS has the maximum reach amongst consumers since all the mobile phones support SMS. Short messages are stored and forwarded by SMS centres. These messages have some security issues. B. Unstructured Supplementary Services Delivery (USSD) USSD is a technology unique to GSM. It is a capability built into t he GSM standard for support of transmitting information over the signalling channels of the GSM network.USSD provides session-based communication. Turnaround response times for interactive applications are shorter for USSD than SMS. In USSD, the interaction is in the form of a continuous session as opposed to SMS. USSD is available on all handsets. C. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) / General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) GPRS is a packet-switched data service available to GSM users. GPRS enables services such as WAP access, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), and Internet communication services such as email and World Wide Web access in mobile phones. . WAP is wireless application protocol used over GPRS. It is similar to Internet banking.The consumer’s handset needs to be WAP enabled. WAP banking is open to similar threats as Internet banking. D. Phone-based Application Phone based applications are developed in various languages like J2ME, . NET having advantages that it can use GPRS, USSD or SMS, MMS to carry the consumer data/instruction in an encrypted format and it is operator independent. These are secure application which resides on supported handset. E. SIM Application Tool Kit The SIM Application Toolkit allows for the service provider or bank to house the consumer’s mobile banking menu within the SIM card. STK is the most secure method of mobile banking.It allows the bank to load its own encryption keys onto the SIM card with the bank’s own developed application. III. CURRENT M-BANKING Even though various channels are available for M-banking most of the banks uses SMS as basic and cheap channel for basic banking operations. Currently all banks in India like ICICI, HSBC, SBI etc are not using any encryption techniques in SMS based M-banking system. They are using simple text based SMS for customer queries in which they directly send account information to customer only hiding some digits of account number which can be easily ha cked by any hacker or seen by anyone from message inbox.Even though some banks do provide some other channel like GPRS and WAP but cost of implementation is more and these facilities are not available on all types of mobile handset thus there is a need of secure and cost effective solution which can be easily provided on all types of handsets. A. Issues in M-banking 1) Lack of Standards: The lack of standards gives rise to lot of local and fragmented versions of m-payments offered by different stakeholders. Standards need to address security and privacy concerns of customers as well as interoperability between various implementations. ) Device constraints: There are technical issues related to the mobile devices . The mobile phones suffers from various constrains like less processing power and memory, bandwidth, short battery life , frequent disconnections, tiny screens, poor resolution and privacy issues. 3) Security Issues: Securing m-Commerce is even more difficult than wired tra nsaction. Device constraints raise the questions as to whether there will be adequate security for users without compromising the ease of use and speed.Current real time M-banking application of various banks uses plain text messages without any security algorithm for sending data hence any malicious user can access customer important data on mobile and used it for malicious purpose thus direct sending of data is not suggestible for M-banking. SMS are prone to spoofing and there are issues related to SMS encryption. However technology manufacturers are developing improved security for applications with authentication and encryption technologies and many claims that the ISSN : 0975-4024Dec 2011- Jan 2012 473 Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479 transaction using mobile device is fully secure. There are many techniques for secure M-banking operations but major research work has been done on Cryptography and steganography techn iques. Cryptography is a process of converting plaintext data into cipher text using cryptographic algorithms. They insure basic security requirements like authentication, confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation. B. Basics of Short Message ServiceShort Message Service (SMS) is the ability to send and receive text messages to and from mobile telephones. SMS was launched as a part of GSM1 standard. Each short message is up to 160 characters in length. The 160 characters can comprise of words, numbers, or punctuation symbols. Short Message Service is a store and forward service; this means that messages are not sent directly to the recipient but via a network SMS Centre. SMS comprises two basic point-to-point services as Mobile-originated short message (MO-SM) and Mobile-terminated short message (MT-SM).Mobile-originated short messages are transported from MOcapable handset to SMSC whereas Mobile-terminated short messages are transported from SMSC to the handsets. The figure no. 1 shows a typical organization of network elements in a GSM network supporting SMS. Fig. 1. Basic model of SMS based M-banking The benefits of SMS to subscribers are convenience, flexibility, and seamless integration of messaging services and data access, delivery of notifications and alerts, guaranteed message deliver, reliable, low-cost communication mechanism, increased subscriber productivity, delivery of messages to ultiple subscribers at a time. The SMSC (Short Message Service Centre) is the entity which does the job of store and forward of messages to and from the mobile station. The SME (Short Message Entity), which is typically a mobile phone or a GSM modem, can be located in the fixed network or a mobile station, receives or sends SMS. The SMSC usually has a configurable time limit for how long it will store the message. SMS Gateway SMS Gateway is an interface between software applications mobile networks.An SMS Gateway allows interfacing software applications to send and /or receive SMS messages over mobile network. A GSM Modem modulates outgoing digital signals from a computer or other digital device to signals for a GSM network and demodulates the incoming GSM signal and converts it to a digital signal for