Key Factors for Reducing Cybersecurity Risks in Healthcare: A Systematic Literature Review

In the healthcare sector, cybersecurity threats and incidents affecting the operation of critical medical devices have increased in frequency and sophistication, as evidenced by recent statistics from public and private organizations, along with industry reports on breaches of patient data confidentiality. Given this situation, and considering the lack of consolidated knowledge regarding the most relevant factors and recommended security controls that IT personnel and healthcare professionals can implement to mitigate these risks, this article conducts a comprehensive review of 71 publications to address this gap. To this end, a systematic literature review of articles published between 2019 and 2025 was conducted, following Kitchenham’s (2007) guidelines. The results identify key factors and security controls for reducing threats and incidents affecting the operation of critical medical devices, analyze the co-occurrence and correspondence relationships between security controls, and establish the strongest relationships between factors and their corresponding security controls. These findings provide practical and useful information for IT personnel and healthcare professionals, and also suggest new avenues for future research.