Classification and Mapping of Adaptive Security for Mobile Computing

Context: Mobile computing has emerged as a disruptive technology that has empowered its users with portable, connected and context-aware computation. However, issues such as resource poverty, energy efficiency and specifically data security and privacy represents the critical challenges for mobile computing. Objective: The objective of this work is to systematically identify, taxonomically classify and map the state-of-research on adaptive security (a.k.a. self-protection) for mobile computing. Methodology: We followed evidence based software engineering method to conduct a systematic mapping study of 43 qualitatively selected studies-published from 2003 to 2017-on adaptive security for mobile computing. Results and Conclusions: Classification and mapping of the research highlights three prominent themes that support adaptive security for (i) Mobile Device Data and Resources, (ii) Mobile to Mobile Communication, and (iii) Mobile to Server Communication. Mapping analysis suggests that security of mobile device data and resources is the most researched theme. The mapping study highlights that active and futuristic research trends are primarily focused on security as a service, whereas; the frequent research challenges relate to self-protecting mobile devices, user-driven privacy decisions and context-aware security. The results of the mapping study facilitate knowledge transfer that can benefit researchers and practitioners to understand the role of adaptive and context-aware security in mobile computing environments.