the computer or other digital device. IV. PROPOSED SOLUTION Current real time M-banking application of various banks uses plain text messages without any security algorithm for sending data in SMS banking hence any malicious user can access customer important data on mobile.Proposed secure M-banking is based on symmetric cryptographic techniques where common secret key is shared among bank customer and bank server. Proposed Architecture consists of 4 components as Customer Mobile application, Bank Server application, Bank side mobile / GSM Modem, Bank database and wireless OTA [1]. Our solution uses windows mobile as client application platform and . NET framework as server side software. Customer interested in using M-Banking facilities has to make registration only once with corresponding bank. Bank has all necessary details of customer in database.Bank sends Customer–side mobile application developed for windows mobile to user. Application will be installed once on windows mobile supported handset. This application consists of Login screen along with get session key option, menu screen for bank services options, and encryption and decryption screens for outgoing and incoming secure SMS and send message screen to send SMS to server GSM handset /Modem. Application will be updated as and when bank updates it. ISSN : 0975-4024 Dec 2011- Jan 2012 474 Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479Bank will have GSM mobile Handset / GSM modem connected to bank application server. GSM handset will be connected to application server using either Bluetooth or USB cable having SIM card installed in it which has task of receiving, processing and replying customer SMS continuou sly. GSM handset/ modem are cheaper and can be easily installed but have slow speed for message handling which can be increased by connecting modem with SMSC centre over internet. Secure M-Banking server side application is developed in windows compatible environment like VB. NET which can be installed on bank application server.Application is consisting of SMS Service, Information Manage, Account Details Manage, User Request modules to receive and process secure encrypted message from customer mobile. SMS Service module is responsible for retrieving and replying secure SMS automatically whenever they reaches server GSM handset / Modem. Bank database consists of various tables storing customer details pertaining to his personal information, Account information and transaction information. Bank database stores customer confidential information like his MPIN, Mobile identification pin and encryption keys in encrypted and secure manner.We have discussed various major types of M-Banking channels as SMS, GPRS, WAP and USSD out of which every channel has own advantages and disadvantages. WAP and GPRS are good and provide session based security but they are handset dependent and also in rural part of India all mobile operators are not providing respective services. USSD is used along with SMS and requires separate infrastructure. Thus SMS channel is simple, easy to implement, cheaper and widely used channel which is device independent. Current SMS based M-banking service has many drawbacks s SMS is inherently developed in GSM for non-sensitive message transfer among users. Mutual authentication, text encryption, end-to-end security and non-repudiation is not present in design of GSM architecture [16]. Major issues with SMS based banking are SMS Spoofing which is an attack where malicious user sends out SMS message which appears to be sent by original sender. Current SMS architecture allows hiding original sender’s address by altering respective field in origin al SMS header. Also SMS has encryption only during path from base transreceiver station and mobile station. End-to-end encryption is not available.V. IMPLEMENTATION We have implemented proposed solution in . NET platform for windows mobile in windows environment. Customer mobile application in . NET framework runs on supported windows mobile handset for which we have used HTC mobile and bank server application is running in . NET along with any GSM handset connected in Bluetooth / USB mode to it. We have added secure SMS structure which provides extra security along with satisfying security parameters. This secure SMS will add extra security features like cryptographic and hashing algorithm to satisfy confidentiality, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation.Our system is based on secure SMS protocol and it uses SMS as media to send and receive encrypted information. . A. Secure SMS Message Structure The secured SMS message is divided into multiple fields’s to accommodat e for the various security checks required for the protocol. Figure no. 2 shows the structure overview for a secure SMS message. The use of each labelled structure is explained below. Account No. Session Key Cipher Text (6 digit) (Generated From MPIN) (Plain Text + MPIN) Message Digest Fig. 2. Secure SMS message Structure Secure SMS message structure proposed by us consists of 4 fields’s as shown in above figure.Account Number: – It is customer account number in bank which is first field used for authentication purpose. This information is stored in plain test format so that at the server end, information can be retrieved to get required keys from database. Session key: – It is onetime key randomly generated from customer MPIN inputted in bank server database during M-Banking registration process. This key is stored in 2nd field of message. Customer makes a request to get session key from his handset to bank server. Bank server will reply this with encrypted ses sion keys stored in file, which will be stored on customer handset. ISSN : 0975-4024Dec 2011- Jan 2012 475 Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479 Cipher Text: – This text is created from combination of plain text and MPIN and stored in 3rd filed of message structure. Main idea behind this is to protect data from malicious attacker. As MPIN is most important data and from which session keys are created to be used for encryption and decryption purpose, hence it s send in encrypted manner. Message Digest: – Message digest is used for checking integrity. Customer message digest is calculated from combination of plain text and MPIN and stored in 4th field of secure SMS.MD5 algorithm is used to calculate message digest on both ends. This received digest will be compared with calculated digest at bank server end , if not found of same size then message