Cybersecurity threats in FinTech: A systematic review

• Published in: Expert systems with applications Vol. 241; p. 122697
• Main Authors: Javaheri, Danial, Fahmideh, Mahdi, Chizari, Hassan, Lalbakhsh, Pooia, Hur, Junbeom
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2024
• Subjects: Banking trojan; Business sustainability; Cyber-attacks; Data privacy; Financial technology; Financial technology; Data privacy; Cyber-attacks; Banking trojan; Business sustainability
• ISSN: 0957-4174; 1873-6793
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eswa.2023.122697

•Adopting PRISMA methodology to investigate cybersecurity threats in FinTech.•Identifying the most effective defense strategies to negate the threats by examining 74 published papers.•Comparing the threats and defenses from different perspectives, including their impacts and technical details.•Proposing a novel and refined taxonomy of security threats and defense strategies in FinTech.•Recommending future research directions to address existing security gaps in current FinTech systems. The rapid evolution of the Smart-everything movement and Artificial Intelligence (AI) advancements have given rise to sophisticated cyber threats that traditional methods cannot counteract. Cyber threats are extremely critical in financial technology (FinTech) as a data-centric sector expected to provide 24/7 services. This paper introduces a novel and refined taxonomy of security threats in FinTech and conducts a comprehensive systematic review of defensive strategies. Through PRISMA methodology applied to 74 selected studies and topic modeling, we identified 11 central cyber threats, with 43 papers detailing them, and pinpointed 9 corresponding defense strategies, as covered in 31 papers. This in-depth analysis offers invaluable insights for stakeholders ranging from banks and enterprises to global governmental bodies, highlighting both the current challenges in FinTech and effective countermeasures, as well as directions for future research.