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Editorial- Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity Challenges

Article in Frontiers in Computer Science · June 2025

DOI: 10.3389/fcomp.2025.1631362

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 TYPE Editorial
PUBLISHED 03 June 2025
DOI 10.3389/fcomp.2025.1631362

Editorial: Digital transformation

OPEN ACCESS and cybersecurity challenges
EDITED AND REVIEWED BY
Nicola Zannone,
Eindhoven University of Saqib Saeed1 , Noor Zaman Jhanjhi2 , Muhammad Adnan Khan3*
Technology, Netherlands
and Dileep Kumar Yadav4
*CORRESPONDENCE
Muhammad Adnan Khan 1
College of Computer Science and Information Technology, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University,
[email protected] Dammam, Saudi Arabia, 2 School of Computer Science, Faculty of Innovation & Technology, Taylor’s
University, Subang Jaya, Malaysia, 3 Department of Software, Faculty of Artificial Intelligence and
RECEIVED 19 May 2025
Software, Gachon University, Seongnam-si, Republic of Korea, 4 School of Computer Science
ACCEPTED 20 May 2025
Engineering and Technology, Bennett University, Greater Noida, India
PUBLISHED 03 June 2025

CITATION
Saeed S, Jhanjhi NZ, Khan MA and Yadav DK KEYWORDS
(2025) Editorial: Digital transformation and
cybersecurity challenges. cybersecurity, phishing detection, machine learning, postquantum cryptography, digital
Front. Comput. Sci. 7:1631362. transformation
doi: 10.3389/fcomp.2025.1631362

COPYRIGHT
© 2025 Saeed, Jhanjhi, Khan and Yadav. This
is an open-access article distributed under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Editorial on the Research Topic
License (CC BY). The use, distribution or
Digital transformation and cybersecurity challenges
reproduction in other forums is permitted,
provided the original author(s) and the
copyright owner(s) are credited and that the
original publication in this journal is cited, in
accordance with accepted academic practice.
No use, distribution or reproduction is 1 Introduction
permitted which does not comply with these
terms.
The concept of digital transformation is, without a doubt, the most sought-after way
for today’s organizations to become and remain relevant, nimble, and in the lead through
the innovation of technology and the increasing reliance on digital ecosystems—such
is the reality of an era characterized by the ever-growing technological surge (Portion
et al., 2023; Wang, 2023). Right from government institutions and multinational
corporations to healthcare systems and educational entities, the way we work, the way
we communicate, as well as the way we provide services to end-users everything changed
dramatically and is being reshaped through digital transformation initiatives (Radenković
et al., 2023). However, as the digitization process is getting faster, the complexity
and range of cyberattacks grow in parallel (Sanmorino, 2023). The coexistence of two
technologies, namely digital transformation, and cybersecurity, can pose several threats
and opportunities; hence, it is remarkable that life is made better with the application of
these innovative trends and, at the same time, it is the primary cause of generative threats
that require urgent readiness to respond, prevent, and protect in this era of digitization
(Irmak et al., 2023).
The title “Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity Challenges,” designed specifically
for this Research Topic, is an early, good look into the changing landscape of technology
advances, and the various security implications that come with all of the emergent issues
(Zatnika and Safariah, 2023). The successful implementation of digital transformation
goes beyond only technology—it implies a profound change in organizational culture,
process reengineering, data strategy, and end-user communication (Davaasuren, 2023).
The transformation encompasses many other technologies as well, like cloud computing,
IoT, artificial intelligence for decision-making, blockchain, remote work infrastructure, and
many others (Autsadee et al., 2023). Nonetheless, as the journey is taken toward digital
maturity, organizations increase their attacks’ surface and make them vulnerable to more
sophisticated cyberattacks (Multazam and Widiarto, 2023).

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Saeed et al. 10.3389/fcomp.2025.1631362

