EAGER: Collaborative Research: S^2 Lab: Educational Platform and Resource for Smartphone Security

Cal Poly Pomona Foundation, Inc., Pomona CA

Investigators

Abstract

Although the smartphone market has grown rapidly in recent years, education remains mostly in the realm of traditional computer designs, even when it comes to security. One of the crucial factors hindering the adoption of smartphone security in the educational domain is the lack of appropriate platform and educational resources. One option is to use an emulator but emulators have no good support for Bluetooth, USB, peripherals, network connected state, battery charge level, and AC charging state; many of which could be integral components of lab exercises. The goal of this project is to develop a smartphone security education framework and to transition to education some of the emerging research areas related to security issues in the smartphone domain. The project will develop a smartphone security education platform; develop sample educational resources (labs) that can be supported by the platform; and evaluate the efficacy of the developed platform and resources in promoting experiential learning in the domain of smartphone security education. The proposed platform will be a hardware-software integrated system that will enable students to remotely connect to the platform, choose a smartphone security lab exercise supported by the platform and learn by performing the lab activities on real smartphone devices. This project will enable other institutions of higher education to utilize the platform and resources for smartphone security education. The project outcomes will be disseminated via the NSF-funded SEED labs.