banner-in1

105 Latest Cyber Security Research Topics in 2024

Home Blog Security 105 Latest Cyber Security Research Topics in 2024

Play icon

The concept of cybersecurity refers to cracking the security mechanisms that break in dynamic environments. Implementing Cyber Security Project topics and cybersecurity thesis topics helps overcome attacks and take mitigation approaches to security risks and threats in real-time. Undoubtedly, it focuses on events injected into the system, data, and the whole network to attack/disturb it.

The network can be attacked in various ways, including Distributed DoS, Knowledge Disruptions, Computer Viruses / Worms, and many more. Cyber-attacks are still rising, and more are waiting to harm their targeted systems and networks. Detecting Intrusions in cybersecurity has become challenging due to their Intelligence Performance. Therefore, it may negatively affect data integrity, privacy, availability, and security. 

This article aims to demonstrate the most current Cyber Security Research Topics for Projects and areas of research currently lacking. We will talk about cyber security research questions, cyber security topics for the project, latest research titles about cyber security.

List of Trending Cyber Security Research Topics in 2024

Digital technology has revolutionized how all businesses, large or small, work, and even governments manage their day-to-day activities, requiring organizations, corporations, and government agencies to utilize computerized systems. To protect data against online attacks or unauthorized access, cybersecurity is a priority. There are many Cyber Security Courses online where you can learn about these topics. With the rapid development of technology comes an equally rapid shift in Cyber Security Research Topics and cybersecurity trends, as data breaches, ransomware, and hacks become almost routine news items. In 2024, these will be the top cybersecurity trends .

A. Exciting Mobile Cyber Security Research Paper Topics

  • The significance of continuous user authentication on mobile gadgets. 
  • The efficacy of different mobile security approaches. 
  • Detecting mobile phone hacking. 
  • Assessing the threat of using portable devices to access banking services. 
  • Cybersecurity and mobile applications. 
  • The vulnerabilities in wireless mobile data exchange. 
  • The rise of mobile malware. 
  • The evolution of Android malware.
  • How to know you’ve been hacked on mobile. 
  • The impact of mobile gadgets on cybersecurity. 

B. Top Computer and Software Security Topics to Research

  • Learn algorithms for data encryption 
  • Concept of risk management security 
  • How to develop the best Internet security software 
  • What are Encrypting Viruses- How does it work? 
  • How does a Ransomware attack work? 
  • Scanning of malware on your PC 
  • Infiltrating a Mac OS X operating system 
  • What are the effects of RSA on network security ? 
  • How do encrypting viruses work?
  • DDoS attacks on IoT devices

C. Trending Information Security Research Topics

  • Why should people avoid sharing their details on Facebook? 
  • What is the importance of unified user profiles? 
  • Discuss Cookies and Privacy  
  • White hat and black hat hackers 
  • What are the most secure methods for ensuring data integrity? 
  • Talk about the implications of Wi-Fi hacking apps on mobile phones 
  • Analyze the data breaches in 2024
  • Discuss digital piracy in 2024
  • critical cyber-attack concepts 
  • Social engineering and its importance 

D. Current Network Security Research Topics

  • Data storage centralization
  • Identify Malicious activity on a computer system. 
  • Firewall 
  • Importance of keeping updated Software  
  • wireless sensor network 
  • What are the effects of ad-hoc networks
  • How can a company network be safe? 
  • What are Network segmentation and its applications? 
  • Discuss Data Loss Prevention systems  
  • Discuss various methods for establishing secure algorithms in a network. 
  • Talk about two-factor authentication

E. Best Data Security Research Topics

  • Importance of backup and recovery 
  • Benefits of logging for applications 
  • Understand physical data security 
  • Importance of Cloud Security 
  • In computing, the relationship between privacy and data security 
  • Talk about data leaks in mobile apps 
  • Discuss the effects of a black hole on a network system. 

F. Important Application Security Research Topics

  • Detect Malicious Activity on Google Play Apps 
  • Dangers of XSS attacks on apps 
  • Discuss SQL injection attacks. 
  • Insecure Deserialization Effect 
  • Check Security protocols 

G. Cybersecurity Law & Ethics Research Topics

  • Strict cybersecurity laws in China 
  • Importance of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. 
  • USA, UK, and other countries' cybersecurity laws  
  • Discuss The Pipeline Security Act in the United States 

H. Recent Cyberbullying Topics

  • Protecting your Online Identity and Reputation 
  • Online Safety 
  • Sexual Harassment and Sexual Bullying 
  • Dealing with Bullying 
  • Stress Center for Teens 

I. Operational Security Topics

  • Identify sensitive data 
  • Identify possible threats 
  • Analyze security threats and vulnerabilities 
  • Appraise the threat level and vulnerability risk 
  • Devise a plan to mitigate the threats 

J. Cybercrime Topics for a Research Paper

  • Crime Prevention. 
  • Criminal Specialization. 
  • Drug Courts. 
  • Criminal Courts. 
  • Criminal Justice Ethics. 
  • Capital Punishment.
  • Community Corrections. 
  • Criminal Law.

Cyber Security Future Research Topics

  • Developing more effective methods for detecting and responding to cyber attacks
  • Investigating the role of social media in cyber security
  • Examining the impact of cloud computing on cyber security
  • Investigating the security implications of the Internet of Things
  • Studying the effectiveness of current cyber security measures
  • Identifying new cyber security threats and vulnerabilities
  • Developing more effective cyber security policies
  • Examining the ethical implications of cyber security

Cyber Security Topics For Research Paper

  • Cyber security threats and vulnerabilities
  • Cyber security incident response and management
  • Cyber security risk management
  • Cyber security awareness and training
  • Cyber security controls and countermeasures
  • Cyber security governance
  • Cyber security standards
  • Cyber security insurance

Top 5 Current Research Topics in Cybersecurity

Below are the latest 5 cybersecurity research topics. They are:

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Digital Supply Chains
  • Internet of Things
  • State-Sponsored Attacks
  • Working From Home

Research Area in Cyber Security

The field of cyber security is extensive and constantly evolving. Its research covers a wide range of subjects, including: 

  • Quantum & Space  
  • Data Privacy  
  • Criminology & Law 
  • AI & IoT Security
  • RFID Security
  • Authorization Infrastructure
  • Digital Forensics
  • Autonomous Security
  • Social Influence on Social Networks

How to Choose the Best Research Topics in Cyber Security?

A good cybersecurity assignment heading is a skill that not everyone has, and unfortunately, not everyone has one. You might have your teacher provide you with the topics, or you might be asked to come up with your own. If you want more cyber security research topics, you can take references from Certified Ethical Hacker Certification, where you will get more hints on new topics. If you don't know where to start, here are some tips. Follow them to create compelling cybersecurity assignment topics. 

1. Brainstorm

In order to select the most appropriate heading for your cybersecurity assignment, you first need to brainstorm ideas. What specific matter do you wish to explore? In this case, come up with relevant topics about the subject and select those relevant to your issue when you use our list of topics. You can also go to cyber security-oriented websites to get some ideas. Using any blog post on the internet can prove helpful if you intend to write a research paper on security threats in 2024. Creating a brainstorming list with all the keywords and cybersecurity concepts you wish to discuss is another great way to start. Once that's done, pick the topics you feel most comfortable handling. Keep in mind to stay away from common topics as much as possible. 

2. Understanding the Background

In order to write a cybersecurity assignment, you need to identify two or three research paper topics. Obtain the necessary resources and review them to gain background information on your heading. This will also allow you to learn new terminologies that can be used in your title to enhance it. 

3. Write a Single Topic

Make sure the subject of your cybersecurity research paper doesn't fall into either extreme. Make sure the title is neither too narrow nor too broad. Topics on either extreme will be challenging to research and write about. 

4. Be Flexible

There is no rule to say that the title you choose is permanent. It is perfectly okay to change your research paper topic along the way. For example, if you find another topic on this list to better suit your research paper, consider swapping it out. 

The Layout of Cybersecurity Research Guidance

It is undeniable that usability is one of cybersecurity's most important social issues today. Increasingly, security features have become standard components of our digital environment, which pervade our lives and require both novices and experts to use them. Supported by confidentiality, integrity, and availability concerns, security features have become essential components of our digital environment.  

In order to make security features easily accessible to a wider population, these functions need to be highly usable. This is especially true in this context because poor usability typically translates into the inadequate application of cybersecurity tools and functionality, resulting in their limited effectiveness. 

Cyber Security Research Topic Writing Tips from Expert

Additionally, a well-planned action plan and a set of useful tools are essential for delving into Cyber Security research topics. Not only do these topics present a vast realm of knowledge and potential innovation, but they also have paramount importance in today's digital age. Addressing the challenges and nuances of these research areas will contribute significantly to the global cybersecurity landscape, ensuring safer digital environments for all. It's crucial to approach these topics with diligence and an open mind to uncover groundbreaking insights.

  • Before you begin writing your research paper, make sure you understand the assignment. 
  • Your Research Paper Should Have an Engaging Topic 
  • Find reputable sources by doing a little research 
  • Precisely state your thesis on cybersecurity 
  • A rough outline should be developed 
  • Finish your paper by writing a draft 
  • Make sure that your bibliography is formatted correctly and cites your sources. 
Discover the Power of ITIL 4 Foundation - Unleash the Potential of Your Business with this Cost-Effective Solution. Boost Efficiency, Streamline Processes, and Stay Ahead of the Competition. Learn More!

Studies in the literature have identified and recommended guidelines and recommendations for addressing security usability problems to provide highly usable security. The purpose of such papers is to consolidate existing design guidelines and define an initial core list that can be used for future reference in the field of Cyber Security Research Topics.

The researcher takes advantage of the opportunity to provide an up-to-date analysis of cybersecurity usability issues and evaluation techniques applied so far. As a result of this research paper, researchers and practitioners interested in cybersecurity systems who value human and social design elements are likely to find it useful. You can find KnowledgeHut’s Cyber Security courses online and take maximum advantage of them.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Businesses and individuals are changing how they handle cybersecurity as technology changes rapidly - from cloud-based services to new IoT devices. 

Ideally, you should have read many papers and know their structure, what information they contain, and so on if you want to write something of interest to others. 

Inmates having the right to work, transportation of concealed weapons, rape and violence in prison, verdicts on plea agreements, rehab versus reform, and how reliable are eyewitnesses? 

The field of cyber security is extensive and constantly evolving. Its research covers various subjects, including Quantum & Space, Data Privacy, Criminology & Law, and AI & IoT Security. 

Profile

Mrinal Prakash

I am a B.Tech Student who blogs about various topics on cyber security and is specialized in web application security

Avail your free 1:1 mentorship session.

Something went wrong

Upcoming Cyber Security Batches & Dates

NameDateFeeKnow more

Course advisor icon

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Research Topics & Ideas: Cybersecurity

50 Topic Ideas To Kickstart Your Research

Research topics and ideas about cybersecurity

If you’re just starting out exploring cybersecurity-related topics for your dissertation, thesis or research project, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll help kickstart your research by providing a hearty list of cybersecurity-related research topics and ideas , including examples from recent studies.

PS – This is just the start…

We know it’s exciting to run through a list of research topics, but please keep in mind that this list is just a starting point . These topic ideas provided here are intentionally broad and generic , so keep in mind that you will need to develop them further. Nevertheless, they should inspire some ideas for your project.

To develop a suitable research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan to fill that gap. If this sounds foreign to you, check out our free research topic webinar that explores how to find and refine a high-quality research topic, from scratch. Alternatively, consider our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Research topic idea mega list

Cybersecurity-Related Research Topics

  • Developing machine learning algorithms for early detection of cybersecurity threats.
  • The use of artificial intelligence in optimizing network traffic for telecommunication companies.
  • Investigating the impact of quantum computing on existing encryption methods.
  • The application of blockchain technology in securing Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
  • Developing efficient data mining techniques for large-scale social media analytics.
  • The role of virtual reality in enhancing online education platforms.
  • Investigating the effectiveness of various algorithms in reducing energy consumption in data centers.
  • The impact of edge computing on the performance of mobile applications in remote areas.
  • The application of computer vision techniques in automated medical diagnostics.
  • Developing natural language processing tools for sentiment analysis in customer service.
  • The use of augmented reality for training in high-risk industries like oil and gas.
  • Investigating the challenges of integrating AI into legacy enterprise systems.
  • The role of IT in managing supply chain disruptions during global crises.
  • Developing adaptive cybersecurity strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises.
  • The impact of 5G technology on the development of smart city solutions.
  • The application of machine learning in personalized e-commerce recommendations.
  • Investigating the use of cloud computing in improving government service delivery.
  • The role of IT in enhancing sustainability in the manufacturing sector.
  • Developing advanced algorithms for autonomous vehicle navigation.
  • The application of biometrics in enhancing banking security systems.
  • Investigating the ethical implications of facial recognition technology.
  • The role of data analytics in optimizing healthcare delivery systems.
  • Developing IoT solutions for efficient energy management in smart homes.
  • The impact of mobile computing on the evolution of e-health services.
  • The application of IT in disaster response and management.

Research topic evaluator

Cybersecurity Research Ideas (Continued)

  • Assessing the security implications of quantum computing on modern encryption methods.
  • The role of artificial intelligence in detecting and preventing phishing attacks.
  • Blockchain technology in secure voting systems: opportunities and challenges.
  • Cybersecurity strategies for protecting smart grids from targeted attacks.
  • Developing a cyber incident response framework for small to medium-sized enterprises.
  • The effectiveness of behavioural biometrics in preventing identity theft.
  • Securing Internet of Things (IoT) devices in healthcare: risks and solutions.
  • Analysis of cyber warfare tactics and their implications on national security.
  • Exploring the ethical boundaries of offensive cybersecurity measures.
  • Machine learning algorithms for predicting and mitigating DDoS attacks.
  • Study of cryptocurrency-related cybercrimes: patterns and prevention strategies.
  • Evaluating the impact of GDPR on data breach response strategies in the EU.
  • Developing enhanced security protocols for mobile banking applications.
  • An examination of cyber espionage tactics and countermeasures.
  • The role of human error in cybersecurity breaches: a behavioural analysis.
  • Investigating the use of deep fakes in cyber fraud: detection and prevention.
  • Cloud computing security: managing risks in multi-tenant environments.
  • Next-generation firewalls: evaluating performance and security features.
  • The impact of 5G technology on cybersecurity strategies and policies.
  • Secure coding practices: reducing vulnerabilities in software development.
  • Assessing the role of cyber insurance in mitigating financial losses from cyber attacks.
  • Implementing zero trust architecture in corporate networks: challenges and benefits.
  • Ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure: case studies and defence strategies.
  • Using big data analytics for proactive cyber threat intelligence.
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of cybersecurity awareness training in organisations.

Recent Cybersecurity-Related Studies

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a research topic, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual studies in the cybersecurity space to see how this all comes together in practice.

Below, we’ve included a selection of recent studies to help refine your thinking. These are actual studies,  so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

  • Cyber Security Vulnerability Detection Using Natural Language Processing (Singh et al., 2022)
  • Security for Cloud-Native Systems with an AI-Ops Engine (Ck et al., 2022)
  • Overview of Cyber Security (Yadav, 2022)
  • Exploring the Top Five Evolving Threats in Cybersecurity: An In-Depth Overview (Mijwil et al., 2023)
  • Cyber Security: Strategy to Security Challenges A Review (Nistane & Sharma, 2022)
  • A Review Paper on Cyber Security (K & Venkatesh, 2022)
  • The Significance of Machine Learning and Deep Learning Techniques in Cybersecurity: A Comprehensive Review (Mijwil, 2023)
  • Towards Artificial Intelligence-Based Cybersecurity: The Practices and ChatGPT Generated Ways to Combat Cybercrime (Mijwil et al., 2023)
  • ESTABLISHING CYBERSECURITY AWARENESS OF TECHNICAL SECURITY MEASURES THROUGH A SERIOUS GAME (Harding et al., 2022)
  • Efficiency Evaluation of Cyber Security Based on EBM-DEA Model (Nguyen et al., 2022)
  • An Overview of the Present and Future of User Authentication (Al Kabir & Elmedany, 2022)
  • Cybersecurity Enterprises Policies: A Comparative Study (Mishra et al., 2022)
  • The Rise of Ransomware: A Review of Attacks, Detection Techniques, and Future Challenges (Kamil et al., 2022)
  • On the scale of Cyberspace and Cybersecurity (Pathan, 2022)
  • Analysis of techniques and attacking pattern in cyber security approach (Sharma et al., 2022)
  • Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Information Security in Business (Alawadhi et al., 2022)
  • Deployment of Artificial Intelligence with Bootstrapped Meta-Learning in Cyber Security (Sasikala & Sharma, 2022)
  • Optimization of Secure Coding Practices in SDLC as Part of Cybersecurity Framework (Jakimoski et al., 2022)
  • CySSS ’22: 1st International Workshop on Cybersecurity and Social Sciences (Chan-Tin & Kennison, 2022)

As you can see, these research topics are a lot more focused than the generic topic ideas we presented earlier. So, for you to develop a high-quality research topic, you’ll need to get specific and laser-focused on a specific context with specific variables of interest.  In the video below, we explore some other important things you’ll need to consider when crafting your research topic.

Get 1-On-1 Help

If you’re still unsure about how to find a quality research topic, check out our Research Topic Kickstarter service, which is the perfect starting point for developing a unique, well-justified research topic.

Research Topic Kickstarter - Need Help Finding A Research Topic?

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

  • Print Friendly

List of 78 Top Cyber Security Topics for Research

image

Table of contents

  • 1 How To Choose The Best Cyber Security Research Topics
  • 2 📚10 Cyber Security Topics For Research Paper
  • 3 📱Mobile Cyber Security Research Paper Topics
  • 4 🕵Top 10 Cyber Security Topics
  • 5 👨‍💻Cyber Security Research Topics 2023
  • 6 🔎Best Cyber Security Research Topics
  • 7 👨‍🔬Cyber Security Future Research Topics
  • 8 📑Cyber Security Topics For Research Paper
  • 9 👩‍💻Cyber Security Topics on Computer and Software

There are many reasons to choose cyber security research topics for writing purposes. First, cyber security is a growing field, with many new and exciting developments happening all the time. This makes it an ideal topic to write about, as there is always something new to learn and discuss. Second, cyber security research can be used to improve the security of your own computer systems. By understanding the latest threats and vulnerabilities, you can make your systems more secure and less likely to be compromised. Third, writing about cyber security can help raise awareness about the importance of cyber security. By educating others about the dangers of cyber attacks and the importance of protecting their computers, you can help make the internet a safer place for everyone.

How To Choose The Best Cyber Security Research Topics

When it comes to choosing research paper topics on cyber security, there are a few things to consider. First, it is important to make sure that the topic is relevant and timely. Cyber security is an ever-changing field, so it is important to choose a topic that will be relevant for years to come. Second, it is important to choose a topic that is interesting and engaging. Cybersecurity can be a dry topic, so it is important to choose a topic that will keep readers engaged. Finally, it is important to choose a topic that is researchable. There are a lot of cyber security topics out there, but not all of them are easy to research. Make sure to choose a topic that has plenty of information available.

  • Identify your audience.
  • Define your research goals.
  • Choose a topic that is both interesting and relevant to your audience.
  • Do some preliminary research to make sure there is enough information available on your chosen topic.
  • Make sure your topic is narrow enough to be covered in a single research paper.

📚10 Cyber Security Topics For Research Paper

  • The Importance of Cyber Security
  • The Evolution of Cyber Security
  • The Future of Cyber Security
  • The Impact of Cyber Security on Business
  • The Role of Cyber Security in National Security
  • The Challenges of Cyber Security
  • The Costs of Cyber Security
  • The Benefits of Cyber Security
  • The Risks of Cyber Security
  • The Implications of Cyber Security

📱Mobile Cyber Security Research Paper Topics

  • Mobile device security: How to protect your mobile device from cyber attacks.
  • The rise of mobile malware: How to protect your device from malicious software.
  • Mobile phishing attacks: How to protect your device from being scammed.
  • The dangers of public Wi-Fi: How to protect your device from being hacked.
  • How to keep your data safe on your mobile device: Tips for keeping your personal information secure.

🕵Top 10 Cyber Security Topics

  • Cybersecurity threats and attacks
  • Cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities
  • Cybersecurity best practices
  • Cybersecurity awareness and training
  • Cybersecurity tools and technologies
  • Cybersecurity policy and compliance
  • Cybersecurity incident response
  • Cybersecurity governance
  • Cybersecurity risk management
  • Cybersecurity strategy

👨‍💻Cyber Security Research Topics 2023

  • The future of cyber security: what trends will shape the field in the coming years?
  • The impact of AI and machine learning on cyber security
  • The role of quantum computing in cyber security
  • The challenges of securing the IoT
  • The evolving threat landscape: what new threats are emerging and how can we defend against them?
  • The role of data in cyber security: how can we better protect our data?
  • The importance of user education in cyber security
  • The challenges of securing mobile devices
  • The future of cyber warfare: what trends are emerging?
  • The role of cryptography in cyber security

🔎Best Cyber Security Research Topics

  • The Impact of Cybersecurity on Businesses and Consumers
  • The Evolution of Cybersecurity Threats and Attacks
  • The Role of Cybersecurity in National Security
  • The Economics of Cybersecurity
  • The Psychology of Cybersecurity
  • The Sociology of Cybersecurity
  • The Ethics of Cybersecurity
  • The History of Cybersecurity
  • Cybersecurity threats and attacks.
  • Cybersecurity policies and procedures.
  • Cybersecurity awareness and training.
  • Cybersecurity technologies and solutions.
  • Cybersecurity risk management.
  • Cybersecurity incident response.
  • Cybersecurity governance.
  • Cybersecurity compliance.
  • Cybersecurity standards.
  • Cybersecurity best practices.

👨‍🔬Cyber Security Future Research Topics

  • Developing more effective methods for detecting and responding to cyber attacks
  • Investigating the role of social media in cyber security
  • Examining the impact of cloud computing on cyber security
  • Investigating the security implications of the Internet of Things
  • Studying the effectiveness of current cyber security measures
  • Identifying new cyber security threats and vulnerabilities
  • Developing more effective cyber security policies
  • Examining the ethical implications of cyber security

📑Cyber Security Topics For Research Paper

  • Cyber security threats and vulnerabilities.
  • Cyber security incident response and management.
  • Cyber security risk management.
  • Cyber security awareness and training.
  • Cyber security controls and countermeasures.
  • Cyber security governance.
  • Cyber security standards.
  • Cyber security insurance.
  • Cyber security and the law.
  • The future of cyber security.

👩‍💻Cyber Security Topics on Computer and Software

  • Cyber security risks associated with computer software
  • The importance of keeping computer software up to date
  • How to protect your computer from malware and other threats
  • The best practices for securing your computer and software
  • The different types of cyber security threats and how to avoid them
  • The importance of cyber security awareness and education
  • The role of cyber security in protecting critical infrastructure

Readers also enjoyed

Challenges in International Relations: Topics to Write About

WHY WAIT? PLACE AN ORDER RIGHT NOW!

Just fill out the form, press the button, and have no worries!

We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy.

cybersecurity research topics 2022

  • Privacy Policy

Research Method

Home » 500+ Cyber Security Research Topics

500+ Cyber Security Research Topics

Cyber Security Research Topics

Cybersecurity has become an increasingly important topic in recent years as more and more of our lives are spent online. With the rise of the digital age, there has been a corresponding increase in the number and severity of cyber attacks. As such, research into cybersecurity has become critical in order to protect individuals, businesses, and governments from these threats. In this blog post, we will explore some of the most pressing cybersecurity research topics, from the latest trends in cyber attacks to emerging technologies that can help prevent them. Whether you are a cybersecurity professional, a Master’s or Ph.D. student, or simply interested in the field, this post will provide valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities in this rapidly evolving area of study.

Cyber Security Research Topics

Cyber Security Research Topics are as follows:

  • The role of machine learning in detecting cyber threats
  • The impact of cloud computing on cyber security
  • Cyber warfare and its effects on national security
  • The rise of ransomware attacks and their prevention methods
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of network intrusion detection systems
  • The use of blockchain technology in enhancing cyber security
  • Investigating the role of cyber security in protecting critical infrastructure
  • The ethics of hacking and its implications for cyber security professionals
  • Developing a secure software development lifecycle (SSDLC)
  • The role of artificial intelligence in cyber security
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of multi-factor authentication
  • Investigating the impact of social engineering on cyber security
  • The role of cyber insurance in mitigating cyber risks
  • Developing secure IoT (Internet of Things) systems
  • Investigating the challenges of cyber security in the healthcare industry
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of penetration testing
  • Investigating the impact of big data on cyber security
  • The role of quantum computing in breaking current encryption methods
  • Developing a secure BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy
  • The impact of cyber security breaches on a company’s reputation
  • The role of cyber security in protecting financial transactions
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of anti-virus software
  • The use of biometrics in enhancing cyber security
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on the supply chain
  • The role of cyber security in protecting personal privacy
  • Developing a secure cloud storage system
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of firewall technologies
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on e-commerce
  • The role of cyber security in protecting intellectual property
  • Developing a secure remote access policy
  • Investigating the challenges of securing mobile devices
  • The role of cyber security in protecting government agencies
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of cyber security training programs
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on the aviation industry
  • The role of cyber security in protecting online gaming platforms
  • Developing a secure password management system
  • Investigating the challenges of securing smart homes
  • The impact of cyber security on the automotive industry
  • The role of cyber security in protecting social media platforms
  • Developing a secure email system
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of encryption methods
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on the hospitality industry
  • The role of cyber security in protecting online education platforms
  • Developing a secure backup and recovery strategy
  • Investigating the challenges of securing virtual environments
  • The impact of cyber security on the energy sector
  • The role of cyber security in protecting online voting systems
  • Developing a secure chat platform
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on the entertainment industry
  • The role of cyber security in protecting online dating platforms
  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Cybersecurity
  • Quantum Cryptography and Post-Quantum Cryptography
  • Internet of Things (IoT) Security
  • Developing a framework for cyber resilience in critical infrastructure
  • Understanding the fundamentals of encryption algorithms
  • Cyber security challenges for small and medium-sized businesses
  • Developing secure coding practices for web applications
  • Investigating the role of cyber security in protecting online privacy
  • Network security protocols and their importance
  • Social engineering attacks and how to prevent them
  • Investigating the challenges of securing personal devices and home networks
  • Developing a basic incident response plan for cyber attacks
  • The impact of cyber security on the financial sector
  • Understanding the role of cyber security in protecting critical infrastructure
  • Mobile device security and common vulnerabilities
  • Investigating the challenges of securing cloud-based systems
  • Cyber security and the Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Biometric authentication and its role in cyber security
  • Developing secure communication protocols for online messaging platforms
  • The importance of cyber security in e-commerce
  • Understanding the threats and vulnerabilities associated with social media platforms
  • Investigating the role of cyber security in protecting intellectual property
  • The basics of malware analysis and detection
  • Developing a basic cyber security awareness training program
  • Understanding the threats and vulnerabilities associated with public Wi-Fi networks
  • Investigating the challenges of securing online banking systems
  • The importance of password management and best practices
  • Cyber security and cloud computing
  • Understanding the role of cyber security in protecting national security
  • Investigating the challenges of securing online gaming platforms
  • The basics of cyber threat intelligence
  • Developing secure authentication mechanisms for online services
  • The impact of cyber security on the healthcare sector
  • Understanding the basics of digital forensics
  • Investigating the challenges of securing smart home devices
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against cyberbullying
  • Developing secure file transfer protocols for sensitive information
  • Understanding the challenges of securing remote work environments
  • Investigating the role of cyber security in protecting against identity theft
  • The basics of network intrusion detection and prevention systems
  • Developing secure payment processing systems
  • Understanding the role of cyber security in protecting against ransomware attacks
  • Investigating the challenges of securing public transportation systems
  • The basics of network segmentation and its importance in cyber security
  • Developing secure user access management systems
  • Understanding the challenges of securing supply chain networks
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against cyber espionage
  • Investigating the challenges of securing online educational platforms
  • The importance of data backup and disaster recovery planning
  • Developing secure email communication protocols
  • Understanding the basics of threat modeling and risk assessment
  • Investigating the challenges of securing online voting systems
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against cyber terrorism
  • Developing secure remote access protocols for corporate networks.
  • Investigating the challenges of securing artificial intelligence systems
  • The role of machine learning in enhancing cyber threat intelligence
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of deception technologies in cyber security
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on the adoption of emerging technologies
  • The role of cyber security in protecting smart cities
  • Developing a risk-based approach to cyber security governance
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on economic growth and innovation
  • The role of cyber security in protecting human rights in the digital age
  • Developing a secure digital identity system
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on global political stability
  • The role of cyber security in protecting the Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Developing a secure supply chain management system
  • Investigating the challenges of securing cloud-native applications
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against insider threats
  • Developing a secure software-defined network (SDN)
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on the adoption of mobile payments
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against cyber warfare
  • Developing a secure distributed ledger technology (DLT) system
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on the digital divide
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against state-sponsored attacks
  • Developing a secure Internet infrastructure
  • Investigating the challenges of securing industrial control systems (ICS)
  • Developing a secure quantum communication system
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on global trade and commerce
  • Developing a secure decentralized authentication system
  • Investigating the challenges of securing edge computing systems
  • Developing a secure hybrid cloud system
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on the adoption of smart cities
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against cyber propaganda
  • Developing a secure blockchain-based voting system
  • Investigating the challenges of securing cyber-physical systems (CPS)
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against cyber hate speech
  • Developing a secure machine learning system
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on the adoption of autonomous vehicles
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against cyber stalking
  • Developing a secure data-driven decision-making system
  • Investigating the challenges of securing social media platforms
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against cyberbullying in schools
  • Developing a secure open source software ecosystem
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on the adoption of smart homes
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against cyber fraud
  • Developing a secure software supply chain
  • Investigating the challenges of securing cloud-based healthcare systems
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against cyber harassment
  • Developing a secure multi-party computation system
  • Investigating the impact of cyber security on the adoption of virtual and augmented reality technologies.
  • Cybersecurity in Cloud Computing Environments
  • Cyber Threat Intelligence and Analysis
  • Blockchain Security
  • Data Privacy and Protection
  • Cybersecurity in Industrial Control Systems
  • Mobile Device Security
  • The importance of cyber security in the digital age
  • The ethics of cyber security and privacy
  • The role of government in regulating cyber security
  • Cyber security threats and vulnerabilities in the healthcare sector
  • Understanding the risks associated with social media and cyber security
  • The impact of cyber security on e-commerce
  • The effectiveness of cyber security awareness training programs
  • The role of biometric authentication in cyber security
  • The importance of password management in cyber security
  • The basics of network security protocols and their importance
  • The challenges of securing online gaming platforms
  • The role of cyber security in protecting national security
  • The impact of cyber security on the legal sector
  • The ethics of cyber warfare
  • The challenges of securing the Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Understanding the basics of malware analysis and detection
  • The challenges of securing public transportation systems
  • The impact of cyber security on the insurance industry
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against ransomware attacks
  • The challenges of securing remote work environments
  • Understanding the threats and vulnerabilities associated with social engineering attacks
  • The impact of cyber security on the education sector
  • Investigating the challenges of securing supply chain networks
  • The challenges of securing personal devices and home networks
  • The importance of secure coding practices for web applications
  • The impact of cyber security on the hospitality industry
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against identity theft
  • The challenges of securing public Wi-Fi networks
  • The importance of cyber security in protecting critical infrastructure
  • The challenges of securing cloud-based storage systems
  • The effectiveness of antivirus software in cyber security
  • Developing secure payment processing systems.
  • Cybersecurity in Healthcare
  • Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks
  • Cybersecurity in Autonomous Vehicles
  • Cybersecurity in Smart Cities
  • Cybersecurity Risk Assessment and Management
  • Malware Analysis and Detection Techniques
  • Cybersecurity in the Financial Sector
  • Cybersecurity in Government Agencies
  • Cybersecurity and Artificial Life
  • Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Protection
  • Cybersecurity in the Education Sector
  • Cybersecurity in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
  • Cybersecurity in the Retail Industry
  • Cryptocurrency Security
  • Cybersecurity in Supply Chain Management
  • Cybersecurity and Human Factors
  • Cybersecurity in the Transportation Industry
  • Cybersecurity in Gaming Environments
  • Cybersecurity in Social Media Platforms
  • Cybersecurity and Biometrics
  • Cybersecurity and Quantum Computing
  • Cybersecurity in 5G Networks
  • Cybersecurity in Aviation and Aerospace Industry
  • Cybersecurity in Agriculture Industry
  • Cybersecurity in Space Exploration
  • Cybersecurity in Military Operations
  • Cybersecurity and Cloud Storage
  • Cybersecurity in Software-Defined Networks
  • Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence Ethics
  • Cybersecurity and Cyber Insurance
  • Cybersecurity in the Legal Industry
  • Cybersecurity and Data Science
  • Cybersecurity in Energy Systems
  • Cybersecurity in E-commerce
  • Cybersecurity in Identity Management
  • Cybersecurity in Small and Medium Enterprises
  • Cybersecurity in the Entertainment Industry
  • Cybersecurity and the Internet of Medical Things
  • Cybersecurity and the Dark Web
  • Cybersecurity and Wearable Technology
  • Cybersecurity in Public Safety Systems.
  • Threat Intelligence for Industrial Control Systems
  • Privacy Preservation in Cloud Computing
  • Network Security for Critical Infrastructure
  • Cryptographic Techniques for Blockchain Security
  • Malware Detection and Analysis
  • Cyber Threat Hunting Techniques
  • Cybersecurity Risk Assessment
  • Machine Learning for Cybersecurity
  • Cybersecurity in Financial Institutions
  • Cybersecurity for Smart Cities
  • Cybersecurity in Aviation
  • Cybersecurity in the Automotive Industry
  • Cybersecurity in the Energy Sector
  • Cybersecurity in Telecommunications
  • Cybersecurity for Mobile Devices
  • Biometric Authentication for Cybersecurity
  • Cybersecurity for Artificial Intelligence
  • Cybersecurity for Social Media Platforms
  • Cybersecurity in the Gaming Industry
  • Cybersecurity in the Defense Industry
  • Cybersecurity for Autonomous Systems
  • Cybersecurity for Quantum Computing
  • Cybersecurity for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
  • Cybersecurity in Cloud-Native Applications
  • Cybersecurity for Smart Grids
  • Cybersecurity in Distributed Ledger Technology
  • Cybersecurity for Next-Generation Wireless Networks
  • Cybersecurity for Digital Identity Management
  • Cybersecurity for Open Source Software
  • Cybersecurity for Smart Homes
  • Cybersecurity for Smart Transportation Systems
  • Cybersecurity for Cyber Physical Systems
  • Cybersecurity for Critical National Infrastructure
  • Cybersecurity for Smart Agriculture
  • Cybersecurity for Retail Industry
  • Cybersecurity for Digital Twins
  • Cybersecurity for Quantum Key Distribution
  • Cybersecurity for Digital Healthcare
  • Cybersecurity for Smart Logistics
  • Cybersecurity for Wearable Devices
  • Cybersecurity for Edge Computing
  • Cybersecurity for Cognitive Computing
  • Cybersecurity for Industrial IoT
  • Cybersecurity for Intelligent Transportation Systems
  • Cybersecurity for Smart Water Management Systems
  • The rise of cyber terrorism and its impact on national security
  • The impact of artificial intelligence on cyber security
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of biometric authentication for securing data
  • The impact of social media on cyber security and privacy
  • The future of cyber security in the Internet of Things (IoT) era
  • The role of machine learning in detecting and preventing cyber attacks
  • The effectiveness of encryption in securing sensitive data
  • The impact of quantum computing on cyber security
  • The rise of cyber bullying and its effects on mental health
  • Investigating cyber espionage and its impact on national security
  • The effectiveness of cyber insurance in mitigating cyber risks
  • The role of blockchain technology in cyber security
  • Investigating the effectiveness of cyber security awareness training programs
  • The impact of cyber attacks on critical infrastructure
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of firewalls in protecting against cyber attacks
  • The impact of cyber crime on the economy
  • Investigating the effectiveness of multi-factor authentication in securing data
  • The future of cyber security in the age of quantum internet
  • The impact of big data on cyber security
  • The role of cybersecurity in the education system
  • Investigating the use of deception techniques in cyber security
  • The impact of cyber attacks on the healthcare industry
  • The effectiveness of cyber threat intelligence in mitigating cyber risks
  • The role of cyber security in protecting financial institutions
  • Investigating the use of machine learning in cyber security risk assessment
  • The impact of cyber attacks on the transportation industry
  • The effectiveness of network segmentation in protecting against cyber attacks
  • Investigating the effectiveness of biometric identification in cyber security
  • The impact of cyber attacks on the hospitality industry
  • The future of cyber security in the era of autonomous vehicles
  • The effectiveness of intrusion detection systems in protecting against cyber attacks
  • The role of cyber security in protecting small businesses
  • Investigating the effectiveness of virtual private networks (VPNs) in securing data
  • The impact of cyber attacks on the energy sector
  • The effectiveness of cyber security regulations in mitigating cyber risks
  • Investigating the use of deception technology in cyber security
  • The impact of cyber attacks on the retail industry
  • The effectiveness of cyber security in protecting critical infrastructure
  • The role of cyber security in protecting intellectual property in the entertainment industry
  • Investigating the effectiveness of intrusion prevention systems in protecting against cyber attacks
  • The impact of cyber attacks on the aerospace industry
  • The future of cyber security in the era of quantum computing
  • The effectiveness of cyber security in protecting against ransomware attacks
  • The role of cyber security in protecting personal and sensitive data
  • Investigating the effectiveness of cloud security solutions in protecting against cyber attacks
  • The impact of cyber attacks on the manufacturing industry
  • The effective cyber security and the future of e-votingness of cyber security in protecting against social engineering attacks
  • Investigating the effectiveness of end-to-end encryption in securing data
  • The impact of cyber attacks on the insurance industry
  • The future of cyber security in the era of artificial intelligence
  • The effectiveness of cyber security in protecting against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks
  • The role of cyber security in protecting against phishing attacks
  • Investigating the effectiveness of user behavior analytics
  • The impact of emerging technologies on cyber security
  • Developing a framework for cyber threat intelligence
  • The effectiveness of current cyber security measures
  • Cyber security and data privacy in the age of big data
  • Cloud security and virtualization technologies
  • Cryptography and its role in cyber security
  • Cyber security in critical infrastructure protection
  • Cyber security in the Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Cyber security in e-commerce and online payment systems
  • Cyber security and the future of digital currencies
  • The impact of social engineering on cyber security
  • Cyber security and ethical hacking
  • Cyber security challenges in the healthcare industry
  • Cyber security and digital forensics
  • Cyber security in the financial sector
  • Cyber security in the transportation industry
  • The impact of artificial intelligence on cyber security risks
  • Cyber security and mobile devices
  • Cyber security in the energy sector
  • Cyber security and supply chain management
  • The role of machine learning in cyber security
  • Cyber security in the defense sector
  • The impact of the Dark Web on cyber security
  • Cyber security in social media and online communities
  • Cyber security challenges in the gaming industry
  • Cyber security and cloud-based applications
  • The role of blockchain in cyber security
  • Cyber security and the future of autonomous vehicles
  • Cyber security in the education sector
  • Cyber security in the aviation industry
  • The impact of 5G on cyber security
  • Cyber security and insider threats
  • Cyber security and the legal system
  • The impact of cyber security on business operations
  • Cyber security and the role of human behavior
  • Cyber security in the hospitality industry
  • The impact of cyber security on national security
  • Cyber security and the use of biometrics
  • Cyber security and the role of social media influencers
  • The impact of cyber security on small and medium-sized enterprises
  • Cyber security and cyber insurance
  • The impact of cyber security on the job market
  • Cyber security and international relations
  • Cyber security and the role of government policies
  • The impact of cyber security on privacy laws
  • Cyber security in the media and entertainment industry
  • The role of cyber security in digital marketing
  • Cyber security and the role of cybersecurity professionals
  • Cyber security in the retail industry
  • The impact of cyber security on the stock market
  • Cyber security and intellectual property protection
  • Cyber security and online dating
  • The impact of cyber security on healthcare innovation
  • Cyber security and the future of e-voting
  • Cyber security and the role of open source software
  • Cyber security and the use of social engineering in cyber attacks
  • The impact of cyber security on the aviation industry
  • Cyber security and the role of cyber security awareness training
  • Cyber security and the role of cybersecurity standards and best practices
  • Cyber security in the legal industry
  • The impact of cyber security on human rights
  • Cyber security and the role of public-private partnerships
  • Cyber security and the future of e-learning
  • Cyber security and the role of mobile applications
  • The impact of cyber security on environmental sustainability
  • Cyber security and the role of threat intelligence sharing
  • Cyber security and the future of smart homes
  • Cyber security and the role of cybersecurity certifications
  • The impact of cyber security on international trade
  • Cyber security and the role of cyber security auditing

