[Paper Review] A Survey on the Security of Pervasive Online Social Networks (POSNs)

Takshi Gupta, Gaurav Choudhary+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jun 20, 2018

Privacy, Security, and Data Protection170 references3 citations

TL;DR

This survey provides a comprehensive analysis of security challenges in Pervasive Online Social Networks (POSNs), focusing on cross-platform threats, trust management, and anomaly detection. It evaluates existing OSN security solutions for applicability to POSNs, classifies key approaches, and identifies critical research gaps and future directions for securing interconnected social platforms.

ABSTRACT

Pervasive Online Social Networks (POSNs) are the extensions of Online Social Networks (OSNs) which facilitate connectivity irrespective of the domain and properties of users. POSNs have been accumulated with the convergence of a plethora of social networking platforms with a motivation of bridging their gap. Over the last decade, OSNs have visually perceived an altogether tremendous amount of advancement in terms of the number of users as well as technology enablers. A single OSN is the property of an organization, which ascertains smooth functioning of its accommodations for providing a quality experience to their users. However, with POSNs, multiple OSNs have coalesced through communities, circles, or only properties, which make service-provisioning tedious and arduous to sustain. Especially, challenges become rigorous when the focus is on the security perspective of cross-platform OSNs, which are an integral part of POSNs. Thus, it is of utmost paramountcy to highlight such a requirement and understand the current situation while discussing the available state-of-the-art. With the modernization of OSNs and convergence towards POSNs, it is compulsory to understand the impact and reach of current solutions for enhancing the security of users as well as associated services. This survey understands this requisite and fixates on different sets of studies presented over the last few years and surveys them for their applicability to POSNs...

Motivation & Objective

• To address the growing security challenges in Pervasive Online Social Networks (POSNs), which emerge from the integration of multiple OSNs across platforms and domains.
• To identify and analyze existing security solutions from traditional OSNs for their potential applicability to POSNs due to the lack of dedicated POSN-specific research.
• To explore trust management and anomaly detection mechanisms critical for securing dynamic, multi-platform social environments.
• To present a structured classification of security, trust, and anomaly detection techniques in POSNs using tabular comparisons.
• To highlight open issues and future research directions for enhancing the security, resilience, and survivability of POSNs.

Proposed method

• Conducted a systematic literature review using Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and university library databases.
• Collected and analyzed 190 relevant articles from journals, conferences, and collections focusing on OSN and POSN security, trust, and anomaly detection.
• Classified existing solutions into categories: access control, authentication, trust management, anomaly detection, and resource allocation.
• Provided a tabular comparison of techniques across security, trust, and anomaly detection domains to highlight strengths and limitations.
• Evaluated the feasibility of OSN-based security mechanisms (e.g., EAP, SRP, firewalls, AI-based monitoring) for POSN deployment.
• Identified architectural and policy-level requirements for secure cross-platform data exchange and community management in POSNs.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 What are the primary security threats affecting Pervasive Online Social Networks (POSNs) due to cross-platform integration?
• RQ2 How applicable are existing Online Social Network (OSN) security solutions to the unique challenges of POSNs?
• RQ3 What role do trust management and anomaly detection play in securing dynamic, multi-platform POSN environments?
• RQ4 What are the key open issues and research gaps in securing POSNs, particularly concerning access control, resilience, and resource allocation?
• RQ5 How can future frameworks ensure the survivability and sustainability of POSNs under adversarial conditions?

Key findings

• POSNs face significant security threats including DoS/DDoS, Sybil attacks, data theft, malware, and zero-hour exploits, especially through unsecured wireless links and outdated software.
• Existing OSN security mechanisms—such as strong authentication, EAP, SRP, firewalls, and packet filtering—can be adapted for POSNs but require enhancement for cross-platform consistency.
• Trust management in POSNs is critical and can be formalized through reputation systems, peer-to-peer connectivity, and multi-peer trust models.
• Anomaly detection in POSNs is feasible through machine learning and AI-based monitoring to identify inactive, malicious, or over-requesting user accounts.
• Resilience to node failures and secure, preference-based resource allocation are essential for maintaining service continuity in distributed POSN infrastructures.
• Despite extensive research on OSN security, there remains a significant research gap in POSN-specific solutions, particularly in multiparty access control, relationship-based authorization, and fail-safe cross-platform data exchange.