Cybersecurity of data communication networks: A comprehensive survey of threats, challenges, technical solutions, and future research directions
COMPUTER NETWORKS, cilt.2026929, ss.112789, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Derleme
- Cilt numarası: 2026929
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.comnet.2026.112789
- Dergi Adı: COMPUTER NETWORKS
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Applied Science & Technology Source, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA), EBSCO Communication Source, Business Source Ultimate (EBSCO), Communication Source (EBSCO), Engineering Source (EBSCO), Scopus, Technology Collection (ProQuest), Aerospace Database, Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), ABI/INFORM, Compendex, INSPEC, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA), zbMATH
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.112789
- Van Yüzüncü Yıl Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
As global systems become increasingly digitalised and AI-driven, cybersecurity has emerged as a critical concern across multiple domains. This survey provides a structured review of cybersecurity threats, challenges, technical solutions, and future research directions in data communication networks. To ensure analytical depth, the reviewed literature is organized through a four-dimensional taxonomy that systematically covers major attack classes, mitigation challenges, defense mechanisms, and emerging research areas. The paper examines a broad range of adversarial vectors, including malware, advanced persistent threats (APTs), DNS attacks, social engineering, web application attacks, network attacks, routing attacks, and software supply-chain vulnerabilities. Beyond purely technical threats, the survey discusses the role of human factors, attacker motivations, socio-technical impacts, and practical mitigation challenges. It also reviews technical solutions such as network security measures, endpoint protection, authentication and access control, threat monitoring, Zero Trust approaches, software supply-chain security, and cloud-native protection architectures. Utilizing the SolarWinds incident as a case study, the paper illustrates how modern multi-stage attacks can bypass conventional defenses. The paper concludes by outlining future research directions in AI/ML-based cybersecurity, IoT security, cloud security, and privacy-preserving protection.