About the author

' src=

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

You may also like

Mental Health Research Topics

300+ Mental Health Research Topics

Science Research Topics

300+ Science Research Topics

Quantitative Research Topics

500+ Quantitative Research Titles and Topics

Argumentative Research Paper Topics

500+ Argumentative Research Paper Topics

Computer Science Research Topics

500+ Computer Science Research Topics

Funny Research Topics

200+ Funny Research Topics

Advertisement

Advertisement

Cyber risk and cybersecurity: a systematic review of data availability

  • Open access
  • Published: 17 February 2022
  • Volume 47 , pages 698–736, ( 2022 )

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

cybersecurity research topics 2022

  • Frank Cremer 1 ,
  • Barry Sheehan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4592-7558 1 ,
  • Michael Fortmann 2 ,
  • Arash N. Kia 1 ,
  • Martin Mullins 1 ,
  • Finbarr Murphy 1 &
  • Stefan Materne 2  

74k Accesses

86 Citations

43 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

Cybercrime is estimated to have cost the global economy just under USD 1 trillion in 2020, indicating an increase of more than 50% since 2018. With the average cyber insurance claim rising from USD 145,000 in 2019 to USD 359,000 in 2020, there is a growing necessity for better cyber information sources, standardised databases, mandatory reporting and public awareness. This research analyses the extant academic and industry literature on cybersecurity and cyber risk management with a particular focus on data availability. From a preliminary search resulting in 5219 cyber peer-reviewed studies, the application of the systematic methodology resulted in 79 unique datasets. We posit that the lack of available data on cyber risk poses a serious problem for stakeholders seeking to tackle this issue. In particular, we identify a lacuna in open databases that undermine collective endeavours to better manage this set of risks. The resulting data evaluation and categorisation will support cybersecurity researchers and the insurance industry in their efforts to comprehend, metricise and manage cyber risks.

Similar content being viewed by others

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Systematic Review: Cybersecurity Risk Taxonomy

cybersecurity research topics 2022

A Survey of Cybersecurity Risk Management Frameworks

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Cybersecurity Risk Management Frameworks in the Oil and Gas Sector: A Systematic Literature Review

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

Globalisation, digitalisation and smart technologies have escalated the propensity and severity of cybercrime. Whilst it is an emerging field of research and industry, the importance of robust cybersecurity defence systems has been highlighted at the corporate, national and supranational levels. The impacts of inadequate cybersecurity are estimated to have cost the global economy USD 945 billion in 2020 (Maleks Smith et al. 2020 ). Cyber vulnerabilities pose significant corporate risks, including business interruption, breach of privacy and financial losses (Sheehan et al. 2019 ). Despite the increasing relevance for the international economy, the availability of data on cyber risks remains limited. The reasons for this are many. Firstly, it is an emerging and evolving risk; therefore, historical data sources are limited (Biener et al. 2015 ). It could also be due to the fact that, in general, institutions that have been hacked do not publish the incidents (Eling and Schnell 2016 ). The lack of data poses challenges for many areas, such as research, risk management and cybersecurity (Falco et al. 2019 ). The importance of this topic is demonstrated by the announcement of the European Council in April 2021 that a centre of excellence for cybersecurity will be established to pool investments in research, technology and industrial development. The goal of this centre is to increase the security of the internet and other critical network and information systems (European Council 2021 ).

This research takes a risk management perspective, focusing on cyber risk and considering the role of cybersecurity and cyber insurance in risk mitigation and risk transfer. The study reviews the existing literature and open data sources related to cybersecurity and cyber risk. This is the first systematic review of data availability in the general context of cyber risk and cybersecurity. By identifying and critically analysing the available datasets, this paper supports the research community by aggregating, summarising and categorising all available open datasets. In addition, further information on datasets is attached to provide deeper insights and support stakeholders engaged in cyber risk control and cybersecurity. Finally, this research paper highlights the need for open access to cyber-specific data, without price or permission barriers.

The identified open data can support cyber insurers in their efforts on sustainable product development. To date, traditional risk assessment methods have been untenable for insurance companies due to the absence of historical claims data (Sheehan et al. 2021 ). These high levels of uncertainty mean that cyber insurers are more inclined to overprice cyber risk cover (Kshetri 2018 ). Combining external data with insurance portfolio data therefore seems to be essential to improve the evaluation of the risk and thus lead to risk-adjusted pricing (Bessy-Roland et al. 2021 ). This argument is also supported by the fact that some re/insurers reported that they are working to improve their cyber pricing models (e.g. by creating or purchasing databases from external providers) (EIOPA 2018 ). Figure  1 provides an overview of pricing tools and factors considered in the estimation of cyber insurance based on the findings of EIOPA ( 2018 ) and the research of Romanosky et al. ( 2019 ). The term cyber risk refers to all cyber risks and their potential impact.

figure 1

An overview of the current cyber insurance informational and methodological landscape, adapted from EIOPA ( 2018 ) and Romanosky et al. ( 2019 )

Besides the advantage of risk-adjusted pricing, the availability of open datasets helps companies benchmark their internal cyber posture and cybersecurity measures. The research can also help to improve risk awareness and corporate behaviour. Many companies still underestimate their cyber risk (Leong and Chen 2020 ). For policymakers, this research offers starting points for a comprehensive recording of cyber risks. Although in many countries, companies are obliged to report data breaches to the respective supervisory authority, this information is usually not accessible to the research community. Furthermore, the economic impact of these breaches is usually unclear.

As well as the cyber risk management community, this research also supports cybersecurity stakeholders. Researchers are provided with an up-to-date, peer-reviewed literature of available datasets showing where these datasets have been used. For example, this includes datasets that have been used to evaluate the effectiveness of countermeasures in simulated cyberattacks or to test intrusion detection systems. This reduces a time-consuming search for suitable datasets and ensures a comprehensive review of those available. Through the dataset descriptions, researchers and industry stakeholders can compare and select the most suitable datasets for their purposes. In addition, it is possible to combine the datasets from one source in the context of cybersecurity or cyber risk. This supports efficient and timely progress in cyber risk research and is beneficial given the dynamic nature of cyber risks.

Cyber risks are defined as “operational risks to information and technology assets that have consequences affecting the confidentiality, availability, and/or integrity of information or information systems” (Cebula et al. 2014 ). Prominent cyber risk events include data breaches and cyberattacks (Agrafiotis et al. 2018 ). The increasing exposure and potential impact of cyber risk have been highlighted in recent industry reports (e.g. Allianz 2021 ; World Economic Forum 2020 ). Cyberattacks on critical infrastructures are ranked 5th in the World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report. Ransomware, malware and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) are examples of the evolving modes of a cyberattack. One example is the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, which shut down the 5500 mile pipeline system that delivers 2.5 million barrels of fuel per day and critical liquid fuel infrastructure from oil refineries to states along the U.S. East Coast (Brower and McCormick 2021 ). These and other cyber incidents have led the U.S. to strengthen its cybersecurity and introduce, among other things, a public body to analyse major cyber incidents and make recommendations to prevent a recurrence (Murphey 2021a ). Another example of the scope of cyberattacks is the ransomware NotPetya in 2017. The damage amounted to USD 10 billion, as the ransomware exploited a vulnerability in the windows system, allowing it to spread independently worldwide in the network (GAO 2021 ). In the same year, the ransomware WannaCry was launched by cybercriminals. The cyberattack on Windows software took user data hostage in exchange for Bitcoin cryptocurrency (Smart 2018 ). The victims included the National Health Service in Great Britain. As a result, ambulances were redirected to other hospitals because of information technology (IT) systems failing, leaving people in need of urgent assistance waiting. It has been estimated that 19,000 cancelled treatment appointments resulted from losses of GBP 92 million (Field 2018 ). Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, ransomware attacks increased significantly, as working from home arrangements increased vulnerability (Murphey 2021b ).

Besides cyberattacks, data breaches can also cause high costs. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), companies are obliged to protect personal data and safeguard the data protection rights of all individuals in the EU area. The GDPR allows data protection authorities in each country to impose sanctions and fines on organisations they find in breach. “For data breaches, the maximum fine can be €20 million or 4% of global turnover, whichever is higher” (GDPR.EU 2021 ). Data breaches often involve a large amount of sensitive data that has been accessed, unauthorised, by external parties, and are therefore considered important for information security due to their far-reaching impact (Goode et al. 2017 ). A data breach is defined as a “security incident in which sensitive, protected, or confidential data are copied, transmitted, viewed, stolen, or used by an unauthorized individual” (Freeha et al. 2021 ). Depending on the amount of data, the extent of the damage caused by a data breach can be significant, with the average cost being USD 392 million Footnote 1 (IBM Security 2020 ).

This research paper reviews the existing literature and open data sources related to cybersecurity and cyber risk, focusing on the datasets used to improve academic understanding and advance the current state-of-the-art in cybersecurity. Furthermore, important information about the available datasets is presented (e.g. use cases), and a plea is made for open data and the standardisation of cyber risk data for academic comparability and replication. The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. The next section describes the related work regarding cybersecurity and cyber risks. The third section outlines the review method used in this work and the process. The fourth section details the results of the identified literature. Further discussion is presented in the penultimate section and the final section concludes.

Related work

Due to the significance of cyber risks, several literature reviews have been conducted in this field. Eling ( 2020 ) reviewed the existing academic literature on the topic of cyber risk and cyber insurance from an economic perspective. A total of 217 papers with the term ‘cyber risk’ were identified and classified in different categories. As a result, open research questions are identified, showing that research on cyber risks is still in its infancy because of their dynamic and emerging nature. Furthermore, the author highlights that particular focus should be placed on the exchange of information between public and private actors. An improved information flow could help to measure the risk more accurately and thus make cyber risks more insurable and help risk managers to determine the right level of cyber risk for their company. In the context of cyber insurance data, Romanosky et al. ( 2019 ) analysed the underwriting process for cyber insurance and revealed how cyber insurers understand and assess cyber risks. For this research, they examined 235 American cyber insurance policies that were publicly available and looked at three components (coverage, application questionnaires and pricing). The authors state in their findings that many of the insurers used very simple, flat-rate pricing (based on a single calculation of expected loss), while others used more parameters such as the asset value of the company (or company revenue) or standard insurance metrics (e.g. deductible, limits), and the industry in the calculation. This is in keeping with Eling ( 2020 ), who states that an increased amount of data could help to make cyber risk more accurately measured and thus more insurable. Similar research on cyber insurance and data was conducted by Nurse et al. ( 2020 ). The authors examined cyber insurance practitioners' perceptions and the challenges they face in collecting and using data. In addition, gaps were identified during the research where further data is needed. The authors concluded that cyber insurance is still in its infancy, and there are still several unanswered questions (for example, cyber valuation, risk calculation and recovery). They also pointed out that a better understanding of data collection and use in cyber insurance would be invaluable for future research and practice. Bessy-Roland et al. ( 2021 ) come to a similar conclusion. They proposed a multivariate Hawkes framework to model and predict the frequency of cyberattacks. They used a public dataset with characteristics of data breaches affecting the U.S. industry. In the conclusion, the authors make the argument that an insurer has a better knowledge of cyber losses, but that it is based on a small dataset and therefore combination with external data sources seems essential to improve the assessment of cyber risks.

Several systematic reviews have been published in the area of cybersecurity (Kruse et al. 2017 ; Lee et al. 2020 ; Loukas et al. 2013 ; Ulven and Wangen 2021 ). In these papers, the authors concentrated on a specific area or sector in the context of cybersecurity. This paper adds to this extant literature by focusing on data availability and its importance to risk management and insurance stakeholders. With a priority on healthcare and cybersecurity, Kruse et al. ( 2017 ) conducted a systematic literature review. The authors identified 472 articles with the keywords ‘cybersecurity and healthcare’ or ‘ransomware’ in the databases Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PubMed and Proquest. Articles were eligible for this review if they satisfied three criteria: (1) they were published between 2006 and 2016, (2) the full-text version of the article was available, and (3) the publication is a peer-reviewed or scholarly journal. The authors found that technological development and federal policies (in the U.S.) are the main factors exposing the health sector to cyber risks. Loukas et al. ( 2013 ) conducted a review with a focus on cyber risks and cybersecurity in emergency management. The authors provided an overview of cyber risks in communication, sensor, information management and vehicle technologies used in emergency management and showed areas for which there is still no solution in the literature. Similarly, Ulven and Wangen ( 2021 ) reviewed the literature on cybersecurity risks in higher education institutions. For the literature review, the authors used the keywords ‘cyber’, ‘information threats’ or ‘vulnerability’ in connection with the terms ‘higher education, ‘university’ or ‘academia’. A similar literature review with a focus on Internet of Things (IoT) cybersecurity was conducted by Lee et al. ( 2020 ). The review revealed that qualitative approaches focus on high-level frameworks, and quantitative approaches to cybersecurity risk management focus on risk assessment and quantification of cyberattacks and impacts. In addition, the findings presented a four-step IoT cyber risk management framework that identifies, quantifies and prioritises cyber risks.

Datasets are an essential part of cybersecurity research, underlined by the following works. Ilhan Firat et al. ( 2021 ) examined various cybersecurity datasets in detail. The study was motivated by the fact that with the proliferation of the internet and smart technologies, the mode of cyberattacks is also evolving. However, in order to prevent such attacks, they must first be detected; the dissemination and further development of cybersecurity datasets is therefore critical. In their work, the authors observed studies of datasets used in intrusion detection systems. Khraisat et al. ( 2019 ) also identified a need for new datasets in the context of cybersecurity. The researchers presented a taxonomy of current intrusion detection systems, a comprehensive review of notable recent work, and an overview of the datasets commonly used for assessment purposes. In their conclusion, the authors noted that new datasets are needed because most machine-learning techniques are trained and evaluated on the knowledge of old datasets. These datasets do not contain new and comprehensive information and are partly derived from datasets from 1999. The authors noted that the core of this issue is the availability of new public datasets as well as their quality. The availability of data, how it is used, created and shared was also investigated by Zheng et al. ( 2018 ). The researchers analysed 965 cybersecurity research papers published between 2012 and 2016. They created a taxonomy of the types of data that are created and shared and then analysed the data collected via datasets. The researchers concluded that while datasets are recognised as valuable for cybersecurity research, the proportion of publicly available datasets is limited.

The main contributions of this review and what differentiates it from previous studies can be summarised as follows. First, as far as we can tell, it is the first work to summarise all available datasets on cyber risk and cybersecurity in the context of a systematic review and present them to the scientific community and cyber insurance and cybersecurity stakeholders. Second, we investigated, analysed, and made available the datasets to support efficient and timely progress in cyber risk research. And third, we enable comparability of datasets so that the appropriate dataset can be selected depending on the research area.

Methodology

Process and eligibility criteria.

The structure of this systematic review is inspired by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework (Page et al. 2021 ), and the search was conducted from 3 to 10 May 2021. Due to the continuous development of cyber risks and their countermeasures, only articles published in the last 10 years were considered. In addition, only articles published in peer-reviewed journals written in English were included. As a final criterion, only articles that make use of one or more cybersecurity or cyber risk datasets met the inclusion criteria. Specifically, these studies presented new or existing datasets, used them for methods, or used them to verify new results, as well as analysed them in an economic context and pointed out their effects. The criterion was fulfilled if it was clearly stated in the abstract that one or more datasets were used. A detailed explanation of this selection criterion can be found in the ‘Study selection’ section.

Information sources

In order to cover a complete spectrum of literature, various databases were queried to collect relevant literature on the topic of cybersecurity and cyber risks. Due to the spread of related articles across multiple databases, the literature search was limited to the following four databases for simplicity: IEEE Xplore, Scopus, SpringerLink and Web of Science. This is similar to other literature reviews addressing cyber risks or cybersecurity, including Sardi et al. ( 2021 ), Franke and Brynielsson ( 2014 ), Lagerström (2019), Eling and Schnell ( 2016 ) and Eling ( 2020 ). In this paper, all databases used in the aforementioned works were considered. However, only two studies also used all the databases listed. The IEEE Xplore database contains electrical engineering, computer science, and electronics work from over 200 journals and three million conference papers (IEEE 2021 ). Scopus includes 23,400 peer-reviewed journals from more than 5000 international publishers in the areas of science, engineering, medicine, social sciences and humanities (Scopus 2021 ). SpringerLink contains 3742 journals and indexes over 10 million scientific documents (SpringerLink 2021 ). Finally, Web of Science indexes over 9200 journals in different scientific disciplines (Science 2021 ).

A search string was created and applied to all databases. To make the search efficient and reproducible, the following search string with Boolean operator was used in all databases: cybersecurity OR cyber risk AND dataset OR database. To ensure uniformity of the search across all databases, some adjustments had to be made for the respective search engines. In Scopus, for example, the Advanced Search was used, and the field code ‘Title-ABS-KEY’ was integrated into the search string. For IEEE Xplore, the search was carried out with the Search String in the Command Search and ‘All Metadata’. In the Web of Science database, the Advanced Search was used. The special feature of this search was that it had to be carried out in individual steps. The first search was carried out with the terms cybersecurity OR cyber risk with the field tag Topic (T.S. =) and the second search with dataset OR database. Subsequently, these searches were combined, which then delivered the searched articles for review. For SpringerLink, the search string was used in the Advanced Search under the category ‘Find the resources with all of the words’. After conducting this search string, 5219 studies could be found. According to the eligibility criteria (period, language and only scientific journals), 1581 studies were identified in the databases:

Scopus: 135

Springer Link: 548

Web of Science: 534

An overview of the process is given in Fig.  2 . Combined with the results from the four databases, 854 articles without duplicates were identified.

figure 2

Literature search process and categorisation of the studies

Study selection

In the final step of the selection process, the articles were screened for relevance. Due to a large number of results, the abstracts were analysed in the first step of the process. The aim was to determine whether the article was relevant for the systematic review. An article fulfilled the criterion if it was recognisable in the abstract that it had made a contribution to datasets or databases with regard to cyber risks or cybersecurity. Specifically, the criterion was considered to be met if the abstract used datasets that address the causes or impacts of cyber risks, and measures in the area of cybersecurity. In this process, the number of articles was reduced to 288. The articles were then read in their entirety, and an expert panel of six people decided whether they should be used. This led to a final number of 255 articles. The years in which the articles were published and the exact number can be seen in Fig.  3 .

figure 3

Distribution of studies

Data collection process and synthesis of the results

For the data collection process, various data were extracted from the studies, including the names of the respective creators, the name of the dataset or database and the corresponding reference. It was also determined where the data came from. In the context of accessibility, it was determined whether access is free, controlled, available for purchase or not available. It was also determined when the datasets were created and the time period referenced. The application type and domain characteristics of the datasets were identified.

This section analyses the results of the systematic literature review. The previously identified studies are divided into three categories: datasets on the causes of cyber risks, datasets on the effects of cyber risks and datasets on cybersecurity. The classification is based on the intended use of the studies. This system of classification makes it easier for stakeholders to find the appropriate datasets. The categories are evaluated individually. Although complete information is available for a large proportion of datasets, this is not true for all of them. Accordingly, the abbreviation N/A has been inserted in the respective characters to indicate that this information could not be determined by the time of submission. The term ‘use cases in the literature’ in the following and supplementary tables refers to the application areas in which the corresponding datasets were used in the literature. The areas listed there refer to the topic area on which the researchers conducted their research. Since some datasets were used interdisciplinarily, the listed use cases in the literature are correspondingly longer. Before discussing each category in the next sections, Fig.  4 provides an overview of the number of datasets found and their year of creation. Figure  5 then shows the relationship between studies and datasets in the period under consideration. Figure  6 shows the distribution of studies, their use of datasets and their creation date. The number of datasets used is higher than the number of studies because the studies often used several datasets (Table 1 ).

figure 4

Distribution of dataset results

figure 5

Correlation between the studies and the datasets

figure 6

Distribution of studies and their use of datasets

Most of the datasets are generated in the U.S. (up to 58.2%). Canada and Australia rank next, with 11.3% and 5% of all the reviewed datasets, respectively.

Additionally, to create value for the datasets for the cyber insurance industry, an assessment of the applicability of each dataset has been provided for cyber insurers. This ‘Use Case Assessment’ includes the use of the data in the context of different analyses, calculation of cyber insurance premiums, and use of the information for the design of cyber insurance contracts or for additional customer services. To reasonably account for the transition of direct hyperlinks in the future, references were directed to the main websites for longevity (nearest resource point). In addition, the links to the main pages contain further information on the datasets and different versions related to the operating systems. The references were chosen in such a way that practitioners get the best overview of the respective datasets.

Case datasets

This section presents selected articles that use the datasets to analyse the causes of cyber risks. The datasets help identify emerging trends and allow pattern discovery in cyber risks. This information gives cybersecurity experts and cyber insurers the data to make better predictions and take appropriate action. For example, if certain vulnerabilities are not adequately protected, cyber insurers will demand a risk surcharge leading to an improvement in the risk-adjusted premium. Due to the capricious nature of cyber risks, existing data must be supplemented with new data sources (for example, new events, new methods or security vulnerabilities) to determine prevailing cyber exposure. The datasets of cyber risk causes could be combined with existing portfolio data from cyber insurers and integrated into existing pricing tools and factors to improve the valuation of cyber risks.

A portion of these datasets consists of several taxonomies and classifications of cyber risks. Aassal et al. ( 2020 ) propose a new taxonomy of phishing characteristics based on the interpretation and purpose of each characteristic. In comparison, Hindy et al. ( 2020 ) presented a taxonomy of network threats and the impact of current datasets on intrusion detection systems. A similar taxonomy was suggested by Kiwia et al. ( 2018 ). The authors presented a cyber kill chain-based taxonomy of banking Trojans features. The taxonomy built on a real-world dataset of 127 banking Trojans collected from December 2014 to January 2016 by a major U.K.-based financial organisation.

In the context of classification, Aamir et al. ( 2021 ) showed the benefits of machine learning for classifying port scans and DDoS attacks in a mixture of normal and attack traffic. Guo et al. ( 2020 ) presented a new method to improve malware classification based on entropy sequence features. The evaluation of this new method was conducted on different malware datasets.

To reconstruct attack scenarios and draw conclusions based on the evidence in the alert stream, Barzegar and Shajari ( 2018 ) use the DARPA2000 and MACCDC 2012 dataset for their research. Giudici and Raffinetti ( 2020 ) proposed a rank-based statistical model aimed at predicting the severity levels of cyber risk. The model used cyber risk data from the University of Milan. In contrast to the previous datasets, Skrjanc et al. ( 2018 ) used the older dataset KDD99 to monitor large-scale cyberattacks using a cauchy clustering method.

Amin et al. ( 2021 ) used a cyberattack dataset from the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity to identify spatial clusters of countries with high rates of cyberattacks. In the context of cybercrime, Junger et al. ( 2020 ) examined crime scripts, key characteristics of the target company and the relationship between criminal effort and financial benefit. For their study, the authors analysed 300 cases of fraudulent activities against Dutch companies. With a similar focus on cybercrime, Mireles et al. ( 2019 ) proposed a metric framework to measure the effectiveness of the dynamic evolution of cyberattacks and defensive measures. To validate its usefulness, they used the DEFCON dataset.

Due to the rapidly changing nature of cyber risks, it is often impossible to obtain all information on them. Kim and Kim ( 2019 ) proposed an automated dataset generation system called CTIMiner that collects threat data from publicly available security reports and malware repositories. They released a dataset to the public containing about 640,000 records from 612 security reports published between January 2008 and 2019. A similar approach is proposed by Kim et al. ( 2020 ), using a named entity recognition system to extract core information from cyber threat reports automatically. They created a 498,000-tag dataset during their research (Ulven and Wangen 2021 ).

Within the framework of vulnerabilities and cybersecurity issues, Ulven and Wangen ( 2021 ) proposed an overview of mission-critical assets and everyday threat events, suggested a generic threat model, and summarised common cybersecurity vulnerabilities. With a focus on hospitality, Chen and Fiscus ( 2018 ) proposed several issues related to cybersecurity in this sector. They analysed 76 security incidents from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse database. Supplementary Table 1 lists all findings that belong to the cyber causes dataset.

Impact datasets

This section outlines selected findings of the cyber impact dataset. For cyber insurers, these datasets can form an important basis for information, as they can be used to calculate cyber insurance premiums, evaluate specific cyber risks, formulate inclusions and exclusions in cyber wordings, and re-evaluate as well as supplement the data collected so far on cyber risks. For example, information on financial losses can help to better assess the loss potential of cyber risks. Furthermore, the datasets can provide insight into the frequency of occurrence of these cyber risks. The new datasets can be used to close any data gaps that were previously based on very approximate estimates or to find new results.

Eight studies addressed the costs of data breaches. For instance, Eling and Jung ( 2018 ) reviewed 3327 data breach events from 2005 to 2016 and identified an asymmetric dependence of monthly losses by breach type and industry. The authors used datasets from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse for analysis. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse datasets and the Breach level index database were also used by De Giovanni et al. ( 2020 ) to describe relationships between data breaches and bitcoin-related variables using the cointegration methodology. The data were obtained from the Department of Health and Human Services of healthcare facilities reporting data breaches and a national database of technical and organisational infrastructure information. Also in the context of data breaches, Algarni et al. ( 2021 ) developed a comprehensive, formal model that estimates the two components of security risks: breach cost and the likelihood of a data breach within 12 months. For their survey, the authors used two industrial reports from the Ponemon institute and VERIZON. To illustrate the scope of data breaches, Neto et al. ( 2021 ) identified 430 major data breach incidents among more than 10,000 incidents. The database created is available and covers the period 2018 to 2019.

With a direct focus on insurance, Biener et al. ( 2015 ) analysed 994 cyber loss cases from an operational risk database and investigated the insurability of cyber risks based on predefined criteria. For their study, they used data from the company SAS OpRisk Global Data. Similarly, Eling and Wirfs ( 2019 ) looked at a wide range of cyber risk events and actual cost data using the same database. They identified cyber losses and analysed them using methods from statistics and actuarial science. Using a similar reference, Farkas et al. ( 2021 ) proposed a method for analysing cyber claims based on regression trees to identify criteria for classifying and evaluating claims. Similar to Chen and Fiscus ( 2018 ), the dataset used was the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse database. Within the framework of reinsurance, Moro ( 2020 ) analysed cyber index-based information technology activity to see if index-parametric reinsurance coverage could suggest its cedant using data from a Symantec dataset.

Paté-Cornell et al. ( 2018 ) presented a general probabilistic risk analysis framework for cybersecurity in an organisation to be specified. The results are distributions of losses to cyberattacks, with and without considered countermeasures in support of risk management decisions based both on past data and anticipated incidents. The data used were from The Common Vulnerability and Exposures database and via confidential access to a database of cyberattacks on a large, U.S.-based organisation. A different conceptual framework for cyber risk classification and assessment was proposed by Sheehan et al. ( 2021 ). This framework showed the importance of proactive and reactive barriers in reducing companies’ exposure to cyber risk and quantifying the risk. Another approach to cyber risk assessment and mitigation was proposed by Mukhopadhyay et al. ( 2019 ). They estimated the probability of an attack using generalised linear models, predicted the security technology required to reduce the probability of cyberattacks, and used gamma and exponential distributions to best approximate the average loss data for each malicious attack. They also calculated the expected loss due to cyberattacks, calculated the net premium that would need to be charged by a cyber insurer, and suggested cyber insurance as a strategy to minimise losses. They used the CSI-FBI survey (1997–2010) to conduct their research.

