Secure Group Instant Messaging Using Cryptographic Primitives

Short message service has been growing tremendously in the last few years. Meanwhile, instant messaging service has been getting more and more popular, too. To bridge them is becoming a new promising niche because people really enjoy getting messages instantly, anywhere at any time. However, there is still not a common, unified and open standard to communicate with each other. Big instant message providers, such as AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ dominate Internet instant message systems via proprietary protocols. Although, major handset manufactures, e.g., Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia, formed the Wireless Village Initiative to ensure interoperability of instant message service particularly; it requires buying their new handsets to support. However, people don't change handsets often. On the other hand, every carrier operator has been trying to refine its own homemade interface to short message application services with the intention to cover the complexity and security of the communication with its own short message service center. Hence, in this paper we propose an infrastructure, based on the XML-based protocol, XMPP, not only to simplify interconnections among Internet instant message systems and short message systems, but also to support legacy handsets for instant message service. Besides, most operators' short message service centers do not guarantee delivery in order. Therefore, we are also going to introduce a mechanism inside our servers in order to make in-order delivery sensitive services applicable on top of this infrastructure.

The spread of instant messenger systems provides an excellent opportunity and a helpful tool to healthcare professionals. WhatsApp instant messenger use is widely prevalent among health professionals, cancer patients, caregivers and the general population. It is a quick and easy communication tool that may also be used on personal computers and business purposes. WhatsApp instant messenger and other similar tools may be a very useful complement for e-medicine. Instant messaging systems may be helpful, especially in rural areas, in medium- or low-income countries, or to avoid unnecessary travels, improve knowledge and awareness of cancer, monitor home care and support the delivery of home care. The unregulated use of WhatsApp instant messenger requires sound and shared guidelines to assure impeccable professional service. Although a significant number of papers have investigated the roles of social networks in connecting patients to health professionals, there is still a lack of information and scientific data about their uses, benefits and limitations in connecting health providers only for professional communication. The role of instant messenger systems in cancer practice and research needs to be clarified. In this paper, we report a focus on available data, pros and contras of the unregulated use of WhatsApp instant messaging, in the context of e-medicine, as an interprofessional and doctor/patient communication tool in oncology.

This report details the development of a secure messaging add-on for use on public Instant Messaging (IM) networks. It is a continuation of the project discussed in [25]. Due to sociopolitical and monetary reasons, the growth of secure enterprise IM systems has not kept pace with the use of insecure public IM systems. A solution to this problem is to develop a free prototype that is able to secure communications over a public IM network, using a set of guidelines for information security and IM network compatibility. The prototype was able to successfully integrate with a third party IM client and conduct an encrypted session over the MSN Messenger Network. With more development and testing the prototype could become a viable option for use as a secure IM add-on.

PurposeThis paper aims to show how instant messaging (IM) service providers are helping and hindering societal mental health among young adults. That is, IM services provide users with an ability to obtain instantaneous and inexpensive support in their time of need. However, excessive internet usage may place IM users at risk of experiencing symptoms associated with internet addiction and adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).Design/methodology/approachThe authors propose a framework obtained from coding qualitative data. They test the framework with structural equation methodology and latent mean analysis from data collected from younger‐aged Chinese and American IM users in two studies.FindingsYounger‐aged IM users in both China and the US obtain social support from their virtual networks. However, both groups of IM users show signs of elevated levels of internet addiction and of being at risk of experiencing symptoms associated with ADHD.Research limitations/implicationsExcessive IM and internet usage may hinder young adults' mental health, and the problem is likely to grow in the future. The work confirms recent trends in US psychology to consider internet addiction a mental health disorder.Social implicationsBoth service and public health researchers are encouraged to consider the impact of technological services, including internet usage and IM, on consumer health and well‐being. People with ADHD are particularly susceptible to internet addiction; thus, technological services may be damaging society's mental health.Originality/valueThe paper illustrates how researchers can engage in transformative service research, referring to research with implications that affect global consumer health and well‐being. The work also shows a “dark side” to services and the unintended consequences of service technology on public health. Both topics have not been explored in service research.