Recent global incidents are pieces of evidence of the severe changes in organizations. At the same time, machine learning,
impact of cyber threats on the business, administrative, and user and AI present a dual use case where they are not only used
data leakage; however, they are also a demonstration of the for threat detection and mitigation but at the same time, they
continuous search for identification by the attackers (Kuczewska raise new ethical and security issues such as bias, explainability,
et al., 2023). Although we do witness technological development at and misuse.
lightning speed, the bad actors in the cyber world are always ahead The Research Topic of the magazine is an opportunity for
of the innovations (Lottu et al., 2023). No longer are ransomware, the community to discuss the readiness of organizations and
phishing, deceitful inducement, advanced persistent threats, and the implications of policies. The translation of an organization
insider attacks all conjectures that you do not have to worry about to be cyber-ready in a digital world is the conversation starter.
(Belkhamza, 2023). These risks have become day-to-day events no How do regulations, rules, and governance structures adapt to
longer based on a technicality only, but have shown signs of the the constant technological changes in the evolving technological
vulnerability of human beings, the gaps in the organization, and environment? The necessity of cross-sector collaboration, cyber
the weak governance frameworks (Ha and Chuah, 2023). threat intelligence sharing, and the availability of an integrated
As companies are making their way through digital response mechanism cannot be overestimated. Furthermore, there
transformation, cybersecurity is not just a matter of the periphery is always one issue that needs to be studied, which is cybersecurity
but now become a strategic pillar (Nazari and Musilek, 2023). This from a sociocultural perspective. This is to ascertain how the
matter seeks to give a clear idea of how urgent the necessity of community perceives threats, deals with technology, and gives
creating a cybersecurity structure that fits in with digital innovation priority to security.
in society (Lesmana et al., 2023). Although security professionals The Research Topic comprises various scholarly contributions
are the most important and valuable people as they make us feel and entails some theories, cases, practices, and different disciplines.
safe, today their role needs to be fulfilled with a multidisciplinary This Research Topic has been put into print for the main reason
approach that involves psychology, law, moral philosophy, and that it is informative and will provide readers with a deep
cultural diversity (Mijwil et al., 2023). understanding of the subject matter, that is, citizen engagement in
This Research Topic of articles reveals one of the most crucial cybersecurity, ethical dilemmas in data handling, legal frameworks
topics in cybersecurity: human influence (Housawi and Lytras, for digital security, and the role of culture that is instrumental in
2023). There are a lot of studies that conclude that the number the formation of cybersecurity awareness are some of the topics
one weakness in the cyber domain is the human factor, and at included in the magazine.
the same time, it is the first protected one. The fact that all these The kind of blog that we were allowed to work on, we
threat vectors, such as social engineering attacks, poor password hope, can be highly useful to researchers, practitioners,
behavior, phishing, insider threats, etc., are derived from the user, policymakers, and technologists at the same time. At a
perpetuates the necessity to make people more secure first by point in time, when cyber-readiness edges subsume digital
awareness, training, and the cultivation of user-centric security convenience, and cyber threats are more of a certainty, a
frameworks. It is necessary to deep-dive into the aspect of people’s call for strong, inclusive, and flexible cybersecurity measures
perceptions and behaviors when they deal with the risks during is really loud. We encourage our readers to share these
cyber incidents; the Research Topic is especially important when discoveries, to give a thought to the current problems, and
organizations are trying to raise awareness of security issues as well to join in the worldwide effort aimed at keeping the digital
as building a high level of security-conscious culture (Saeed et al., future secure.
2023).
Besides, there is an issue of similar importance that needs
to be raised—ensuring the privacy of personal information in 2 Research Topic
the new world of data-as-coin (Alenezi and Akour, 2023).
As the digital services that users gain access to become In this Research Topic, eight articles bring the newest
more individual-oriented, concerns about privacy, consent, and research trends at the intersection of digital transformation
data misuse are becoming ever more acute. The legislation, and cybersecurity. Diverse in number, starting from quantum
for example, GDPR, has had a crack at making the data threats to blockchain, phishing detection, machine learning in
analytics industry conduct business in a morally responsible intrusion detection, and the evolving roles in offensive cyber
manner, but many issues still have been raised, mainly due operations, these studies are the drivers of solving the current
to differences in the public and system culture and technical problems and those that might emerge in the future for
gaps (Tavana et al., 2022). the digital future’s safety. The summaries of these papers are
Moreover, the content of the journal issue demonstrates that described below:
it is forward-looking by matching the courses of some emerging In the first article (Almuhammadi and Alghamdi), the
paradigms in the industry with the development of cybersecurity, authors discussed in a paper the new peril that can influence
such as quantum computing and machine learning (Alsaywid et al., a cryptocurrency, which, through the usage of blockchain, has
2023). An example of quantum computing is a technology that can secured its place as one of the most important digital innovations
potentially overthrow old encryption models, making businesses of the 21st century. Since blockchain is so much connected to
have to change their security architecture. The inclusion of a public-key cryptography, the use of quantum computing to attack
zero-trust model in the organization’s design, as a precautionary the networks can leave blockchains vulnerable. The paper is
measure, is increasing as a response to security threats and a threat assessment to the $2.7 trillion cryptocurrency market