In order to highlight the lack of data on cyber risks, Eling ( 2020 ) conducted a literature review in the areas of cyber risk and cyber insurance. Available information on the frequency, severity, and dependency structure of cyber risks was filtered out. In addition, open questions for future cyber risk research were set up. Another example of data collection on the impact of cyberattacks is provided by Sornette et al. ( 2013 ), who use a database of newspaper articles, press reports and other media to provide a predictive method to identify triggering events and potential accident scenarios and estimate their severity and frequency. A similar approach to data collection was used by Arcuri et al. ( 2020 ) to gather an original sample of global cyberattacks from newspaper reports sourced from the LexisNexis database. This collection is also used and applied to the fields of dynamic communication and cyber risk perception by Fang et al. ( 2021 ). To create a dataset of cyber incidents and disputes, Valeriano and Maness ( 2014 ) collected information on cyber interactions between rival states.

To assess trends and the scale of economic cybercrime, Levi ( 2017 ) examined datasets from different countries and their impact on crime policy. Pooser et al. ( 2018 ) investigated the trend in cyber risk identification from 2006 to 2015 and company characteristics related to cyber risk perception. The authors used a dataset of various reports from cyber insurers for their study. Walker-Roberts et al. ( 2020 ) investigated the spectrum of risk of a cybersecurity incident taking place in the cyber-physical-enabled world using the VERIS Community Database. The datasets of impacts identified are presented below. Due to overlap, some may also appear in the causes dataset (Supplementary Table 2).

Cybersecurity datasets

General intrusion detection.

General intrusion detection systems account for the largest share of countermeasure datasets. For companies or researchers focused on cybersecurity, the datasets can be used to test their own countermeasures or obtain information about potential vulnerabilities. For example, Al-Omari et al. ( 2021 ) proposed an intelligent intrusion detection model for predicting and detecting attacks in cyberspace, which was applied to dataset UNSW-NB 15. A similar approach was taken by Choras and Kozik ( 2015 ), who used machine learning to detect cyberattacks on web applications. To evaluate their method, they used the HTTP dataset CSIC 2010. For the identification of unknown attacks on web servers, Kamarudin et al. ( 2017 ) proposed an anomaly-based intrusion detection system using an ensemble classification approach. Ganeshan and Rodrigues ( 2020 ) showed an intrusion detection system approach, which clusters the database into several groups and detects the presence of intrusion in the clusters. In comparison, AlKadi et al. ( 2019 ) used a localisation-based model to discover abnormal patterns in network traffic. Hybrid models have been recommended by Bhattacharya et al. ( 2020 ) and Agrawal et al. ( 2019 ); the former is a machine-learning model based on principal component analysis for the classification of intrusion detection system datasets, while the latter is a hybrid ensemble intrusion detection system for anomaly detection using different datasets to detect patterns in network traffic that deviate from normal behaviour.

Agarwal et al. ( 2021 ) used three different machine learning algorithms in their research to find the most suitable for efficiently identifying patterns of suspicious network activity. The UNSW-NB15 dataset was used for this purpose. Kasongo and Sun ( 2020 ), Feed-Forward Deep Neural Network (FFDNN), Keshk et al. ( 2021 ), the privacy-preserving anomaly detection framework, and others also use the UNSW-NB 15 dataset as part of intrusion detection systems. The same dataset and others were used by Binbusayyis and Vaiyapuri ( 2019 ) to identify and compare key features for cyber intrusion detection. Atefinia and Ahmadi ( 2021 ) proposed a deep neural network model to reduce the false positive rate of an anomaly-based intrusion detection system. Fossaceca et al. ( 2015 ) focused in their research on the development of a framework that combined the outputs of multiple learners in order to improve the efficacy of network intrusion, and Gauthama Raman et al. ( 2020 ) presented a search algorithm based on Support Vector machine to improve the performance of the detection and false alarm rate to improve intrusion detection techniques. Ahmad and Alsemmeari ( 2020 ) targeted extreme learning machine techniques due to their good capabilities in classification problems and handling huge data. They used the NSL-KDD dataset as a benchmark.

With reference to prediction, Bakdash et al. ( 2018 ) used datasets from the U.S. Department of Defence to predict cyberattacks by malware. This dataset consists of weekly counts of cyber events over approximately seven years. Another prediction method was presented by Fan et al. ( 2018 ), which showed an improved integrated cybersecurity prediction method based on spatial-time analysis. Also, with reference to prediction, Ashtiani and Azgomi ( 2014 ) proposed a framework for the distributed simulation of cyberattacks based on high-level architecture. Kirubavathi and Anitha ( 2016 ) recommended an approach to detect botnets, irrespective of their structures, based on network traffic flow behaviour analysis and machine-learning techniques. Dwivedi et al. ( 2021 ) introduced a multi-parallel adaptive technique to utilise an adaption mechanism in the group of swarms for network intrusion detection. AlEroud and Karabatis ( 2018 ) presented an approach that used contextual information to automatically identify and query possible semantic links between different types of suspicious activities extracted from network flows.

Intrusion detection systems with a focus on IoT

In addition to general intrusion detection systems, a proportion of studies focused on IoT. Habib et al. ( 2020 ) presented an approach for converting traditional intrusion detection systems into smart intrusion detection systems for IoT networks. To enhance the process of diagnostic detection of possible vulnerabilities with an IoT system, Georgescu et al. ( 2019 ) introduced a method that uses a named entity recognition-based solution. With regard to IoT in the smart home sector, Heartfield et al. ( 2021 ) presented a detection system that is able to autonomously adjust the decision function of its underlying anomaly classification models to a smart home’s changing condition. Another intrusion detection system was suggested by Keserwani et al. ( 2021 ), which combined Grey Wolf Optimization and Particle Swam Optimization to identify various attacks for IoT networks. They used the KDD Cup 99, NSL-KDD and CICIDS-2017 to evaluate their model. Abu Al-Haija and Zein-Sabatto ( 2020 ) provide a comprehensive development of a new intelligent and autonomous deep-learning-based detection and classification system for cyberattacks in IoT communication networks that leverage the power of convolutional neural networks, abbreviated as IoT-IDCS-CNN (IoT-based Intrusion Detection and Classification System using Convolutional Neural Network). To evaluate the development, the authors used the NSL-KDD dataset. Biswas and Roy ( 2021 ) recommended a model that identifies malicious botnet traffic using novel deep-learning approaches like artificial neural networks gutted recurrent units and long- or short-term memory models. They tested their model with the Bot-IoT dataset.

With a more forensic background, Koroniotis et al. ( 2020 ) submitted a network forensic framework, which described the digital investigation phases for identifying and tracing attack behaviours in IoT networks. The suggested work was evaluated with the Bot-IoT and UINSW-NB15 datasets. With a focus on big data and IoT, Chhabra et al. ( 2020 ) presented a cyber forensic framework for big data analytics in an IoT environment using machine learning. Furthermore, the authors mentioned different publicly available datasets for machine-learning models.

A stronger focus on a mobile phones was exhibited by Alazab et al. ( 2020 ), which presented a classification model that combined permission requests and application programme interface calls. The model was tested with a malware dataset containing 27,891 Android apps. A similar approach was taken by Li et al. ( 2019a , b ), who proposed a reliable classifier for Android malware detection based on factorisation machine architecture and extraction of Android app features from manifest files and source code.

Literature reviews

In addition to the different methods and models for intrusion detection systems, various literature reviews on the methods and datasets were also found. Liu and Lang ( 2019 ) proposed a taxonomy of intrusion detection systems that uses data objects as the main dimension to classify and summarise machine learning and deep learning-based intrusion detection literature. They also presented four different benchmark datasets for machine-learning detection systems. Ahmed et al. ( 2016 ) presented an in-depth analysis of four major categories of anomaly detection techniques, which include classification, statistical, information theory and clustering. Hajj et al. ( 2021 ) gave a comprehensive overview of anomaly-based intrusion detection systems. Their article gives an overview of the requirements, methods, measurements and datasets that are used in an intrusion detection system.

Within the framework of machine learning, Chattopadhyay et al. ( 2018 ) conducted a comprehensive review and meta-analysis on the application of machine-learning techniques in intrusion detection systems. They also compared different machine learning techniques in different datasets and summarised the performance. Vidros et al. ( 2017 ) presented an overview of characteristics and methods in automatic detection of online recruitment fraud. They also published an available dataset of 17,880 annotated job ads, retrieved from the use of a real-life system. An empirical study of different unsupervised learning algorithms used in the detection of unknown attacks was presented by Meira et al. ( 2020 ).

New datasets

Kilincer et al. ( 2021 ) reviewed different intrusion detection system datasets in detail. They had a closer look at the UNS-NB15, ISCX-2012, NSL-KDD and CIDDS-001 datasets. Stojanovic et al. ( 2020 ) also provided a review on datasets and their creation for use in advanced persistent threat detection in the literature. Another review of datasets was provided by Sarker et al. ( 2020 ), who focused on cybersecurity data science as part of their research and provided an overview from a machine-learning perspective. Avila et al. ( 2021 ) conducted a systematic literature review on the use of security logs for data leak detection. They recommended a new classification of information leak, which uses the GDPR principles, identified the most widely publicly available dataset for threat detection, described the attack types in the datasets and the algorithms used for data leak detection. Tuncer et al. ( 2020 ) presented a bytecode-based detection method consisting of feature extraction using local neighbourhood binary patterns. They chose a byte-based malware dataset to investigate the performance of the proposed local neighbourhood binary pattern-based detection method. With a different focus, Mauro et al. ( 2020 ) gave an experimental overview of neural-based techniques relevant to intrusion detection. They assessed the value of neural networks using the Bot-IoT and UNSW-DB15 datasets.

Another category of results in the context of countermeasure datasets is those that were presented as new. Moreno et al. ( 2018 ) developed a database of 300 security-related accidents from European and American sources. The database contained cybersecurity-related events in the chemical and process industry. Damasevicius et al. ( 2020 ) proposed a new dataset (LITNET-2020) for network intrusion detection. The dataset is a new annotated network benchmark dataset obtained from the real-world academic network. It presents real-world examples of normal and under-attack network traffic. With a focus on IoT intrusion detection systems, Alsaedi et al. ( 2020 ) proposed a new benchmark IoT/IIot datasets for assessing intrusion detection system-enabled IoT systems. Also in the context of IoT, Vaccari et al. ( 2020 ) proposed a dataset focusing on message queue telemetry transport protocols, which can be used to train machine-learning models. To evaluate the performance of machine-learning classifiers, Mahfouz et al. ( 2020 ) created a dataset called Game Theory and Cybersecurity (GTCS). A dataset containing 22,000 malware and benign samples was constructed by Martin et al. ( 2019 ). The dataset can be used as a benchmark to test the algorithm for Android malware classification and clustering techniques. In addition, Laso et al. ( 2017 ) presented a dataset created to investigate how data and information quality estimates enable the detection of anomalies and malicious acts in cyber-physical systems. The dataset contained various cyberattacks and is publicly available.

In addition to the results described above, several other studies were found that fit into the category of countermeasures. Johnson et al. ( 2016 ) examined the time between vulnerability disclosures. Using another vulnerabilities database, Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE), Subroto and Apriyana ( 2019 ) presented an algorithm model that uses big data analysis of social media and statistical machine learning to predict cyber risks. A similar databank but with a different focus, Common Vulnerability Scoring System, was used by Chatterjee and Thekdi ( 2020 ) to present an iterative data-driven learning approach to vulnerability assessment and management for complex systems. Using the CICIDS2017 dataset to evaluate the performance, Malik et al. ( 2020 ) proposed a control plane-based orchestration for varied, sophisticated threats and attacks. The same dataset was used in another study by Lee et al. ( 2019 ), who developed an artificial security information event management system based on a combination of event profiling for data processing and different artificial network methods. To exploit the interdependence between multiple series, Fang et al. ( 2021 ) proposed a statistical framework. In order to validate the framework, the authors applied it to a dataset of enterprise-level security breaches from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and Identity Theft Center database. Another framework with a defensive aspect was recommended by Li et al. ( 2021 ) to increase the robustness of deep neural networks against adversarial malware evasion attacks. Sarabi et al. ( 2016 ) investigated whether and to what extent business details can help assess an organisation's risk of data breaches and the distribution of risk across different types of incidents to create policies for protection, detection and recovery from different forms of security incidents. They used data from the VERIS Community Database.

Datasets that have been classified into the cybersecurity category are detailed in Supplementary Table 3. Due to overlap, records from the previous tables may also be included.

This paper presented a systematic literature review of studies on cyber risk and cybersecurity that used datasets. Within this framework, 255 studies were fully reviewed and then classified into three different categories. Then, 79 datasets were consolidated from these studies. These datasets were subsequently analysed, and important information was selected through a process of filtering out. This information was recorded in a table and enhanced with further information as part of the literature analysis. This made it possible to create a comprehensive overview of the datasets. For example, each dataset contains a description of where the data came from and how the data has been used to date. This allows different datasets to be compared and the appropriate dataset for the use case to be selected. This research certainly has limitations, so our selection of datasets cannot necessarily be taken as a representation of all available datasets related to cyber risks and cybersecurity. For example, literature searches were conducted in four academic databases and only found datasets that were used in the literature. Many research projects also used old datasets that may no longer consider current developments. In addition, the data are often focused on only one observation and are limited in scope. For example, the datasets can only be applied to specific contexts and are also subject to further limitations (e.g. region, industry, operating system). In the context of the applicability of the datasets, it is unfortunately not possible to make a clear statement on the extent to which they can be integrated into academic or practical areas of application or how great this effort is. Finally, it remains to be pointed out that this is an overview of currently available datasets, which are subject to constant change.

Due to the lack of datasets on cyber risks in the academic literature, additional datasets on cyber risks were integrated as part of a further search. The search was conducted on the Google Dataset search portal. The search term used was ‘cyber risk datasets’. Over 100 results were found. However, due to the low significance and verifiability, only 20 selected datasets were included. These can be found in Table 2  in the “ Appendix ”.

The results of the literature review and datasets also showed that there continues to be a lack of available, open cyber datasets. This lack of data is reflected in cyber insurance, for example, as it is difficult to find a risk-based premium without a sufficient database (Nurse et al. 2020 ). The global cyber insurance market was estimated at USD 5.5 billion in 2020 (Dyson 2020 ). When compared to the USD 1 trillion global losses from cybercrime (Maleks Smith et al. 2020 ), it is clear that there exists a significant cyber risk awareness challenge for both the insurance industry and international commerce. Without comprehensive and qualitative data on cyber losses, it can be difficult to estimate potential losses from cyberattacks and price cyber insurance accordingly (GAO 2021 ). For instance, the average cyber insurance loss increased from USD 145,000 in 2019 to USD 359,000 in 2020 (FitchRatings 2021 ). Cyber insurance is an important risk management tool to mitigate the financial impact of cybercrime. This is particularly evident in the impact of different industries. In the Energy & Commodities financial markets, a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline led to a substantial impact on the U.S. economy. As a result of the attack, about 45% of the U.S. East Coast was temporarily unable to obtain supplies of diesel, petrol and jet fuel. This caused the average price in the U.S. to rise 7 cents to USD 3.04 per gallon, the highest in seven years (Garber 2021 ). In addition, Colonial Pipeline confirmed that it paid a USD 4.4 million ransom to a hacker gang after the attack. Another ransomware attack occurred in the healthcare and government sector. The victim of this attack was the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE). A ransom payment of USD 20 million was demanded from the Irish government to restore services after the hack (Tidy 2021 ). In the car manufacturing sector, Miller and Valasek ( 2015 ) initiated a cyberattack that resulted in the recall of 1.4 million vehicles and cost manufacturers EUR 761 million. The risk that arises in the context of these events is the potential for the accumulation of cyber losses, which is why cyber insurers are not expanding their capacity. An example of this accumulation of cyber risks is the NotPetya malware attack, which originated in Russia, struck in Ukraine, and rapidly spread around the world, causing at least USD 10 billion in damage (GAO 2021 ). These events highlight the importance of proper cyber risk management.

This research provides cyber insurance stakeholders with an overview of cyber datasets. Cyber insurers can use the open datasets to improve their understanding and assessment of cyber risks. For example, the impact datasets can be used to better measure financial impacts and their frequencies. These data could be combined with existing portfolio data from cyber insurers and integrated with existing pricing tools and factors to better assess cyber risk valuation. Although most cyber insurers have sparse historical cyber policy and claims data, they remain too small at present for accurate prediction (Bessy-Roland et al. 2021 ). A combination of portfolio data and external datasets would support risk-adjusted pricing for cyber insurance, which would also benefit policyholders. In addition, cyber insurance stakeholders can use the datasets to identify patterns and make better predictions, which would benefit sustainable cyber insurance coverage. In terms of cyber risk cause datasets, cyber insurers can use the data to review their insurance products. For example, the data could provide information on which cyber risks have not been sufficiently considered in product design or where improvements are needed. A combination of cyber cause and cybersecurity datasets can help establish uniform definitions to provide greater transparency and clarity. Consistent terminology could lead to a more sustainable cyber market, where cyber insurers make informed decisions about the level of coverage and policyholders understand their coverage (The Geneva Association 2020).

In addition to the cyber insurance community, this research also supports cybersecurity stakeholders. The reviewed literature can be used to provide a contemporary, contextual and categorised summary of available datasets. This supports efficient and timely progress in cyber risk research and is beneficial given the dynamic nature of cyber risks. With the help of the described cybersecurity datasets and the identified information, a comparison of different datasets is possible. The datasets can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of countermeasures in simulated cyberattacks or to test intrusion detection systems.

In this paper, we conducted a systematic review of studies on cyber risk and cybersecurity databases. We found that most of the datasets are in the field of intrusion detection and machine learning and are used for technical cybersecurity aspects. The available datasets on cyber risks were relatively less represented. Due to the dynamic nature and lack of historical data, assessing and understanding cyber risk is a major challenge for cyber insurance stakeholders. To address this challenge, a greater density of cyber data is needed to support cyber insurers in risk management and researchers with cyber risk-related topics. With reference to ‘Open Science’ FAIR data (Jacobsen et al. 2020 ), mandatory reporting of cyber incidents could help improve cyber understanding, awareness and loss prevention among companies and insurers. Through greater availability of data, cyber risks can be better understood, enabling researchers to conduct more in-depth research into these risks. Companies could incorporate this new knowledge into their corporate culture to reduce cyber risks. For insurance companies, this would have the advantage that all insurers would have the same understanding of cyber risks, which would support sustainable risk-based pricing. In addition, common definitions of cyber risks could be derived from new data.

The cybersecurity databases summarised and categorised in this research could provide a different perspective on cyber risks that would enable the formulation of common definitions in cyber policies. The datasets can help companies addressing cybersecurity and cyber risk as part of risk management assess their internal cyber posture and cybersecurity measures. The paper can also help improve risk awareness and corporate behaviour, and provides the research community with a comprehensive overview of peer-reviewed datasets and other available datasets in the area of cyber risk and cybersecurity. This approach is intended to support the free availability of data for research. The complete tabulated review of the literature is included in the Supplementary Material.

This work provides directions for several paths of future work. First, there are currently few publicly available datasets for cyber risk and cybersecurity. The older datasets that are still widely used no longer reflect today's technical environment. Moreover, they can often only be used in one context, and the scope of the samples is very limited. It would be of great value if more datasets were publicly available that reflect current environmental conditions. This could help intrusion detection systems to consider current events and thus lead to a higher success rate. It could also compensate for the disadvantages of older datasets by collecting larger quantities of samples and making this contextualisation more widespread. Another area of research may be the integratability and adaptability of cybersecurity and cyber risk datasets. For example, it is often unclear to what extent datasets can be integrated or adapted to existing data. For cyber risks and cybersecurity, it would be helpful to know what requirements need to be met or what is needed to use the datasets appropriately. In addition, it would certainly be helpful to know whether datasets can be modified to be used for cyber risks or cybersecurity. Finally, the ability for stakeholders to identify machine-readable cybersecurity datasets would be useful because it would allow for even clearer delineations or comparisons between datasets. Due to the lack of publicly available datasets, concrete benchmarks often cannot be applied.

Average cost of a breach of more than 50 million records.

Aamir, M., S.S.H. Rizvi, M.A. Hashmani, M. Zubair, and J. Ahmad. 2021. Machine learning classification of port scanning and DDoS attacks: A comparative analysis. Mehran University Research Journal of Engineering and Technology 40 (1): 215–229. https://doi.org/10.22581/muet1982.2101.19 .

Article   Google Scholar  

Aamir, M., and S.M.A. Zaidi. 2019. DDoS attack detection with feature engineering and machine learning: The framework and performance evaluation. International Journal of Information Security 18 (6): 761–785. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10207-019-00434-1 .

Aassal, A. El, S. Baki, A. Das, and R.M. Verma. 2020. 2020. An in-depth benchmarking and evaluation of phishing detection research for security needs. IEEE Access 8: 22170–22192. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2969780 .

Abu Al-Haija, Q., and S. Zein-Sabatto. 2020. An efficient deep-learning-based detection and classification system for cyber-attacks in IoT communication networks. Electronics 9 (12): 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9122152 .

Adhikari, U., T.H. Morris, and S.Y. Pan. 2018. Applying Hoeffding adaptive trees for real-time cyber-power event and intrusion classification. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid 9 (5): 4049–4060. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsg.2017.2647778 .

Agarwal, A., P. Sharma, M. Alshehri, A.A. Mohamed, and O. Alfarraj. 2021. Classification model for accuracy and intrusion detection using machine learning approach. PeerJ Computer Science . https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.437 .

Agrafiotis, I., J.R.C.. Nurse, M. Goldsmith, S. Creese, and D. Upton. 2018. A taxonomy of cyber-harms: Defining the impacts of cyber-attacks and understanding how they propagate. Journal of Cybersecurity 4: tyy006.

Agrawal, A., S. Mohammed, and J. Fiaidhi. 2019. Ensemble technique for intruder detection in network traffic. International Journal of Security and Its Applications 13 (3): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.33832/ijsia.2019.13.3.01 .

Ahmad, I., and R.A. Alsemmeari. 2020. Towards improving the intrusion detection through ELM (extreme learning machine). CMC Computers Materials & Continua 65 (2): 1097–1111. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2020.011732 .

Ahmed, M., A.N. Mahmood, and J.K. Hu. 2016. A survey of network anomaly detection techniques. Journal of Network and Computer Applications 60: 19–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2015.11.016 .

Al-Jarrah, O.Y., O. Alhussein, P.D. Yoo, S. Muhaidat, K. Taha, and K. Kim. 2016. Data randomization and cluster-based partitioning for Botnet intrusion detection. IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics 46 (8): 1796–1806. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCYB.2015.2490802 .

Al-Mhiqani, M.N., R. Ahmad, Z.Z. Abidin, W. Yassin, A. Hassan, K.H. Abdulkareem, N.S. Ali, and Z. Yunos. 2020. A review of insider threat detection: Classification, machine learning techniques, datasets, open challenges, and recommendations. Applied Sciences—Basel 10 (15): 41. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10155208 .

Al-Omari, M., M. Rawashdeh, F. Qutaishat, M. Alshira’H, and N. Ababneh. 2021. An intelligent tree-based intrusion detection model for cyber security. Journal of Network and Systems Management 29 (2): 18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10922-021-09591-y .

Alabdallah, A., and M. Awad. 2018. Using weighted Support Vector Machine to address the imbalanced classes problem of Intrusion Detection System. KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems 12 (10): 5143–5158. https://doi.org/10.3837/tiis.2018.10.027 .

Alazab, M., M. Alazab, A. Shalaginov, A. Mesleh, and A. Awajan. 2020. Intelligent mobile malware detection using permission requests and API calls. Future Generation Computer Systems—the International Journal of eScience 107: 509–521. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2020.02.002 .

Albahar, M.A., R.A. Al-Falluji, and M. Binsawad. 2020. An empirical comparison on malicious activity detection using different neural network-based models. IEEE Access 8: 61549–61564. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2984157 .

AlEroud, A.F., and G. Karabatis. 2018. Queryable semantics to detect cyber-attacks: A flow-based detection approach. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems 48 (2): 207–223. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSMC.2016.2600405 .

Algarni, A.M., V. Thayananthan, and Y.K. Malaiya. 2021. Quantitative assessment of cybersecurity risks for mitigating data breaches in business systems. Applied Sciences (switzerland) . https://doi.org/10.3390/app11083678 .

Alhowaide, A., I. Alsmadi, and J. Tang. 2021. Towards the design of real-time autonomous IoT NIDS. Cluster Computing—the Journal of Networks Software Tools and Applications . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-021-03231-5 .

Ali, S., and Y. Li. 2019. Learning multilevel auto-encoders for DDoS attack detection in smart grid network. IEEE Access 7: 108647–108659. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2933304 .

AlKadi, O., N. Moustafa, B. Turnbull, and K.K.R. Choo. 2019. Mixture localization-based outliers models for securing data migration in cloud centers. IEEE Access 7: 114607–114618. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2935142 .

Allianz. 2021. Allianz Risk Barometer. https://www.agcs.allianz.com/content/dam/onemarketing/agcs/agcs/reports/Allianz-Risk-Barometer-2021.pdf . Accessed 15 May 2021.

Almiani, M., A. AbuGhazleh, A. Al-Rahayfeh, S. Atiewi, and Razaque, A. 2020. Deep recurrent neural network for IoT intrusion detection system. Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory 101: 102031. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.simpat.2019.102031

Alsaedi, A., N. Moustafa, Z. Tari, A. Mahmood, and A. Anwar. 2020. TON_IoT telemetry dataset: A new generation dataset of IoT and IIoT for data-driven intrusion detection systems. IEEE Access 8: 165130–165150. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3022862 .

Alsamiri, J., and K. Alsubhi. 2019. Internet of Things cyber attacks detection using machine learning. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications 10 (12): 627–634.

Alsharafat, W. 2013. Applying artificial neural network and eXtended classifier system for network intrusion detection. International Arab Journal of Information Technology 10 (3): 230–238.

Google Scholar  

Amin, R.W., H.E. Sevil, S. Kocak, G. Francia III., and P. Hoover. 2021. The spatial analysis of the malicious uniform resource locators (URLs): 2016 dataset case study. Information (switzerland) 12 (1): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3390/info12010002 .

Arcuri, M.C., L.Z. Gai, F. Ielasi, and E. Ventisette. 2020. Cyber attacks on hospitality sector: Stock market reaction. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology 11 (2): 277–290. https://doi.org/10.1108/jhtt-05-2019-0080 .

Arp, D., M. Spreitzenbarth, M. Hubner, H. Gascon, K. Rieck, and C.E.R.T. Siemens. 2014. Drebin: Effective and explainable detection of android malware in your pocket. In Ndss 14: 23–26.

Ashtiani, M., and M.A. Azgomi. 2014. A distributed simulation framework for modeling cyber attacks and the evaluation of security measures. Simulation 90 (9): 1071–1102. https://doi.org/10.1177/0037549714540221 .

Atefinia, R., and M. Ahmadi. 2021. Network intrusion detection using multi-architectural modular deep neural network. Journal of Supercomputing 77 (4): 3571–3593. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-020-03410-y .

Avila, R., R. Khoury, R. Khoury, and F. Petrillo. 2021. Use of security logs for data leak detection: A systematic literature review. Security and Communication Networks 2021: 29. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6615899 .

Azeez, N.A., T.J. Ayemobola, S. Misra, R. Maskeliunas, and R. Damasevicius. 2019. Network Intrusion Detection with a Hashing Based Apriori Algorithm Using Hadoop MapReduce. Computers 8 (4): 15. https://doi.org/10.3390/computers8040086 .

Bakdash, J.Z., S. Hutchinson, E.G. Zaroukian, L.R. Marusich, S. Thirumuruganathan, C. Sample, B. Hoffman, and G. Das. 2018. Malware in the future forecasting of analyst detection of cyber events. Journal of Cybersecurity . https://doi.org/10.1093/cybsec/tyy007 .

Barletta, V.S., D. Caivano, A. Nannavecchia, and M. Scalera. 2020. Intrusion detection for in-vehicle communication networks: An unsupervised Kohonen SOM approach. Future Internet . https://doi.org/10.3390/FI12070119 .

Barzegar, M., and M. Shajari. 2018. Attack scenario reconstruction using intrusion semantics. Expert Systems with Applications 108: 119–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2018.04.030 .

Bessy-Roland, Y., A. Boumezoued, and C. Hillairet. 2021. Multivariate Hawkes process for cyber insurance. Annals of Actuarial Science 15 (1): 14–39.

Bhardwaj, A., V. Mangat, and R. Vig. 2020. Hyperband tuned deep neural network with well posed stacked sparse AutoEncoder for detection of DDoS attacks in cloud. IEEE Access 8: 181916–181929. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3028690 .

Bhati, B.S., C.S. Rai, B. Balamurugan, and F. Al-Turjman. 2020. An intrusion detection scheme based on the ensemble of discriminant classifiers. Computers & Electrical Engineering 86: 9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2020.106742 .

Bhattacharya, S., S.S.R. Krishnan, P.K.R. Maddikunta, R. Kaluri, S. Singh, T.R. Gadekallu, M. Alazab, and U. Tariq. 2020. A novel PCA-firefly based XGBoost classification model for intrusion detection in networks using GPU. Electronics 9 (2): 16. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9020219 .

Bibi, I., A. Akhunzada, J. Malik, J. Iqbal, A. Musaddiq, and S. Kim. 2020. A dynamic DL-driven architecture to combat sophisticated android malware. IEEE Access 8: 129600–129612. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3009819 .

Biener, C., M. Eling, and J.H. Wirfs. 2015. Insurability of cyber risk: An empirical analysis. The   Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance—Issues and Practice 40 (1): 131–158. https://doi.org/10.1057/gpp.2014.19 .

Binbusayyis, A., and T. Vaiyapuri. 2019. Identifying and benchmarking key features for cyber intrusion detection: An ensemble approach. IEEE Access 7: 106495–106513. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2929487 .

Biswas, R., and S. Roy. 2021. Botnet traffic identification using neural networks. Multimedia Tools and Applications . https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-021-10765-8 .

Bouyeddou, B., F. Harrou, B. Kadri, and Y. Sun. 2021. Detecting network cyber-attacks using an integrated statistical approach. Cluster Computing—the Journal of Networks Software Tools and Applications 24 (2): 1435–1453. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-020-03203-1 .

Bozkir, A.S., and M. Aydos. 2020. LogoSENSE: A companion HOG based logo detection scheme for phishing web page and E-mail brand recognition. Computers & Security 95: 18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2020.101855 .

Brower, D., and M. McCormick. 2021. Colonial pipeline resumes operations following ransomware attack. Financial Times .

Cai, H., F. Zhang, and A. Levi. 2019. An unsupervised method for detecting shilling attacks in recommender systems by mining item relationship and identifying target items. The Computer Journal 62 (4): 579–597. https://doi.org/10.1093/comjnl/bxy124 .

Cebula, J.J., M.E. Popeck, and L.R. Young. 2014. A Taxonomy of Operational Cyber Security Risks Version 2 .

Chadza, T., K.G. Kyriakopoulos, and S. Lambotharan. 2020. Learning to learn sequential network attacks using hidden Markov models. IEEE Access 8: 134480–134497. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3011293 .

Chatterjee, S., and S. Thekdi. 2020. An iterative learning and inference approach to managing dynamic cyber vulnerabilities of complex systems. Reliability Engineering and System Safety . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2019.106664 .

Chattopadhyay, M., R. Sen, and S. Gupta. 2018. A comprehensive review and meta-analysis on applications of machine learning techniques in intrusion detection. Australasian Journal of Information Systems 22: 27.

Chen, H.S., and J. Fiscus. 2018. The inhospitable vulnerability: A need for cybersecurity risk assessment in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology 9 (2): 223–234. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTT-07-2017-0044 .

Chhabra, G.S., V.P. Singh, and M. Singh. 2020. Cyber forensics framework for big data analytics in IoT environment using machine learning. Multimedia Tools and Applications 79 (23–24): 15881–15900. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-018-6338-1 .

Chiba, Z., N. Abghour, K. Moussaid, A. Elomri, and M. Rida. 2019. Intelligent approach to build a Deep Neural Network based IDS for cloud environment using combination of machine learning algorithms. Computers and Security 86: 291–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2019.06.013 .

Choras, M., and R. Kozik. 2015. Machine learning techniques applied to detect cyber attacks on web applications. Logic Journal of the IGPL 23 (1): 45–56. https://doi.org/10.1093/jigpal/jzu038 .

Chowdhury, S., M. Khanzadeh, R. Akula, F. Zhang, S. Zhang, H. Medal, M. Marufuzzaman, and L. Bian. 2017. Botnet detection using graph-based feature clustering. Journal of Big Data 4 (1): 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-017-0074-7 .

Cost Of A Cyber Incident: Systematic Review And Cross-Validation, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Agency , 1, https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/CISA-OCE_Cost_of_Cyber_Incidents_Study-FINAL_508.pdf (2020).

D’Hooge, L., T. Wauters, B. Volckaert, and F. De Turck. 2019. Classification hardness for supervised learners on 20 years of intrusion detection data. IEEE Access 7: 167455–167469. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2953451 .

Damasevicius, R., A. Venckauskas, S. Grigaliunas, J. Toldinas, N. Morkevicius, T. Aleliunas, and P. Smuikys. 2020. LITNET-2020: An annotated real-world network flow dataset for network intrusion detection. Electronics 9 (5): 23. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9050800 .

De Giovanni, A.L.D., and M. Pirra. 2020. On the determinants of data breaches: A cointegration analysis. Decisions in Economics and Finance . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10203-020-00301-y .

Deng, L., D. Li, X. Yao, and H. Wang. 2019. Retracted Article: Mobile network intrusion detection for IoT system based on transfer learning algorithm. Cluster Computing 22 (4): 9889–9904. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-018-1847-2 .

Donkal, G., and G.K. Verma. 2018. A multimodal fusion based framework to reinforce IDS for securing Big Data environment using Spark. Journal of Information Security and Applications 43: 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jisa.2018.10.001 .

Dunn, C., N. Moustafa, and B. Turnbull. 2020. Robustness evaluations of sustainable machine learning models against data Poisoning attacks in the Internet of Things. Sustainability 12 (16): 17. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12166434 .

Dwivedi, S., M. Vardhan, and S. Tripathi. 2021. Multi-parallel adaptive grasshopper optimization technique for detecting anonymous attacks in wireless networks. Wireless Personal Communications . https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-021-08368-5 .

