Digitalisation is transforming the railway globally. One of the major considerations in digital transformation of any industry including the railway is the increased exposure to cyberattacks. The railway industry is vulnerable to these attacks because since the number of digital items and also number of interfaces between digital and physical components in the railway systems keep increasing. Increased number of items and interfaces require new frameworks, concepts and architectures to ensure the railway system’s resilience with respect to cybersecurity challenges, such as lack of proactiveness, lack of holistic perspective and obsolescence of safety systems exposed to current and future cyber threats landscape. To this date, there are several works carried out in the literature that studied the cybersecurity aspects and its application on railway infrastructure. However, to develop and implement an appropriate roadmap to cybersecurity in railways, there is a need of describing emerging challenges, and approaches to deal with these challenges and the possibilities and benefits of these. Hence, the objective of this paper is to provide a systematic review and outline cybersecurity emerging trends and approaches, and also to identify possible solutions by querying literature, academic and industrial, for future directions. The authors of this paper conducted separate searches through four popular databases, that is, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science and IEEE explore. For the screening process, authors have used keywords with Boolean operators and database filters and identified 90 articles most relevant to the study domain. The analysis of 90 articles shows that majority of the cybersecurity studies lies within the railways are conceptual and lags in application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based security. Like other industries, it is very important that railways should also follow latest security technologies, trends and train their workforce for cyber hygiene since railways are already in digitalization transition mode.

Industry 5.0 promises to revolutionize the industry by focusing on human-centric, sustainability, and resilience empowered by emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digitalization. This paradigm shift is expected to bring significant advancements in sustainability, resilience, productivity, effectiveness, efficiency, customization, reliability, safety, security, maintainability etc. However, this shift of the industrial paradigm introduces substantial cybersecurity challenges due to the increased attack surface and data sensitivity. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to conduct a thorough literature review of the recent research on cybersecurity in Industry 5.0, highlighting emerging trends, gaps, and potential solutions. To conduct this research, the authors have applied the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology to investigate cybersecurity solutions in Industry 5.0. The findings reveal that conceptual research dominates, with AI, Blockchain, and Internet of Things (IoT) most prevalent but highlights a gap in linking cybersecurity to resilience and sustainability. Furthermore, the paper aims to present trends in cybersecurity research with more relevant results from 2022 to 2024. It conducts a thorough review of the literature, highlighting the evolving landscape of cybersecurity applications in Industry 5.0.

With the advancements in and widespread adoption of information and communication technologies in infrastructures, cyber-attacks are becoming more frequent and more severe. Advanced cybersecurity threats with automated capabilities are increasing in such sectors as finance, health, grid, retail, government, telecommunications, transportation, etc. Cyber-attacks are also increasing in railways with an impact on railway stakeholders, e.g. threat to the safety of employees, passengers, or the public in general; loss of sensitive railway information; reputational damage; monetary loss; erroneous decisions; loss of dependability, etc. There is a need to move towards advanced security analytics and automation to identify, respond to, and prevent such security breaches. The objective of this research is to reduce cyber risks and vulnerabilities and to improve the cybersecurity capabilities of railways by evaluating their cybersecurity maturity levels and making recommendations for improvements. After assessing various cybersecurity maturity models, the Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model (C2M2) was selected to assess the cybersecurity capabilities of railway organizations. The contributions of this research are as follows. First, a new maturity level MIL4 (Maturity Indicator Level 4) is introduced in the C2M2 model. Second, the C2M2 model is adapted by adding advanced security analytics and threat intelligence to develop the Railway-Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model (R-C2M2). The cybersecurity maturity of three railway organizations is evaluated using this model. Third, recommendations and available standards & guidelines are provided to the three railway organizations to improve maturity levels within different domains. In addition, they are given an action plan to implement the recommendations in a streamlined way. The application of this model will allow railway organizations to improve their capability to reduce the impacts of cyber-attacks and eradicate vulnerabilities. The approach can also be extended to other infrastructures with necessary adaptations.

The convergence of information technology and operation technology and the associated paradigm shift toward Industry 4.0 in complex systems, such as railways has brought significant benefits in reliability, maintainability, operational efficiency, capacity, as well as improvements in passenger experience. However, with the adoption of information and communications technologies in railway maintenance, vulnerability to cyber threats has increased. It is essential that organizations move toward security analytics and automation to improve and prevent security breaches and to quickly identify and respond to security events. This paper provides a statistical review of cybersecurity incidents in the transportation sector with a focus on railways. It uses a web-based search for data collection in popular databases. The overall objective is to identify cybersecurity challenges in the railway sector.

Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to evaluate and estimate the cybersecurity maturity and awareness risk for workforce management in railway transportation by using Railway-Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model (R-C2M2) and Information Security Awareness Capability Model (ISACM), respectively.Design/methodology/approach: This research uses a case study strategy, so primary data comprise the majority of data collected. These data were collected through interviews and questionnaires. The secondary data were collected from the literature, technical reports and standards.Findings: The results show that there is a gap in cybersecurity awareness within the workforce and there is a need to improve this gap. This paper provides some of the recommendations and literature to enhance cybersecurity workforce culture within railway organizations.Practical implications: In this paper, the authors have demonstrated that cybersecurity awareness has positive impact on the overall dependability of the railway system.Originality/value: This paper describes the importance of cybersecurity awareness and training in building more cyber resiliency across the operation and maintenance of railway.

The ongoing digital transformation is changing asset management in the railway industry. Emerging digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence is expected to facilitate decision-making in management, operation, and maintenance of railway by providing an integrated data-driven and model-driven solution. An important aspect when developing decision-support solutions based on AI and digital technology is the users’ experience. User experience design process aims to create relevance, context-awareness, and meaningfulness for the end-user. In railway contexts, it is believed that applying a human-centric design model in the development of AI-based artefacts, will enhance the usability of the solution, which will have a positive impact on the decision-making processes. In this research, the applicability of such advanced technologies i.e., Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, and AI have been reviewed for the railway asset management. To carry out this research work, literature review has been conducted related to available Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality technologies and their applications within railway industry. It has been found that these technologies are available, but not applied in railway asset management. Thus, the aim of this paper is to propose a human-centric design model for the enhancement of railway asset management using Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality technologies. The practical implication of the findings from this work will benefit in increased efficiency and effectiveness of the operation and maintenance processes in railway.