Inter-working between SIMPLE and IMPS

In recent years, China's Internet industry maintains a faster growth state, in which Instant Messaging Services has become the top utilization rate of Internet applications. This paper makes empirical study on network enterprise Instant Messaging Services, taking the fast developing Internet Instant Messaging as research background, the correlation between Instant Messaging Services Quality and enterprise Customer Loyalty as research purpose, network Instant Messaging users as research object. The research process mainly has three parts. First, this paper selects initial data through questionnaire. Then it extracts the factors of related items to Instant Messaging Services Quality based on data validity testing, ensures the study hypothesis on the extracted main factors using Correlation Analysis and constructs the study model. Finally, based on previous successful work, it applies regression analysis to test the hypothesis and reaches the conclusion which can provide some managerial inspirations.

Identity-based broadcast encryption is tool for communicating multiple copies of a single message to a selective group of users, identified by their identities in such a manner that others are unable to access the content. A multi-privileged group is a group of users where the users have different access privileges. This paper proposes an identity-based broadcast encryption scheme for multi-privileged groups that preserves the identities of the users which is developed using Chinese remainder theorem and bilinear pairing. It also ensures forward and backward secrecy with reference to user join and leave. Comparison of the proposed scheme with the existing schemes has shown that the proposed scheme is performing better. Security of the scheme is proven under random oracle model.

Interpersonal awareness is one person's up-to-the moment knowledge about other group members, while artifact awareness is one person's up-to-the-moment knowledge about other group members' work artifacts; both contribute to fluid group coordination and interaction. Many popular computer-mediated communication systems focus on interpersonal awareness, with artifact awareness being a second-class citizen. To better support artifact awareness in this domain, we leverage the widespread adoption and technical robustness of an unaltered, commercial instant messaging (IM) system. Our main contribution is to treat an artifact, such as a document, as a first-class instant messaging "buddy." Our system, Artifact Buddy, gives each shared artifact an interactive presence on IM, providing awareness cues about its editing status and notifications when new versions are committed, enabling simple version control, and facilitating informal group communication. The group's interactions with and conversation around the artifact are also recorded as part of a persistent conversational history.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of mobile instant messaging (MIM) apps from the perspective of the user. The objective is to verify what is the perceived usefulness, perceived value of use and usability of this new channel of communication utilized with customers and to verify if there are premises for considering instant messaging services as a new platform for customer engagement. Drawing from the Technology Acceptance Model, this study tests the consumers’ perception of the use of mobile services with organizations. Data was made available for analysis from an online survey of 470 respondents. Results show that customers see MIM apps as an effective tool for customer care. Moreover, interaction through MIM apps adds value to the customer-brand relationship. MIM apps used as support to the relationship with customers can contribute to customer care, revealing it to be an excellent marketing tool in support of the customer journey. This research extends the understanding of customer engagement in the ambit of the instant messaging application used for business that so far has not been investigated. This work shows how instant messaging can optimize the benefits deriving from the adoption of disruptive innovations.

Currently, text communication cannot be used to ask for help in emergency situations. Even in the Next Generation 9-1-1 system, an IP/SIP-based emergency communication system, there has been no investigation into how text communications such as Instant Messaging (IM) and Short Message Service (SMS) can be integrated. We identify the technical challenges in the integration of IM and SMS networks with the NG9-1-1 system, and propose a solution for each challenge. We also describe a working prototype system using our approach.