Dyson, B. 2020. COVID-19 crisis could be ‘watershed’ for cyber insurance, says Swiss Re exec. https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/covid-19-crisis-could-be-watershed-for-cyber-insurance-says-swiss-re-exec-59197154 . Accessed 7 May 2020.

EIOPA. 2018. Understanding cyber insurance—a structured dialogue with insurance companies. https://www.eiopa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publications/reports/eiopa_understanding_cyber_insurance.pdf . Accessed 28 May 2018

Elijah, A.V., A. Abdullah, N.Z. JhanJhi, M. Supramaniam, and O.B. Abdullateef. 2019. Ensemble and deep-learning methods for two-class and multi-attack anomaly intrusion detection: An empirical study. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications 10 (9): 520–528.

Eling, M., and K. Jung. 2018. Copula approaches for modeling cross-sectional dependence of data breach losses. Insurance Mathematics & Economics 82: 167–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.insmatheco.2018.07.003 .

Eling, M., and W. Schnell. 2016. What do we know about cyber risk and cyber risk insurance? Journal of Risk Finance 17 (5): 474–491. https://doi.org/10.1108/jrf-09-2016-0122 .

Eling, M., and J. Wirfs. 2019. What are the actual costs of cyber risk events? European Journal of Operational Research 272 (3): 1109–1119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2018.07.021 .

Eling, M. 2020. Cyber risk research in business and actuarial science. European Actuarial Journal 10 (2): 303–333.

Elmasry, W., A. Akbulut, and A.H. Zaim. 2019. Empirical study on multiclass classification-based network intrusion detection. Computational Intelligence 35 (4): 919–954. https://doi.org/10.1111/coin.12220 .

Elsaid, S.A., and N.S. Albatati. 2020. An optimized collaborative intrusion detection system for wireless sensor networks. Soft Computing 24 (16): 12553–12567. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500-020-04695-0 .

Estepa, R., J.E. Díaz-Verdejo, A. Estepa, and G. Madinabeitia. 2020. How much training data is enough? A case study for HTTP anomaly-based intrusion detection. IEEE Access 8: 44410–44425. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2977591 .

European Council. 2021. Cybersecurity: how the EU tackles cyber threats. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/cybersecurity/ . Accessed 10 May 2021

Falco, G. et al. 2019. Cyber risk research impeded by disciplinary barriers. Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 366 (6469): 1066–1069.

Fan, Z.J., Z.P. Tan, C.X. Tan, and X. Li. 2018. An improved integrated prediction method of cyber security situation based on spatial-time analysis. Journal of Internet Technology 19 (6): 1789–1800. https://doi.org/10.3966/160792642018111906015 .

Fang, Z.J., M.C. Xu, S.H. Xu, and T.Z. Hu. 2021. A framework for predicting data breach risk: Leveraging dependence to cope with sparsity. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 16: 2186–2201. https://doi.org/10.1109/tifs.2021.3051804 .

Farkas, S., O. Lopez, and M. Thomas. 2021. Cyber claim analysis using Generalized Pareto regression trees with applications to insurance. Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 98: 92–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.insmatheco.2021.02.009 .

Farsi, H., A. Fanian, and Z. Taghiyarrenani. 2019. A novel online state-based anomaly detection system for process control networks. International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection 27: 11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcip.2019.100323 .

Ferrag, M.A., L. Maglaras, S. Moschoyiannis, and H. Janicke. 2020. Deep learning for cyber security intrusion detection: Approaches, datasets, and comparative study. Journal of Information Security and Applications 50: 19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jisa.2019.102419 .

Field, M. 2018. WannaCry cyber attack cost the NHS £92m as 19,000 appointments cancelled. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/10/11/wannacry-cyber-attack-cost-nhs-92m-19000-appointments-cancelled/ . Accessed 9 May 2018.

FitchRatings. 2021. U.S. Cyber Insurance Market Update (Spike in Claims Leads to Decline in 2020 Underwriting Performance). https://www.fitchratings.com/research/insurance/us-cyber-insurance-market-update-spike-in-claims-leads-to-decline-in-2020-underwriting-performance-26-05-2021 .

Fossaceca, J.M., T.A. Mazzuchi, and S. Sarkani. 2015. MARK-ELM: Application of a novel Multiple Kernel Learning framework for improving the robustness of network intrusion detection. Expert Systems with Applications 42 (8): 4062–4080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2014.12.040 .

Franke, U., and J. Brynielsson. 2014. Cyber situational awareness–a systematic review of the literature. Computers & security 46: 18–31.

Freeha, K., K.J. Hwan, M. Lars, and M. Robin. 2021. Data breach management: An integrated risk model. Information & Management 58 (1): 103392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2020.103392 .

Ganeshan, R., and P. Rodrigues. 2020. Crow-AFL: Crow based adaptive fractional lion optimization approach for the intrusion detection. Wireless Personal Communications 111 (4): 2065–2089. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-019-06972-0 .

GAO. 2021. CYBER INSURANCE—Insurers and policyholders face challenges in an evolving market. https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-21-477.pdf . Accessed 16 May 2021.

Garber, J. 2021. Colonial Pipeline fiasco foreshadows impact of Biden energy policy. https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/colonial-pipeline-fiasco-foreshadows-impact-of-biden-energy-policy . Accessed 4 May 2021.

Gauthama Raman, M.R., N. Somu, S. Jagarapu, T. Manghnani, T. Selvam, K. Krithivasan, and V.S. Shankar Sriram. 2020. An efficient intrusion detection technique based on support vector machine and improved binary gravitational search algorithm. Artificial Intelligence Review 53 (5): 3255–3286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-019-09762-z .

Gavel, S., A.S. Raghuvanshi, and S. Tiwari. 2021. Distributed intrusion detection scheme using dual-axis dimensionality reduction for Internet of things (IoT). Journal of Supercomputing . https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-021-03697-5 .

GDPR.EU. 2021. FAQ. https://gdpr.eu/faq/ . Accessed 10 May 2021.

Georgescu, T.M., B. Iancu, and M. Zurini. 2019. Named-entity-recognition-based automated system for diagnosing cybersecurity situations in IoT networks. Sensors (switzerland) . https://doi.org/10.3390/s19153380 .

Giudici, P., and E. Raffinetti. 2020. Cyber risk ordering with rank-based statistical models. AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10182-020-00387-0 .

Goh, J., S. Adepu, K.N. Junejo, and A. Mathur. 2016. A dataset to support research in the design of secure water treatment systems. In CRITIS.

Gong, X.Y., J.L. Lu, Y.F. Zhou, H. Qiu, and R. He. 2021. Model uncertainty based annotation error fixing for web attack detection. Journal of Signal Processing Systems for Signal Image and Video Technology 93 (2–3): 187–199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11265-019-01494-1 .

Goode, S., H. Hoehle, V. Venkatesh, and S.A. Brown. 2017. USER compensation as a data breach recovery action: An investigation of the sony playstation network breach. MIS Quarterly 41 (3): 703–727.

Guo, H., S. Huang, C. Huang, Z. Pan, M. Zhang, and F. Shi. 2020. File entropy signal analysis combined with wavelet decomposition for malware classification. IEEE Access 8: 158961–158971. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3020330 .

Habib, M., I. Aljarah, and H. Faris. 2020. A Modified multi-objective particle swarm optimizer-based Lévy flight: An approach toward intrusion detection in Internet of Things. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering 45 (8): 6081–6108. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-020-04476-9 .

Hajj, S., R. El Sibai, J.B. Abdo, J. Demerjian, A. Makhoul, and C. Guyeux. 2021. Anomaly-based intrusion detection systems: The requirements, methods, measurements, and datasets. Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies 32 (4): 36. https://doi.org/10.1002/ett.4240 .

Heartfield, R., G. Loukas, A. Bezemskij, and E. Panaousis. 2021. Self-configurable cyber-physical intrusion detection for smart homes using reinforcement learning. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 16: 1720–1735. https://doi.org/10.1109/tifs.2020.3042049 .

Hemo, B., T. Gafni, K. Cohen, and Q. Zhao. 2020. Searching for anomalies over composite hypotheses. IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 68: 1181–1196. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSP.2020.2971438

Hindy, H., D. Brosset, E. Bayne, A.K. Seeam, C. Tachtatzis, R. Atkinson, and X. Bellekens. 2020. A taxonomy of network threats and the effect of current datasets on intrusion detection systems. IEEE Access 8: 104650–104675. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3000179 .

Hong, W., D. Huang, C. Chen, and J. Lee. 2020. Towards accurate and efficient classification of power system contingencies and cyber-attacks using recurrent neural networks. IEEE Access 8: 123297–123309. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3007609 .

Husák, M., M. Zádník, V. Bartos, and P. Sokol. 2020. Dataset of intrusion detection alerts from a sharing platform. Data in Brief 33: 106530.

IBM Security. 2020. Cost of a Data breach Report. https://www.capita.com/sites/g/files/nginej291/files/2020-08/Ponemon-Global-Cost-of-Data-Breach-Study-2020.pdf . Accessed 19 May 2021.

IEEE. 2021. IEEE Quick Facts. https://www.ieee.org/about/at-a-glance.html . Accessed 11 May 2021.

Kilincer, I.F., F. Ertam, and S. Abdulkadir. 2021. Machine learning methods for cyber security intrusion detection: Datasets and comparative study. Computer Networks 188: 107840. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2021.107840 .

Jaber, A.N., and S. Ul Rehman. 2020. FCM-SVM based intrusion detection system for cloud computing environment. Cluster Computing—the Journal of Networks Software Tools and Applications 23 (4): 3221–3231. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-020-03082-6 .

Jacobs, J., S. Romanosky, B. Edwards, M. Roytman, and I. Adjerid. 2019. Exploit prediction scoring system (epss). arXiv:1908.04856

Jacobsen, A. et al. 2020. FAIR principles: Interpretations and implementation considerations. Data Intelligence 2 (1–2): 10–29. https://doi.org/10.1162/dint_r_00024 .

Jahromi, A.N., S. Hashemi, A. Dehghantanha, R.M. Parizi, and K.K.R. Choo. 2020. An enhanced stacked LSTM method with no random initialization for malware threat hunting in safety and time-critical systems. IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence 4 (5): 630–640. https://doi.org/10.1109/TETCI.2019.2910243 .

Jang, S., S. Li, and Y. Sung. 2020. FastText-based local feature visualization algorithm for merged image-based malware classification framework for cyber security and cyber defense. Mathematics 8 (3): 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/math8030460 .

Javeed, D., T.H. Gao, and M.T. Khan. 2021. SDN-enabled hybrid DL-driven framework for the detection of emerging cyber threats in IoT. Electronics 10 (8): 16. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10080918 .

Johnson, P., D. Gorton, R. Lagerstrom, and M. Ekstedt. 2016. Time between vulnerability disclosures: A measure of software product vulnerability. Computers & Security 62: 278–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2016.08.004 .

Johnson, P., R. Lagerström, M. Ekstedt, and U. Franke. 2018. Can the common vulnerability scoring system be trusted? A Bayesian analysis. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing 15 (6): 1002–1015. https://doi.org/10.1109/TDSC.2016.2644614 .

Junger, M., V. Wang, and M. Schlömer. 2020. Fraud against businesses both online and offline: Crime scripts, business characteristics, efforts, and benefits. Crime Science 9 (1): 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-020-00119-4 .

Kalutarage, H.K., H.N. Nguyen, and S.A. Shaikh. 2017. Towards a threat assessment framework for apps collusion. Telecommunication Systems 66 (3): 417–430. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-017-0296-1 .

Kamarudin, M.H., C. Maple, T. Watson, and N.S. Safa. 2017. A LogitBoost-based algorithm for detecting known and unknown web attacks. IEEE Access 5: 26190–26200. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2017.2766844 .

Kasongo, S.M., and Y.X. Sun. 2020. A deep learning method with wrapper based feature extraction for wireless intrusion detection system. Computers & Security 92: 15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2020.101752 .

Keserwani, P.K., M.C. Govil, E.S. Pilli, and P. Govil. 2021. A smart anomaly-based intrusion detection system for the Internet of Things (IoT) network using GWO–PSO–RF model. Journal of Reliable Intelligent Environments 7 (1): 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40860-020-00126-x .

Keshk, M., E. Sitnikova, N. Moustafa, J. Hu, and I. Khalil. 2021. An integrated framework for privacy-preserving based anomaly detection for cyber-physical systems. IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Computing 6 (1): 66–79. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSUSC.2019.2906657 .

Khan, I.A., D.C. Pi, A.K. Bhatia, N. Khan, W. Haider, and A. Wahab. 2020. Generating realistic IoT-based IDS dataset centred on fuzzy qualitative modelling for cyber-physical systems. Electronics Letters 56 (9): 441–443. https://doi.org/10.1049/el.2019.4158 .

Khraisat, A., I. Gondal, P. Vamplew, J. Kamruzzaman, and A. Alazab. 2020. Hybrid intrusion detection system based on the stacking ensemble of C5 decision tree classifier and one class support vector machine. Electronics 9 (1): 18. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9010173 .

Khraisat, A., I. Gondal, P. Vamplew, and J. Kamruzzaman. 2019. Survey of intrusion detection systems: Techniques, datasets and challenges. Cybersecurity 2 (1): 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42400-019-0038-7 .

Kilincer, I.F., F. Ertam, and A. Sengur. 2021. Machine learning methods for cyber security intrusion detection: Datasets and comparative study. Computer Networks 188: 16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2021.107840 .

Kim, D., and H.K. Kim. 2019. Automated dataset generation system for collaborative research of cyber threat analysis. Security and Communication Networks 2019: 10. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/6268476 .

Kim, G., C. Lee, J. Jo, and H. Lim. 2020. Automatic extraction of named entities of cyber threats using a deep Bi-LSTM-CRF network. International Journal of Machine Learning and Cybernetics 11 (10): 2341–2355. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13042-020-01122-6 .

Kirubavathi, G., and R. Anitha. 2016. Botnet detection via mining of traffic flow characteristics. Computers & Electrical Engineering 50: 91–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2016.01.012 .

Kiwia, D., A. Dehghantanha, K.K.R. Choo, and J. Slaughter. 2018. A cyber kill chain based taxonomy of banking Trojans for evolutionary computational intelligence. Journal of Computational Science 27: 394–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocs.2017.10.020 .

Koroniotis, N., N. Moustafa, and E. Sitnikova. 2020. A new network forensic framework based on deep learning for Internet of Things networks: A particle deep framework. Future Generation Computer Systems 110: 91–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2020.03.042 .

Kruse, C.S., B. Frederick, T. Jacobson, and D. Kyle Monticone. 2017. Cybersecurity in healthcare: A systematic review of modern threats and trends. Technology and Health Care 25 (1): 1–10.

Kshetri, N. 2018. The economics of cyber-insurance. IT Professional 20 (6): 9–14. https://doi.org/10.1109/MITP.2018.2874210 .

Kumar, R., P. Kumar, R. Tripathi, G.P. Gupta, T.R. Gadekallu, and G. Srivastava. 2021. SP2F: A secured privacy-preserving framework for smart agricultural Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Computer Networks . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2021.107819 .

Kumar, R., and R. Tripathi. 2021. DBTP2SF: A deep blockchain-based trustworthy privacy-preserving secured framework in industrial internet of things systems. Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies 32 (4): 27. https://doi.org/10.1002/ett.4222 .

Laso, P.M., D. Brosset, and J. Puentes. 2017. Dataset of anomalies and malicious acts in a cyber-physical subsystem. Data in Brief 14: 186–191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2017.07.038 .

Lee, J., J. Kim, I. Kim, and K. Han. 2019. Cyber threat detection based on artificial neural networks using event profiles. IEEE Access 7: 165607–165626. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2953095 .

Lee, S.J., P.D. Yoo, A.T. Asyhari, Y. Jhi, L. Chermak, C.Y. Yeun, and K. Taha. 2020. IMPACT: Impersonation attack detection via edge computing using deep Autoencoder and feature abstraction. IEEE Access 8: 65520–65529. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2985089 .

Leong, Y.-Y., and Y.-C. Chen. 2020. Cyber risk cost and management in IoT devices-linked health insurance. The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance—Issues and Practice 45 (4): 737–759. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41288-020-00169-4 .

Levi, M. 2017. Assessing the trends, scale and nature of economic cybercrimes: overview and Issues: In Cybercrimes, cybercriminals and their policing, in crime, law and social change. Crime, Law and Social Change 67 (1): 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-016-9645-3 .

Li, C., K. Mills, D. Niu, R. Zhu, H. Zhang, and H. Kinawi. 2019a. Android malware detection based on factorization machine. IEEE Access 7: 184008–184019. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2958927 .

Li, D.Q., and Q.M. Li. 2020. Adversarial deep ensemble: evasion attacks and defenses for malware detection. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 15: 3886–3900. https://doi.org/10.1109/tifs.2020.3003571 .

Li, D.Q., Q.M. Li, Y.F. Ye, and S.H. Xu. 2021. A framework for enhancing deep neural networks against adversarial malware. IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering 8 (1): 736–750. https://doi.org/10.1109/tnse.2021.3051354 .

Li, R.H., C. Zhang, C. Feng, X. Zhang, and C.J. Tang. 2019b. Locating vulnerability in binaries using deep neural networks. IEEE Access 7: 134660–134676. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2942043 .

Li, X., M. Xu, P. Vijayakumar, N. Kumar, and X. Liu. 2020. Detection of low-frequency and multi-stage attacks in industrial Internet of Things. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 69 (8): 8820–8831. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVT.2020.2995133 .

Liu, H.Y., and B. Lang. 2019. Machine learning and deep learning methods for intrusion detection systems: A survey. Applied Sciences—Basel 9 (20): 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9204396 .

Lopez-Martin, M., B. Carro, and A. Sanchez-Esguevillas. 2020. Application of deep reinforcement learning to intrusion detection for supervised problems. Expert Systems with Applications . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2019.112963 .

Loukas, G., D. Gan, and Tuan Vuong. 2013. A review of cyber threats and defence approaches in emergency management. Future Internet 5: 205–236.

Luo, C.C., S. Su, Y.B. Sun, Q.J. Tan, M. Han, and Z.H. Tian. 2020. A convolution-based system for malicious URLs detection. CMC—Computers Materials Continua 62 (1): 399–411.

Mahbooba, B., M. Timilsina, R. Sahal, and M. Serrano. 2021. Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) to enhance trust management in intrusion detection systems using decision tree model. Complexity 2021: 11. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6634811 .

Mahdavifar, S., and A.A. Ghorbani. 2020. DeNNeS: Deep embedded neural network expert system for detecting cyber attacks. Neural Computing & Applications 32 (18): 14753–14780. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-020-04830-w .

Mahfouz, A., A. Abuhussein, D. Venugopal, and S. Shiva. 2020. Ensemble classifiers for network intrusion detection using a novel network attack dataset. Future Internet 12 (11): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi12110180 .

Maleks Smith, Z., E. Lostri, and J.A. Lewis. 2020. The hidden costs of cybercrime. https://www.mcafee.com/enterprise/en-us/assets/reports/rp-hidden-costs-of-cybercrime.pdf . Accessed 16 May 2021.

Malik, J., A. Akhunzada, I. Bibi, M. Imran, A. Musaddiq, and S.W. Kim. 2020. Hybrid deep learning: An efficient reconnaissance and surveillance detection mechanism in SDN. IEEE Access 8: 134695–134706. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3009849 .

Manimurugan, S. 2020. IoT-Fog-Cloud model for anomaly detection using improved Naive Bayes and principal component analysis. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing . https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-020-02723-3 .

Martin, A., R. Lara-Cabrera, and D. Camacho. 2019. Android malware detection through hybrid features fusion and ensemble classifiers: The AndroPyTool framework and the OmniDroid dataset. Information Fusion 52: 128–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inffus.2018.12.006 .

Mauro, M.D., G. Galatro, and A. Liotta. 2020. Experimental review of neural-based approaches for network intrusion management. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management 17 (4): 2480–2495. https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSM.2020.3024225 .

McLeod, A., and D. Dolezel. 2018. Cyber-analytics: Modeling factors associated with healthcare data breaches. Decision Support Systems 108: 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2018.02.007 .

Meira, J., R. Andrade, I. Praca, J. Carneiro, V. Bolon-Canedo, A. Alonso-Betanzos, and G. Marreiros. 2020. Performance evaluation of unsupervised techniques in cyber-attack anomaly detection. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing 11 (11): 4477–4489. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-019-01417-9 .

Miao, Y., J. Ma, X. Liu, J. Weng, H. Li, and H. Li. 2019. Lightweight fine-grained search over encrypted data in Fog computing. IEEE Transactions on Services Computing 12 (5): 772–785. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSC.2018.2823309 .

Miller, C., and C. Valasek. 2015. Remote exploitation of an unaltered passenger vehicle. Black Hat USA 2015 (S 91).

Mireles, J.D., E. Ficke, J.H. Cho, P. Hurley, and S.H. Xu. 2019. Metrics towards measuring cyber agility. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 14 (12): 3217–3232. https://doi.org/10.1109/tifs.2019.2912551 .

Mishra, N., and S. Pandya. 2021. Internet of Things applications, security challenges, attacks, intrusion detection, and future visions: A systematic review. IEEE Access . https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3073408 .

Monshizadeh, M., V. Khatri, B.G. Atli, R. Kantola, and Z. Yan. 2019. Performance evaluation of a combined anomaly detection platform. IEEE Access 7: 100964–100978. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2930832 .

Moreno, V.C., G. Reniers, E. Salzano, and V. Cozzani. 2018. Analysis of physical and cyber security-related events in the chemical and process industry. Process Safety and Environmental Protection 116: 621–631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2018.03.026 .

Moro, E.D. 2020. Towards an economic cyber loss index for parametric cover based on IT security indicator: A preliminary analysis. Risks . https://doi.org/10.3390/risks8020045 .

Moustafa, N., E. Adi, B. Turnbull, and J. Hu. 2018. A new threat intelligence scheme for safeguarding industry 4.0 systems. IEEE Access 6: 32910–32924. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2844794 .

Moustakidis, S., and P. Karlsson. 2020. A novel feature extraction methodology using Siamese convolutional neural networks for intrusion detection. Cybersecurity . https://doi.org/10.1186/s42400-020-00056-4 .

Mukhopadhyay, A., S. Chatterjee, K.K. Bagchi, P.J. Kirs, and G.K. Shukla. 2019. Cyber Risk Assessment and Mitigation (CRAM) framework using Logit and Probit models for cyber insurance. Information Systems Frontiers 21 (5): 997–1018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-017-9808-5 .

Murphey, H. 2021a. Biden signs executive order to strengthen US cyber security. https://www.ft.com/content/4d808359-b504-4014-85f6-68e7a2851bf1?accessToken=zwAAAXl0_ifgkc9NgINZtQRAFNOF9mjnooUb8Q.MEYCIQDw46SFWsMn1iyuz3kvgAmn6mxc0rIVfw10Lg1ovJSfJwIhAK2X2URzfSqHwIS7ddRCvSt2nGC2DcdoiDTG49-4TeEt&sharetype=gift?token=fbcd6323-1ecf-4fc3-b136-b5b0dd6a8756 . Accessed 7 May 2021.

Murphey, H. 2021b. Millions of connected devices have security flaws, study shows. https://www.ft.com/content/0bf92003-926d-4dee-87d7-b01f7c3e9621?accessToken=zwAAAXnA7f2Ikc8L-SADkm1N7tOH17AffD6WIQ.MEQCIDjBuROvhmYV0Mx3iB0cEV7m5oND1uaCICxJu0mzxM0PAiBam98q9zfHiTB6hKGr1gGl0Azt85yazdpX9K5sI8se3Q&sharetype=gift?token=2538218d-77d9-4dd3-9649-3cb556a34e51 . Accessed 6 May 2021.

Murugesan, V., M. Shalinie, and M.H. Yang. 2018. Design and analysis of hybrid single packet IP traceback scheme. IET Networks 7 (3): 141–151. https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-net.2017.0115 .

Mwitondi, K.S., and S.A. Zargari. 2018. An iterative multiple sampling method for intrusion detection. Information Security Journal 27 (4): 230–239. https://doi.org/10.1080/19393555.2018.1539790 .

Neto, N.N., S. Madnick, A.M.G. De Paula, and N.M. Borges. 2021. Developing a global data breach database and the challenges encountered. ACM Journal of Data and Information Quality 13 (1): 33. https://doi.org/10.1145/3439873 .

Nurse, J.R.C., L. Axon, A. Erola, I. Agrafiotis, M. Goldsmith, and S. Creese. 2020. The data that drives cyber insurance: A study into the underwriting and claims processes. In 2020 International conference on cyber situational awareness, data analytics and assessment (CyberSA), 15–19 June 2020.

Oliveira, N., I. Praca, E. Maia, and O. Sousa. 2021. Intelligent cyber attack detection and classification for network-based intrusion detection systems. Applied Sciences—Basel 11 (4): 21. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11041674 .

Page, M.J. et al. 2021. The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. Systematic Reviews 10 (1): 89. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-021-01626-4 .

Pajouh, H.H., R. Javidan, R. Khayami, A. Dehghantanha, and K.R. Choo. 2019. A two-layer dimension reduction and two-tier classification model for anomaly-based intrusion detection in IoT backbone networks. IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing 7 (2): 314–323. https://doi.org/10.1109/TETC.2016.2633228 .

Parra, G.D., P. Rad, K.K.R. Choo, and N. Beebe. 2020. Detecting Internet of Things attacks using distributed deep learning. Journal of Network and Computer Applications 163: 13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2020.102662 .

Paté-Cornell, M.E., M. Kuypers, M. Smith, and P. Keller. 2018. Cyber risk management for critical infrastructure: A risk analysis model and three case studies. Risk Analysis 38 (2): 226–241. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12844 .

Pooser, D.M., M.J. Browne, and O. Arkhangelska. 2018. Growth in the perception of cyber risk: evidence from U.S. P&C Insurers. The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance—Issues and Practice 43 (2): 208–223. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41288-017-0077-9 .

Pu, G., L. Wang, J. Shen, and F. Dong. 2021. A hybrid unsupervised clustering-based anomaly detection method. Tsinghua Science and Technology 26 (2): 146–153. https://doi.org/10.26599/TST.2019.9010051 .

Qiu, J., W. Luo, L. Pan, Y. Tai, J. Zhang, and Y. Xiang. 2019. Predicting the impact of android malicious samples via machine learning. IEEE Access 7: 66304–66316. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2914311 .

Qu, X., L. Yang, K. Guo, M. Sun, L. Ma, T. Feng, S. Ren, K. Li, and X. Ma. 2020. Direct batch growth hierarchical self-organizing mapping based on statistics for efficient network intrusion detection. IEEE Access 8: 42251–42260. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2976810 .

Rahman, Md.S., S. Halder, Md. Ashraf Uddin, and U.K. Acharjee. 2021. An efficient hybrid system for anomaly detection in social networks. Cybersecurity 4 (1): 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42400-021-00074-w .

Ramaiah, M., V. Chandrasekaran, V. Ravi, and N. Kumar. 2021. An intrusion detection system using optimized deep neural network architecture. Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies 32 (4): 17. https://doi.org/10.1002/ett.4221 .

Raman, M.R.G., K. Kannan, S.K. Pal, and V.S.S. Sriram. 2016. Rough set-hypergraph-based feature selection approach for intrusion detection systems. Defence Science Journal 66 (6): 612–617. https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.66.10802 .

Rathore, S., J.H. Park. 2018. Semi-supervised learning based distributed attack detection framework for IoT. Applied Soft Computing 72: 79–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2018.05.049 .

Romanosky, S., L. Ablon, A. Kuehn, and T. Jones. 2019. Content analysis of cyber insurance policies: How do carriers price cyber risk? Journal of Cybersecurity (oxford) 5 (1): tyz002.

Sarabi, A., P. Naghizadeh, Y. Liu, and M. Liu. 2016. Risky business: Fine-grained data breach prediction using business profiles. Journal of Cybersecurity 2 (1): 15–28. https://doi.org/10.1093/cybsec/tyw004 .

Sardi, Alberto, Alessandro Rizzi, Enrico Sorano, and Anna Guerrieri. 2021. Cyber risk in health facilities: A systematic literature review. Sustainability 12 (17): 7002.

Sarker, Iqbal H., A.S.M. Kayes, Shahriar Badsha, Hamed Alqahtani, Paul Watters, and Alex Ng. 2020. Cybersecurity data science: An overview from machine learning perspective. Journal of Big Data 7 (1): 41. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-020-00318-5 .

Scopus. 2021. Factsheet. https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/114533/Scopus_GlobalResearch_Factsheet2019_FINAL_WEB.pdf . Accessed 11 May 2021.

Sentuna, A., A. Alsadoon, P.W.C. Prasad, M. Saadeh, and O.H. Alsadoon. 2021. A novel Enhanced Naïve Bayes Posterior Probability (ENBPP) using machine learning: Cyber threat analysis. Neural Processing Letters 53 (1): 177–209. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11063-020-10381-x .

Shaukat, K., S.H. Luo, V. Varadharajan, I.A. Hameed, S. Chen, D.X. Liu, and J.M. Li. 2020. Performance comparison and current challenges of using machine learning techniques in cybersecurity. Energies 13 (10): 27. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13102509 .

Sheehan, B., F. Murphy, M. Mullins, and C. Ryan. 2019. Connected and autonomous vehicles: A cyber-risk classification framework. Transportation Research Part a: Policy and Practice 124: 523–536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2018.06.033 .

Sheehan, B., F. Murphy, A.N. Kia, and R. Kiely. 2021. A quantitative bow-tie cyber risk classification and assessment framework. Journal of Risk Research 24 (12): 1619–1638.

Shlomo, A., M. Kalech, and R. Moskovitch. 2021. Temporal pattern-based malicious activity detection in SCADA systems. Computers & Security 102: 17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2020.102153 .

Singh, K.J., and T. De. 2020. Efficient classification of DDoS attacks using an ensemble feature selection algorithm. Journal of Intelligent Systems 29 (1): 71–83. https://doi.org/10.1515/jisys-2017-0472 .

Skrjanc, I., S. Ozawa, T. Ban, and D. Dovzan. 2018. Large-scale cyber attacks monitoring using Evolving Cauchy Possibilistic Clustering. Applied Soft Computing 62: 592–601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2017.11.008 .

Smart, W. 2018. Lessons learned review of the WannaCry Ransomware Cyber Attack. https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/lessons-learned-review-wannacry-ransomware-cyber-attack-cio-review.pdf . Accessed 7 May 2021.

Sornette, D., T. Maillart, and W. Kröger. 2013. Exploring the limits of safety analysis in complex technological systems. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6: 59–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2013.04.002 .

Sovacool, B.K. 2008. The costs of failure: A preliminary assessment of major energy accidents, 1907–2007. Energy Policy 36 (5): 1802–1820. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2008.01.040 .

SpringerLink. 2021. Journal Search. https://rd.springer.com/search?facet-content-type=%22Journal%22 . Accessed 11 May 2021.

Stojanovic, B., K. Hofer-Schmitz, and U. Kleb. 2020. APT datasets and attack modeling for automated detection methods: A review. Computers & Security 92: 19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2020.101734 .

Subroto, A., and A. Apriyana. 2019. Cyber risk prediction through social media big data analytics and statistical machine learning. Journal of Big Data . https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-019-0216-1 .

Tan, Z., A. Jamdagni, X. He, P. Nanda, R.P. Liu, and J. Hu. 2015. Detection of denial-of-service attacks based on computer vision techniques. IEEE Transactions on Computers 64 (9): 2519–2533. https://doi.org/10.1109/TC.2014.2375218 .

Tidy, J. 2021. Irish cyber-attack: Hackers bail out Irish health service for free. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57197688 . Accessed 6 May 2021.

Tuncer, T., F. Ertam, and S. Dogan. 2020. Automated malware recognition method based on local neighborhood binary pattern. Multimedia Tools and Applications 79 (37–38): 27815–27832. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-020-09376-6 .

Uhm, Y., and W. Pak. 2021. Service-aware two-level partitioning for machine learning-based network intrusion detection with high performance and high scalability. IEEE Access 9: 6608–6622. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3048900 .

Ulven, J.B., and G. Wangen. 2021. A systematic review of cybersecurity risks in higher education. Future Internet 13 (2): 1–40. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi13020039 .

Vaccari, I., G. Chiola, M. Aiello, M. Mongelli, and E. Cambiaso. 2020. MQTTset, a new dataset for machine learning techniques on MQTT. Sensors 20 (22): 17. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20226578 .

Valeriano, B., and R.C. Maness. 2014. The dynamics of cyber conflict between rival antagonists, 2001–11. Journal of Peace Research 51 (3): 347–360. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343313518940 .

Varghese, J.E., and B. Muniyal. 2021. An Efficient IDS framework for DDoS attacks in SDN environment. IEEE Access 9: 69680–69699. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3078065 .

Varsha, M. V., P. Vinod, K.A. Dhanya. 2017 Identification of malicious android app using manifest and opcode features. Journal of Computer Virology and Hacking Techniques 13 (2): 125–138. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11416-016-0277-z

Velliangiri, S., and H.M. Pandey. 2020. Fuzzy-Taylor-elephant herd optimization inspired Deep Belief Network for DDoS attack detection and comparison with state-of-the-arts algorithms. Future Generation Computer Systems—the International Journal of Escience 110: 80–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2020.03.049 .

Verma, A., and V. Ranga. 2020. Machine learning based intrusion detection systems for IoT applications. Wireless Personal Communications 111 (4): 2287–2310. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-019-06986-8 .

Vidros, S., C. Kolias, G. Kambourakis, and L. Akoglu. 2017. Automatic detection of online recruitment frauds: Characteristics, methods, and a public dataset. Future Internet 9 (1): 19. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi9010006 .

Vinayakumar, R., M. Alazab, K.P. Soman, P. Poornachandran, A. Al-Nemrat, and S. Venkatraman. 2019. Deep learning approach for intelligent intrusion detection system. IEEE Access 7: 41525–41550. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2895334 .

