Guarding Digital Frontiers: Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics Research against Mobile Spyware Threats

Spyware, defined as “monitoring programs surreptitiously installed on computers (…) [which] serve to record and transmit a user’s computer uses and behaviors to third parties” (Stafford, 2004), represents an ever-increasing and significant threat for anyone, and especially for smartphone users. The emergence of mobile spyware marks the rise of a sophisticated and ever-evolving breed of spyware meticulously designed to capitalize on the distinctive attributes of mobile operating systems and applications. Mobile spyware poses unique challenges and threats, since it exploits the ubiquitous connectivity, advanced sensor functionalities, and extensive repositories of personal data housed within mobile devices, rendering it a formidable adversary capable of surreptitiously surveilling and extracting sensitive information from compromised devices. In this paper, we delve into the role of cybersecurity and digital forensics research in tackling the challenges posed by mobile spyware, we explore the current state of practices, and we outline future research directions.