Safety and cybersecurity assessment techniques for critical industries: a mapping study

The paper presents a mapping study of safety and cybersecurity assessment techniques used in critical industries such as nuclear power plants, the oil and gas sector, autonomous vehicles, railways, etc., with particular emphasis on instrumentation and control systems (I&C). Modern I&Cs are complex electronic systems comprising thousands of components, therefore their reliability and safety when employed in critical application domains are challenging. With the development and integration of Industry 4.0 technologies such systems become more open for communication and flexible usage due to gradual interconnection with public networks and the Internet, but new cybersecurity and safety challenges are introduced. This paper states research questions and provides analysis results of recent relevant sources. Initially, 320 records (acquired between 2018 and 2022 inclusive) were identified. Later on, 187 studies were processed to check eligibility criteria. Overall, this mapping study includes 49 papers, after examining the pre-defined criteria and guidelines. The results of the analysis performed allow to systemize techniques being utilized in practice right now, as well as to identify trends of further techniques development. In fact, although the techniques used are not novel and most of them have been used for decades, our study shows that there are still some new trends in this field. In particular, the unified safety and cybersecurity assessment technique is a promising research direction, worth further investigation.