Walker-Roberts, S., M. Hammoudeh, O. Aldabbas, M. Aydin, and A. Dehghantanha. 2020. Threats on the horizon: Understanding security threats in the era of cyber-physical systems. Journal of Supercomputing 76 (4): 2643–2664. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-019-03028-9 .

Web of Science. 2021. Web of Science: Science Citation Index Expanded. https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/solutions/webofscience-scie/ . Accessed 11 May 2021.

World Economic Forum. 2020. WEF Global Risk Report. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risk_Report_2020.pdf . Accessed 13 May 2020.

Xin, Y., L. Kong, Z. Liu, Y. Chen, Y. Li, H. Zhu, M. Gao, H. Hou, and C. Wang. 2018. Machine learning and deep learning methods for cybersecurity. IEEE Access 6: 35365–35381. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2836950 .

Xu, C., J. Zhang, K. Chang, and C. Long. 2013. Uncovering collusive spammers in Chinese review websites. In Proceedings of the 22nd ACM international conference on Information & Knowledge Management.

Yang, J., T. Li, G. Liang, W. He, and Y. Zhao. 2019. A Simple recurrent unit model based intrusion detection system with DCGAN. IEEE Access 7: 83286–83296. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2922692 .

Yuan, B.G., J.F. Wang, D. Liu, W. Guo, P. Wu, and X.H. Bao. 2020. Byte-level malware classification based on Markov images and deep learning. Computers & Security 92: 12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2020.101740 .

Zhang, S., X.M. Ou, and D. Caragea. 2015. Predicting cyber risks through national vulnerability database. Information Security Journal 24 (4–6): 194–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/19393555.2015.1111961 .

Zhang, Y., P. Li, and X. Wang. 2019. Intrusion detection for IoT based on improved genetic algorithm and deep belief network. IEEE Access 7: 31711–31722.

Zheng, Muwei, Hannah Robbins, Zimo Chai, Prakash Thapa, and Tyler Moore. 2018. Cybersecurity research datasets: taxonomy and empirical analysis. In 11th {USENIX} workshop on cyber security experimentation and test ({CSET} 18).

Zhou, X., W. Liang, S. Shimizu, J. Ma, and Q. Jin. 2021. Siamese neural network based few-shot learning for anomaly detection in industrial cyber-physical systems. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics 17 (8): 5790–5798. https://doi.org/10.1109/TII.2020.3047675 .

Zhou, Y.Y., G. Cheng, S.Q. Jiang, and M. Dai. 2020. Building an efficient intrusion detection system based on feature selection and ensemble classifier. Computer Networks 174: 17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107247 .

Download references

Open Access funding provided by the IReL Consortium.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

Frank Cremer, Barry Sheehan, Arash N. Kia, Martin Mullins & Finbarr Murphy

TH Köln University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany

Michael Fortmann & Stefan Materne

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Barry Sheehan .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest.

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (PDF 334 kb)

Supplementary file1 (docx 418 kb), rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cremer, F., Sheehan, B., Fortmann, M. et al. Cyber risk and cybersecurity: a systematic review of data availability. Geneva Pap Risk Insur Issues Pract 47 , 698–736 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41288-022-00266-6

Download citation

Received : 15 June 2021

Accepted : 20 January 2022

Published : 17 February 2022

Issue Date : July 2022

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41288-022-00266-6

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

  • Cyber insurance
  • Systematic review
  • Cybersecurity
  • Find a journal
  • Publish with us
  • Track your research

Cookie Notice

This website uses cookies. Contact us for questions or requests.

Augusta University Logo

Information for:

  • Current Students
  • Faculty & Staff
  • Degrees & Programs
  • Campus Maps
  • Jobs & Careers
  • Campus Shuttles
  • Student Life
  •   Giving

Looking through a glass door into a room with computers and office equipment

  • Augusta University

5 Research Topics in Cybersecurity

In 2022, market and consumer data firm Statista reported that cyberattacks would cost individuals and companies $8.4 trillion globally that year. By 2027, it projected, the cost would rise to $23.8 trillion. Cyberattacks occur when individuals gain unauthorized access to digital systems and information for malicious purposes. Their enormous cost to people and organizations makes it critical to protect systems, software and data against those attacks.

The term “cybersecurity” refers to efforts to protect corporate or personal electronic equipment against these costly attacks. Understanding the vulnerabilities that can allow unauthorized and damaging access to digital systems is a key component in cybersecurity research. An advanced degree in information security management can help professionals learn how cybersecurity risks are evolving, what cybersecurity risks to look for in their own organizations and how to address them.

What Is Cybersecurity Research?

Cybersecurity research focuses on reviewing digital tools and processes to reveal potential vulnerabilities. Research on cybersecurity topics ranging from the Internet of Things (IoT) to work-from-home (WFH) information security can help people and companies stave off data breaches in those key areas.

Cybersecurity professionals can rely on computer science research tactics such as testing web browsers and online applications to uncover areas that a hacker could exploit to gain unauthorized data access. They can also turn to empirical research that examines issues related to cybersecurity from various angles, from criminal science to international relations, and that offers approaches to address those concerns.

In fact, conducting research about potential security threats and information technology (IT) trends is a key responsibility of cybersecurity professionals, such as information security analysts.

Why Is Cybersecurity Research Important?

The value of cybersecurity research is growing due to the proliferation of connected devices that allow cybercriminals to access digital information — and as the costs associated with successful cyberattacks increase.

The origin of cyberattacks can be computers and the systems that run them, but it can also be any of hundreds of everyday devices that use technology to collect and share data. From smartphones to medical equipment, the tools that cyberattackers can compromise generate or store a staggering amount of data.

Statista reports that the amount of data created, copied, downloaded and read globally in 2010 was 2 zettabytes. By 2025, Statista predicts, the capacity of the data in use around the world will reach 181 zettabytes.

The growth in the use of data is occurring alongside a host of issues, from COVID-19-related disruptions to geopolitical events, that can make the technology that shares and stores it more vulnerable to attack. Conducting research on cybersecurity topics can assist IT professionals in protecting these large amounts of data during challenging times by helping them:

  • Understand the vulnerabilities of digital tools and processes
  • Determine the significance of data breach impacts
  • Prioritize their efforts to ensure protection of critical information

5 Current Research Topics in Cybersecurity?

Today’s most pressing research topics in cybersecurity go beyond password protection and firewalls. A global pandemic, geopolitical events and technological advances are also behind some key topics that are now driving cybersecurity research. Below are five of those top cybersecurity research topics.

1. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI), in which machines complete tasks that traditionally had required humans to perform, today is helping computing professionals observe and analyze activity related to large amounts of digital data. The efficiency of using AI for cybersecurity can lead to significant savings as organizations respond to data compromises. The shortened response time led companies to an average of $3 million in savings in those situations, according to a 2022 report from IBM.

One key research topic for cybersecurity professionals is how best to use AI to find potential vulnerabilities and remove them — before cyberattackers use that same technology to find those security risks and exploit them.

However, AI in the wrong hands can also present a cybersecurity risk. AI can also be a tool for misusing data, with cybercriminals relying on this technology to create inauthentic emails and phone messages to trick users into providing personal data. The increasing reliance on AI makes this issue even more important for cybersecurity researchers, with Statista projecting in 2022 that the AI software market would reach $126 billion around the world by 2025.

2. Digital Supply Chains

Digital supply chain systems monitor and evaluate the functions of each party in the chain, to help them produce and distribute products more efficiently. Hackers can exploit the technology used in this process, making cyberattacks an additional threat to supply chains already experiencing disruptions related to the pandemic.

For example, technology research firm Gartner, predicted in 2022 that by 2025, a total of 45 percent of companies would suffer digital attacks on their supply chains. This percentage is three times higher than the percentage from 2021. A 2022 report from cybersecurity company Venafi found that 82 percent of chief information officers feared that their organizations’ supply chains were vulnerable to this type of attack.

Cybersecurity professionals today are investigating potential digital security risks in supply chains, while corporate leaders are seeking out suppliers that focus on researching — and correcting — these vulnerabilities.

3. Internet of Things

The IoT refers to the ability to connect almost any device with the internet and with other connected tools. From kitchen appliances to wearable fitness gadgets, numerous products and tools are part of the IoT. Statista reported in 2022 that more than 11 million devices were digitally connected in 2021. The firm also projected that more than 29 billion devices would be IoT connected by 2030.

The many devices that rely on the IoT measure and process vast amounts of data, and the networks and cloud systems that hold and share that data present a host of security risks. A key area of cybersecurity research has been tracking these vulnerabilities. Manufacturers, consumers and governments have begun using the knowledge gathered by cybersecurity researchers to establish practices and policies that safeguard against the risks these researchers are finding.

4. State-Sponsored Attacks

Cyberattacks from government actors seeking state secrets are nothing new, but a growing trend is for hackers seeking this unauthorized access to target organizations and individuals with no government affiliation. The ultimate goal can be intelligence, technology theft, supply chain disruption or even influencing internal politics through disinformation.

A 2022 Forbes article noted that in 2023, more than 70 nations were set to conduct elections, and the digital activities related to these events, including reports about them, are a frequent target of hostile government actors. Additionally, countries involved in armed conflicts increasingly rely on cyberattacks to gain advantage over enemy governments, even when it involves interfering with the work of private companies and citizens.

These trends have made it critical for cybersecurity researchers to learn more about potential vulnerabilities in government networks, attacks on private companies that can impact critical infrastructure, and the security of elections.

5. Working From Home

Fueled by pandemic restrictions, the number of WFH employees exploded in recent years. The number of remote workers will reach more than 36 million in the U.S. by 2025, according to 2020 projections from freelancing platform Upwork.

The many employees based at off-site locations have made managing data security difficult for companies, whose workers may use unprotected devices to access and transmit business information. That leaves the employees vulnerable to attacks that target sensitive data or threaten malicious activity unless the company meets the hackers’ demands.

Adding to the security risk is the proliferation of work and other activity that requires the use of the internet and internet-based tools like videoconferencing. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey showed that 40 percent of Americans had relied on these types of tools and processes in new ways since the pandemic began in early 2020. Cybersecurity professionals are studying how best to protect employees — and the corporate data they use in their work — from cyberattackers.

Take a Leadership Role in Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity research can shed light on issues with data protection — and the tools and processes that provide it. If you’re ready to help guide your organization’s response to cybersecurity issues, explore Augusta University Online’s Master of Science (MS) in Information Security Management program.

Through online courses focused on Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification elements, students can gain the knowledge to help their employers navigate today’s cybersecurity challenges. Explore how AU Online’s MS in Information Security Management can help you reach your career goals.

Built In, “What Is Artificial Intelligence?” Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Cyber Threats and Advisories Forbes, “The Top Five Cybersecurity Trends in 2023” Gartner, “7 Top Trends in Cybersecurity for 2022” IBM, “Cost of Data Breach 2022: A Million Dollar Race to Detect and Respond” IBM, What Is Cybersecurity? Journal of Cybersecurity, About the Journal Microsoft, What Is a Cyberattack? Network World, “What Is IoT? The Internet of Things Explained” Oracle, “Digital Supply Chain Explained” Pew Research Center, “The Internet and the Pandemic” Statista, Estimated Cost of Cybercrime Worldwide From 2016 to 2027 Statista, Number of Internet of Things (IoT)-Connected Devices Worldwide From 2019 to 2021, With Forecasts From 2022 to 2030 Statista, Revenues From the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Software Market Worldwide From 2018 to 2025 Statista, Volume of Data/Information Created, Captured, Copied, and Consumed Worldwide From 2010 to 2020, With Forecasts From 2021 to 2025 TechRadar Pro, “Why Cybersecurity Research Is Now More Important Than Ever” The Conversation, “5 Ways the COVID-19 Pandemic Has Forever Changed Cybersecurity” Upwork, Upwork Study Finds 22% of American Workforce Will Be Remote by 2025 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Information Security Analysts Venafi, “Study: 82% of CIOs Say Their Software Supply Chains Are Vulnerable” Vivaldi, “An Insight Into Security Research and Ethical Hacking”

Want to hear more about Augusta University Online’s programs?

Fill out the form below, and an admissions representative will reach out to you via email or phone with more information. After you’ve completed the form, you’ll automatically be redirected to learn more about Augusta University Online and your chosen program.

283 Hottest Cybersecurity Research Topics & Questions [2024]

Your computer stores your memories, contacts, and study-related materials. It’s probably one of your most valuable items. But how often do you think about its safety?

Cyber security is something that can help you with this. Simply put, it prevents digital attacks so that no one can access your data. Do you want to write a research paper related to the modern challenges of cyberspace? This article has all you need. In here, you’ll find:

  • An overview of cyber security’s research areas.
  • A selection of compelling cyber security research topics.

And don’t hesitate to contact our custom writing team in case you need any assistance!

  • 🔝 Top 10 Topics
  • ✅ Research Areas
  • ⭐ Top 10 Cybersecurity Topics
  • 🔒 Technology Security Topics
  • 🖥️ Cybercrime Topics
  • ⚖️ Cyber Law & Ethics Topics
  • 👨‍💻 Thesis Topics
  • 🎓 Research Paper Topics
  • 💽 Topics for Presentation
  • ❓ Research Questions
  • 💡 Debate Topics
  • ✨ Interesting Topics

🔍 References

🔝 top 10 cyber security research topics.

  • How does malware work?
  • The principle of zero trust access
  • 3 phases of application security
  • Should removable media be encrypted?
  • The importance of network security
  • The importance of end-user education
  • Cloud security posture management
  • Do biometrics ensure security of IPhones?
  • Can strong passwords protect information?
  • Is security in critical infrastructure important?

✅ Cyber Security Topics & Research Areas

Cyber security is a vast, constantly evolving field. Its research takes place in many areas. Among them are:

The picture shows the main research areas in cyber security: topics in quantum and space, data privacy, criminology and law, AI and IoT security.

  • Safe quantum and space communications . Progress in quantum technologies and space travel calls for extra layers of protection.
  • Data privacy. If someone’s personal information falls into the wrong hands, the consequences can be dire. That’s why research in this area focuses on encryption techniques.
  • (Inter)national cyberethics, criminology, and law. This branch analyzes how international legal frameworks work online.
  • AI and IoT security . We spend more and more of our daily lives online. Additionally, our reliance on AI increases. This scientific field strives to ensure a safe continuation of this path.

As you can see, cyber security extends in various exciting directions that you can explore. Naturally, every paper needs a cover page. We know that it’s one of the more annoying parts, so it’s not a bad thing to use a title page generator for your research paper . Now, let’s move on to our cyber topics list.

⭐ Top 10 Cybersecurity Topics 2024

  • Is removable media a threat?
  • Blockchain security vulnerabilities
  • Why should you avoid public Wi-Fi?
  • How to prevent phishing attacks
  • Physical security measures in banks
  • Security breaches of remote working
  • How does two-factor authentication work?
  • How to prevent social engineering attacks
  • Cybersecurity standards for automotive
  • Privacy settings of social media accounts

🔒 Computer Security Topics to Research

Safe computer and network usage is crucial. It concerns not only business but also individuals. Security programs and systems ensure this protection. Explore them with one of our topics:

  • How do companies avoid sending out confidential information? Sending an email to the wrong person has happened to the best of us. But what happens if the message’s contents were classified? For your paper, you can find out what technologies can prevent such slip-ups.
  • What are the best ways to detect malicious activity? Any organization’s website gets plenty of daily traffic. People log in, browse, and interact with each other. Among all of them, it might be easy for an intruder to slip in.
  • Internet censorship: classified information leaks. China takes internet censorship to the next level. Its comprehensive protection policies gave the system the nickname Great Firewall of China . Discuss this technology in your essay.
  • Encrypted viruses as the plague of the century. Antivirus programs are installed on almost every computer. They prevent malicious code from tampering with your data. In your paper, you can conduct a comparison of several such programs.
  • What are the pros and cons of various cryptographic methods? Data privacy is becoming more and more critical. That’s why leading messaging services frequently advertise with their encryption technologies.
  • What makes blockchain secure? This technique allows anonymity and decentralization when working with cryptocurrencies. How does it work? What risks are associated with it?
  • What are the advantages of SIEM? Security Incident and Event Management helps organizations detect and handle security threats. Your essay can focus on its relevance for businesses.
  • What are the signs of phishing attempts?
  • Discuss unified cyber security standards in healthcare.
  • Compare and contrast various forms of data extraction techniques.
  • What do computers need protocols for?
  • Debate the significance of frequent system updates for data security.
  • What methods does HTTPS use that make it more secure than HTTP?
  • The role of prime numbers in cryptography.
  • What are public key certificates, and why are they useful?
  • What does a VPN do?
  • Are wireless internet connections less secure than LAN ones? If so, why?
  • How do authentication processes work?
  • What can you do with IP addresses?
  • Explain the technology of unlocking your phone via facial recognition vs. your fingerprint.
  • How do you prevent intrusion attempts in networks?
  • What makes Telnet vulnerable?
  • What are the phases of a Trojan horse attack?
  • Compare the encryption technologies of various social networks.
  • Asymmetric vs. symmetric algorithms.
  • How can a person reach maximum security in the computer networking world ?
  • Discuss autoencoders and reveal how they work.

💾 Information Security Topics to Research

Information security’s goal is to protect the transmission and storage of data. On top of that, network security topics are at the forefront of infosec research. If you’re looking for inspiration on the subject, check out these ideas.

  • What are the mechanics of password protection? Passwords are a simple tool to ensure confidentiality. What do users and developers need to keep in mind when handling passwords?
  • What are the safest ways to ensure data integrity ? Everybody wants their data to be intact. Accidental or malicious modifications of data can have dire consequences for organizations and individuals. Explore ways to avoid it.
  • How can one establish non-repudiation? Non-repudiation proves the validity of your data. It’s essential in legal cases and cyber security.
  • How did the advent of these new technologies impact information security ? Mobile networks have changed the way we access information. On a smartphone , everything is permanently available at your fingertips. What adverse consequences did these technologies bring?
  • How do big corporations ensure that their database environment stays conflict-free? We expect our computers to always run fast and without errors. For institutions such as hospitals, a smooth workflow is vital. Discuss how it can be achieved.
  • Describe solid access control methods for organizations. In a company, employees need access to different things. This means that not everyone should have an admin account. How should we control access to information?
  • Medical device cyber security. For maximum safety, it’s best to employ several measures. Protection on the hard- and software side is just a part of it. What are some other means of security?
  • Write an argumentative essay on why a career in information security doesn’t require a degree.
  • Pros and cons of various infosec certificates.
  • Cybersecurity in cruise ship industry
  • The influence of remote work on a businesses’ infosec network .
  • What should everyone be aware of when it comes to safeguarding private information?
  • Select a company and calculate how much budget they should allocate on cyber security.
  • What are the dangers of public Wi-Fi networks?
  • How secure are cloud services?
  • Apple vs. Microsoft : whose systems offer better security?
  • Why is it important to remove a USB flash drive safely?
  • Is it possible to create an unguessable password?
  • Intranet security: best practices.
  • Does the use of biometrics increase security?
  • Face recognition vs. a simple code: what are the safest locking options for smartphones ?
  • How do you recover data from a broken hard drive?
  • Discuss the functions and risks of cookies and cache files.
  • Online privacy regulations in the US and China.
  • Physical components of InfoSec.
  • Debate security concerns regarding electronic health records .
  • What are unified user profiles, and what makes them potentially risky?

🖥️ Cybercrime Topics for a Research Paper

Knowledge is one of today’s most valuable assets. Because of this, cybercrimes usually target the extraction of information. This practice can have devastating effects. Do you want to learn more about the virtual world’s dark side? This section is for you.

  • Give an overview of the various types of cybercrimes today . Cybercriminals are becoming more and more inventive. It’s not easy to keep up with the new threats appearing every day. What threats are currently the most prominent?
  • How does cryptojacking work, and why is it problematic? Cryptocurrency’s value explosion has made people greedy. Countries such as Iceland have become a haven for datamining. Explore these issues in your essay.
  • Analyze the success rate of email frauds. You’ve probably seen irrelevant ads in your spam folder before. They often sound so silly it’s hard to believe they work. Yet, unfortunately, many people become victims of such scams.
  • How did the WannaCry malware work? WannaCry was ransomware that caused global trouble in 2017. It led to financial losses in the billions. What made it so dangerous and hard to stop?
  • Give famous examples of cybercrimes that targeted people instead of money. Not all cybercrimes want to generate profit. Sometimes, the reasons are political or personal. Explore several instances of such crimes in your essay. How did they pan out?

The picture shows how cybercrimes can be classified into four groups: crimes against individuals, property, and governments.

  • Analyze the implications of the Cyberpunk 2077 leak. The game’s bugs and issues made many people angry. Shortly after its flop, hackers released developer CD Projekt Red’s source codes. What far-reaching consequences could this have?
  • Why do hackers commit identity theft? Social media has made it easy to steal identities. Many like to display their lives online. In your paper, research what happens to the victims of identity thefts.
  • Should governments punish cybercrimes like real-life crimes?
  • How does ransomware work?
  • Describe the phases of a DDoS attack.
  • What cybercrime cases led to changes in the legislature?
  • Track the evolution of online scams.
  • Online grooming: how to protect children from predators.
  • Are cybercrimes “gateway crimes” that lead to real-life misbehavior?
  • What are man-in-the-middle attacks?
  • Big data and the rise of internet crimes.
  • Are cybercrimes more dangerous to society than they are to corporations?
  • Is the internet increasing the likelihood of adolescents engaging in illegal activities?
  • Do the downsides of cyberlife outweigh its positives?
  • Is constantly checking your crush’s Facebook page cyberstalking?
  • How do you recognize your online date is a scam?
  • Describe what happens during a Brute Force attack.
  • What’s the difference between pharming and phishing?
  • The Lehman Bank cybercrimes.
  • Should the punishments for cybercriminals be harsher than they are now?
  • Compare various types of fraud methods .
  • How do you mitigate a denial-of-service attack?

🕵️ Topics for a Research Paper on Hacking

Blinking screens and flashing lines of code: the movie industry makes hacking look fascinating. But what actually happens when someone breaks into another person’s computer’s system? Write a paper about it and find out! The following prompts allow you to dive deeper into the subject.

  • Is it vital to keep shutting down online movie streaming sites? Many websites offer free movie streaming. If one of their domains gets closed down, they just open another one. Are they a threat to the industry that must be stopped? Or should cyber law enforcement rather focus on more serious crimes?
  • Explore the ethical side of whistleblowing. WikiLeaks is a platform for whistleblowers. Its founder, Julian Assange, has been under arrest for a long time. Should whistleblowing be a crime? Why or why not?
  • How did Kevin Mitnick’s actions contribute to the American cyber legislature? Mitnick was one of the US’s first most notorious hackers. He claimed to have broken into NORAD’s system. What were the consequences?
  • Examine how GhostNet operates. GhostNet is a large organization attacking governments. Its discovery in 2009 led to a major scandal.
  • Describe how an SQL injection attack unfolds. Injection attacks target SQL databases and libraries. This way, hackers gain unauthorized access to data.
  • What political consequences did the attack on The Interview imply? In 2014, hackers threatened to attack theaters that showed The Interview . As a result, Sony only showed the movie online and in limited releases.
  • Write about cross-site request forgery attacks. Every website tells you that logging out is a crucial step. But what can happen if you don’t do it?
  • What is “Anonymous,” and what do they do?
  • Is it permissible to hack a system to raise awareness of its vulnerabilities?
  • Investigate the origins of the hacking culture.
  • How did industrial espionage evolve into hacking?
  • Is piracy destroying the music and movie industries ?
  • Explain the term “cyberwarfare.”
  • Contrast different types of hacking.
  • Connections between political protests and hacking.
  • Is it possible to create an encryption that can’t be hacked?
  • The role of hackers in modern warfare .
  • Can hacking be ethical?
  • Who or what are white hat hackers?
  • Discuss what various types of hackers do.
  • Is jailbreaking a crime?
  • How does hacking a phone differ from hacking a computer?
  • Is hacking your personal home devices problematic?
  • What is clickjacking?
  • Why would hackers target newspapers?
  • Examine the consequences society would have to bear if a hacker targeted the state.
  • Compare and analyze different hacking collectives.

⚖️ Topics on Cyber Law & Ethics to Look Into

Virtual life needs rules just like the real one does. The online world brings a different set of values and issues to the table. And, naturally, cyberlife has a legal framework. That’s where researching cyber law and ethics comes into play.

  • Is it ethical that governments can always access their citizens’ data? In some countries, online platforms for personal information are standard. From medical exams to debts, everything is available with a click. The system is inarguably convenient. But what about its downsides?
  • Is it still morally permissible to use Spotify ? Spotify has made listening to music more accessible than ever. However, artists only receive a tiny fraction of the company’s profits. Discuss the implications of this fact.
  • Should internet forums require users to display their real names? Online harassment is a widespread problem. Nicknames hide the identities of ordinary users as well as perpetrators. Can the mandatory use of real names change the situation?
  • Analyze online gaming behavior from a psychological standpoint. If one wants to play online games, one needs to have a thick skin. The community can be harsh. You can dedicate your paper to exploring these behaviors. Or you might want to ponder what game publishers can do to reduce hate speech.
  • What type of restrictions should sellers implement to prevent domain speculation? Some people buy domains hoping that they will sell them later for more money. This practice makes registering a new website trickier.
  • Does the internet need regulations to make adult content less visible? Every computer without parental control can access pornographic websites. Most of them don’t require registration. Their contents can be disturbing, and their ads can appear anywhere. What can be done about it?
  • What are cyber laws still missing in America? The US has established many laws to regulate internet usage. Select the most significant ones and explain their relevance.
  • Why should cyber ethics be different from real-world norms?
  • Are there instances in which illegal downloading is justified?
  • The rule of law in real life vs. in cyberspace.
  • Does the internet need a government?
  • What is cyber terrorism, and what makes it dangerous?
  • Who is responsible for online misbehavior?
  • How binding are netiquettes?
  • What did the implementation of the GDPR change?
  • Compare and contrast Indian vs. Venezuelan internet regulations.
  • What does the CLOUD entail?
  • How should law enforcement adapt to online technologies?
  • AI applications: ethical limits and possibilities.
  • Discuss trending topics in cyber law of the past ten years.
  • Should schools teach online etiquette?
  • Does internet anonymity bring out the worst in people?
  • Is data privacy more important than convenience and centralization?
  • Debate whether bitcoins could become the currency of the future.
  • How can online consumers protect themselves from fraud?
  • Is buying from websites like eBay and Craigslist more ethical than buying from other online marketplaces?
  • Present RSF’s Minecraft library and discuss its moral implications.

🖱️ Cyberbullying Topics for Essays and Papers

On the web, everyone can remain anonymous. With this added comfort, bullying rises to another level. It’s a serious issue that’s getting more and more problematic. Cyber security measures can alleviate the burden. Do you want to address the problem? Have a look at our cyberbullying topics below.

  • Cyberbullying prevention in online learning environments . Online classes increase the possibility of cyberbullying. What can teachers do to watch out for their students?
  • What makes online emotional abuse particularly difficult to bear? Bullying doesn’t necessarily have to be physical to hurt. Statistics show increased suicide rates among students who were harassed online. Explore the reasons behind this phenomenon.
  • How can victims of identity theft reclaim their lives? Identity theft leads not only to mental distress. Thieves also have access to credit card information and other essential assets.
  • What are the best methods to stay safe online? When surfing the internet, one always has to be on one’s toes. Avoiding harassment and bullying is a particularly challenging task.
  • How can parents monitor their children’s behavior on the web? Children are particularly vulnerable online. They might enter dangerous online relationships with strangers if they feel lonely. They are also more susceptible to scams. What can parents do to protect them?
  • Cyberbullying among university students. Online abuse in such websites is very common. Everyone can be a potential target, regardless of age or gender. Discuss whether the structure of social networks helps to spread cyberbullying.
  • What societal factors contribute to online bullying? Not everyone who uses the internet becomes an abuser. It’s possible to establish several psychological characteristics of cyberbullies. Explore them in your paper.
  • Define how cyberbullying differs from in-person harassment.
  • Establish a link between feminism and the fight against cyberstalking.
  • The emotional consequences of physical vs. verbal abuse.
  • The effects of cyberbullying and academics.
  • Short vs. long-term mental health effects of internet bullying .
  • What are the most widespread means of cyberbullying?
  • Should people who want to play video games online get over the fact that the community is toxic?
  • Is defending the freedom of speech more important than preventing the spread of hate speech?
  • Reasons and consequences of Amanda Todd’s suicide.
  • The dangers of pro-ana/-mia communities for adolescents.
  • What are effective strategies to cope with online harassment ?
  • Would cyber communism decrease bullying?
  • How enhanced cyber security measures can help reduce abuse.
  • The importance of parental control mechanisms on children’s computers.
  • Traditional vs. cyberbullying in children.
  • Do image-heavy websites such as Tumblr and Instagram affect one’s mental state similarly to active abuse?
  • What kind of people does cyber abuse affect the most, and why?
  • Analyze how the stalker uses the internet in Netflix’s series You .
  • Catfishing: effects and solutions.

👨‍💻 Cyber Security Thesis Topics

  • Analysis of ethical hacking. Analyze ethical hacking, its key features, and types. Research real-world cases of ethical hacking along with the legal and ethical issues surrounding it.
  • Redefining privacy in the age of cloud reliance. Since more and more people are relying on cloud services for communication and storing information, concerns about data privacy grow. Examine potential regulations and societal changes required to balance privacy and convenience.
  • Privacy concerns across key industries. Discuss the implications for personal privacy in sectors like healthcare, finance, and law enforcement. Dwell on the new methods used to bypass biometric authentication systems, such as facial recognition or fingerprint scanners.
  • The human cost of cryptocurrency breaches. Explore the economic and psychological consequences of successful attacks on the crypto market. Showcase the efforts of experts to bolster crypto security.
  • Potential impact of law enforcement and tech cooperation on cyberattacks. Propose a scenario for a global collaboration between law enforcement agencies and tech companies to track cybercriminals. Analyze the feasibility, logistical challenges, and potential impact of such collaboration.
  • The issue of employing weak protocols for encryption.
  • Flexible and adaptive electronics and their role in cybersecurity.
  • The use of penetration testing in mitigating cyber threats.
  • Analyze emerging attacks in the cybersecurity field.
  • Risk assessment in cyber-physical systems.
  • The ethical side of popular cybersecurity measures.
  • Cybersecurity in educational institutions and its characteristics.
  • Study the use of smart wearable sensors for protecting user data and ensuring device integrity.
  • The laws and regulations of mobile cybersecurity.
  • Cybersecurity challenges in the medical industry: protection strategies.
  • Suggest possible solutions to digital payment information theft.
  • Inefficient data sharing techniques and their consequences.

🎓 Cyber Security Research Paper Topics 

  • The impact of quantum technologies on cybersecurity. Analyze how the development of quantum technologies could affect the cybersecurity industry. Investigate the possible risks and opportunities.
  • Cybersecurity evolution: trends shaping our digital future. In your research paper, discuss the latest trends in the cybersecurity field. Focus on their potential impact on individuals, organizations, and society.
  • The security vulnerabilities of IoT. Investigate common security flaws in IoT devices and potential attack vectors. Consider the consequences of using weak passwords and insecure communication protocols.
  • Humans and AI as partners in cyber defense. Dwell on the future of human-AI partnership in cybersecurity and the skills required for this collaboration. Discuss potential discrimination risks in AI-driven security systems.
  • Personal consequences of cyberattacks. Research how cyberattacks can affect people. Consequences can include financial loss to identity theft and even physical harm. We recommend selecting a specific attack type and clarifying its personal consequences.
  • The most effective countermeasures against cyberattacks.
  • Network traffic analysis and its role in cyber security.
  • Basic procedures for computer forensics and investigations.
  • The effectiveness of international cooperation in combating cyber threats.
  • Cybersecurity in the field of public administration.
  • The nature and dangers of cyber terrorism.
  • Anti-phishing technologies and their role in email security.
  • The use of machine learning to detect and prevent cyberattacks.
  • Ways of optimizing cyber risk management by addressing human vulnerabilities.
  • The role of cybersecurity in ensuring industrial safety.
  • Wireless hacking techniques and possible ways to counter them.
  • The role of blockchain in future wireless mobile networks

💽 Cyber Security Topics for Presentation

  • Ethical dilemmas in the digital age. In your presentation, illustrate the potential challenges and ethical considerations associated with cybersecurity. Provide examples of how these technologies can protect against new types of attacks.
  • The psychological effects of using the dark web. Show the psychological impact of using the dark web. You can analyze its potential to manipulate, exploit, or offer refuge and support. Find real-life examples to explain how extremist groups and criminal organizations use the dark web to radicalize and recruit vulnerable individuals.
  • The role of encryption in protecting information and IoT. Study the fundamental principles of encryption and their role in securing digital information. Discuss how encryption contributes to the security of IoT devices and networks.
  • The evolving role of firewalls in cybersecurity. Review the key trends in the evolution of firewall technology and explain how it has adapted to address cyber threats. Highlight the impact of firewalls on cybersecurity for individuals, businesses, and critical infrastructure.
  • Measure the cost of cyberattacks across borders. Compare different countries, and industries affected by cyberattacks. Quantify the cost of cybercrime, including stolen funds, business disruption, and downtime.
  • The structure of the dark web and its key characteristics.
  • Strategies for safe use of public Wi-Fi networks.
  • The impact of cybercrime on the economy.
  • Popular antivirus programs and their effectiveness in protecting computer systems.
  • Trace the development of standards and certifications in the field of cybersecurity.
  • Ways of combating fake news and disinformation in cyberspace.
  • The effective methods of generating strong passwords.
  • Strategies to combat cybercrime in business.
  • Cybersecurity professions and their challenges.
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of two-factor authentication in account protection.
  • Cybersecurity trends: new information protection technologies.
  • Principles and types of encryption algorithms in cryptography.

