A Novel Approach for Secure In-class Delivery of Educational Content via Mobile Routers with Functionally Enhanced Firmware Kamen Kanev 1 , Federico Gelsomini 1,2(&) , Paolo Bottoni 2 , Francesco Ficarola 2 , Massimiliano Pedone 2 , Domenico Vitali 2 , and Patrick C. K. Hung 3 1 Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Japan kanev@inf.shizuoka.ac.jp, federico. gelsomini@uniroma1.it 2 Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy {bottoni,vitali}@di.uniroma1.it, francesco.ficarola@gmail.com, {federico.gelsomini, massimiliano.pedone}@uniroma1.it 3 University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Canada Patrick.Hung@uoit.ca Abstract. In this work, we identify some of the important security issues arising from the rapidly expanding use of privately owned communication devices such as smartphones in business environments following the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) concept. Given the limitations of the existing software- only approaches, we introduce a novel hybrid solution that involves inexpensive mobile routes with functionally enhanced firmware based on open source software. We then implement experimental software components as functional enhancements for integration into the router firmware and generation of new customized versions suitable for installation on different hardware platforms. Finally, in-class delivery of educational content stored on a functionally enhanced mobile router controlled by the instructor is employed for testing of the embedded security features. Keywords: Customized routers Á Open firmware Á Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Á Connection security Á Mobile learning (m-learning) 1 Introduction 1.1 Context Advancements in communication technologies have made wireless connectivity so ubiquitous that online information is always at the fingertips of the users. Nowadays, many learning environments are equipped with a variety of technical and pedagogical facilities that allow instructors to carry out advanced teaching activities [1]. Further- more, as students can be reached through a number of communication channels, they can be engaged in different learning styles [2]. This is particularly true and important in © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 M. E. Auer and T. Tsiatsos (eds.), Mobile Technologies and Applications for the Internet of Things, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 909, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11434-3_28