Wireless Pers Commun (2014) 75:1689–1713 DOI 10.1007/s11277-013-1299-1 An Effective Model for Indirect Trust Computation in Pervasive Computing Environment Naima Iltaf · Abdul Ghafoor · Usman Zia · Mukhtar Hussain Published online: 4 July 2013 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract The performance of indirect trust computation models (based on recommenda- tions) can be easily compromised due to the subjective and social-based prejudice of the provided recommendations. Eradicating the influence of such recommendation remains an important and challenging issue in indirect trust computation models. An effective model for indirect trust computation is proposed which is capable of identifying dishonest recom- mendations. Dishonest recommendations are identified by using deviation based detecting technique. The concept of measuring the credibility of recommendation (rather than credibil- ity of recommender) using fuzzy inference engine is also proposed to determine the influence of each honest recommendation. The proposed model has been compared with other existing evolutionary recommendation models in this field, and it is shown that the model is more accurate in measuring the trustworthiness of unknown entity. Keywords Recommendation model · Pervasive computing · Malicious recommendation detection N. Iltaf · M. Hussain Department of Software Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan e-mail: naima@mcs.edu.pk M. Hussain e-mail: drmukhtar@nust.edu.pk A. Ghafoor (B ) Department of Electrical Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan e-mail: abdulghafoor-mcs@nust.edu.pk U. Zia Department of Computer Engineering, Center of Advanced Studies and Engineering (CASE), Islamabad, Pakistan e-mail: usman.xia@gmail.com 123