will be discarded as fake transaction and no message will be send to mobile handset from which request is sent. B. Sending Secure SMS from Client Mobile Whenever customer wish to make any transaction using M-banking, he will run application installed on handset and provide all necessary details. We have used 6 transactions for testing purpose and information collected from user on his handset is used to generate secure SMS.After registration customer will get mobile application installed once on his windows mobile. Customer will enter 4-digit MPIN which will be stored in server database in encrypted format using his password. For non-repudiation purpose we have added concept of one time session key. Server uses customer MPIN to generate session key randomly and again stored them in encrypted format. Customer runs the banking application and feed details of 6-digit account number, 4-digit MPIN and 4digit password and click button to get session key. Server sends generated session key to customer handset which will be stored in encrypted format on his handset.Customer goes to menu screen, chooses requires account type and type of transaction he wish to perform and goes to next screen. Mobile client application shows 4 entries on next screen consisting of session key received, generated fixed plain text message depending upon transaction chosen, cipher text created from combination of plain text and MPIN and 4-part secure message. Secure SMS contains account number in plain text, session key in encrypted format, cipher text created from plain text and MPIN and message digest calculated from message.Customer will send message to sever using as normal message. C. Receiving and Replying Secure SMS from Server Module Proposed Server is running on computer installed with required software like VB. NET, Windows mobile device centre and SDK, . NET compact framework, MS-access and Server side application. Server side application has four modules as SMS Service, Information Manage, Transaction Manage and User Requests. SMS service module retrieves SMS received at Server side handset and decode it to get original query send by customer.Server application process query, get required data from bank database and then sends it in encrypted format to customer mobile through bank side modem. Whenever Customer sends any secure SMS containing his transaction query to server side GSM Modem, Server application automatically retrieves secure SMS and deletes it from server attached handset to avoid flooding of message inbox. We have used ActiveX control for this purpose. Bank Server application splits received secure SMS in same 4-parts. Server reads first part, a plain text 6-digit account number and compares it with database stored account number.If match is not found, it will send message â€Å"Wrong Account Number† to customer handset. If account match is found then server uses 2nd part of secure SMS, which is session key send by user to decrypt 3rd part of received secure SMS. After decrypting 3rd part of SMS, server application gets combination of plaintext as customer original transaction query followed by 4-digit MPIN. Server application compares received MPIN with stored MPIN from server table if a match is not found, will send message â€Å"Wrong Pin Number† to customer handset.Server calculates message digest of 3rd part received using MD5 algorithm and compare it with received massage digest, 4th part of secure SMS to check for message integrity. If match is not found, server generates message on server side â€Å"Fake Transaction† and sends nothing to customer side handset as it may be off any malicious user. If all security checks are proper, Server application process query of customer and get required data from database encrypts data using session key received from customer and sends automatically to customer handset.VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS We have developed two applications for client and server side. Mobile client application is developed using . NET compact framewor k and VB. NET, installed on windows mobile supported HTC mobile device. This application is used by customer for various M-banking transactions to send encrypted secure SMS to bank ISSN : 0975-4024 Dec 2011- Jan 2012 476 Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479 Server and gets back encrypted reply from bank Server.Client and Server side application performs symmetric encryption and decryption using 256-bit AES symmetric encryption algorithm. MD5 algorithm is used for hashing purpose. Server side bank application is developed using VB. NET it uses SMS toolkit, an ActiveX control to retrieve and process secure SMS automatically. Server side application also contains certain modules for database management of customer account and transactions Normally symmetric cryptographic algorithm don’t have non-repudiation as both party shares common secret key but we have used session key concept for maintaining non-repudiation propert y of encryption.Since Session key is used only once and created randomly, no two users can have common session key and it is created from MPIN, a master key which customer only knows so he cannot deny that he has done transaction. We have carried out 6 types of transaction including Account Balance, Mini transactions, Cheque Book Request, Cheque Stop request, Pay Bill and Fund Transfer. Following are some sample client application module. The figure no. 3 shows session key, user query in fixed plain text format, cipher text generated from combination of plain text and his MPIN and 4-part secure SMS message generated as per format discussed.This last message is sent to server. Fig. 3. Generating 4-Part Secure Message This secure SMS is retrieved by server side SMS service module. Server application split message and decrypt it to get original transaction query of customer. This query is processed to get response data from database which is firstly encrypted and then send to customer handset. Customer handset get auto reply from server side in cipher text, which is decrypted on mobile by client side application to get server response in plain text. The Figure no. 4 shows response obtained automatically from server for account balance.This reply consists of 3 parts. First part is common session key used by server and client. Second part is cipher text received from server application in secure manner. Third part is plain text message obtained after decrypting secure message received from server. Client mobile application uses 256-bit AES algorithm to decrypt message using common session key. This message will be hidden from customer and he will only get final query results in plain text format but for result purpose we have shown this screen. ISSN : 0975-4024 Dec 2011- Jan 2012 477Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479 Fig. 4. Secure Reply from Server To be a secure system, it must satisfy Confidentiality, Authentication, Integrity and Non-Repudiation Secure SMS system maintains confidentiality using AES cryptography and Non-Repudiation using session key. Here 3-factor authentication is used for authentication and security purpose whereas Message integrity is carried out using MD5 algorithm. VII. