A Secure M-payment for M-commerce in Kenya

Abstract

There has been a tremendous growth in mobile communications in Kenya over the last decade that has totally transformed how people communicate. This has presented opportunities for business to change how they operate, which includes banking services, whose infrastructure in Kenya is fairly advanced in comparison to neighbouring countries. Despite the advanced banking services available, account holders do still have problems of secure access in their transactions, especially using mobile devices. This research proposes an M-commerce model for a direct, trusted access to a client’s bank accounts via mobile devices. The methodology used for the research is based on the WebE process for M-commerce services and applications. In its implementation, it adopts a secure M-payment configuration based on a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for mobile devices. Further, it implements security issues through elliptic curve data signing algorithm. It should be noted that for a mobile system, it is important to implement a solution that is secure, relies on the available communication channels and works efficiently with the minimal resources available, a characteristic of mobile devices. The implementation enables the mobile device to act as a debit card and can be customized to implement security in any other transactions that utilize mobile device applications.