Enhancement Mobile Security and User Confidentiality for UMTS

Al-Saraireh, J., Yousef, S. and Al-Nabhan, M.

The permanent user international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) is used in authentication process and in the first step for authentication process in initial registration; the mobile station sends the IMSI in clear text without encryption between the communication parties over the radio interface. This represents a violation of user identity confidentiality. Sending IMSI in clear text causes serious security problems for universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS).
This paper suggests a new technique to protected user identity by encrypted IMSI to provide user confidentiality and consequently the IMSI cannot be eavesdropped, and to ensure the confidentiality of user data and signaling traffic by preventing localizing and tracking of a mobile station.

Keywords: UMTS, Home Network, Visited Network, Authentication, Security.