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK We have implemented a secure SMS based Mobile Banking system.The system allows user to carry out all banking transaction securely from anywhere, anytime. All messages from user windows mobile are sent in encrypted format to bank server. Bank server decrypt message, process query and encrypt result in SMS. Server sends message to customer which will be decrypted on his handset. The evaluation of the system was studied for varying banking transaction and under various security threatening malicious activities were recorded. Performance of the transaction is studied. We have executed few banking transaction from HTC windows mobile and using VB.Net server side applicati on. We have used LG GSM mobile as server attached mobile device. Experiments shows that secure SMS Mobile banking provides cost effective and secure system with satisfying Confidentiality, Authentication, Integrity and Non-Repudiation using symmetric cryptography. Application can be used on any windows mobile supported handset from anywhere as no GPRS and WAP are required. We have implemented system using symmetric key AES algorithm. In future better power consumption algorithm like blowfish can be tried out.Steganogrpahy can also be applied for secure M-banking transactions. We can use concept of STK, SIM application toolkit where bank can stored the application and encryption keys on SIM. REFERENCES [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Mohammad Shirali-Shahreza and M. Hassan Shirali-Shahreza, â€Å"Mobile banking Services in bank area†, SICE Annual Conference 2007, Japan Martinez Borreguero, F. Javier and Chaparro Pelaez, Julian,†Spanish Mobile Banking Services: An Adoption Study†, Proceedings of the International Conference on Mobile Business 2005.Mohammad Shirali-Shahreza,†Improving Mobile Banking Security Using Steganography â€Å", International Conference On Information Technology. Przemyslaw Krol, Przemyslaw Nowak, Bartosz Sakowicz,†Mobile Banking Services Based On J2ME/J2EE†, CADSM’2007. Yousuf S. AlHinai, Sherah Kurnia and Robert B. Johnston,†Adoption of Mobile, Commerce Services by Individuals: A Meta-Analysis of the Literature†, Sixth International Conference on the Management of Mobile Business . ISSN : 0975-4024 Dec 2011- Jan 2012 478 Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. (6), 2011, 472-479 [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] T N T Nguyen, P Shum and E H Chua,†Secure end-to-end mobile payment System†. Ashutosh Saxena, Manik Lal Das and Anurag Gupta,†MMPS: A Versatile Mobile-to-Mobile Payment System†, Proceedings of the International Conference On Mobile Business 2005. Iuon-Chang Lin and Yang-Bin Lin,†An Efficient Steganography Scheme for M- Commerce†. Mohammad Shirali-Shahreza and M. Hassan Shirali-Shahreza, †Text Steganography in SMS†, 2007 International Conference on Convergence Information Technology.Sandeep Singh Ghotra, Baldev Kumar Mandhan, Sam Shang Chun Wei, Yi Song, Chris Steketee, †Secure Display and Secure Transactions Using a Handset†, Sixth International Conference on the Management of Mobile Business. Jiehua Wang, Song Yuan, â€Å"A Novel Security Mobile Payment System Based On Watermarked Voice Cheque†. M. Shirali-Shahreza, â€Å"Stealth Steganography in SMS†, Proceedings of the third IEEE and IFIP International Conference on Wireless and Optical Communications Networks 2006.Kewin Chikomo, Ming Ki Chong, Alpan Arnab, Andrew Hutchison, â€Å"Security of Mobile Banking†. Dilla Salama Abdul Minaam. Hatem M. Abdul Kadir, Mohily Mohamed Hadhoud ,† Evaluating the effects of Symmetric Cryptographic algorithms on Power Consumption for different data types†, International Journal of Network Security, Volume 11, September 2010. Managing the Risk of Mobile Banking Technologies, Bankable Frontier Associates. Deshpande Neeta, kamalapur Snehal,† Implementation of LSB Steganography and its Evaluation for various bits†. ISSN : 0975-4024 Dec 2011- Jan 2012 479 Sms Banking Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479 SMS BASED SECURE MOBILE BANKING Manoj V, Bramhe Department of Information Technology, RTM Nagpur university St. Vincent Pallotti College of Engg. And Technology, Nagpur, India [email  protected] com Abstract— M-banking has emerged as one of the main division of m-commerce. Mobile banking services consists of information inquiry, notifications and alerts, applications and payment transfer. Mobile based application is used for connecting customer handset with bank server for all such services.Current M-banking applications used by banks are facing security challenges for payment transfer banks are using secure payment gateway and other security measures which increases cost and infrastructure for bank but major day-to-day banking applications are inquiries, notifications and alerts. The problem with current banking applications is that they send data directly to customer in plain te xt form compromising with security. We present SMS based secure mobile banking which enhances security with minimum cost.In this approach bank hides customer transaction data is secure SMS using AES symmetric cryptographic algorithm and send it customer application supported handset. Customer application decrypts data in secure manner. Keywords: M-banking, MD5, AES, MPIN I. INTRODUCTION M-banking system is one which provides all daily banking operations to customer with one click of his mobile handset with supported application. M-banking system has potential to provide access or delivery of very specific and highly necessary information to customer as given in [2].Growth in the M-Banking is driven by various facilities like convenience of banking operations, greater reach to consumers and Integration of other m-commerce services with mobile banking. In