# Local Government Cybersecurity Landscape: A Systematic Review and Conceptual Framework
## 4 Analysis and Results  
### General Observations  
The academic focus on cybersecurity in local governments began in 2012, as found in this review (Figure 4), coinciding with a rapid technological renaissance and the evolution of the'smart city' concept [45]. Local governments actively embraced these technologies to enhance operational effectiveness, improve public services, and foster a meaningful engagement with residents [46; 47]. As they transformed into smart cities, their cyber risk profile escalated in complexity and scale [7]. The academic contribution to cybersecurity in 2012 predicted an increase in scholarly interest thereafter. However, the academic literature did not extensively investigate this topic until 2018. Since 2018, there has been a surge in scholarly research on cybersecurity issues, possibly linked to the growing adoption of smart city initiatives by cities around the world. Out of the 53 reviewed articles, 49 were published after 2018, with 18 in the last year and a half alone. However, there is a skewed focus on the technological aspects of cybersecurity solutions in smart cities, often overlooking non-technical aspects such as knowledge and awareness gaps, deficiencies in policy and implementation, and an appropriate understanding of the cybersecurity landscape from a local governmental perspective. To comprehensively understand and address these multifaceted cybersecurity issues, a local governmental viewpoint requires a balanced approach and a proper understanding of their landscape. Out of the 53 articles examined, 28 did not provide a comprehensive discussion of a specific country's setting, instead offering a generic overview of a topic (Figure 5). Figure 4: Publication trend by year. For instance, [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] [35] reviewed cyber incident response and resilience in smart cities; [PERSON] and [PERSON] [48] examined the impacts of AI on smart city cybersecurity and e-governance; [PERSON] and [PERSON] [49] analyzed the perception of Industry 4.0 transformation and its implications for cybersecurity; [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] [37] presented the outcome of a comprehensive literature review on smart cities' cyber forensics and cybersecurity; [PERSON] [50] provided a technical overview on cybersecurity technologies in smart cities; [PERSON] et al. [51] investigated the security architecture of smart cities in contract-based mechanisms; and [PERSON] et al. [52] analyzed the existing literature on cybersecurity, playable cities, and smart cities. The USA has the highest number of contributions to the field of cybersecurity and local government, accounting for 11 articles, including the first-ever contribution in this research field, where [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] [14] presented survey results on the cybersecurity status of local governments in Florida. [PERSON] et al. [53] also published a portion of the same survey. Among the remaining articles published in the USA context, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [9] discussed mitigating the economic impacts of cyberattacks; [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] [11] presented findings from a focus-group discussion on cybersecurity issues in Maryland; [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] [7] and [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] [15] featured a survey from the first-ever national survey on cybersecurity issues of local governments in the US; [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] [10] featured a comprehensive survey on cybersecurity in local governments; [PERSON] and [PERSON] [8] presented the findings of a key informant survey on cybersecurity issues, followed by a comparative analysis between those results and the first-ever nationwide survey in the US; [PERSON] and [PERSON] [54] discussed the importance of cybersecurity; and [PERSON] and [PERSON] [18] discussed managerial perceptions and cyber incidents. Australia, Indonesia, and Poland have contributed similarly to this domain, each with three articles. Among the three studies in Australia, [PERSON] et al.