Cybersecurity Challenges in Small and Medium Enterprises: A Scoping Review
Mujtaba Awan, Abu Alam, Muhammad Kamran · Journal of Cyber Security and Risk Auditing · 2025
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are one of the most important engines to add to the global economy by providing financial benefits to the human population, in the form of businesses (90%) and employment ships (60%). With the increase in the ratio of cybercrimes, SMEs have been overlooked in terms of cybersecurity measures, leaving them unprepared to deal with the increasing frequency, sophistication, and destructiveness of cyber challenges. This scoping review is designed to address the various cybersecurity threats to SMEs and their possible overcome. In this review, various databases such as Google Scholar, IEEE, Elsevier, Science Direct, and Taylor & Francis online were utilized in exploring the reported literature, and searched under various terminologies, in combinations and separately. Overall, 30 research articles were found to be most relevant to the respective topic, from which 20 unique themes were identified and categorized in novel findings. A framework was proposed for this scoping review by performing data analysis, which led us to find 20 different types of cyber challenges in SMEs. These challenges were further standardized into four classes. In this review, the main challenges to attaining cybersecurity resilience in SMEs are found to be a lack of awareness, unsuitable guidelines for SMEs, limited cybersecurity Knowledge, and constrained financial resources.