M-banking there is no place restriction, it is highly penetration coefficient as growth of mobile phones are more than computers, i t is fully personalized and private increasing transaction authenticity and is 100% available all the time with users. However, there are several challenges that need to be addressed to completely utilize the benefits of the M-Banking like handset compatibility, security, scalability, reliability.Due to increase in use of mobile handsets for many m-commerce applications, Chances of mobile hacking for financial benefits are heavily increased. Currently mostly all banks in India and outside are sending text SMS directly to the customer handset for basic bank services without any security which can be accessed by any malicious person and can use this information for getting access to customer account. OTA (Over-the-air) mobile data can be hacked in network path from bank to customer mobile handset including MPIN, a password use for user identification in M-banking.Thus there is a need of secure and cost effective solution which can be easily provided on all types of handsets. Our objec tive is to provide cost effective, secure, fast M-banking solution combining features of cryptography. In this paper we have presented SMS based secure mobile banking with minimum cost using cryptography. II. M-BANKING CHANNELS M-banking can be executed using various channels like SMS, USSD, GPRS, WAP; Phone based Application, SIM Application. All of these channels are used separately or combined for various banking operations ISSN : 0975-4024 Dec 2011- Jan 2012 472Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479 A. Short Message Service (SMS) SMS is the simplest form of mobile banking. It is largely used for information-based services. SMS has the maximum reach amongst consumers since all the mobile phones support SMS. Short messages are stored and forwarded by SMS centres. These messages have some security issues. B. Unstructured Supplementary Services Delivery (USSD) USSD is a technology unique to GSM. It is a capability built into t he GSM standard for support of transmitting information over the signalling channels of the GSM network.USSD provides session-based communication. Turnaround response times for interactive applications are shorter for USSD than SMS. In USSD, the interaction is in the form of a continuous session as opposed to SMS. USSD is available on all handsets. C. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) / General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) GPRS is a packet-switched data service available to GSM users. GPRS enables services such as WAP access, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), and Internet communication services such as email and World Wide Web access in mobile phones. . WAP is wireless application protocol used over GPRS. It is similar to Internet banking.The consumer’s handset needs to be WAP enabled. WAP banking is open to similar threats as Internet banking. D. Phone-based Application Phone based applications are developed in various languages like J2ME, . NET having advantages that it can use GPRS, USSD or SMS, MMS to carry the consumer data/instruction in an encrypted format and it is operator independent. These are secure application which resides on supported handset. E. SIM Application Tool Kit The SIM Application Toolkit allows for the service provider or bank to house the consumer’s mobile banking menu within the SIM card. STK is the most secure method of mobile banking.It allows the bank to load its own encryption keys onto the SIM card with the bank’s own developed application. III. CURRENT M-BANKING Even though various channels are available for M-banking most of the banks uses SMS as basic and cheap channel for basic banking operations. Currently all banks in India like ICICI, HSBC, SBI etc are not using any encryption techniques in SMS based M-banking system. They are using simple text based SMS for customer queries in which they directly send account information to customer only hiding some digits of account number which can be easily ha cked by any hacker or seen by anyone from message inbox.Even though some banks do provide some other channel like GPRS and WAP but cost of implementation is more and these facilities are not available on all types of mobile handset thus there is a need of secure and cost effective solution which can be easily provided on all types of handsets. A. Issues in M-banking 1) Lack of Standards: The lack of standards gives rise to lot of local and fragmented versions of m-payments offered by different stakeholders. Standards need to address security and privacy concerns of customers as well as interoperability between various implementations. ) Device constraints: There are technical issues related to the mobile devices . The mobile phones suffers from various constrains like less processing power and memory, bandwidth, short battery life , frequent disconnections, tiny screens, poor resolution and privacy issues. 3) Security Issues: Securing m-Commerce is even more difficult than wired tra nsaction. Device constraints raise the questions as to whether there will be adequate security for users without compromising the ease of use and speed.Current real time M-banking application of various banks uses plain text messages without any security algorithm for sending data hence any malicious user can access customer important data on mobile and used it for malicious purpose thus direct sending of data is not suggestible for M-banking. SMS are prone to spoofing and there are issues related to SMS encryption. However technology manufacturers are developing improved security for applications with authentication and encryption technologies and many claims that the ISSN : 0975-4024Dec 2011- Jan 2012 473 Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479 transaction using mobile device is fully secure. There are many techniques for secure M-banking operations but major research work has been done on Cryptography and steganography techn iques. Cryptography is a process of converting plaintext data into cipher text using cryptographic algorithms. They insure basic security requirements like authentication, confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation. B. Basics of Short Message ServiceShort Message Service (SMS) is the ability to send and receive text messages to and from mobile telephones. SMS was launched as a part of GSM1 standard. Each short message is up to 160 characters in