❓ Cyber Security Research Questions

  • How can we optimize cybersecurity in schools? Investigate the main factors influencing the effectiveness of cybersecurity in the educational field. Provide actionable tips to protect personal information within the school environment.
  • What are the most promising and cost-effective methods to prevent attacks on critical infrastructure? Research innovative methods that prevent attacks on critical infrastructure and ensure its security. Examine the aspects of implementing these innovative methods, including cost and infrastructure compatibility.
  • What are the key risks associated with cloud-based platforms in supply chain management? Analyze the risks associated with cloud-based platforms in supply chain management. Then, propose effective security measures for data protection.
  • Do legal frameworks adequately address the complexities of state-sponsored cyberattacks? Compare and contrast the legal frameworks surrounding state-sponsored cyberattacks across different countries. Explore the potential for escalation of state-sponsored cyberattacks into armed conflict.
  • What are the best practices for secure mobile data exchange on public Wi-Fi? Evaluate the risks associated with public Wi-Fi networks and review the best practices for secure mobile data exchange in these environments. Investigate the role of mobile network operators and device manufacturers in ensuring the security of mobile data exchange.
  • How can we ensure security when working with cloud data storage?
  • What is the value of continuous user authentication on mobile devices?
  • What are the effects of RSA on network security?
  • How can we ensure the responsible use of AI in cybersecurity?
  • How does using cyberattacks in armed conflicts complicate international norms and legal frameworks?
  • What are the benefits of application logging?
  • What are the most effective methods for companies to guarantee data security with a remote workforce?
  • How can we effectively ensure cybersecurity in the IoT?
  • What are the most secure methods of maintaining data integrity?
  • What are the best practices for mitigating cyber risks in digital supply chains?
  • How can blockchain technologies improve reliability and transparency in cybersecurity?
  • What trends and new threats in cyberspace should we expect in the coming years?

💡 Cyber Security Debate Topics

  • Face ID: friend or foe? Research the technical security of Face-ID, its strengths and weaknesses. Explain why you consider this technology safe or unsafe, supporting your arguments with statistics and expert opinions.
  • How should self-driving cars be regulated? Provide your view on the measures and regulations that should be implemented to ensure the cybersecurity of self-driving cars. Clarify why prioritizing passenger safety and public trust in this emerging technology is essential.
  • Unrestricted AI deployment in cybersecurity: benefits and risks. Highlight the potential advantages and disadvantages associated with unrestricted AI deployment in cybersecurity. Can this process speed up threat detection?
  • Mandatory reporting of cybersecurity incidents: pros and cons. Provide your opinion on the benefits and drawbacks of compulsory reporting to the public when a company experiences a cybersecurity incident. Support your argument with a real-life example.
  • Penalties for cybercriminals: is there room for improvement? Examine the effectiveness of current penalties for cybercriminals. Add your view on how they can be improved, considering the evolving nature of cyber threats.
  • Should hackers be helping the FBI?
  • What should be done to secure self-driving cars from cyber-attacks?
  • Should companies pay ransom to recover stolen data?
  • Should international standards be introduced in the field of cyber security?
  • Are biometric authentication methods more secure than passwords?
  • Should governments use “cyberweapons” as a preventive measure?
  • Will synthetic media impact the future of trust and identity in the digital age?
  • Should there be restrictions on the use of AI in cybersecurity?
  • Is standardized cybersecurity training necessary for all employees?
  • Should educational programs include cybersecurity training at all levels?
  • Is it ethical for the government to collect information about its citizens?
  • Should companies tell the public when they get hacked?

✨ Interesting Topics in Cyber Security

  • Security challenges in immersive virtual worlds. Analyze the unique security challenges posed by such environments. Consider technical vulnerabilities and potential social engineering exploits within them.
  • Email threats in large companies. Discuss the challenges of identifying and mitigating email-based threats in large organizations. Propose innovative solutions for securing email communication and educating users about email safety.
  • Deepfake technology in cyberattacks. Explore the evolving capabilities of deepfake technology and its potential future applications in cyberattacks. Additionally, discuss the challenges of detecting and mitigating deepfakes.
  • Strong privacy practices in famous companies. Choose a well-known company that has successfully implemented strong privacy practices. Analyze its methods and explain how they can come in handy for other organizations.
  • Private sector partnerships in global cybersecurity. Investigate the role of private sector partnerships in international cybersecurity efforts. Take into account their benefits and potential conflicts of interest.
  • Email attacks and their characteristics.
  • Study the issue of cybersecurity workforce shortage.
  • AI-generated images and their role in the evolution of cyber threats.
  • The importance of data privacy discipline.
  • Ways to stay safe during online video calls and conferencing.
  • The use of synthetic data in creating fake identities.
  • Cybersecurity risks of remote working.
  • Ways to protect privacy online as a business.
  • The rise of ransomware and possible solutions.
  • International cooperation in cyber security and its effectiveness.
  • Evaluate the weaknesses of cloud-based services.
  • The psychological aspects of cyberattacks.

Thanks for reading through our article. If you found it helpful, consider sharing it with your friends. We wish you good luck with your project!

Further reading:

  • 220 Best Science and Technology Essay Topics to Write About
  • 204 Research Topics on Technology & Computer Science
  • A List of 580 Interesting Research Topics [2024 Edition]
  • A List of 179 Problem Solution Essay Topics & Questions
  • 193 Interesting Proposal Essay Topics and Ideas
  • 226 Research Topics on Criminal Justice & Criminology
  • What Is Cybersecurity?: Cisco
  • Cyber Security: Research Areas: The University of Queensland, Australia
  • Cybersecurity: National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • What Is Information Security?: CSO Online
  • Articles on Cyber Ethics: The Conversation
  • What Is Cybercrime?: Kaspersky
  • Types of Cybercrime and How to Protect Yourself Against Them: Security Traits
  • Hacking: Computing: Encyclopedia Britannica
  • Hacking News: Science Daily
  • Cyberbullying and Cybersecurity: How Are They Connected?: AT&T
  • Cyberbullying: What Is It and How to Stop It: UNICEF
  • Current Awareness: Cyberlaw Decoded: Florida State University
  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to LinkedIn
  • Share to email

550 Psychiatry & Psychology Research Topics to Investigate in 2024

Have you ever wondered why everyone has a unique set of character traits? What is the connection between brain function and people’s behavior? How do we memorize things or make decisions? These are quite intriguing and puzzling questions, right? A science that will answer them is psychology. It’s a multi-faceted...

Student Exchange Program (Flex) Essay Topics [2024]

Participating in a student exchange program is a perfect opportunity to visit different countries during your college years. You can discover more about other cultures and learn a new language or two. If you have a chance to take part in such a foreign exchange, don’t miss it. Keep in...

520 Excellent American History Topics & Tips for an A+ Paper

How can you define America? If you’ve ever asked yourself this question, studying US history will help you find the answer. This article will help you dive deeper into this versatile subject. Here, you will find:

380 Powerful Women’s Rights & Feminism Topics [2024]

Are you looking for perfect feminist topics? Then you’ve come to the right place. With our help, you can be sure to craft a great essay. Here, you can find feminist topics for discussion, feminism research topics and other ideas and questions for students. Some people think all feminists hate...

460 Excellent Political Topics to Write about in 2024

If you have an assignment in politics, look no further—this article will help you ace your paper. Here, you will find a list of unique political topics to write about compiled by our custom writing team. But that’s not all of it! Keep reading if you want to: Now, without further ado, let’s get started! Below, you’ll find political topics and questions for your task. 🔝 Top 10 Political...

300 Interesting Nutrition Topics to Research

It’s not a secret that our health largely depends on nutrition. A balanced and wholesome diet improves our immune system. It lowers the risk of getting sick and makes us more productive. But if we don’t eat right, our overall well-being and performance worsen. You see, nutrition topics are more...

665 Excellent Presentation Topics & Tips

A presentation is a speech in which you explain a topic to an audience. It usually includes visuals done in a program such as PowerPoint. Teachers in schools and in colleges love to assign presentations for various reasons: In this article, you’ll find a list of 625 presentation topics in...

A List of 470 Powerful Social Issues Essay Topics

In modern societies, people do everything to live peacefully. Still, tensions often arise. We call them social issues when they start negatively impacting a specific group of people. Poverty, discrimination, and addiction are examples of such problems. We need to confront them to ensure equal treatment for everyone.

220 Pop Culture Topics for an A+ Essay

There are many ways to define popular culture. Here’s one of them: pop culture includes mainstream preferences in society within a specific time frame. It covers fashion, music, language, and even food. Pop culture is always evolving, engaging in new trends, and leaving the old ones behind.

500 Sociology Questions and Topics [Examples & Tips]

Sociology is a study that focuses on people’s interactions. It looks at structures and changes in social life. Any situation involving people can become a topic of sociology. This article is designed to help high school and college students with sociology assignments. Whether you’re writing an essay, creating a presentation,...

590 Unique Controversial Topics & Tips for a Great Essay

Controversial issues are the ones that evoke a variety of opinions. They often cause heated debates. And, as you can guess, controversial research topics are not easy to handle. Luckily, we’ve got you covered. This article will: We gathered controversial topics for research paper on medical, science, education, and other...

A List of 240 Physics Topics & Questions to Research

Plates break when you drop them. Glasses help you see better. Have you ever wondered why? Physics has the answer. It studies the observable as well as invisible aspects of nature. An essential part of this is examining the structure and interactions of matter.

Custom Essay, Term Paper & Research paper writing services

  • testimonials

Toll Free: +1 (888) 354-4744

Email: [email protected]

Writing custom essays & research papers since 2008

154 exceptional cybersecurity research topics for you.

Cybersecurity Research Topics

If you are studying computer science or IT-related course, you will encounter such a task. It is one of the most technical assignments, primarily in the era of advanced digital technologies. Students may not have the muscles to complete such papers on their own. That is why we provide expert help and ideas to make the process easier.

Do you want to excel in your cybersecurity paper? Here is your number one arsenal!

What You Need To Know About Cyber Security Research Topics

A cybersecurity paper deals with the practices of protecting servers, electronic systems, computers, and networks from malicious attacks. Although most students think this only applies to computers, it also applies to mobile computing and other business models.

There are various categories in cybersecurity, including:

Network security Application security Information security Operational security Disaster recovery and business continuity

Therefore, your cybersecurity topics for research should:

Examine the common security breaches in systems and networks Offer practical ways of protecting computers from such attacks Highlight the legal and ethical implications of hacking and other related practices Point out the challenges encountered in combating cybercrime

Since this is a technical paper, you should endeavor to do your research extensively to prevent rumors and unverified facts. The topics should also inform and educate people who are not conversant with cybersecurity in simple terms. Avoid using jargon at all costs, as this will make the paper difficult to read and understand.

Are you worried about where you can get professional cybersecurity topics and ideas? Well, here are a few of the most reliable sources that can furnish you with top-rated issues.

  • Government legislation on cybersecurity (Acts of Parliament)
  • The UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (Cybersecurity initiatives)
  • The CISCO magazine
  • Forbes also has excellent coverage on cybersecurity

You can find impressive topic ideas from these sources and more. Furthermore, news headlines and stories on cybersecurity can also help you gather many writing ideas. If all these prove futile, use our tip-top writing prompts below:

Quality Cyber Security Thesis Topics

  • Impacts of coronavirus lockdowns on cybersecurity threats in the US
  • Why ethical hacking is contributing to more harm than good
  • The role of computer specialists in combating cyber threats before they occur
  • Technological trends that are making it difficult to manage systems
  • Are passwords reliable when protecting computer systems?
  • Effects of having more than one systems administrator in a company
  • Can the government shut down the dark web once and for all?
  • Why should you bother about the security of your mobile device?
  • Evaluate reasons why using public WIFI can be harmful to your security
  • The role of cybersecurity seminars and conferences
  • How universities can produce ethical computer hackers who can help the society
  • How to counter-terrorism with advanced cybersecurity measures
  • Impacts of teaching children how to use computers at a tender age
  • Latest innovations that are a threat to cybersecurity
  • The role of monitoring in combating frequent cyber attacks
  • How social media is contributing to cyber attacks
  • Discuss the relationship between cyberbullying and cybersecurity
  • Why fingerprints may be the best method of protecting devices
  • The role of YouTube in contributing to the rising number of hackers

Top Research Topics For Cyber Security For Master Thesis

  • Impact of cyber threats on attaining the sustainable development goals
  • Why websites are becoming easy to hack in the 21 st century
  • Effects of not having an SSL certificate for a website
  • Discuss the security threats associated with WordPress websites
  • Impacts of frequent maintenance while the website is still running
  • How computer colleges can contribute to a safe cyberspace
  • Latest cyber threats to business and financial websites
  • Discuss the implications of cyber threats on privacy
  • The role of Facebook in advancing cyberbullying and hacking
  • Is hacking becoming a global epidemic in the digital world?
  • Why using Cyber Cafes may be detrimental to your digital security
  • The role of systems analysts in responding to data breaches
  • How cybersecurity movies are contributing to cyber threats
  • Should hackers face lifetime jail imprisonment when found guilty?
  • Loopholes in cyber laws that make the practice challenging to curtail

Good Thesis Topics For Cyber Security

  • The relationship between privacy and data security in computing
  • Why cloud computing offers a haven for computer hackers
  • The role of character and human-based behavior in cybersecurity
  • How to determine safe organizational security management and policy
  • How the Internet of Things is promoting cyber attacks
  • Effects of using cracked computer software
  • Are biometrics in cybersecurity able to put off hackers?
  • The role of studying mobile platform security
  • Why companies should frequently monitor their firewalls
  • The role of antimalware in curbing cyber attacks
  • Why is Ransomware a headache to most companies handling big data?
  • How does antivirus software improve the security of your computer?
  • Compare and contrast between the security of UNIX and Ubuntu
  • The role of data encryption technologies in ensuring system security
  • Is the process of encrypting viruses safe?

Top-Grade Thesis Topics For Cyber Security

  • Describe the effectiveness of cybersecurity audits on company systems
  • Is it proper to conduct device synchronization?
  • Why is it difficult to manage the security of an intranet?
  • Discuss the effects of logging in to many devices at the same time
  • Evaluate the significance of computer forensics
  • How are hackers inventing new ways of breaching the systems of companies?
  • Why it is necessary to review the data protection laws
  • Practices that increase the vulnerability of a system to cyber attacks
  • Can organizations implement impenetrable network systems?
  • Why administrators should check the background of users before giving them rights and privileges
  • The role of risk management cybersecurity
  • Discuss the impact of reverse engineering on computing systems
  • Effects of a cyber-attack on a company’s economic performance
  • What legal frameworks work best for a computer company?
  • The role of social engineering in cybersecurity

Information Security Research Topics

  • The implication of the proliferation of the internet globally
  • Innovative technologies used in keeping off hackers
  • The role of information communication technologies in maintaining the security
  • Are online courses on informative security practical?
  • Why should people avoid sharing their details on Facebook?
  • Effects of using your image on social media
  • The role of pseudo names and nicknames on social media
  • Discuss the implications of Wi-Fi hacking apps on mobile phones
  • How to detect malicious activity on a system
  • Evaluate the potential threats of conduct self-hacking on a system
  • The impact of sharing personal details with hiring agencies
  • How con artists lure unsuspecting applicants into giving out their details
  • Effects of frequent maintenance on systems
  • How to strengthen the firewall of an information system
  • The role of the media in propagating security breaches to information systems

Latest Computer Security Research Topics

  • Tricks that black hat hackers use to infiltrate company systems
  • How children learn about cybersecurity from their parents
  • The impact of watching hacking movies and TV series
  • How various companies are protecting themselves from cyber attacks
  • Why every company should have a systems security consultant
  • Discuss the implication of digital piracy
  • Threats that biometrics are bringing to digital systems
  • How to block a network intrusion before it causes any effect
  • Why MacOS is challenging to infiltrate, unlike Windows
  • Results of two-step authentication security measures for login systems
  • The role of updating computer systems during working days
  • Evaluate times of the year when hackers infiltrate systems the most
  • Why it isn’t easy to manage big data on the cloud
  • What happens during a system breakdown and maintenance?
  • Discuss the role of data synchronization in creating a backup

Network Security Research Paper Topics

  • The impact of having self-configuring and decentralized network systems
  • Effects of ad-hoc networks for large companies
  • Discuss the role of wireless sensor networks in contributing to security breaches
  • How malicious nodes join a network
  • Why it is difficult to detect a passive network attack
  • How active network attacks reduce a network’s performance
  • Evaluate the various parameters used in network security
  • Analyze how a black hole affects a network system
  • Describe techniques used in detecting malicious nodes on networks
  • How to improve the safety of a company network
  • The role of data encryption in maintaining the security of a network
  • Describe the various channels of establishing secure algorithms in a network
  • How does RSA increase the safety of a particular network?
  • Effective policies and procedures for maintaining network security
  • The role of a unique ID and Password in securing a website

Computer Security Research Topics

  • Why it is challenging to maintain endpoint security
  • The role of a critical infrastructure cybersecurity
  • How to create secure passwords for your computer network
  • The part of scanning for malware often on your PC
  • How to detect apps that invade your privacy unknowingly
  • Why ordering software from the black market is a threat to security
  • Safe computing techniques for first-time computer users
  • The role of digital literacy in preventing hacking
  • Why most online users fall to online scams
  • The role of smartphones in enhancing cybersecurity threats
  • Evaluate the mobile landscape concerning data security
  • The implication of private email accounts in data breaches
  • Sites that contain a barrel of internet criminals
  • How to develop comprehensive internet security software
  • How children can navigate the internet safely

Impressive Cyber Crime Research Topics

  • Why cyber currencies are a threat to online security
  • Why cyberbullying is rampant in the 21 st century unlike in any other time
  • The impact of online persuasion campaigns on cybersecurity
  • Why teenagers are victims of cyberbullying than adults
  • Discuss the effects of technology evolution on cybercrime
  • How online hackers collect information without the knowledge of the victim
  • Traits of a robust cybersecurity system
  • Practices that can help reduce cybercrime in institutions of higher learning.
  • Effects of global coordinated cyber attacks
  • The penalties of cyber-attack in the First Amendment
  • Why the world is experiencing increased cyber attacks
  • Critical concepts of cyber attacks
  • Cybercriminals and enterprises
  • Role of NGOs in combating cyber terrorism
  • Cyberbullying in campus

World-Class Cyber Security Thesis Ideas

  • Effects of the cyber-attack on Sony in 2014
  • The role of globalization in enhancing cybersecurity
  • How to prevent automotive software from malicious cyber attacks
  • The role of cyber technology in changing the world since the 1990s
  • How the private sector is essential in combating cyber threats
  • Computer infrastructure protection against cyber attacks
  • Impact of social networking sites on cybersecurity
  • Threats that cyber-attacks pose the national security of a country
  • How cyber monitoring affects ethical and legal considerations
  • Factors leading to the global nature of cyber attacks
  • Analyze law enforcement agencies that deal with cyber attacks
  • Evaluate cyber-crime court cases
  • Evolution of the cybersecurity industry
  • Cyber terrorism in the US
  • Implementing adequate data protection strategies

We offer paper writing help on any cybersecurity topic. Try us now!

Business Law Topics for Research Paper

U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Here’s how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

https://www.nist.gov/cybersecurity

black background. light blue shield in the middle. circle of hashmarks and triangles around the shield.

Cybersecurity

NIST develops cybersecurity standards, guidelines, best practices, and other resources to meet the needs of U.S. industry, federal agencies and the broader public. Our activities range from producing specific information that organizations can put into practice immediately to longer-term research that anticipates advances in technologies and future challenges.

Some NIST cybersecurity assignments are defined by federal statutes, executive orders and policies. For example, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) mandates that all federal agencies implement NIST’s cybersecurity standards and guidance for non-national security systems. Our cybersecurity activities also are driven by the needs of U.S. industry and the broader public. We engage vigorously with stakeholders to set priorities and ensure that our resources address the key issues that they face. 

NIST also advances understanding and improves the management of privacy risks, some of which relate directly to cybersecurity.

Priority areas to which NIST contributes – and plans to focus more on – include cryptography, education and workforce, emerging technologies, risk management , identity and access management, measurements, privacy, trustworthy networks and trustworthy platforms.

Additional details can be found in these brief and more detailed fact sheets.

Featured Content

Cybersecurity topics.

  • Cryptography
  • Cybersecurity education and workforce development
  • Cybersecurity measurement
  • Identity & access management
  • Privacy engineering
  • Risk Management
  • Securing emerging technologies
  • Trustworthy networks
  • Trustworthy platforms

The Research

Projects & programs.

device a and device b

Exposure Notification – protecting workplaces and vulnerable communities during a pandemic

Trustworthy Network of Things

Trustworthy Networks of Things

Cryptographic module validation program (cmvp).

web-gctg

Cyber-Physical Systems/Internet of Things for Smart Cities

Additional resources links.

NIST Cybersecurity Framework wheel grahpic has external sections labeled Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover; internal circle is labeled Govern.

NIST Drafts Major Update to Its Widely Used Cybersecurity Framework

Hawaii MEP Tours the CTL Operational Technology Cybersecurity Laboratory

Hawaii MEP Tours the CTL Operational Technology Cybersecurity Laboratory

Icons for methods of establishing online identity, including a password and a physical ID card, are shown near a screen reading "ACCESS GRANTED."

NIST Launches Collaborative Research Effort on Digital Identity to Support Secure Delivery of Public Benefits

NIST Publishes Automated Vehicles Workshop Report (NIST IR 8527)

NIST Publishes Automated Vehicles Workshop Report

Protecting Your Small Business: Phishing

Cybersecurity Insights Blog

Protecting trained models in privacy-preserving federated learning, nist’s international cybersecurity and privacy engagement update – mexico city, rsa conference, and more, check your wallet how mobile driver’s licenses are changing online transactions, latest nice framework update offers improvements for the cybersecurity workforce.

Additive Construction-The Path to Standardization II

Additive Construction – The Path to Standardization II

Workshop on whole community public safety and resilience in smart cities.

Safeguarding Health Information: Building Assurance through HIPAA Security 2024

Safeguarding Health Information: Building Assurance through HIPAA Security 2024

Stay in touch.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date with the latest research, trends, and news for Cybersecurity.

  • Latest News

Logo

  • Cryptocurrencies
  • White Papers

Top 10 Cybersecurity Research Papers to Know About in 2022

Cybersecurity is one of the most crucial aspects of the modern tech domain.

Since our world has moved into cyberspace, we have developed different ways of protecting information from cyber criminals. With the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, industries across the globe were forced to reconsider their regular working conditions and stayed home while transitioning to a completely digital process of working. This led to an increase in data and sensitive document transfers occurring in the cloud. So, companies are seeking new and inventive methods to protect against hackers and data breaches. As we step into 2022, cybersecurity experts are chasing new innovative techniques to realize the different ways in which cyber criminals can attack and unknown vulnerabilities that should immediately be eradicated. So, in this article, we have enlisted top cybersecurity research papers that professionals or aspiring cybersecurity professionals should know about in 2022.

  • TOP CYBERSECURITY JOBS TO PAY BEYOND US$200,000 IN 2022
  • TOP 10 CYBERSECURITY STRATEGIES TO BUILD BUSINESS RESILIENCE IN 2022
  • HOW IS DATA DEPENDENCY CHANGING THE CYBERSECURITY LANDSCAPE

Cyberbullying among Saudi's Higher-Education Students: Implications for Educators and Policymakers by Dr. Abdulrahman M Al-Zahrani

The aim of this research study was to investigate the instances of cyberbullying among Saudi's higher-education students. It is also purposed to identify the possible factors that might impact cyberbullying at large. The research yielded that maximum higher-education students would prefer the cyberbullying to stop, but by avoiding fighting back. Also, it revealed that male students are more involved in cyberbullying than female students.

Research Paper on Cyber Security by Mrs. Ashwini Sheth, Mr. Sachin Bhosale, and Mr. Farish Kurupkar

The modern world is run by technology and network connections, but it is also crucial for business leaders and individuals to know the nitigrities of cybersecurity . Sensitive and personal information might be at risk if someone is not aware of the existing critical virtual risks. The paper states that cybersecurity is crucial because the military, government, financial, medical, and corporate organizations accumulate, analyze, and stock unprecedented amounts of data nowadays.

Supporting the Cyber Analytic Process using Visual History on Large Displays by Ankit Singh, Alex Endert, Christopher Andrews, Lauren Bradel, Robert Kincaid, Chris North 

This paper focuses on cyber analytics which revolves around increasing the safety and soundness of the digital infrastructure. A cyber analytics work environment should enable multiple, simultaneous investigations, information foraging, and such others. Through this paper, the researchers attempt to present a prototype workspace for analysts where the analytic process is maintained in the workspace. 

Issues regarding cybersecurity in modern world by H. Geldiyev, M. Churiyev, and R. Mahmudov

In this paper, the authors try to define such concepts as cyberspace, cybersecurity, as well as assess the degree of danger related to cyber attacks and cyber wars. The researchers believe analyzing the threat beforehand is crucial to building a protective way around it. So, the work examines some properties of the registry of the operating system, that can be used in both computer attack information and ensure its security. 

FUZZBUSTER: Towards adaptive immunity from cyber threats by Paul Robertson

Modern computer systems face constant attacks from sophisticated adversaries, and the number of such attacks is increasing every day. This paper aims to develop Puzzbuster, which is an automated system that provides adaptive immunity against a wide variety of cyber threats to protect against such incoming threats.

Cyberspace in Space: Fragmentation, Vulnerability, and Uncertainty by Johan Eriksson

This work examines new and challenging political aspects of cybersecurity and presents it as an issue defined by socio-technological uncertainty and political fragmentation. The paper is structured along with two broad themes that provide examples of how socio-economic and political responses interact with the current use of cyberspace. The researcher aims to make this paper more interactive for students of cybersecurity, global governance, technology studies, and international relations.

Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security by Matthew N.O. Sadiku, Omobayode I. Fagbohungbe, and Sarhan M. Musa

As we all know, cybersecurity is the process of protecting computer networks from cyberattacks or unintended authorization. Currently, it is the need of the era, and the integration of artificial intelligence is supposed to provide great solutions for this. This paper aims to provide an introduction to the use of AI in cybersecurity applications.

WOMEN'S AWARENESS OF THE CYBER BULLYING RISK IN DIGITAL MEDIA DURING THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE MOVEMENT CONTROL ORDER (MCO) by Mohd Farhan Md Ariffin and Dr. Mohammad Fahmi Abdul Hamid

This study aims to analyze the exposure of women to the risk of cyberbullying in digital media during the enforcement of movement control orders. The research was conducted through the quantitative way by designing a set of questionnaires for the survey and was distributed among women. The results revealed after the survey showed that there is a need to raise awareness of safety and harmony among digital media users.

Survey On The Applications Of Artificial Intelligence In Cyber Security by Shidawa Baba Atiku, Achi Unimke Aaron, Goteng Kuwunidi Job, Fatima Shittu, and Ismail Zahraddeen Yakubu

The rise in cyberattacks has overwhelmed monetary institutions and the human ability to analyze and combat every new form of cyber threat in the industry. And reports have revealed that the use of AI can advance such searches providing maximum security. So, this paper attempts to explore the use of artificial intelligence in the enhancement of cybersecurity.

A Methodical Analysis of Medical Internet of Things (MIoT) Security and Privacy in Current and Future Trends by Dr. Yusuf Perwej, Dr. Nikhat Akhtar, Neha Kulshrestha, and Pavan Mishra

The modern healthcare system is constantly changing and the Medical Internet of Things (MIoT) is one of its prime drivers. This paper examines the present security and privacy challenges and needs that are connected to the data flow in the MIoT. 

Disclaimer: Analytics Insight does not provide financial advice or guidance. Also note that the cryptocurrencies mentioned/listed on the website could potentially be scams, i.e. designed to induce you to invest financial resources that may be lost forever and not be recoverable once investments are made. You are responsible for conducting your own research (DYOR) before making any investments. Read more here.

Related Stories

logo

Cybersecurity Magazine

Cybersecurity Magazine

Science meets Practice

Focus Topics

Cybersecurity Magazine is the place to go to for insights on cybersecurity, both from the research community and the industry.

However, sometimes we focus on specific topics and run several articles pertaining to those focus topics. You will find an overview of all focus topics we’ve published in the past here.

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Getting the measure of ransomware – the vital role of tape technology

The rapidly expanding global data storage market is being fuelled by a range of powerful tech trends. From the exponential

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Analyzing the CrowdStrike Update Outage: Insights and Lessons from Maxine Holt on the Impact and Future of Cybersecurity Practices

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Securing AI Models – Recommendation and Best Practices

cybersecurity research topics 2022

AI: Helping or Hindering Shadow IT?

cybersecurity research topics 2022

From Passwords to Passkeys: Tailoring Your Business Journey

cybersecurity research topics 2022

How to Make Security Awareness Training More Effective

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Why every organisation needs a CISO on board

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Should you be implementing a CTEM strategy?

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Cyber Risk Management Scorecard for US Courts

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Deep Learning Based Hybrid Analysis of Malware Detection and Classification: A Recent Review

Cybersecurity priorities 2024: key insights and strategies from industry leaders.

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Countering Cybercrime Under Martial Law

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Cybersecurity in the Financial Industry with Alvaro Garrido, CISO at Standard Chartered

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Addressing mental health and burnout in cybersecurity

The demanding, high-stakes nature of cybersecurity means stress and burnout is a common problem for professionals at all stages of

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Anti-Ransomware Day: How to Build a Strong Defence

Falling on the seventh anniversary of the Wannacry ransomware attack, which affected more than 60 NHS trusts in the UK,

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Security and Privacy of Internet of Things: A Review of Challenges and Solutions

Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) is a global and comprehensive network that monitors and controls the physical world by

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Adaptive Defense: Navigating the Complexities of AI-Powered Cybersecurity

Businesses today face an ever-evolving level of cyber threats, forcing organizations to face the increasingly difficult challenge of protecting vital

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Three ways you can upgrade your cyber security to defend against phishing attacks

Safeguarding against cyber attacks is paramount for protecting the integrity and security of your business. Phishing is a fraudulent attempt

Internet of Things

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Exclusive: IoT device security needs to build on a standard foundation

The new standard EN 303 645 deals with the issue of security in connected devices. Alex Leadbeater, Chair of ETSI Technical Committee CYBER, describes the motivation and benefit of this new standard in this article.

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Interview with Alex Leadbeater, Chair of TC Cyber at ETSI

Standardization is a very important step to streamline technologies. How standards can help in cybersecurity, why IoT should receive a

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Blockchain-based IoT Security Solution – A novel approach

As we edge closer to Industry 4.0, we will see a multitude of organisations –private enterprises or public sector services

cybersecurity research topics 2022

IoT Security: Internet of Threats – Making the world Safe

Today more and more everyday devices are interconnected. While they are certainly making life easier, they have also created new

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Interview with Prof. Banafa – Part 2

In the first part of the interview with Prof. Ahmed Banafa, he gave us some insights into the rise of

cybersecurity research topics 2022

AI: Armageddon or auspicious new beginning? 

7 social media phishing scams to watch out for, dora – navigating the eu’s operational resilience landscape, threat intelligence led security operations, privacy overview.

  • How It Works
  • PhD thesis writing
  • Master thesis writing
  • Bachelor thesis writing
  • Dissertation writing service
  • Dissertation abstract writing
  • Thesis proposal writing
  • Thesis editing service
  • Thesis proofreading service
  • Thesis formatting service
  • Coursework writing service
  • Research paper writing service
  • Architecture thesis writing
  • Computer science thesis writing
  • Engineering thesis writing
  • History thesis writing
  • MBA thesis writing
  • Nursing dissertation writing
  • Psychology dissertation writing
  • Sociology thesis writing
  • Statistics dissertation writing
  • Buy dissertation online
  • Write my dissertation
  • Cheap thesis
  • Cheap dissertation
  • Custom dissertation
  • Dissertation help
  • Pay for thesis
  • Pay for dissertation
  • Senior thesis
  • Write my thesis

128 High Quality Cybersecurity Research Topics Ideas List

cybersecurity research topics

The internet is a global village full of different people. Some people have malicious motives. Once they stumble upon your sensitive data, they will use it to harass you. This also occurs in social media accounts. You may post something and then get some bad or hurtful comments.

That’s a form of cyberbullying that is not acceptable. Therefore, you need to be careful when dealing with people on the internet. Also, try to reduce the data that you expose on your different user profiles. A person may even steal your online identity in a blink of an eye.

Case Situations To Write Cybersecurity Research Paper

Thereby cybersecurity comes in with the motive of defending computers, servers, mobiles, electronic systems, networks, and much more from those malicious attacks. You may need to write a cybersecurity research paper for:

Your final paper, project, thesis, or dissertation. When you are proposing a new strategy to use in your company to prevent cyber-attacks. When you want to bring into light some vulnerabilities being ignored. When you want to do more research and get a better understanding of harassment on the internet.

How To Write Cybersecurity Research Paper

This is the procedure you can use when writing a research paper.

Consult your professor – You will first need to get insights from your professor or teacher on the best way to go about it. You can provide a list of topics you may want to write on for his approval. Brainstorm – Discuss with some like-minded people the best cybersecurity topics to try. You need to be careful to ensure that you choose a topic that you can easily do. Research – Once you settle on a good topic, you can start your research on books, scholarly articles, documentaries, and films to get legit information on your cybersecurity research topic. Jot them down as a draft. Start your paper – Once you are settled with the research, you can use your draft to write a viable research paper. Ensure you follow the right procedure. Proofread the work – Once you are satisfied with your work, consider proofreading it before submitting it.

If you don’t feel like writing research paper yourself, you can get cheap dissertation help from our experts.

Cybersecurity Research Topics

When in high school or college, you need to strive to get good grades. You can use any of these cybersecurity research topics for your paper. Just ensure to do enough research on the concepts.

  • The significance of a firewall in the protection of the network.
  • Discuss the process of authentication.
  • The loss and restoration of data.
  • The best data encryption algorithms.
  • The best methods to protect your network.
  • Evaluate digital piracy and security.
  • The significance of social engineering.
  • The significance of software updates in devices.
  • The major causes of cybersecurity.
  • The safety of biometrics.
  • The worst cases of IoT hacking.

Cybersecurity Research Paper Topics

Cybersecurity is wide and inexhaustible. Each day, cybercrime are occurring, leading to research on better ways to protect ourselves online. You can use any of these topics for your research paper or project.

  • The advantages and disadvantages of unified user profiles.
  • The relation between bots and cybersecurity.
  • The major cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
  • Evaluate digital piracy and its effects on creativity.
  • How has automotive hacking grown over the years?
  • Evaluate ethical hacking.
  • Evolution of phishing over time.
  • The best antivirus software currently being used.
  • The trends in cybersecurity technology.
  • How biometrics is helping in cybersecurity?
  • The occurrence of cybersecurity in spoofing.

