Cyber Security by a New Analogy: The Allegory of the 'Mobile'Cave

Mobile devices as the most pervasive technology enablers also bring new security risks in cyberspace. However, related cyber security studies mainly focus on technologies and practices rather than fundamentals and root causes. These studies may also omit the current scientific knowledge gained on other relevant or irrelevant domains that may be adapted to cyber security and ignore human nature that is more important than technology and processes. This study surveys and associates all the analogical methods and proposes them to avoid such problems. Several examples on each analogical method are collectively provided to explore cyber/mobile security as a multidisciplinary complex domain and uncover some unknown facts or inconspicuous matters from other domains. As cyber attacks continue globally and effective cyber security could not be established, analogical methods will be method of choice. The study also extends the scientific inquiry with analogy and proposes a new comprehensive allegoric approach that is unprecedented in cyber security literature and questions mobile technologies and their security based on Plato's infamous allegory of the cave.