## 1 Introduction  
In the past few years, breakthrough technological innovation and progression have brought forth another new approach to learn in university surroundings, named mobile learning or m-learning [1]. Mobile learning is an emerging recent trend in which the user can access the study materials everywhere and, on any occasion, using mobile devices. In addition, by managing and providing the study materials and educational contents, mobile learning also provides sufficient visualization and adaptation on the small display of mobile phones. The modern characteristic traits in smart phones, namely the browsing feature, color display screen and video streaming, make mobile learning both practical and promising [2]. In addition to this, mobile learning possesses the following advantages: mobility, sharing of information, independent self-education and facilitating communication among the students and teachers. The utilization of mobile learning continues to rise and has attracted many organizations, university environments and institutions worldwide. In general, mobile learning includes learning with diverse mobile devices, namely web tablets, pocket PCs, cell phones, wireless cameras, palms and various other handheld devices [3]. Mobile learning has attracted the people of Asian, European countries and the United Nations. On the other hand, the integration of both e-learning and mobile computing is referred to as mobile computing [4]. Recent mobile terminals consist of strong computational capability containing CPUs with high frequency. Mobile learning also implements suitable service applications based on multimedia, containing various modes of operation and friendly human interfaces. In addition, it also accesses numerous resource networks using diverse network connection approaches [5]. Currently, the computing network [6] plays a vital role due to its rapid development. Therefore, the proficient advancements of wireless sensor networks transformed pocket PC, iPods and mobile phones into various learning devices. Additionally, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the general packet radio services, are considered as the fundamental system in transferring the network data to each mobile terminal [6]. Users can gather the study materials and communicate with teachers or other professionals if the signal location through GPRS is available in the neighborhood [7]. Therefore, the GPRS system enables learners to access the Internet everywhere and on any occasion. Due to the rapid progression of mobile learning, distance education has turned to challenge both traditional classroom teaching and formal schoolings [8]. Even though distance education provides the bridge between experimental and formal learning, it is necessary to reconsider the physical classroom anatomy [9]. Thus, feature-based mobile learning is utilized in various educational activities and acts as a mediating tool to gather the educational materials and to learn the relevant topics using mobile devices via wireless technologies [10]. The cloud storage system consists of several defense issues since data security and privacy have become known as the foremost comprehension for the users [11]. This paper proposes a safe and protected cloud-based mobile learning system that comprises various security characteristics, namely privacy and confidentiality of information, intrusion detection, entity authentication, secure routing and data aggregation, key management and distribution, and data integrity. Here, the mobile learning system is influenced directly by progressive technological advancements and the issues based on security and privacy are entirely different from the e-learning system. This paper proposes a cloud-based mobile learning system using a hybrid optimal elliptic curve cryptography (HOECC) algorithm comprising public and private keys for data encryption. The proposed approach selects optimally the random value, and the adaptive tunicate slime-mold (ATS) algorithm is employed for generating the optimal key value.