length. The 160 characters can comprise of words, numbers, or punctuation symbols. Short Message Service is a store and forward service; this means that messages are not sent directly to the recipient but via a network SMS Centre. SMS comprises two basic point-to-point services as Mobile-originated short message (MO-SM) and Mobile-terminated short message (MT-SM).Mobile-originated short messages are transported from MOcapable handset to SMSC whereas Mobile-terminated short messages are transported from SMSC to the handsets. The figure no. 1 shows a typical organization of network elements in a GSM network supporting SMS. Fig. 1. Basic model of SMS based M-banking The benefits of SMS to subscribers are convenience, flexibility, and seamless integration of messaging services and data access, delivery of notifications and alerts, guaranteed message deliver, reliable, low-cost communication mechanism, increased subscriber productivity, delivery of messages to ultiple subscribers at a time. The SMSC (Short Message Service Centre) is the entity which does the job of store and forward of messages to and from the mobile station. The SME (Short Message Entity), which is typically a mobile phone or a GSM modem, can be located in the fixed network or a mobile station, receives or sends SMS. The SMSC usually has a configurable time limit for how long it will store the message. SMS Gateway SMS Gateway is an interface between software applications mobile networks.An SMS Gateway allows interfacing software applications to send and /or receive SMS messages over mobile network. A GSM Modem modulates outgoing digital signals from a computer or other digital device to signals for a GSM network and demodulates the incoming GSM signal and converts it to a digital signal for the computer or other digital device. IV. PROPOSED SOLUTION Current real time M-banking application of various banks uses plain text messages without any security algorithm for sending data in SMS banking hence any malicious user can access customer important data on mobile.Proposed secure M-banking is based on symmetric cryptographic techniques where common secret key is shared among bank customer and bank server. Proposed Architecture consists of 4 components as Customer Mobile application, Bank Server application, Bank side mobile / GSM Modem, Bank database and wireless OTA [1]. Our solution uses windows mobile as client application platform and . NET framework as server side software. Customer interested in using M-Banking facilities has to make registration only once with corresponding bank. Bank has all necessary details of customer in database.Bank sends Customer–side mobile application developed for windows mobile to user. Application will be installed once on windows mobile supported handset. This application consists of Login screen along with get session key option, menu screen for bank services options, and encryption and decryption screens for outgoing and incoming secure SMS and send message screen to send SMS to server GSM handset /Modem. Application will be updated as and when bank updates it. ISSN : 0975-4024 Dec 2011- Jan 2012 474 Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479Bank will have GSM mobile Handset / GSM modem connected to bank application server. GSM handset will be connected to application server using either Bluetooth or USB cable having SIM card installed in it which has task of receiving, processing and replying customer SMS continuou sly. GSM handset/ modem are cheaper and can be easily installed but have slow speed for message handling which can be increased by connecting modem with SMSC centre over internet. Secure M-Banking server side application is developed in windows compatible environment like VB. NET which can be installed on bank application server.Application is consisting of SMS Service, Information Manage, Account Details Manage, User Request modules to receive and process secure encrypted message from customer mobile. SMS Service module is responsible for retrieving and replying secure SMS automatically whenever they reaches server GSM handset / Modem. Bank database consists of various tables storing customer details pertaining to his personal information, Account information and transaction information. Bank database stores customer confidential information like his MPIN, Mobile identification pin and encryption keys in encrypted and secure manner.We have discussed various major types of M-Banking channels as SMS, GPRS, WAP and USSD out of which every channel has own advantages and disadvantages. WAP and GPRS are good and provide session based security but they are handset dependent and also in rural part of India all mobile operators are not providing respective services. USSD is used along with SMS and requires separate infrastructure. Thus SMS channel is simple, easy to implement, cheaper and widely used channel which is device independent. Current SMS based M-banking service has many drawbacks s SMS is inherently developed in GSM for non-sensitive message transfer among users. Mutual authentication, text encryption, end-to-end security and non-repudiation is not present in design of GSM architecture [16]. Major issues with SMS based banking are SMS Spoofing which is an attack where malicious user sends out SMS message which appears to be sent by original sender. Current SMS architecture allows hiding original sender’s address by altering respective field in origin al SMS header. Also SMS has encryption only during path from base transreceiver station and mobile station. End-to-end encryption is not available.V. IMPLEMENTATION We have implemented proposed solution in . NET platform for windows mobile in windows environment. Customer mobile application in . NET framework runs on supported windows mobile handset for which we have used HTC mobile and bank server application is running in . NET along with any GSM handset connected in Bluetooth / USB mode to it. We have added secure SMS structure which provides extra security along with satisfying security parameters. This secure SMS will add extra security features like cryptographic and hashing algorithm to satisfy confidentiality, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation.Our system is based on secure SMS protocol and it uses SMS as media to send and receive encrypted information. . A. Secure SMS Message Structure The secured SMS message is divided into multiple fields’s to accommodat e for the various security checks required for the protocol. Figure