Enhancing Security in WhatsApp: A System for Detecting Malicious and Inappropriate Content | Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Information and Communication Technology (2024)

research-article

Authors: Mateusz Kazimierczak, Thanyathorn Thanapattheerakul, and Jonathan H. Chan

SOICT '23: Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Information and Communication Technology

December 2023

Pages 274 - 281

Published: 07 December 2023 Publication History

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    Abstract

    With the increasing reliance on instant messaging applications like WhatsApp, ensuring user privacy and security has become paramount. This paper argues for the need to enhance the security of the WhatsApp messaging service. An API endpoint and Chrome extension capable of detecting profanity, malicious URLs, and inappropriate images are developed to satisfy this need. In its current stage, not only can malicious URLs circulate freely through WhatsApp without any checks, but it is also easy to send inappropriate images and texts which receiving users should be careful with. We survey existing publicly available services and APIs in the domains of profanity, malicious URLs, and inappropriate images. A novel approach that incorporates the most appropriate models for our purpose in an integrated detection system, based on simple statistical models and output from the third-party APIs, is proposed. We compile two extensive datasets of profane text and malicious URLs and employ them in testing the effectiveness of our proposed model using statistical methods. Additionally, we present a publicly available proof of concept Chrome extension that incorporates our model to provide users with an added layer of protection. Finally, we discuss potential areas for future research and suggest improvements to enhance the effectiveness of the proposed system and the cybersecurity aspect of chatting applications in general.

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    Cited By

    View all

    • Bimantoro RFitrani ABusono S(2024)Sistem WhatsApp sebagai Notifikasi pada UMSIDA Farm Store Berbasis WebJournal of Internet and Software Engineering10.47134/pjise.v1i1.22481:1(14)Online publication date: 31-Jan-2024

    Index Terms

    1. Enhancing Security in WhatsApp: A System for Detecting Malicious and Inappropriate Content

      1. Security and privacy

        1. Human and societal aspects of security and privacy

          1. Privacy protections

            1. Social aspects of security and privacy

            2. Software and application security

              1. Social network security and privacy

                1. Web application security

              2. Software and its engineering

                1. Software creation and management

                  1. Software verification and validation

                    1. Empirical software validation

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              Enhancing Security in WhatsApp: A System for Detecting Malicious and Inappropriate Content | Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Information and Communication Technology (4)

              SOICT '23: Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Information and Communication Technology

              December 2023

              1058 pages

              ISBN:9798400708916

              DOI:10.1145/3628797

              Copyright © 2023 ACM.

              Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [emailprotected].

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              Publication History

              Published: 07 December 2023

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              Author Tags

              1. Cybersecurity
              2. Dataset
              3. Privacy
              4. Social media

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              Overall Acceptance Rate 147 of 318 submissions, 46%

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              Enhancing Security in WhatsApp: A System for Detecting Malicious and Inappropriate Content | Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Information and Communication Technology (5)

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              • Bimantoro RFitrani ABusono S(2024)Sistem WhatsApp sebagai Notifikasi pada UMSIDA Farm Store Berbasis WebJournal of Internet and Software Engineering10.47134/pjise.v1i1.22481:1(14)Online publication date: 31-Jan-2024

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              Enhancing Security in WhatsApp: A System for Detecting Malicious and Inappropriate Content | Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Information and Communication Technology (2024)
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