Quantifying the Multidimensional Impact of Cyber Attacks in Digital Financial Services: A Systematic Literature Review

The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks have posed significant challenges for digital financial organisations, particularly in quantifying their multidimensional impacts. These challenges are largely attributed to the lack of a standardised cyber impact taxonomy, limited data av...

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Main Authors: Olumayowa Adefowope Adekoya, Hany F. Atlam, Harjinder Singh Lallie
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-07-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/14/4345
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author Olumayowa Adefowope Adekoya
Hany F. Atlam
Harjinder Singh Lallie
author_facet Olumayowa Adefowope Adekoya
Hany F. Atlam
Harjinder Singh Lallie
author_sort Olumayowa Adefowope Adekoya
collection DOAJ
description The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks have posed significant challenges for digital financial organisations, particularly in quantifying their multidimensional impacts. These challenges are largely attributed to the lack of a standardised cyber impact taxonomy, limited data availability, and the evolving nature of technological threats. As a result, organisations often struggle with ineffective security investment prioritisation, reactive incident response planning, and the inability to implement robust, risk-based controls. Hence, an efficient and comprehensive approach is needed to quantify the diverse impacts of cyber attacks in digital financial services. This paper presents a systematic review and examination of the state of the art in cyber impact quantification, with a particular focus on digital financial organisations. Based on a structured search strategy, 44 articles (out of 637) were selected for in-depth analysis. The review investigates the terminologies used to describe cyber impacts, categorises current quantification techniques (pre-attack and post-attack), and identifies the most commonly utilised internal and external data sources. Furthermore, it explores the application of Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) techniques in cyber security risk quantification. Our findings reveal a significant lack of standardised taxonomy for describing and quantifying the multidimensional impact of cyberattacks across physical, digital, economic, psychological, reputational, and societal dimensions. Lastly, open issues and future research directions are discussed. This work provides insights for researchers and professionals by consolidating and identifying quantification technique gaps in cyber security risk quantification.
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spelling doaj-art-042da0210f4646009824f039b01e915e2025-08-20T02:47:10ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202025-07-012514434510.3390/s25144345Quantifying the Multidimensional Impact of Cyber Attacks in Digital Financial Services: A Systematic Literature ReviewOlumayowa Adefowope Adekoya0Hany F. Atlam1Harjinder Singh Lallie2Cyber Security Centre, Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UKCyber Security Centre, Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UKCyber Security Centre, Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UKThe increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks have posed significant challenges for digital financial organisations, particularly in quantifying their multidimensional impacts. These challenges are largely attributed to the lack of a standardised cyber impact taxonomy, limited data availability, and the evolving nature of technological threats. As a result, organisations often struggle with ineffective security investment prioritisation, reactive incident response planning, and the inability to implement robust, risk-based controls. Hence, an efficient and comprehensive approach is needed to quantify the diverse impacts of cyber attacks in digital financial services. This paper presents a systematic review and examination of the state of the art in cyber impact quantification, with a particular focus on digital financial organisations. Based on a structured search strategy, 44 articles (out of 637) were selected for in-depth analysis. The review investigates the terminologies used to describe cyber impacts, categorises current quantification techniques (pre-attack and post-attack), and identifies the most commonly utilised internal and external data sources. Furthermore, it explores the application of Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) techniques in cyber security risk quantification. Our findings reveal a significant lack of standardised taxonomy for describing and quantifying the multidimensional impact of cyberattacks across physical, digital, economic, psychological, reputational, and societal dimensions. Lastly, open issues and future research directions are discussed. This work provides insights for researchers and professionals by consolidating and identifying quantification technique gaps in cyber security risk quantification.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/14/4345risk quantificationimpact quantificationtaxonomycyber security impactmultidimensional impactdigital financial service
spellingShingle Olumayowa Adefowope Adekoya
Hany F. Atlam
Harjinder Singh Lallie
Quantifying the Multidimensional Impact of Cyber Attacks in Digital Financial Services: A Systematic Literature Review
Sensors
risk quantification
impact quantification
taxonomy
cyber security impact
multidimensional impact
digital financial service
title Quantifying the Multidimensional Impact of Cyber Attacks in Digital Financial Services: A Systematic Literature Review
title_full Quantifying the Multidimensional Impact of Cyber Attacks in Digital Financial Services: A Systematic Literature Review
title_fullStr Quantifying the Multidimensional Impact of Cyber Attacks in Digital Financial Services: A Systematic Literature Review
title_full_unstemmed Quantifying the Multidimensional Impact of Cyber Attacks in Digital Financial Services: A Systematic Literature Review
title_short Quantifying the Multidimensional Impact of Cyber Attacks in Digital Financial Services: A Systematic Literature Review
title_sort quantifying the multidimensional impact of cyber attacks in digital financial services a systematic literature review
topic risk quantification
impact quantification
taxonomy
cyber security impact
multidimensional impact
digital financial service
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/14/4345
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AT harjindersinghlallie quantifyingthemultidimensionalimpactofcyberattacksindigitalfinancialservicesasystematicliteraturereview