Human-Human Communication in Cyber Threat Situations: A Systematic Review

Abstract

In cyber threat situations, decision-making processes within organizations and between the affected organization and external entities are high-stake. They require human communication entailing technical complexity, time pressure, interdisciplinary factors, and often an insufficient information basis. Communication in cyber threat situations can thus be challenging and has a variety of implications for decision-making. The cyber-physical system is a rapidly changing socio-technical system that is understudied in terms of how cyber events are communicated and acted upon to secure and maintain cyber resilience. The present study is the first to review human-to-human communication in cyber threat situations. Our aims are to outline how human-human communication performance in cybersecurity settings have been studied, to uncover areas where there is potential for developing common standards for information exchange in collaborative settings, and to provide guidance for future research efforts. The review was carried out according to the PRISMA guidelines and articles were searched for on scientific databases. Articles focusing on human-human communication in cyber threat situations published in peer reviewed journals or as conference papers were included. A total of 17 studies were included in the final review. Most of the studies were correlational and exploratory in nature. Very few studies characterize communication in useful goal-related terms. There is a need for more collaboration between cyber defense exercise-organizers and cognitive scientists. Future studies should assess how team mental model-development affects team communication and performance in cyber defense exercises.