Malicious actions against the GPRS technology

Abstract

This paper presents the malicious actions (attacks), which threaten the general packet radio services (GPRS) network, the GPRS mobile users, and the data that either reside at the network or are transferred through it. These attacks may be performed by malicious third parties, mobile users, network operators or network operator personnel, which exploit the security weaknesses of the GPRS security architecture. Moreover, the attackers take advantage of the lack of adequate security measures that should protect certain parts of the GPRS architecture. The possible attacks against GPRS targets the equipment of mobile users, the radio access network, the GPRS backbone network, and the interfaces that connect the latter to other GPRS networks or the public Internet. The results of these attacks might be the compromise of end-users security, the users over billing, the disclosure or alteration of critical information, the services unavailability, the network breakdown, etc. The analyzed attacks and their consequences increase the risks associated with the usage of GPRS, and, thus, influence its deployment that realizes the concept mobile Internet. In order to defeat certain attacks and enhance the level of security provided by GPRS, specific security measures are proposed.