no. 2 shows the structure overview for a secure SMS message. The use of each labelled structure is explained below. Account No. Session Key Cipher Text (6 digit) (Generated From MPIN) (Plain Text + MPIN) Message Digest Fig. 2. Secure SMS message Structure Secure SMS message structure proposed by us consists of 4 fields’s as shown in above figure.Account Number: – It is customer account number in bank which is first field used for authentication purpose. This information is stored in plain test format so that at the server end, information can be retrieved to get required keys from database. Session key: – It is onetime key randomly generated from customer MPIN inputted in bank server database during M-Banking registration process. This key is stored in 2nd field of message. Customer makes a request to get session key from his handset to bank server. Bank server will reply this with encrypted ses sion keys stored in file, which will be stored on customer handset. ISSN : 0975-4024Dec 2011- Jan 2012 475 Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479 Cipher Text: – This text is created from combination of plain text and MPIN and stored in 3rd filed of message structure. Main idea behind this is to protect data from malicious attacker. As MPIN is most important data and from which session keys are created to be used for encryption and decryption purpose, hence it s send in encrypted manner. Message Digest: – Message digest is used for checking integrity. Customer message digest is calculated from combination of plain text and MPIN and stored in 4th field of secure SMS.MD5 algorithm is used to calculate message digest on both ends. This received digest will be compared with calculated digest at bank server end , if not found of same size then message will be discarded as fake transaction and no message will be send to mobile handset from which request is sent. B. Sending Secure SMS from Client Mobile Whenever customer wish to make any transaction using M-banking, he will run application installed on handset and provide all necessary details. We have used 6 transactions for testing purpose and information collected from user on his handset is used to generate secure SMS.After registration customer will get mobile application installed once on his windows mobile. Customer will enter 4-digit MPIN which will be stored in server database in encrypted format using his password. For non-repudiation purpose we have added concept of one time session key. Server uses customer MPIN to generate session key randomly and again stored them in encrypted format. Customer runs the banking application and feed details of 6-digit account number, 4-digit MPIN and 4digit password and click button to get session key. Server sends generated session key to customer handset which will be stored in encrypted format on his handset.Customer goes to menu screen, chooses requires account type and type of transaction he wish to perform and goes to next screen. Mobile client application shows 4 entries on next screen consisting of session key received, generated fixed plain text message depending upon transaction chosen, cipher text created from combination of plain text and MPIN and 4-part secure message. Secure SMS contains account number in plain text, session key in encrypted format, cipher text created from plain text and MPIN and message digest calculated from message.Customer will send message to sever using as normal message. C. Receiving and Replying Secure SMS from Server Module Proposed Server is running on computer installed with required software like VB. NET, Windows mobile device centre and SDK, . NET compact framework, MS-access and Server side application. Server side application has four modules as SMS Service, Information Manage, Transaction Manage and User Requests. SMS service module retrieves SMS received at Server side handset and decode it to get original query send by customer.Server application process query, get required data from bank database and then sends it in encrypted format to customer mobile through bank side modem. Whenever Customer sends any secure SMS containing his transaction query to server side GSM Modem, Server application automatically retrieves secure SMS and deletes it from server attached handset to avoid flooding of message inbox. We have used ActiveX control for this purpose. Bank Server application splits received secure SMS in same 4-parts. Server reads first part, a plain text 6-digit account number and compares it with database stored account number.If match is not found, it will send message â€Å"Wrong Account Number† to customer handset. If account match is found then server uses 2nd part of secure SMS, which is session key send by user to decrypt 3rd part of received secure SMS. After decrypting 3rd part of SMS, server application gets combination of plaintext as customer original transaction query followed by 4-digit MPIN. Server application compares received MPIN with stored MPIN from server table if a match is not found, will send message â€Å"Wrong Pin Number† to customer handset.Server calculates message digest of 3rd part received using MD5 algorithm and compare it with received massage digest, 4th part of secure SMS to check for message integrity. If match is not found, server generates message on server side â€Å"Fake Transaction† and sends nothing to customer side handset as it may be off any malicious user. If all security checks are proper, Server application process query of customer and get required data from database encrypts data using session key received from customer and sends automatically to customer handset.VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS We have developed two applications for client and server side. Mobile client application is developed using . NET compact framewor k and VB. NET, installed on windows mobile supported HTC mobile device. This application is used by customer for various M-banking transactions to send encrypted secure SMS to bank ISSN : 0975-4024 Dec 2011- Jan 2012 476 Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479 Server and gets back encrypted reply from bank Server.Client and Server side application performs symmetric encryption and decryption using 256-bit AES symmetric encryption algorithm. MD5 algorithm is used for hashing purpose. Server side bank application is developed using VB. NET it uses SMS toolkit, an ActiveX control to retrieve and process secure SMS automatically. Server side application also contains certain modules