Identifying the Scope of Cybersecurity Research Conducted in the Maritime Industry: 2003 - 2023

Abstract

The maritime industry plays a pivotal role in the modern economy, global trade, safety and transportation globally. Due to the rapid advancement and utilisation of technology in the field, the maritime industry is increasingly vulnerable to cybersecurity threats. The last decade saw many instances of infrastructure having been exploited or attacked, such as the maritime vessels themselves, the port infrastructure and the supply chain. Each component constituting the maritime industry requires unique system critical operations to ensure cybersecurity, however this paper focuses on certain aspects of the maritime industry only. As cybersecurity in the maritime industry is a growing field, this study determines the scope of cybersecurity research on maritime infrastructure which has been published to establish a baseline understanding of the current field. The paper presents the results from a systematic literature review conducted to assess the scope of current cybersecurity work published focusing on the maritime industry. The result from the study clearly shows the increased attention to cybersecurity in the maritime industry, which can be seen from the increased number of publications which showed a sharp increase after 2014.