Collaboration plays a vital role in today's new business environment. Knowledge that resides within people's heads has become an invaluable resource. Many formal tools, such as e-mail or teamrooms, have been introduced to support formal collaboration and have been studied extensively. However, support for informal communication is still in its infancy. Much work has been done to analyze the functions that informal communication plays in the workplace. Recently, several studies have evaluated the roles that instant messaging (IM) plays in similar settings. Research shows that in the workplace, IM is used primarily for work-related purposes and accelerates the completion of important business tasks. Clearly, new tools that combine both formal and informal interaction can bring organizations tremendous rewards. ReachOut is a tool for semi-persistent collaboration and peer support developed by the Collaboration Technologies Group at the IBM Haifa Research Lab. This paper studies the role ReachOut plays in the workplace. We analyzed the collaboration activity of the community of IBM Haifa Labs employees who used ReachOut for a period of two months. As a result, we summarize the important functions played by tools that bridge between formal and informal communication in a workplace-based community.

This paper proposes the use of SIMPLE/SIP for future instant messaging (IM) and presence services, analyzes the advantages of using SIP for presence and describes the services system architecture. The author also designs a more functional, robust, and flexible presence services demo utilizing JAINTM API, which can communicate with MSN Messenger 4.6.

We propose and study an evolving network model for instant messaging system (IMS) with local-world preferential connections and acquaintance introduction mechanisms, which exist in many physical complex networks especially in IMS evolving network. We put forward the algorithms to generate IMS evolving network model and through simulation results we talk about the topological properties of the IMS evolving network. First of all, degree distribution, clustering coefficient along with average path length are simulated and then the community structure of the model is analyzed. We can draw the conclusion that the degree distribution of IMS evolving network doesnpsilat obey power-law distribution, and this network has a short average path length and a high clustering coefficient. In a word, the simulation result shows that the IMS evolving network is a complex network possessing properties of small-world and clear community structure, but doesnpsilat have scale-free property.

PurposeIn recent years, marketers have adopted new technologies to engage customers and better meet customer needs throughout the customer journey. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of consumer engagement on satisfaction and behavior-based CRM performance generated by mobile instant messaging (MIM) services. The objective is to verify which aspects of consumer engagement generate satisfaction and optimize customer relationship management.Design/methodology/approachData were made available for analysis from an online survey on customers who had been contacted or had contacted an organization by means of MIM. Based on literature analysis, relations between customer engagement dimensions, satisfaction and behavior-based CRM performance were studied by using structural equation modeling.FindingsThe cognitive engagement dimension and the emotional engagement dimension affect the level of satisfaction, but only the emotional engagement dimension has an effect on the behavior-based CRM performance, while social engagement does not affect satisfaction and CRM performance. Moreover, this study confirms the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer behavior-based relationship performance.Practical implicationsMIM used as support to the relationship with customers contributes to generating customer satisfaction and increases the value of service performance revealing it an excellent marketing tool in support of the customer journey.Originality/valueThis research extends our understanding of customer engagement in the ambit of the instant messaging application used for business that so far has not been investigated. This work shows how instant messaging can be a valid instrument for customer relationship management in optimizing the benefits deriving from the adoption of disruptive innovations.

Abstract—In most regards, the twenty-first century may not bring revolutionary changes in electronic messaging technology in terms of applications or protocols. Security issues that have long been a concern in messaging application are finally being solved using a variety of products. Web-based messaging systems are rapidly evolving the text-based conversation. The users have the right to protect their privacy from the eavesdropper, or other parties which interferes the privacy of the users for such purpose. The chatters most probably use the instant messages to chat with others for personal issue; in which no one has the right eavesdrop the conversation channel and interfere this privacy. This is considered as a non-ethical manner and the privacy of the users should be protected. The author seeks to identify the security features for most public instant messaging services used over the internet and suggest some solutions in order to encrypt the instant messaging over the conversation channel. The aim of this research is to investigate through forensics and sniffing techniques, the possibilities of hiding communication using encryption to protect the integrity of messages exchanged. Authors used different tools and methods to run the investigations. Such tools include Wireshark packet sniffer, Forensics Tool Kit (FTK) and viaForensic mobile forensic toolkit. Finally, authors will report their findings on the level of security that encryption could provide to instant messaging services.