Cybersecurity Research Topics For Research Papers

Are you in the IT profession? Have you done your project yet? Then you can consider using any of these cybersecurity research topics. They are all ideal and based on current matters.

  • The rise of identity theft on the internet.
  • Why are more people getting into computer forensics?
  • The major threats found using digital forensic techniques.
  • The best VPNs in the world that will hide your IP on the internet.
  • The disadvantages of exposure of your IP address to the public.
  • The major A.I. security systems.
  • The centralization of data storage.
  • How to identify malicious activity on your devices.
  • The safety of a network.
  • The applications of network segmentation.
  • The major challenges in IT risk management.

PhD Research Topics In Cybersecurity

Are you currently doing your Ph.D.? You can use any of these cybersecurity topics for your paper. They are all based on current matters. There are available resources that you can use to get data.

  • The best approach for connected autonomous vehicles.
  • The best methods for cognitive cybersecurity.
  • The most innovative methods being used to determine the viability of deep learning based on the cybersecurity log analytics system.
  • The significance of not sharing sensitive data on social media networks.
  • Evaluate cookies on privacy.
  • The different types of hackers.
  • The disadvantages of Wi-Fi hacking apps on mobile phones.
  • The major cyber-attack concepts.
  • The best way to develop credible internet security software.
  • How to scan malware on your pc.
  • Evaluate twitter’s access control policy.

Research Topics In Cybersecurity

You can use any of these research topics in cybersecurity for your papers. You can derive data from some other scholarly articles, documentaries, films, and books. Information about cybersecurity gets updated daily.

  • The attack of ransomware.
  • The effects of RSA on any network’s security.
  • The significance of cloud security.
  • How do data leaks occur on mobile apps?
  • The effects of a black hole on a network system.
  • The significance of applications logging.
  • How to detect malicious activities on Google Play apps.
  • The best way to check security protocols.
  • How does network security deal with cybercrime?
  • The network security monitoring process.
  • The dangers and flaws of the internet.

Best Research Topics In Cybersecurity

How confident are you about your knowledge of cybersecurity? Then you can consider using any of these topics to test your knowledge capacity. Give it your best to get top grades.

  • Initiatives that can be taken to check the growth of cyber hackers.
  • The difference between white and black hat hackers.
  • How does network intrusion occur and its prevention?
  • The authentication processes.
  • The most common vulnerabilities.
  • The different types of cybercrime.
  • The major pandemics caused by cyber viruses.
  • The significance of software updates and patches.
  • The common laws against cybercrime in the world.
  • The best way to suppress the ransomware attack rate.
  • The significance of a keylogger.

Hot Topics Cybersecurity Research

These are some of the hottest topics in cybersecurity. You just need to find an ideal topic, do research, jot down the points, and start your research paper.

  • The best way to ensure you are safe when downloading files on the internet.
  • The best device synchronization and protection methods.
  • How can you detect bots on the internet?
  • The relation between internet cookies with cybersecurity.
  • How are IOS-based apps less prone to ransomware attacks?
  • Is it possible for computer hardware to face a cyber-attack?
  • The algorithms of data encryption.
  • The significance of investing in a strong anti-malware.
  • How do encrypting viruses work?
  • How do the reverse engineering and vulnerabilities analysis work?

Great Topics For Cybersecurity Research Papers

There are a lot of vulnerabilities on the internet. These great topics for cybersecurity can make you more knowledgeable about the current trends.

  • Risk management in computing.
  • The most common causes of a data breach in the 21 st
  • The best way to protect your device and synchronize the data.
  • The significance of computer forensics in the current digital era.
  • The major implications of ethical hacking.
  • The motivations behind cybercrimes like identity theft.
  • The major components of IT and data governance.
  • The most secure user authentication methods.
  • The threats of digital piracy.
  • The significance of device synchronization.

Cybersecurity And Law Research Topics

Did you know that certain laws govern cybersecurity? Then you can use these cybersecurity and law research topics to get a deeper understanding.

  • Data and cybersecurity in IoT.
  • The correlation between big data analysis with IoT.
  • Evaluate Software Defined Network.
  • The best tools for excellent email security.
  • How to prevent cybercrimes.
  • How do phishing scams occur?
  • The significance of using strong passwords.
  • The worst data breaches of all time.
  • How do malicious people use other people’s identities to their benefit?
  • How to remove malware from a computer.

Research Topics On Cybersecurity

There are different internet vulnerabilities in the world. Thereby, you can use these research topics on cybersecurity to understand how your security can be compromised on the internet.

  • Evaluate botnets in the current world.
  • Evaluate a brute force attack.
  • The risks of connecting your device to a public wireless network.
  • How to secure removable media.
  • The occurrence of credit card fraud.
  • The most recent cloud security threats.
  • The significance of implementing multifactor authentication.
  • How is online slandering a cybercrime?
  • Email sender spoofing process.
  • Stress is caused by periodic cyberbullying.

Cybersecurity Research Topic

Have you ever faced any cyber-attack? How was the experience? These are great topics that can help you become more knowledgeable.

  • How to protect yourself from cyberbullying.
  • The best security measures to input on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
  • How dangerous is cyberstalking?
  • Can cyber harassment be termed a crime?
  • The major dangers of public Wi-Fi networks.
  • Is it possible to identify a phishing attack?
  • The best mobile protection methods on your smartphone.
  • Malware and how it occurs.
  • The best practices to secure your Home Wi-Fi.
  • The advantages and disadvantages of antivirus software.

Topic On Cybersecurity

As a student, you need to up your game, to ensure you provide custom work that your teacher or professor will be happy about. Just try any of these topics on cybersecurity.

  • The endpoint attacks on devices.
  • The dangers posed by tracking cookies.
  • The role of backups on your device’s data.
  • Evaluate security patches.
  • Is it important to read the software terms and conditions?
  • Are there any malicious apps on the Google Play Store and Apple Store?
  • Evaluate SQL injection attacks.
  • The best way to keep your personal information safe.
  • The vulnerabilities found in multifactor authentication.
  • How to protect your computer.
  • How to authenticate on your devices.

Paper Writing Assistance In Cybersecurity Research Paper

Are you busy and wondering how you will do your research paper, project, or thesis? Look no further, you can pay for dissertation and be sure to get perfect result. You just need to order by choosing a topic of your preference and buy it at a cheap price.

You don’t have to worry about not meeting the deadline. With us, you will be sorted. All the best in your research paper.

Foster Care Research Paper Topics

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment * Error message

Name * Error message

Email * Error message

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

As Putin continues killing civilians, bombing kindergartens, and threatening WWIII, Ukraine fights for the world's peaceful future.

Ukraine Live Updates

StatAnalytica

Top 111+ Stunning Cybersecurity Research Topics For 2023

cybersecurity-research-topics

Are you confused about cybersecurity and its research topics? So here, in this blog, we will discuss cybersecurity research topics. This article is important If you are studying computer science or a cybersecurity course.

If you want good grades in cybersecurity research topics, you should pick the latest cybersecurity research topics for your academic exam or test. Here, you can choose the good and latest cybersecurity research topics.

You know that cybercrime is increasing day by day because millions of people use the internet. Several applications deal with the internet, and people normally use the internet for bank transactions, food delivery, online shopping, social media, gaming, etc. Attackers can steal your information, data, and money with the help of malicious software, So we need cybersecurity services.

What is Cybersecurity?

Table of Contents

Cybersecurity is a process of preventing unauthorized access or protecting networks, devices, and data from digital attacks. Cybersecurity is also known as IT(Information Technology)Security which is designed to prevent threats against network systems, applications, and other platforms. In simple words, It prevents or protects any information, data, and others.

Here Are Some of the Best Writing Tips From Statanalytica’s Expert

As you might already know that a well-planned action and a set of useful tools will also help you write a high-quality research paper. On the other hand, remaining motivated throughout the process.

  • By choosing an interesting topic for your research paper.
  • Conduct some research to find reputable sources.
  • Clearly state your cybersecurity thesis.
  • A rough plan should be created.
  • Finish your paper by drafting it.
  • Make sure your content is properly formatted.
  • Make sure you understand the assignment before you begin writing your research paper.

Let’s Discuss the 111+ Stunning Cybersecurity Research Topics

Below we listed 111+ cybersecurity research topics that can be used in 2023:

Top 10 Cyber Security Topics of 2023

Here are the top 10 cyber security topics of 2023:

  • Can strong passwords protect information?
  • Is security in critical infrastructure important?
  • The importance of end-user education
  • Cloud security posture management
  • How does malware work?
  • The principle of zero trust access
  • 3 phases of application security
  • Should removable media be encrypted?
  • The importance of network security
  • Do biometrics ensure the security of iPhones?

Latest Cybersecurity Research Topics of 2023

  • Is removable media a threat?
  • Cybersecurity standards for automotive
  • How to prevent social engineering attacks
  • Security breaches of remote working
  • How to prevent phishing attacks
  • Physical security measures in banks
  • Privacy settings of social media accounts
  • Blockchain security vulnerabilities
  • Why should you avoid public Wi-Fi?
  • How does two-factor authentication work?
  • Cryptography
  • Discuss the importance of intranet security
  • Rise of Automotive Hacking
  • What is ethical hacking? 
  • The evolution of phishing and how it is becoming more sophisticated
  • Which antivirus software is the best in the world?
  • The most up-to-date and trending cybersecurity technology
  • How can organizations prevent network attacks?
  • What is Digital Piracy?
  •  Application of biometrics in cyber security?
  • Identity theft on the Internet
  • Risk management in computing
  •  Rise of computer forensics
  • Threats are analyzed using digital forensic techniques
  • What is a Remote Access VPN?
  •  Digital security and Social Networks
  • The risks of using public Wi-Fi networks
  • Popular online scams in 2022
  • Artificial intelligence security systems

Network Security Research Topics 

  • Data storage centralization
  • Identify Malicious activity on a computer system.
  • Importance of keeping updated Software 
  • wireless sensor network
  • What are the effects of ad-hoc networks 
  • How can a company network be safe?
  • What are Network segmentation and its applications?
  • Discuss Data Loss Prevention systems 
  • Discuss various methods for establishing secure algorithms in a network.
  • Talk about two-factor authentication

Topics for Application Security Research

  • Discuss SQL injection attacks.
  • Inadequately configured security protocols.
  • Talk about data leaks in mobile apps.
  • Backend access control is critical.
  • Logging has many advantages for applications.
  • Malicious apps are available on Google Play.
  • AI applications: ethical constraints and opportunities.
  • What is the effect of insecure deserialization?
  • The most effective application security testing practices.
  • Apps are vulnerable to XSS attacks.

 Information Technology Security Research Topics

  • Why should people avoid sharing their details on Facebook?
  • What is the importance of unified user profiles?
  •  Discuss Cookies and Privacy 
  • White hat and black hat hackers
  • What are the most secure methods for ensuring data integrity?
  • Talk about the implications of Wi-Fi hacking apps on mobile phones
  • Analyze the data breaches in 2022
  • Discuss digital piracy in 2022
  • critical cyber-attack concepts
  • Social engineering and its importance

Operational Security Research Topics In 2023

  • Securing containerized applications in cloud environments.
  • Implementing secure remote access policies for remote workers.
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of endpoint protection solutions.
  • Protecting against DNS tunneling attacks.
  • Securing cloud-based storage solutions.
  • Developing secure mobile device management policies.
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of honeypots in detecting attacks.
  • Securing software supply chains against attacks.
  • Investigating the effectiveness of deception technologies in cybersecurity.
  • Developing secure network segmentation strategies.
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of network traffic analysis solutions.
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of two-factor authentication in securing systems.
  • Securing critical infrastructure against cyber threats.
  • Developing secure email policies to prevent phishing attacks.
  • Investigating the use of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity.
  • Developing secure DevOps practices.
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of security information and event management (SIEM) solutions.
  • Securing the Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of password management solutions.
  • Developing secure incident response strategies.

Topics for a Research Paper on CyberCrime Prevention

  • Criminal Specialization. 
  • Drug Courts. 
  • Capital Punishment. 
  • Criminal Courts. 
  • Crime Prevention. 
  • Community Corrections. 
  • Criminal Law. 
  • Criminal Justice Ethics. 

Computer and Software Security Research Topics

  • Learn algorithms for data encryption.
  • Concept of risk management security.
  • How to develop the best internet security software.
  •  What are Encrypting viruses- How does it work?
  • How does a Ransomware attack work?
  • Scanning of malware on your PC.
  • Infiltrating a Mac OS X operating system.
  • What are the effects of RSA on network security?
  • How do encrypting viruses work?
  • DDoS attacks on IoT devices.

Computer and Software Cyber Security Topics

  • The importance of updating computer software.
  • How to safeguard your computer against malware and other threats.
  • The best security practices for your computer and software.
  • The various types of cyber security threats and how to avoid them.
  • The significance of cyber security education and awareness.
  • The importance of cyber security in protecting critical infrastructure.

Data Security Research Topics

  • Importance of backup and recovery.
  • Benefits of logging for applications.
  • Understand physical data security.
  • Importance of Cloud Security.
  • In computing, the relationship between privacy and data security.
  • Discuss the effects of a black hole on a network system.

Application Security Topics

  • Detect Malicious Activity on Google Play Apps.
  • Dangers of XSS attacks on apps.
  • Insecure Deserialization Effect.
  • Check Security protocols.

CyberSecurity Law Research Paper Topics

  • Strict cybersecurity laws in China.
  • Importance of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act.
  • USA, UK, and other countries cybersecurity laws.
  • Discuss The Pipeline Security Act in the United States.

If you are interested in criminal research topics, then here are the best criminal justice research topics for you.

How to Choose The Best Cybersecurity Research Topics in 2023

There are a few factors to consider when selecting cybersecurity research topics. The first and main thing to consider is to ensure that the topic is current and relevant. Because cyber security is a changing field. As a result, it is very crucial to select a topic that will be relevant for a few months.

On the other hand, the second thing to consider is to select an interesting and engaging topic. Because cyber security can be a dry subject, it is critical to select a topic that will keep readers interested.

Finally, it is very important to select a researchable topic. There are several cybersecurity topics available, but not all of them are simple to research. Choose a topic about which there is a lot of information.

  • Determine your target audience
  • Define your research objectives
  • Choose a topic that your audience will find both interesting and relevant
  • Conduct preliminary research to ensure that there is sufficient information available on your chosen topic
  • Make sure your topic is focused enough to fit into a single research paper

Research Area in Cyber Security

Cybersecurity is extensive, and constantly evolving field. On the other hand, its research takes place in many areas:

cybersecurity research topics 2022

  • Quantum & Space 
  • Data Privacy 
  • Criminology & Law
  • AI & IoT Security

Get More Cybersecurity Research Topics

In this blog, we have covered the 111+ best cybersecurity research topics. These cybersecurity topics help in your exam or test. If you have any difficulty with cybersecurity research topics, you can take cybersecurity research paper help or research paper assignment help at a very affordable price.

Here are some of the benefits of taking cybersecurity research topics help from us.

  • 24 Hours Availability
  • On-time Delivery
  • Free Corrections
  • Money-Back Guarantee
  • Affordable Deals
  • Professional Experts

You can contact us any time and impress your teacher by choosing a good cybersecurity research topic.

This is the end of the post, which is about cybersecurity research topics. On the other hand, we mentioned 111+ stunning cybersecurity research topics for 2023 offer an excellent opportunity for researchers to explore and address critical cybersecurity challenges. However, the ever-evolving technological landscape presents new security challenges every day, and it is essential to keep up with the latest trends to stay ahead of cyber threats. 

On the other hand, these research topics provide many areas to explore, from network security, the internet of things, and software security to network security, cryptography, and data security. I hope you like this post.

Q1. What are the types of cyber security threats?

There are several different types of cyber security threats. More popular are Trojan horses, worms, ransomware, and phishing scams. These types of threats can be very dangerous for the cyber system.

Q2. What are the most controversial topics in criminal justice?

1. Prisoners being granted the right to work 2. Carrying a concealed weapon 3. Prison rape and violence 4. Plea agreement/bargain 5. Rehab vs. reform. 6. Is an eyewitness testimony effective? 7. Enforcement and effectiveness of stalking laws. 8. Rape culture and the victim’s rights

Q3. What are the main cyber threats of 2023?

There are multiple cyber security threats, but the main social threats of 2023 are email impersonation and phishing.  On the other hand, email impersonation is a phishing technique in which a fake email address that appears to be legitimate is used. 

Related Posts

best way to finance car

Step by Step Guide on The Best Way to Finance Car

how to get fund for business

The Best Way on How to Get Fund For Business to Grow it Efficiently

Logo

13 Apr Cybersecurity Research: All In One Place

The facts, figures, statistics, and predictions that we follow sponsored by knowbe4.

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Northport, N.Y. – Dec. 5, 2022

Cybersecurity Ventures formulates our own ground-up research — plus we vet, synthesize and repurpose research from the most credible sources (analysts, researchers, associations, vendors, industry experts, media publishers) — to provide our readers with a birds-eye view of cybercrime and the cybersecurity industry.

Before you dive into all of our reports, you might want to read the “ Top 10 Cybersecurity Predictions and Statistics for 2023 ” from the editors at Cybercrime Magazine.

LATEST RESEARCH

Reports from the editors at Cybersecurity Ventures:

  • 2022 Cybersecurity Almanac – Cybersecurity Ventures is excited to release this special second annual edition of the Cybersecurity Almanac, a handbook containing the most pertinent statistics and information for understanding cybercrime and the cybersecurity market. Learn about important dates in history, statistical information, cyberattacks, data breaches, criminals, and much more.
  • 2022 Cybercrime Report – We expect global cybercrime damage costs to grow by 15 percent per year over the next three years, reaching $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, up from $6 trillion in 2021, and $3 trillion in 2015. If it were measured as a country, then cybercrime would be the world’s third-largest economy after the U.S. and China.
  • 2022 Ransomware Report – Global ransomware damage costs are predicted to reach $265 billion by 2031, up from $20 billion in 2021. The dollar figure is based on 30 percent year-over-year growth in damage costs over the next 10 years. A ransomware attack is expected to strike a business or consumer every 2 seconds by 2031, up from every 11 seconds in 2021.
  • 2022 Cybersecurity Jobs Report – Over an eight-year period tracked by Cybersecurity Ventures, the number of unfilled cybersecurity jobs grew by 350 percent, from one million positions in 2013 to 3.5 million in 2021. For the first time in a decade, the cybersecurity skills gap is leveling off. Looking five years ahead, we predict the same number of openings in 2025.
  • 2022 Cybersecurity Market Report – The imperative to protect increasingly digitized businesses, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and consumers from cybercrime will propel global spending on cybersecurity products and services to $1.75 trillion cumulatively for the five-year period from 2021 to 2025, according to Cybersecurity Ventures.

  • 2022 Cyberinsurance Report – Cybersecurity Ventures predicts the cyberinsurance market will grow from approximately $8.5 billion in 2021 to $14.8 billion in 2025, and exceed $34 billion by 2031, based on a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 15 percent over an 11-year period (2020 to 2031) calculated.
  • 2022 Cryptocrime Report – Rapid growth in the use of decentralized finance (DeFi) services is creating a new soft spot for global financial systems, fostering new methods of cryptocrime for cybercriminals whose “rug pulls” and other attacks will, Cybersecurity Ventures predicts, cost the world $30 billion in 2025 alone.
  • 2022 Women In Cybersecurity Report – Women hold 25 percent of cybersecurity jobs globally in 2022, up from 20 percent in 2019, and around 10 percent in 2013. We predict that women will represent 30 percent of the global cybersecurity workforce by 2025, and that will reach 35 percent by 2031.
  • 2022 Security Awareness Training Report – Cybersecurity Ventures predicts the overall market for security awareness training products and services will be worth $10 billion annually by 2027. In late 2014, Garnter estimated the overall security awareness training market (including CBT) to be $1 billion.
  • 2022 Boardroom Cybersecurity Report – The SEC recently proposed new rules that would require U.S. public company boardroom disclosure of corporate directors with cybersecurity expertise. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts by 2025, 35 percent of Fortune 500 companies will have board members with cybersecurity experience, and by 2031 that will climb to 50 percent.

CYBER GRAMS

More statistics from Cybersecurity Ventures:

  • The world will store 200 zettabytes of data by 2025 . This includes data stored on private and public IT infrastructures, on utility infrastructures, on private and public cloud data centers, on personal computing devices — PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones — and on IoT (Internet-of-Things) devices.
  • We predict the world will need to secure 338 billion lines of new software code in 2025 , up from 111 billion lines of new code in 2017, based on 15 percent year-over-year growth in new code.
  • More than 300 billion passwords were used by humans and machines worldwide in 2021.
  • The world’s first CISO was anointed in 1994, when financial services giant Citigroup (then Citicorp) set up a specialized cybersecurity office after suffering a series of cyberattacks from Russian hackers.
  • 100 percent of Fortune 500 companies employ a CISO or equivalent in 2022, up from 70 percent in 2018.
  • Women filled 17 percent of Fortune 500 CISO positions in 2022 (85 out of 500 companies) according to a study we conducted.
  • CISOs are job-hopping faster than most. We recently found that 24 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs have been working in their roles for just one year , on average.
  • We predict the global healthcare cybersecurity market will grow by 15 percent year-over-year over the next five years, and reach $125 billion cumulatively over a five-year period from 2020 to 2025.
  • Roughly one million more people join the internet every day. We expect there will be 6 billion people connected to the internet interacting with data in 2022, up from 5 billion in 2020 — and more than 7.5 billion internet users in 2030 . If street crime grows in relation to population growth, so will cybercrime.
  • More than half of all cyberattacks are committed against small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs), and 60 percent of them go out of business within six months of falling victim to a data breach or hack.

Contact us for information about our cybersecurity and cybercrime facts, figures, statistics, and predictions – and to learn about opportunities to sponsor or co-publish reports with us.

– Steve Morgan is founder and Editor-in-Chief at Cybersecurity Ventures.

Go here to read all of my blogs and articles covering cybersecurity. Go here to send me story tips, feedback and suggestions.

KnowBe4  is the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform that helps you manage the ongoing problem of social engineering. We help you address the human element of security by raising awareness about ransomware, CEO fraud and other social engineering tactics through a new-school approach to awareness training on security. Tens of thousands of organizations like yours rely on us to mobilize your end users as your last line of defense.

© 2024 Cybersecurity Ventures. All rights reserved. Federal copyright law prohibits unauthorized reproduction of this content by any means and imposes fines up to $150,000 for violations. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without expressed written permission of Cybersecurity Ventures is prohibited.

All rights reserved Cybersecurity Ventures © 2024

cybersecurity research topics 2022

CYBERSECURITY PUNDITS: 2024 LIST OF INDUSTRY EXPERTS VIEW LIST

  • Business & Technology
  • FortiGuard Labs Threat Research
  • Industry Trends
  • Life at Fortinet
  • Customer Stories
  • PSIRT Blogs

CISO Collective

New and Emerging Cybersecurity Threats and Attacker Tactics

As cyberthreats continue to evolve nearly four decades after the first computer virus for PCs emerged in 1986, the cybersecurity landscape faces increasingly sophisticated challenges. While many are familiar with common threats like phishing and ransomware, newer, more targeted attacks are emerging, threatening the very foundations of our digital infrastructure.

In this post, we explore these emerging threats, focusing on supply chain risks, open-source software vulnerabilities, and the integration of generative AI (GenAI) into business operations. We’ll also discuss strategic defense tactics that organizations can adopt to stay ahead of these evolving challenges.

Supply Chain Cyber Risks

Recent incidents have underscored the devastating potential of supply chain attacks. One alarming example is the XZ Utils backdoor (CVE-2024-3094), a critical vulnerability found in a widely used open-source compression tool. This attack, led by the “Jia Tan” account, was a multi-year operation that began in 2021 and culminated in deploying a backdoor in 2024. Over time, the attackers embedded their exploit into the software, demonstrating how deeply supply chain attacks can infiltrate and exploit foundational software used across numerous organizations.

This incident serves as a critical reminder for organizations to scrutinize the security of their software supply chain. Open-source components can be weak links often maintained by small and underfunded teams. Organizations must monitor updates and patches to avoid introducing new vulnerabilities.

Open-Source Software Issues

The XZ Utils incident highlights broader concerns within the open-source community. Malicious actors can insert backdoors into open-source projects with alarming ease. The Jia Tan account is just one example of how suspicious accounts can fly under the radar, quietly injecting malicious code into widely used software packages.

A recent analysis revealed that even PIP, the Python package management system, has a suspicious account with commit access. This raises serious concerns about the security of numerous critical Python packages. These accounts often make seemingly innocent contributions but could lay the groundwork for future exploits. This situation underscores the need for greater vigilance and verification within the open-source community. Organizations relying on open-source software must implement strict vetting processes and use tools to monitor and alert them to suspicious activity within their codebases.

The Promise and Perils of GenAI

GenAI offers transformative potential, as demonstrated by Klarna’s AI Assistant, which now handles the workload equivalent to 700 customer service agents. For Klarna , this translates into an estimated $40 million in annual savings, showcasing AI’s ability to enhance productivity and reduce operational costs.

However, the integration of GenAI comes with risks. Executives need to ensure that cybersecurity is a foundational consideration when adopting AI solutions. GenAI systems can be vulnerable to various threats, such as data poisoning, where attackers feed misleading data into AI systems, resulting in incorrect outputs. Additionally, these systems can face denial-of-service attacks, increasing costs and degrading performance, or privacy breaches where sensitive data is exposed.

Three key considerations when integrating GenAI are availability, system integrity, and privacy. Ensuring these aspects are robustly managed will help mitigate the risks associated with deploying AI systems at scale.

Best Strategic Defense Tactics against Cyberattacks

Organizations must adopt a multi-layered defense strategy to navigate this complex threat landscape. Here are some critical components:

1. Proactive security testing: red and blue team exercises

Red and blue team exercises simulate real-world cyberattacks, helping organizations uncover vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. For AI systems , these exercises should focus on assessing the robustness of models against harms such as hallucination, bias, and prohibited content like harassment. Organizations can stay ahead of potential threats by continuously evaluating and improving the security and ethical performance of AI systems.

2. AI-specific security measures, start leveraging ATLAS

Addressing AI-specific threats is crucial as AI becomes more integrated into business processes. Adversarial Threat Landscape for Artificial-Intelligence Systems ( ATLAS ) is a knowledge base complementary to MITRE ATT&CK that documents real-world adversarial tactics against AI systems. Organizations should use ATLAS to stay informed about these evolving threats and improve their defenses against attacks targeting AI technologies.

3. Zero-trust architecture, the journey to better access control

Adopting a zero-trust architecture is crucial in today’s environment, especially for systems integrating AI. This approach operates on the principle that no entity—whether inside or outside the network—should be trusted by default. Continuous verification of user identities and strict access controls are foundational elements.

However, for AI systems, data boundaries are equally important. AI models often process vast amounts of sensitive data, and ensuring that this data is adequately segmented and protected is critical. Establishing clear data boundaries prevents unauthorized access to sensitive information, reducing the risk of data leakage or manipulation. This is particularly vital in AI systems where data integrity directly impacts the outputs and decisions made by the AI.

By implementing a zero-trust architecture with strong data boundary controls, organizations can ensure that their AI systems operate securely, protecting both the data they process and the insights they generate.

The evolving threat landscape demands that organizations remain vigilant and proactive in their cybersecurity efforts. Organizations can better protect their digital assets by understanding the risks associated with supply chain vulnerabilities, open-source software, and the integration of GenAI, as well as by implementing strategic defense tactics. Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue. It’s a critical component of overall business strategy that requires attention at every level of the organization.

Check out Fortinet’s  Brass Tacks- Talking Cybersecurity podcast  covering other top-of-mind topics for cybersecurity business leaders

cybersecurity , security attack , cyber threats

Related Posts

How cyber risks have become business risks, how to speak to the board so they get on board with security, what cisos need to know about secure by design, news & articles.

  • News Releases
  • News Articles

Security Research

  • Threat Research
  • FortiGuard Labs
  • Ransomware Prevention

Connect With Us

  • Fortinet Community
  • Partner Portal
  • Investor Relations
  • Product Certifications
  • Industry Awards
  • Social Responsibility
  • CyberGlossary
  • Blog Sitemap
  • (866) 868-3678

Copyright © 2024 Fortinet, Inc. All Rights Reserved

From Interactive Brokers

Asset Classes

  • More Campus

Finance Courses and Lessons

Featured Lessons

IBKR Desktop

IBKR Desktop

Retirement

Financial News and Market Commentary

Featured Articles

Recession Risk Fades on Firmer Econ Data: Aug. 8, 2024

Recession Risk Fades on Firmer Econ Data: Aug. 8, 2024

ForecastEx: Derivatives Are No Longer a Zero-Sum Game: Aug. 8, 2024

Traders' Insight

ForecastEx: Derivatives Are No Longer a Zero-Sum Game: Aug. 8, 2024

Quantitative Code and News

Quant Articles

Nonfarm Payrolls July 2024

  • Data Science

Nonfarm Payrolls July 2024

Quantitative Finance: Concepts, Tools, and Career Paths – Part III

Data Science - Python Development - R Development

Quantitative Finance: Concepts, Tools, and Career Paths – Part III

Webinars from Financial Professionals

Webinar Topics

Latest Webinars

Navigating, Scanning for, and All Things Calendar Spreads

Aug / 13 / 2024 - 2:00 pm - EDT

Navigating, Scanning for, and All Things Calendar Spreads

Market Chameleon

Aug / 14 / 2024 - 5:00 pm - HKT

An Introduction to Bursa Malaysia Derivatives and the Malaysian Derivatives Market

Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Berhad

Financial Market Commentary Podcasts

Listen to IBKR Podcasts on

Featured Podcasts

Giving Low Risk Investments a High Profile

  • IBKR Podcasts

Giving Low Risk Investments a High Profile

Stock Market Capitulation?

Stock Market Capitulation?

API Tools from Interactive Brokers

FIX Protocol

Third-Party Integrations

Featured API Articles

Using Pandas for Market Data Management

  • Python Development

Using Pandas for Market Data Management

Handling Options Chains

Python Development - REST Development

Handling Options Chains

Intro to the TWS API

Intro to the TWS API

Free investment financial education

Learn more about IBKR accounts

Low Commissions 1 , Global Access, Premiere Technology

Finance Training in the Classroom

Sample Curricula

The IBKR Advantage

Real-world experience for your classroom

IBKR Glossary of Financial Terms

Find by letter or search

Useful Tools and Information

Newsletter Signup

Multilingual content from IBKR

Getting Started at IBKR

  • All Finance Courses
  • Beginner Courses
  • Intermediate Courses
  • Advanced Courses
  • Other Trading Products
  • IBKR Student Trading Lab
  • Fundamentals
  • Intro to IBKR Tools
  • Advanced IBKR Tools
  • Institutions
  • Traders’ Insight Home
  • IBKR Economic Landscape
  • IBKR Commentary
  • Fixed Income
  • Commodities
  • Securities Lending
  • Technical Analysis
  • IBKR Quant Home
  • Quant Development
  • Conferences
  • C# Development
  • C++ Development
  • Java Development
  • Julia Development
  • R Development
  • REST Development
  • TWS Excel API
  • Upcoming Webinars
  • Webinars Aired
  • Webinar Contributors
  • AI & Machine Learning
  • Alternative Investments
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Energy Sector
  • Financial Spotlight
  • International
  • Women in Finance
  • Podcasts Home
  • Cents of Security
  • Podcasts En Español
  • Contributor Podcasts
  • Leave a Review
  • IBKR-API Home
  • Documentation Changelog
  • Getting Started
  • Market Data Subscriptions
  • Order Types
  • Web API Documentation
  • Web API Reference
  • Web API v1.0 Documentation
  • TWS API Documentation
  • TWS API Reference
  • Excel ActiveX
  • Available/Existing Integrations
  • Prospective Integrations
  • Stocks Education
  • Options Education
  • Futures Education
  • Bonds Education
  • Forex Education
  • For Teachers
  • For Students
  • Educator Trading Lab
  • Simulated Competition
  • Stock Trading Sample Assignments
  • Option Trading Sample Assignments
  • Futures Trading Sample Assignments
  • Forex Trading Sample Assignments
  • Computer Science Sample Assignments
  • Economics Sample Assignments
  • ESG Sample Assignment
  • All Glossary Terms
  • IBKR Quant Terms

More Campus Resources

  • About The IBKR Campus
  • IBKR Campus Contributors
  • IBKR Campus Authors
  • IBKR Guides
  • Live Charting
  • IBKR Campus Newsletter
  • Traders’ Insight Newsletter
  • IBKR Webinars Newsletter
  • IBKR Quant Newsletter
  • IBKR API Newsletter
  • Commencer chez IBKR
  • Introdução à IBKR
  • Introducción a IBKR
  • IBKR Podcasts Español

Cybersecurity Should Remain a Top Focus in 2023

Posted november 1, 2022 at 2:30 pm.

headshot Christopher Gannatti

Christopher Gannatti

CFA, Head of Research, Europe

WisdomTree U.S.

WisdomTree U.S. www.wisdomtree.com

As we move through the fourth quarter of 2022, it makes sense to start looking forward across the thematic equity space. The year has been a difficult one thus far in terms of share price performance for many of these strategies. But if one can focus beyond the tough period of returns, there are various demand catalysts that remain on the horizon.

In our opinion, some of the best demand catalysts are becoming visible within cybersecurity.

WisdomTree’s Thematic Universe Analysis for the First Three Quarters of 2022

Even if we step back and think that the  macroeconomic  difficulties for  growth  investments in the first nine months of 2022 are well known, we can still track where investors were focused within the broad range of more than 40 distinct themes that we track. Seeing the top and bottom five themes in terms of flows can be quite telling 1 :

Top 5 Themes among U.S. Investors in ETFs by Flows: First 9 Months of 2022

•  Semiconductors: $1,660 million

•  China tech: $1,526 million

•  Cybersecurity: $842 million

•  Natural resources: $752 million

•  Agriculture: $694 million

Bottom 5 Themes among U.S. Investors in ETFs by Flows: First 9 Months of 2022

•  Cloud computing: -$850 million

•  Rise of the middle class: -$809 million

•  Next generation computing: -$601 million

•  Platforms: -$569 million

•  Sustainable energy production: -$465 million

So, as we turn our focus back to the topic of cybersecurity, we note that even in the face of very difficult share price performance, cybersecurity has been among the top inflow-gathering topics of WisdomTree’s thematic universe. We also point out that many of the newest cybersecurity companies have a  Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)  business model and take advantage of cloud computing infrastructure to deliver their services.

