2017/08/12 by Mauro Conti, Qian Qian Li, Conti, Mauro +5 · 2 citations
Computer Science · #Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting #Advanced Malware Detection Techniques #Network Security and Intrusion Detection
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1708.03766
In recent years, mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets) have met an\nincreasing commercial success and have become a fundamental element of the\neveryday life for billions of people all around the world. Mobile devices are\nused not only for traditional communication activities (e.g., voice calls and\nmessages) but also for more advanced tasks made possible by an enormous amount\nof multi-purpose applications (e.g., finance, gaming, and shopping). As a\nresult, those devices generate a significant network traffic (a consistent part\nof the overall Internet traffic). For this reason, the research community has\nbeen investigating security and privacy issues that are related to the network\ntraffic generated by mobile devices, which could be analyzed to obtain\ninformation useful for a variety of goals (ranging from device security and\nnetwork optimization, to fine-grained user profiling).\n In this paper, we review the works that contributed to the state of the art\nof network traffic analysis targeting mobile devices. In particular, we present\na systematic classification of the works in the literature according to three\ncriteria: (i) the goal of the analysis; (ii) the point where the network\ntraffic is captured; and (iii) the targeted mobile platforms. In this survey,\nwe consider points of capturing such as Wi-Fi Access Points, software\nsimulation, and inside real mobile devices or emulators. For the surveyed\nworks, we review and compare analysis techniques, validation methods, and\nachieved results. We also discuss possible countermeasures, challenges and\npossible directions for future research on mobile traffic analysis and other\nemerging domains (e.g., Internet of Things). We believe our survey will be a\nreference work for researchers and practitioners in this research field.\n