for database management of customer account and transactions Normally symmetric cryptographic algorithm don’t have non-repudiation as both party shares common secret key but we have used session key concept for maintaining non-repudiation propert y of encryption.Since Session key is used only once and created randomly, no two users can have common session key and it is created from MPIN, a master key which customer only knows so he cannot deny that he has done transaction. We have carried out 6 types of transaction including Account Balance, Mini transactions, Cheque Book Request, Cheque Stop request, Pay Bill and Fund Transfer. Following are some sample client application module. The figure no. 3 shows session key, user query in fixed plain text format, cipher text generated from combination of plain text and his MPIN and 4-part secure SMS message generated as per format discussed.This last message is sent to server. Fig. 3. Generating 4-Part Secure Message This secure SMS is retrieved by server side SMS service module. Server application split message and decrypt it to get original transaction query of customer. This query is processed to get response data from database which is firstly encrypted and then send to customer handset. Customer handset get auto reply from server side in cipher text, which is decrypted on mobile by client side application to get server response in plain text. The Figure no. 4 shows response obtained automatically from server for account balance.This reply consists of 3 parts. First part is common session key used by server and client. Second part is cipher text received from server application in secure manner. Third part is plain text message obtained after decrypting secure message received from server. Client mobile application uses 256-bit AES algorithm to decrypt message using common session key. This message will be hidden from customer and he will only get final query results in plain text format but for result purpose we have shown this screen. ISSN : 0975-4024 Dec 2011- Jan 2012 477Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 3 (6), 2011, 472-479 Fig. 4. Secure Reply from Server To be a secure system, it must satisfy Confidentiality, Authentication, Integrity and Non-Repudiation Secure SMS system maintains confidentiality using AES cryptography and Non-Repudiation using session key. Here 3-factor authentication is used for authentication and security purpose whereas Message integrity is carried out using MD5 algorithm. VII. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK We have implemented a secure SMS based Mobile Banking system.The system allows user to carry out all banking transaction securely from anywhere, anytime. All messages from user windows mobile are sent in encrypted format to bank server. Bank server decrypt message, process query and encrypt result in SMS. Server sends message to customer which will be decrypted on his handset. The evaluation of the system was studied for varying banking transaction and under various security threatening malicious activities were recorded. Performance of the transaction is studied. We have executed few banking transaction from HTC windows mobile and using VB.Net server side applicati on. We have used LG GSM mobile as server attached mobile device. Experiments shows that secure SMS Mobile banking provides cost effective and secure system with satisfying Confidentiality, Authentication, Integrity and Non-Repudiation using symmetric cryptography. Application can be used on any windows mobile supported handset from anywhere as no GPRS and WAP are required. We have implemented system using symmetric key AES algorithm. In future better power consumption algorithm like blowfish can be tried out.Steganogrpahy can also be applied for secure M-banking transactions. We can use concept of STK, SIM application toolkit where bank can stored the application and encryption keys on SIM. REFERENCES [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Mohammad Shirali-Shahreza and M. Hassan Shirali-Shahreza, â€Å"Mobile banking Services in bank area†, SICE Annual Conference 2007, Japan Martinez Borreguero, F. Javier and Chaparro Pelaez, Julian,†Spanish Mobile Banking Services: An Adoption Study†, Proceedings of the International Conference on Mobile Business 2005.Mohammad Shirali-Shahreza,†Improving Mobile Banking Security Using Steganography â€Å", International Conference On Information Technology. Przemyslaw Krol, Przemyslaw Nowak, Bartosz Sakowicz,†Mobile Banking Services Based On J2ME/J2EE†, CADSM’2007. Yousuf S. AlHinai, Sherah Kurnia and Robert B. Johnston,†Adoption of Mobile, Commerce Services by Individuals: A Meta-Analysis of the Literature†, Sixth International Conference on the Management of Mobile Business . ISSN : 0975-4024 Dec 2011- Jan 2012 478 Manoj V, Bramhe / International Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. (6), 2011, 472-479 [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] T N T Nguyen, P Shum and E H Chua,†Secure end-to-end mobile payment System†. Ashutosh Saxena, Manik Lal Das and Anurag Gupta,†MMPS: A Versatile Mobile-to-Mobile Payment System†, Proceedings of the International Conference On Mobile Business 2005. Iuon-Chang Lin and Yang-Bin Lin,†An Efficient Steganography Scheme for M- Commerce†. Mohammad Shirali-Shahreza and M. Hassan Shirali-Shahreza, †Text Steganography in SMS†, 2007 International Conference on Convergence Information Technology.Sandeep Singh Ghotra, Baldev Kumar Mandhan, Sam Shang Chun Wei, Yi Song, Chris Steketee, †Secure Display and Secure Transactions Using a Handset†, Sixth International Conference on the Management of Mobile Business. Jiehua Wang, Song Yuan, â€Å"A Novel Security Mobile Payment System Based On Watermarked Voice Cheque†. M. Shirali-Shahreza, â€Å"Stealth Steganography in SMS†, Proceedings of the third IEEE and IFIP International Conference on Wireless and Optical Communications Networks 2006.Kewin Chikomo, Ming Ki Chong, Alpan Arnab, Andrew Hutchison, â€Å"Security of Mobile Banking†. Dilla Salama Abdul Minaam. Hatem M. Abdul Kadir, Mohily Mohamed Hadhoud ,† Evaluating the effects of Symmetric Cryptographic algorithms on Power Consumption for different data types†, International Journal of Network Security, Volume 11, September 2010. Managing the Risk of Mobile Banking Technologies, Bankable Frontier Associates. Deshpande Neeta, kamalapur Snehal,† Implementation of LSB Steganography and its Evaluation for various bits†. ISSN : 0975-4024 Dec 2011- Jan 2012 479