AN ANALYTICAL SURVEY OF IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR ENHANCING CYBER SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
Keywords:
Cybersecurity, Cyber Situational Awareness (Cyber SA), Immersive Analytics, Virtual Reality (VR)Abstract
The escalating complexity and frequency of cyber threats necessitate advanced tools for effective cyber defense. Traditional security systems, often relying on two-dimensional displays, struggle to represent the multi-faceted nature of modern cyber data, potentially overwhelming human analysts and causing data occlusion. This has led to a growing interest in immersive technologies—Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR)—as a means to enhance Cyber Situational Awareness (Cyber SA). This paper presents a systematic survey of the current landscape of immersive systems designed for cybersecurity. We follow a structured review methodology to identify, categorize, and analyze existing research, focusing on applications in threat visualization, security operations, and professional training. Our findings indicate that immersive analytics can significantly improve data comprehension, facilitate collaborative analysis, and provide engaging educational experiences. Based on our synthesis of the literature, we propose a novel reference framework that maps specific immersive visualization and interaction techniques to the core levels of situational awareness: perception, comprehension, and projection. This framework serves as a guide for the design and analysis of future Immersive Cyber Situational Awareness (ICSA) systems. Finally, we discuss the primary challenges, identify key research gaps, and propose future directions, including the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the need for large-scale empirical studies to unlock the full potential of immersive technologies in strengthening global cyber defenses.
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