Cybersecurity was the third-largest asset gathering theme for the first nine months of 2022, while cloud computing was the WORST, in terms of having the most outflows, for that same period. It tells us that specific types of SaaS have been preferred to the broader cloud computing concept that looks at many distinct types of solutions, with cybersecurity one among many.

Attacks and Incidents Have Not Let Up

In 2021, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack had a big impact on the eastern United States. Hospitals have been another significant target over the course of the pandemic period. CommonSpirit Health, a hospital operator, disclosed an attack in October 2022 2 . 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) responds to many cybersecurity attacks. Their Internet Crime Complaint Centre indicated it received a record 847,376 complaints during 2021, and the estimated potential losses could be in excess of $6.9 billion. 3  

Chief Information Security Officers (CIOs) Say They Will Increase Spending

Gartner, a consulting firm, publishes significant surveys on information technology topics. In mid-October 2022, they released some conclusions from a survey of 2,200 respondents—their annual CIO survey.  Of these respondents, 66% said they planned to increase their investment in cybersecurity. 4

In fact, increasing investment in cybersecurity beat the topic of increasing investment in ‘business intelligence and analytics,’ where 55% of the respondents said they would be increasing their investments. 5  

Gartner estimates that the total market size for information security and risk-management spending will be more than $188 billion in 2023, which would represent a greater than 11% increase relative to the current year. 6  

How Much of the Budget Goes to Cyber?

This is a difficult question to answer, and it’s always best if you can hear it directly from CIOs so that you see how they are addressing the challenges they face. The CIO of Kellogg Co., a packaged food manufacturer, indicated that safety and security represent about 15% of total corporate information and technology spend. 7  

Kellogg’s 15% of the IT spend is probably at the higher end of the spectrum of large companies, but it very much depends on the industry under discussion. Financial services companies tend to make big investments in cybersecurity, whereas we wish that utilities and essential infrastructure companies would spend more.

There Is a Labor Shortage in Cybersecurity

It has been reported that the cybersecurity talent gap has grown by 26.2% in the past year, and that there could be around 3.4 million unfilled jobs worldwide. The regional breakdown indicates a particular shortage in the Asia Pacific region, with each region short by 8 :

•  North America: 436,080

•  Latin American: 515,879

•  Europe, Middle East and Africa: 317,050

•  Asia Pacific: 2,163,468

Companies are looking at all available options to fill in these roles. Some are investing in programs that train more junior employees in certain necessary skills. Other solutions could involve the better utilization of software, machine learning and  artificial intelligence . There is no single ‘quick fix,’ but cybersecurity is a notable growth area in employment that could persist in the 2020s.

Consolidation Is a Major Trend Among Cybersecurity Companies

As we have been studying the activities of cybersecurity companies, we have noticed a pull on the customer side toward being able to maintain fewer individual tools across a cybersecurity stack. While every company could be unique, there are reports that the general chief information security officer (CISO) could be dealing with something like 70 different cybersecurity tools. 9 

There is a desire for the top tier solutions within the different technical domains—things like end point protection, cloud security, email security, to name a few—but there is also a risk associated with getting a large number of tools to work seamlessly together.

For the first nine months of 2022, we have seen about $111.5 billion in merger and acquisition activity within the cybersecurity space. This compares to $80.9 billion for the full year 2021, indicating an acceleration. The 2022 figure has 203 individual deals behind it, whereas the 2021 figure involved 293 individual deals. 10 

Anyone watching the cybersecurity space has seen the activity of Thoma Bravo and Vista Equity Partners during 2022. Thoma Bravo has either announced or closed on ForgeRock ($2.3 billion), Ping Identity Holding Corp. ($2.8 billion) and SailPoint ($6.9 billion) during 2022. The large cloud computing companies also tend to have cash on hand and could also do deal 11 :

•  Google Cloud’s purchase of Mandiant at roughly $5.4 billion was widely reported

•  Microsoft, more quietly, acquired threat intelligence firm Miburo and cybersecurity company RiskIQ Inc.

The continually expanding attack surface means that the demand for cybersecurity innovation should remain insatiable. It remains to be seen whether customers get this from the individual providers, broader cybersecurity platforms that private equity players may be assembling or seamlessly through their cloud computing relationships.

Conclusion: An Interesting Theme for the Next Chapter of the Macroeconomic Cycle

The current chapter of the macroeconomic cycle, where many of the world’s major  central banks  are focused on  inflation  and raising policy rates significantly at nearly every meeting, makes it difficult for cybersecurity company share prices to rise on a sustained basis. Many of the companies that we believe are the most exciting are newer and growing quite quickly, but they may not yet be at a stage with robust positive earnings.

Growth companies focused on scaling their operations and reinvesting rather than drawing positive net income have not been favored in high inflation, rising  interest rate  environments. However, we remind investors that the  U.S. Federal Reserve  will not raise policy rates by 75  basis points  forever, meeting by meeting, and that inflation will ultimately ease as it has in past cycles.

When this time comes, we believe the lower  valuations  of many software-focused cybersecurity companies relative to 2021 levels, combined with the view that cybersecurity is an essential business imperative, could be well-positioned. While we never know exactly what companies or services will do best, it is fairly certain that it will be important to guard against attacks and hacks and risks for the foreseeable future.

1  Sources: WisdomTree, Morningstar, Bloomberg. All data as of 9/30/22, based on WisdomTree’s internal classification of thematic funds. As of 9/30/22, this tracked 42 distinct themes. 2  Source: Steven Rosenbush, “Cybersecurity Tops the CIO Agenda as Threats Continue to Escalate,”  Wall Street Journal , 10/17/22. 3  Source: Rosenbush, 10/17/22. 4  Source: Rosenbush, 10/17/22. 5  Source: Rosenbush, 10/17/22. 6  Source: Rosenbush, 10/17/22. 7  Source: Rosenbush, 10/17/22. 8  Source: “(ISC)^2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study,” 2022.  https://www.isc2.org//-/media/ISC2/Research/2022-WorkForce-Study/ISC2-Cybersecurity-Workforce-Study.ashx 9  Source: James Rundle, “Cyber M&A Expected to Remain Robust into 2023,”  Wall Street Journal , 10/19/22. 10  Source: Rundle, 10/19/22. 11  Source: Rundle, 10/19/22.

Originally Posted October 31, 2022 – Cybersecurity Should Remain a Top Focus in 2023

Important Risks Related to this Article

There are risks associated with investing, including the possible loss of principal. The Fund invests in cybersecurity companies, which generate a meaningful part of their revenue from security protocols that prevent intrusion and attacks to systems, networks, applications, computers and mobile devices. Cybersecurity companies are particularly vulnerable to rapid changes in technology, rapid obsolescence of products and services, the loss of patent, copyright and trademark protections, government regulation and competition, both domestically and internationally. Cybersecurity company stocks, especially those which are internet related, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations in the past that have often been unrelated to their operating performance. These companies may also be smaller and less experienced companies, with limited product or service lines, markets or financial resources and fewer experienced management or marketing personnel. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, its Index regardless of their investment merit and the Fund does not attempt to outperform its Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. The composition of the Index is heavily dependent on quantitative and qualitative information and data from one or more third parties, and the Index may not perform as intended. Please read the Fund’s prospectus for specific details regarding the Fund’s risk profile.

Related Tags

Disclosure: wisdomtree u.s..

Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the Funds before investing. U.S. investors only: To obtain a prospectus containing this and other important information, please call 866.909.WISE (9473) or  click here  to view or download a prospectus online. Read the prospectus carefully before you invest. There are risks involved with investing, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

You cannot invest directly in an index.

Foreign investing involves currency, political and economic risk. Funds focusing on a single country, sector and/or funds that emphasize investments in smaller companies may experience greater price volatility. Investments in emerging markets, real estate, currency, fixed income and alternative investments include additional risks. Due to the investment strategy of certain Funds, they may make higher capital gain distributions than other ETFs. Please see prospectus for discussion of risks.

WisdomTree Funds are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC, in the U.S. only.

Interactive Advisors offers two portfolios powered by WisdomTree: the  WisdomTree Aggressive  and  WisdomTree Moderately Aggressive with Alts  portfolios.

Disclosure: Interactive Brokers

Information posted on IBKR Campus that is provided by third-parties does NOT constitute a recommendation that you should contract for the services of that third party. Third-party participants who contribute to IBKR Campus are independent of Interactive Brokers and Interactive Brokers does not make any representations or warranties concerning the services offered, their past or future performance, or the accuracy of the information provided by the third party. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

This material is from WisdomTree U.S. and is being posted with its permission. The views expressed in this material are solely those of the author and/or WisdomTree U.S. and Interactive Brokers is not endorsing or recommending any investment or trading discussed in the material. This material is not and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any security. It should not be construed as research or investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security or commodity. This material does not and is not intended to take into account the particular financial conditions, investment objectives or requirements of individual customers. Before acting on this material, you should consider whether it is suitable for your particular circumstances and, as necessary, seek professional advice.

Disclosure: ETFs

Any discussion or mention of an ETF is not to be construed as recommendation, promotion or solicitation. All investors should review and consider associated investment risks, charges and expenses of the investment company or fund prior to investing. Before acting on this material, you should consider whether it is suitable for your particular circumstances and, as necessary, seek professional advice.

Related Articles

Forget Buy the Rumor, Sell the News: Aug. 9, 2024

Forget Buy the Rumor, Sell the News: Aug. 9, 2024

Why is restaurant company sweetgreen stock surging today.

Paramount, PayPal upgraded: Wall Street’s top analyst calls

Paramount, PayPal upgraded: Wall Street’s top analyst calls

Unpacking Recent Market Volatility

Unpacking Recent Market Volatility

Ibkr campus newsletters, bi-weekly newsletter.

Get updates on podcasts, webinars, courses, and more from our IBKR pillars.

Daily Newsletter

View the latest financial news articles from the top voices in the industry.

Weekly Newsletter

For those wanting to trade markets using computer-power by coders and developers.

Monthly Newsletter

Hear about the latest tools and techniques from our own IBKR API staff.

This website uses cookies to collect usage information in order to offer a better browsing experience. By browsing this site or by clicking on the "ACCEPT COOKIES" button you accept our Cookie Policy.

Traders' Insight RSS

To add ibkr traders’ insight to your rss feed, please paste the following link into your reader:, ibkr quant rss, to add ibkr quant to your rss feed, please paste the following link into your reader:, this page contains information regarding options trading.

To view this page, you must acknowledge that you have received the Characteristics & Risks of Standardized Options, also known as the options disclosure document (ODD). Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. For more information, click here to read the " Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options " or visit: ibkr.com/occ

By acknowledging this disclosure you are also allowing this website to use "functional" cookies on your browser. To find out more about cookies, see our privacy settings.

Privacy Preference Center

Your privacy.

When you visit any website it may use cookies and web beacons to store or retrieve information on your browser. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is typically used to make the website work as expected. The information does not usually directly identify you, but can provide a personalized browsing experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies and web beacons. Please click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our website and limit the services we can offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly necessary cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are typically set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. While you can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, some parts of the website will not work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

ALWAYS ACTIVE

Performance Cookies

Performance cookies and web beacons allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve website performance. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors navigate around our website. All information these cookies and web beacons collect is aggregated and anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies and web beacons we will not know when you have visited our website and will not be able to monitor its performance.

Allow Performance Cookies:

Functional Cookies

Functional cookies enable our website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.

Allow Functional Cookies:

Marketing Cookies and Web Beacons

Marketing Cookies and web beacons may be set through our website by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other websites. They do not directly store personal information, but uniquely identify your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies and web beacons, you will experience less targeted advertising. Our website does not track users when they cross to third party websites, does not provide targeted advertising to them and therefore does not respond to "Do Not Track" signals.

Allow Marketing Cookies:

Interactive Brokers Group Cookie Policy

What are Cookies and Web Beacons?

Cookies are pieces of data that a website transfers to a user's hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Web beacons are transparent pixel images that are used in collecting information about website usage, e-mail response and tracking. Generally, cookies may contain information about your Internet Protocol ("IP") addresses, the region or general location where your computer or device is accessing the internet, browser type, operating system and other usage information about the website or your usage of our services, including a history of the pages you view.

How We Use Cookies and Web Beacons

Interactive Brokers Group collects information from cookies and web beacons and stores it in an internal database. This information is retained in accordance with our Privacy Policy. This website uses the following cookies and web beacons:

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can configure your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but certain areas of the site will not function properly. These cookies do not store any personal data.

Performance Cookies and Web Beacons

These cookies and web beacons allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information that these cookies and web beacons collect is aggregated and, therefore, anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies and web beacons our aggregated statistics will not have a record of your visit. The website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses cookies to help analyse how you use this website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purposes of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, some or all of these services may not function properly.

These cookies and web beacons may be set throughout our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertisements on other sites. They do not store personal information that could identify you directly, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies and web beacons, you will experience less targeted advertising. The website does not track users when they cross to third party websites, does not provide targeted advertising to them and therefore does not respond to Do Not Track ("DNT") signals.

Managing Your Cookie Preferences

You have many choices with regards to the management of cookies on your computer. All major browsers allow you to block or delete cookies from your system. However, if you do decide to disable cookies you may not be able to access some areas of our website or the website may function incorrectly. To learn more about your ability to manage cookies and web beacons and how to disable them, please consult the privacy features in your browser or visit www.allaboutcookies.org. This website may link through to third party websites which may also use cookies and web beacons over which we have no control. We recommend that you check the relevant third parties privacy policy for information about any cookies and web beacons that may be used.

IBKR LLC (U.S.)

We are redirecting you to the Interactive Brokers LLC (U.S.) Website. Should you decide to open an account, you will be redirected to the account application for your region. You can also find the website of the IBKR entity for your region at the bottom of this page.

U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Here’s how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

  • Science and Technology Directorate

Be Cyber-Aware This Month (and All Year!)

Kathryn Coulter Mitchell

The recent strings of cyber attacks (SolarWinds), ransomware attacks (gas pipelines) and newly uncovered weaknesses (5G non-standalone security shortcomings) are sober reminders that our cybersecurity is tenuous if we are not vigilant by strengthening our connections to the internet.

Thus, it’s apropos that “Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart” is the theme of Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2021, a public awareness campaign cosponsored by our operational partners at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), as well as the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). The goal of this annual informational campaign, which was first launched by NCSA and the Department of Homeland Security in 2004, is to educate Americans on how to be safe online and provide them tips to boost their security.

Our Research

At the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), we are doing our part to ensure the nation’s, and our citizens’, cyber connections are strong and secure. We are engaged in several important research initiatives—ranging from protecting emerging 5G use-cases to safeguarding Public Service Answering Points (PSAPs)—that will help increase the nation’s cyber-resilience. Here’s a brief overview of a few of these efforts:

Mobile Security—Our Secure and Resilient Mobile Network Infrastructure (SRMNI) Research and Development (R&D) Project is addressing security and resiliency gaps in the mobile ecosystem. We are enhancing legacy (4G and earlier) and current telecommunications protocols (5G) and protections and implementing security safeguards into 5G networks. We also are leveraging 5G to demonstrate solutions that meet government security needs, including a secure voice and video capability for unclassified government communications and a protective Domain Name System for mobile network traffic.

911 Security—Our Emergency Communications R&D Project is working to enhance cybersecurity protections for emergency communications centers. PSAPs have become frequent targets of cyber and ransomware attacks, putting lives in danger because first responders cannot be dispatched to emergencies. The focus of this project is to protect 911 services by developing groundbreaking protections for vulnerable legacy systems and for the future interconnected Next Generation 911 systems.

Building the Future Cybersecurity Workforce—S&T and CISA jointly are developing a plan to build a national network of cybersecurity technical institutes that will educate the next generation of cybersecurity practitioners and leaders. Our agencies and our partners in academia are researching and will develop a plan that uses an academic hub-and-spoke model to create a national network of cybersecurity institutes to educate and train cybersecurity professionals.  

Mobile App Security—Each year, thousands of new common vulnerabilities in software code are identified—12,000 in 2019 alone! An S&T R&D project developed a solution that identifies malicious code in mobile app software , preventing attackers from taking advantage of these vulnerabilities to launch cyber attacks. The solution protects against exploits such as stack manipulation, buffer overflows, execution of unintended code, and execution of an app’s code in the wrong order.

Cyber Tips for You

While S&T is busy working on cybersecurity research that will help increase our overall cybersecurity, here are three steps everyone can take to boost their own online security:

  • First, always update computers and mobile devices when new security updates are available. These updates to productivity and security software, the web browser, operating system and applications provide the latest protection upgrades for newly identified vulnerabilities and risks.
  • Next, never open links or attachments in emails from someone you don’t know; you could expose your computer or device to spyware or give criminals access to your or your employer’s network.
  • Last, don’t assume the public wireless network in your neighborhood coffee shop is secure. Always treat a public wireless network as suspect and limit activity. Instead, use a virtual private network or a personal/mobile hotspot to shield passwords and private information from prying eyes.

Together, we—you doing your part and S&T through its research—will make cyberspace more secure today and tomorrow.

  • Cybersecurity
  • Science and Technology
  • National Cyber Security Awareness Month

TechRepublic

Account information.

cybersecurity research topics 2022

Share with Your Friends

Is Australia’s Public Sector Ready for a Major Cyber Security Incident?

Your email has been sent

Image of Ben Abbott

Recent investigations into the cyber security preparedness of Australian Federal Government agencies have found gaps in the public sector’s readiness for cyber security attacks or major data breaches, contributing to a focus in 2024 on improving their cyber readiness.

An audit of two government agencies, Services Australia and AUSTRAC, released in 2024, revealed these agencies are not well-prepared to recover from a significant cyber attack, while a previous whole-of-government survey found gaps in some areas of agency cyber maturity.

The Australian Government’s Cyber Security Strategy 2023-2030 said the Federal Government should “hold itself to the same standard it expects of industry.” In 2024, a focus of the Australian Signals Directorate is to uplift cybersecurity skills in government agencies.

Australian government entities unfit for heightened cyber threat environment

Australian public sector agencies are prime targets for cybercriminals because of the data they hold. For instance, the Australian Taxation Office revealed in 2024 that it faces 4.7 million attacks per month due to the 50 petabytes of data it holds, while data on a significant number of people was accessed when South Australian super fund operator Super SA was compromised in 2023.

Attacks faced by Australian government entities in 2022-23

Official statistics based on incidents reported to the ASD show that government entities continue to prove attractive targets for cybercriminals, with a strong volume of attacks. In 2022-2023:

  • Approximately 31% of cyber security incidents reported to the Australian Signals Directorate were from Australian Government entities.
  • Over 40% of these were coordinated low-level malicious cyberattacks directed at the federal government, government-shared services or regulated critical infrastructure.
  • Ransomware is the most significant cybercrime threat, posing considerable risk to Australian Government entities as well as businesses and individuals.

SEE: Will Australia ever dig itself out of the cyber security skills shortage?

The current cyber security posture of government entities

The ASD’s 2023 Cyber Security Posture Report , assessing the maturity level of all government agencies, indicated that “the overall maturity level across entities remained low in 2023.” The report found:

  • 25% of entities self-assessed at Maturity Level Two across the ASD’s Essential Eight mitigation strategies. The Essential Eight framework includes four maturity levels, with Maturity Level Zero the lowest and Level Three considered best practice.
  • Most public sector entities — 71% — self-assessed at Maturity Level Two for the Essential Eight mitigation strategy “Regular backups.” This indicated a potential problem with the ability to recover from a significant cyberattack.
  • Just 82% had an incident response plan, though this was an improvement from 2022. Of these, 90% said that their plan had been last updated within the last two years, and 69% indicated it had been enacted at least every two years.

Previous audits of public sector bodies, including the Australian Federal Police, Australian Taxation Office and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, conducted by the Australian National Audit Office, had also “identified low levels of cyber resilience in entities.”

AUSTRAC, Services Australia show cyber security deficiencies

An ANAO report on cyber security incident management at Services Australia and AUSTRAC in June 2024 found their measures only “partially effective,” with neither well placed to ensure business continuity or disaster recovery after a significant cyber security incident.

Graph showing AUSTRAC and Services Australia’s self-reported maturity level when measured against Australia’s Protective Security Policy Framework in 2022-23.

Services Australia, delivering services and payments to citizens, and AUSTRAC, responsible for stopping criminal abuse of the financial system, are both custodians of economic or commercial information and personal information, and are classed as national security or critical infrastructure.

The ANAO report found that AUSTRAC’s procedures supporting incident recovery processes did not include the security and testing of backup solutions, nor did they detail the systems, applications and servers supporting critical business processes.

In addition, it did not detail CISO responsibilities — its continuous monitoring and improvement reporting approach — or define timeframes for reporting. Further, the organisation did not have an event logging policy or document its analysis of all cyber security events, violating ASD guidelines.

SEE: CISOs in Australia urged to take a closer look at data breach risks

Services Australia

Services Australia is only “partly effective” in the design of cyber security incident management procedures, with no documented approach to threat and vulnerability assessments. It also had no timeframe for triage and escalation, and no defined approach for investigations.

The agency had “partly implemented effective recovery processes,” including regular backups. However, its plans did not include all systems and applications supporting critical business processes, and the agency does not test the recoverability of backups.

What is the Australian national cyber security strategy?

The Australian government is aware of the need for agencies to improve their level of cyber security preparedness and resilience. In the Cyber Security Strategy 2023-2030, for example, the government writes that, as an owner and operator of critical infrastructure and being responsible for holding some of the most sensitive data about Australia’s people, economy and national security, “the government needs to hold itself to the same standard it imposes on industry.”

As part of the strategy, the government has committed to:

  • Strengthening the cyber maturity of government departments and agencies.
  • Identifying and protecting critical systems across government.
  • Uplifting the cyber skills of the Australian Public Service.

The ASD said it is playing a role in stepping up security at government agencies in 2024 using extra funding. This includes introducing more technical capabilities to departments and providing more experts to help agencies fortify their networks against cyber criminals.

Private sector demands rise in public sector security standards

The private sector will welcome moves to improve cyber security in the public sector.

In a recent submission to government on proposed cyber security legislative reforms , The Technology Council of Australia, representing the technology industry, urged the Australian government to uplift and safeguard its own information security practices and methods. This is to ensure that any information provided to it by private sector organisations, as part of mandatory cyber incident information sharing proposals, occurs in secure transfer environments and channels.

Amazon Web Services suggested the government should formally include its own critical infrastructure and “Systems of Government Significance” under the remit of the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act, or other legislative framework.

“Doing so would set important enforceable benchmarks for government,” AWS wrote, “and send an important signal to industry that government truly sees itself as an equal partner in the nation’s cyber uplift.”

Subscribe to the Daily Tech Insider AU Newsletter

Stay up to date on the latest in technology with Daily Tech Insider Australian Edition. We bring you news on industry-leading companies, products, and people, as well as highlighted articles, downloads, and top resources. You’ll receive primers on hot tech topics that are most relevant to AU markets that will help you stay ahead of the game. Delivered Thursdays

  • Cyber Security Trends to Watch in Australia in 2024
  • Tenable: Cyber Security Pros Should Worry About State-Sponsored Cyber Attacks
  • Cisco’s Splunk Acquisition Should Help Security Pros See Threats Sooner in Australia and New Zealand
  • AI Deepfakes Rising as Risk for APAC Organisations
  • Cybersecurity: More Must-Read Coverage

Image of Ben Abbott

Create a TechRepublic Account

Get the web's best business technology news, tutorials, reviews, trends, and analysis—in your inbox. Let's start with the basics.

* - indicates required fields

Sign in to TechRepublic

Lost your password? Request a new password

Reset Password

Please enter your email adress. You will receive an email message with instructions on how to reset your password.

Check your email for a password reset link. If you didn't receive an email don't forgot to check your spam folder, otherwise contact support .

Welcome. Tell us a little bit about you.

This will help us provide you with customized content.

Want to receive more TechRepublic news?

You're all set.

Thanks for signing up! Keep an eye out for a confirmation email from our team. To ensure any newsletters you subscribed to hit your inbox, make sure to add [email protected] to your contacts list.

IMAGES

  1. Trending Top 15+ Cybersecurity Thesis Topics [Research Domain] (2022)

    cybersecurity research topics 2022

  2. Infographic

    cybersecurity research topics 2022

  3. NSA Publishes 2022 Cybersecurity Year in Review > National Security

    cybersecurity research topics 2022

  4. 215 Best Cybersecurity Research Topics for Students

    cybersecurity research topics 2022

  5. Top 10 Trends in Cybersecurity, 2022: Combating Industrialized

    cybersecurity research topics 2022

  6. 215 Best Cybersecurity Research Topics for Students

    cybersecurity research topics 2022

COMMENTS

  1. 105 Latest Cyber Security Research Topics in 2024

    Criminal Law. Cyber Security Future Research Topics. Developing more effective methods for detecting and responding to cyber attacks. Investigating the role of social media in cyber security. Examining the impact of cloud computing on cyber security. Investigating the security implications of the Internet of Things.

  2. Cybersecurity Research Topics (+ Free Webinar)

    These are actual studies, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice. Cyber Security Vulnerability Detection Using Natural Language Processing (Singh et al., 2022) Security for Cloud-Native Systems with an AI-Ops Engine (Ck et al., 2022) Overview of Cyber Security (Yadav, 2022)

  3. Cyber Security Research Topics

    9 👩‍💻Cyber Security Topics on Computer and Software. There are many reasons to choose cyber security research topics for writing purposes. First, cyber security is a growing field, with many new and exciting developments happening all the time. This makes it an ideal topic to write about, as there is always something new to learn and ...

  4. Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2022

    Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2022. The first Global Cybersecurity Outlook flagship report identifies the trends and analyzes the near-term future cybersecurity challenges. The accelerated shift to remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with recent high-profile cyberattacks have resulted in bringing cybersecurity top of mind among ...

  5. 500+ Cyber Security Research Topics

    Cyber Security Research Topics. Cyber Security Research Topics are as follows: The role of machine learning in detecting cyber threats. The impact of cloud computing on cyber security. Cyber warfare and its effects on national security. The rise of ransomware attacks and their prevention methods.

  6. Artificial intelligence for cybersecurity: Literature review and future

    Explores research from 2010 to February 2022 related to AI applications for cybersecurity from a descriptive point of view, and a detailed state-of-the-art analysis ... Section 2 discusses the relevant background to provide an introduction and conceptualization of cybersecurity and AI topics along with an explanation of the classification ...

  7. Cyber risk and cybersecurity: a systematic review of data availability

    Cybercrime is estimated to have cost the global economy just under USD 1 trillion in 2020, indicating an increase of more than 50% since 2018. With the average cyber insurance claim rising from USD 145,000 in 2019 to USD 359,000 in 2020, there is a growing necessity for better cyber information sources, standardised databases, mandatory reporting and public awareness. This research analyses ...

  8. 5 Research Topics in Cybersecurity

    The shortened response time led companies to an average of $3 million in savings in those situations, according to a 2022 report from IBM. One key research topic for cybersecurity professionals is how best to use AI to find potential vulnerabilities and remove them — before cyberattackers use that same technology to find those security risks ...

  9. The Top Cybersecurity Research Data Points of 2022

    5 - OT threats put critical infrastructure at heightened risk. In 2022, the cybersecurity world intensified its attention on the protection of operational technology (OT) and IT systems used in critical infrastructure facilities. A takeaway from a Microsoft study validates this concern.

  10. A closer look at organizational cybersecurity research trending topics

    Design/methodology/approach. To identify the leading organizational cybersecurity research topics of interest and their key limitations, the author conducted a topic modeling analysis of the organizational level studies published in the Association for Information Systems (AIS) senior scholars' "basket of eight journals" (Association for Information Systems, 2022) over the past five years.

  11. 283 Hottest Cybersecurity Research Topics & Questions [2024]

    Cyber security is a vast, constantly evolving field. Its research takes place in many areas. Among them are: Safe quantum and space communications. Progress in quantum technologies and space travel calls for extra layers of protection. Data privacy.

  12. Top Cybersecurity Trends and Strategies for Securing the Future

    The Gartner Top Trends in Cybersecurity 2024 survey finds emerging pressure from: In response, cybersecurity leaders are working to equip their functions with agile and responsive capabilities. The 2024 trends report shows their actions and priorities center on nine practices, technical capabilities and structural reforms — each helping ...

  13. 154 First-Class Cybersecurity Research Topics (2023)

    Network security. Application security. Information security. Operational security. Disaster recovery and business continuity. Therefore, your cybersecurity topics for research should: Examine the common security breaches in systems and networks. Offer practical ways of protecting computers from such attacks.

  14. Cybersecurity

    Overview. NIST develops cybersecurity standards, guidelines, best practices, and other resources to meet the needs of U.S. industry, federal agencies and the broader public. Our activities range from producing specific information that organizations can put into practice immediately to longer-term research that anticipates advances in ...

  15. Top 10 Cybersecurity Research Papers to Know About in 2022

    FUZZBUSTER: Towards adaptive immunity from cyber threats by Paul Robertson. Modern computer systems face constant attacks from sophisticated adversaries, and the number of such attacks is increasing every day. This paper aims to develop Puzzbuster, which is an automated system that provides adaptive immunity against a wide variety of cyber ...

  16. Focus Topics

    Cybersecurity Magazine is the place to go to for insights on cybersecurity, both from the research community and the industry. However, sometimes we focus on specific topics and run several articles pertaining to those focus topics. ... Journal of Cyber Security and Mobility Best Paper 2022 In our podcast this month, Cybersecurity Magazine ...

  17. Cyber Security Research Papers

    Master's degree candidates at SANS.edu conduct research that is relevant, has real world impact, and often provides cutting-edge advancements to the field of cybersecurity, all under the guidance and review of our world-class instructors. Learn about the Master's Degree Program. 10 per page. 10 per page. 50 per page. 100 per page. Latest. Latest.

  18. 128 Cybersecurity Research Topics

    These great topics for cybersecurity can make you more knowledgeable about the current trends. Risk management in computing. The most common causes of a data breach in the 21 st. The best way to protect your device and synchronize the data. The significance of computer forensics in the current digital era.

  19. Top 111+ Stunning Cybersecurity Research Topics For 2023

    On the other hand, we mentioned 111+ stunning cybersecurity research topics for 2023 offer an excellent opportunity for researchers to explore and address critical cybersecurity challenges. However, the ever-evolving technological landscape presents new security challenges every day, and it is essential to keep up with the latest trends to stay ...

  20. A closer look at organizational cybersecurity research trending topics

    Department of Information Systems, Statistics, and Management Science, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. Accepted 17 October 2022. Abstract. Purpose In identifying both the topics of interest and key limitations of the extant organizational security research, both opportunities for future research as well as some underlying ...

  21. 13 Apr Cybersecurity Research: All In One Place

    2022 Cybercrime Report - We expect global cybercrime damage costs to grow by 15 percent per year over the next three years, reaching $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, up from $6 trillion in 2021, and $3 trillion in 2015. If it were measured as a country, then cybercrime would be the world's third-largest economy after the U.S. and China.

  22. PDF White paper Cybersecurity Annual Research Report 2022

    peers regarding cybersecurity adoption, challenges, investment and preparedness. A high-level review of our annual survey reflects the following trends: 1. Cybersecurity is the number one business concern. Right now, the topic outweighs even price inflation, supply chain/logistics and the global IT talent shortage. 2.

  23. Threat Landscape

    The ENISA Threat Landscape (ETL) report is the annual report of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, ENISA, on the state of the cybersecurity threat landscape. In October 2022, ENISA released the 10th edition of the report that covers a period of reporting starting from April 2021 up to July 2022.

  24. New and Emerging Cybersecurity Threats and Attacker Tactics

    Supply Chain Cyber Risks. Recent incidents have underscored the devastating potential of supply chain attacks. One alarming example is the XZ Utils backdoor (CVE-2024-3094), a critical vulnerability found in a widely used open-source compression tool. This attack, led by the "Jia Tan" account, was a multi-year operation that began in 2021 and culminated in deploying a backdoor in 2024.

  25. Cybersecurity Should Remain a Top Focus in 2023

    Gartner, a consulting firm, publishes significant surveys on information technology topics. In mid-October 2022, they released some conclusions from a survey of 2,200 respondents—their annual CIO survey. Of these respondents, 66% said they planned to increase their investment in cybersecurity. 4

  26. Be Cyber-Aware This Month (and All Year!)

    Thus, it's apropos that "Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart" is the theme of Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2021, a public awareness campaign cosponsored by our operational partners at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), as well as the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). The goal of this annual informational campaign ...

  27. Is Australia's Public Sector Ready for a Major Cyber Security Incident?

    Attacks faced by Australian government entities in 2022-23. ... In the Cyber Security Strategy 2023-2030, for example, the government writes that, as an owner and operator of critical ...

  28. Threat Landscape for Supply Chain Attacks

    This report aims at mapping and studying the supply chain attacks that were discovered from January 2020 to early July 2021. Based on the trends and patterns observed, supply chain attacks increased in number and sophistication in the year 2020 and this trend is continuing in 2021, posing an increasing risk for organizations. It is estimated that there will be four times more supply chain ...

  29. Omdia: In-CPU AI acceleration, the must-have feature of 2022, is

    LONDON, August 6, 2024: In 2021-2022, CPU vendors raced to get additional AI acceleration built into their instruction sets. Intel, Arm, and AMD all announced the feature was coming. Now, though, only a subset of Intel's Xeon 6 chips have it, as well as a relatively small number of smartphones.

  30. Omdia research finds global games peripherals revenue passed $10

    LONDON, August 8, 2024: New research from Omdia shows that global spend on games peripherals and accessories surpassed $10 billion in 2023, with 2029 revenue set to be close to $12 billion. The research, newly published in Omdia's Games Peripherals and Accessories Market Forecast 2024, shows that gamepads accounted for 44.3% of spend in 2023, and will more or less maintain their share to 2029.