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Saeed et al. 10.3389/fcomp.2025.1631362

and a study about which ways for the cryptocurrency industry utmost importance. The case study presented in this paper is
to switch from being quantum-hackable to quantum-resistant. a qualitative one on the issue of OCO that takes the position
The paper introduces a novel transition protocol that is less of the people planning the OCO training as the central actors.
disruptive by conducting a soft fork for the entire migration Hybrid plainness is the trait of the learning sequences that have
process, rather than having a hard fork. The success of the protocol been drawn up in the case study. Besides this, the partner version
is tested through theoretical analysis and it is also statistically of the company’s cyber range and the delegating of cognitive
compared with other existing solutions, thus confirming the strategies to it are also some of the main components that are
practicality and the best move for blockchain migration after mentioned. The research provides a clear insight into the issue
quantum computers. of dual competencies—technical and strategic—arguing that for
The second paper (Kour et al.) is devoted to ensuring the cyber planners to successfully execute cyber campaigns, they must
cybersecurity of Industry 5.0, where human-centricity, resilience, be correctly trained with standardization in OCO training being
and sustainability are priorities. This paper is grounded on the the solution.
cyber security issues within Industry 5.0 that have interconnection The sixth paper (Tamal, Islam, Bhuiyan, Sattar, et al.) outlines
and intelligence as their main paradigm. The authors consider the a novel, real-life, tagged dataset that is made for the detection
issue not only from a theoretical perspective but also from the of phishing only using intra-URL features. A focus of 250,000
empirical one where they run the systematic literature review using examples is on the detection of URL anomalies, like in the case
the PRISMA methodology and consensus algorithms. The study of typosquatting, misleading subdomains, and unusual extensions
emphasizes that AI, blockchain technology, and IoT appear to be for which only observable features can be exploited. The authors
the primary cybersecurity measures, while the lack of observability, performed OFVA to get 42 features that have a high potential for
measurability, or traceability has been slowing the growth of preventing being used by phishers. Also, by sharing this dataset
engineering and technology in this field. These are the technologies with the community, the article has made a big step in this area
that should, according to the authors, have trans-paradigmatic of research and at the same time, this way are being encouraged to
capability and therefore be multi-paradigm in interpreting and establish such security tools that are data-driven, scalable, robust,
controlling the industry of sustainable and resilient systems by and efficient.
assuring security, trustworthiness, and traceability of the industrial A seventh paper (Rana et al.) covers the use of attack trees
system as a whole. for modeling cyber threats that exist on organizational networks,
The third paper (Tamal, Islam, Bhuiyan, Sattar, Prince, et al.) is further developing the traditional method by the association of
concerned with the serious problem of phishing attacks, which have the FAIR (Factor Analysis of Information Risk) framework. The
grown in complexity and gravity. The authors of the paper present technique presented in this way can describe the risk involved
a complete anti-phishing solution that combines an Optimal with it, at each level of the attack tree, thus enabling the analysis
Feature Vectorization Algorithm (OFVA) and supervised machine of the dependency among the assets and also allowing for more
learning classifiers. They mine 41 features from a large dataset detailed risk evaluation. The study conducted a comparison of
which contains about 270,000 URLs and compare 15 machine the various techniques of threat modeling, and it is demonstrated
learning algorithms across multiple performance metrics. The that the FAIR-enhanced attack tree is quite preferable since it
model that is based on the random forest technique is the best provides more details and can be construed with ease; these are
one as it reaches an accuracy rate of more than 97%. This work the factors that make it possible for the management or higher
solves the problem of a great amount of data that is difficult authorities to take some initiatives. This way of paper can be even
to mine. However, the model is also easy to implement in more useful for those who are involved in information security
real environments, and thus, it offers an excellent direction for risk management and seek systematic collection and processing
further research of practical anti-phishing tools that can be put of data on the attacked cyber risks according to their nature, size,
into operation. and location.
The fourth paper (Ali et al.) makes a very thorough survey of In the eighth paper (Saran), the authors conduct a
Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and the increasing contribution comprehensive review of password hashing algorithms and
of machine learning and deep learning in boosting their efficiency. their ability to defend against time-memory trade-off (TMTO)
This paper outlines new Machine Learning/Deep Learning-based attacks. Although password hashing is the main step of the
IDS approaches that are required to substitute the outdated IDS- authentication and key derivation process, it is also the part that
augmented techniques due to higher false identification and lower is most targeted by the advanced schemes of cryptanalysis. The
adaptability toward unknown threats. The coverage is particularly paper covers the measures that have been recently developed to
focused on crucial aspects related to IDS, for instance, the datasets, be taken for TMTO attacks and how modern hashing schemes are
the metrics, the indicators of performance, and the new trends. By much more resistant to the same. To help developers and the staff
weighing up the good and the bad of the current IDS research, members of information systems make decisions on the selection,
possibilities for the future are identified and it is shown how cyber implementation, and migration of secure hashing algorithms, the
defenses of institutions are improved when AI is proffered as the work is of real, practical value., With changes in the way the central
solution to their security risks. authentication system works, the insights that have been offered at
The fifth paper (Arik et al.) discusses the involvement of the end of this review will be important as far as keeping the system
Offensive Cyber Operations (OCO) in national and corporate simple and also building the structures of the authentication used
cybersecurity which still is an area hardly touched upon but of for the future are concerned.

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Saeed et al. 10.3389/fcomp.2025.1631362

All in all, these eight papers together present a very good and Conflict of interest
detailed view of cybersecurity difficulties and clever ideas in the
environment of data conversion. From basic security technologies The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
to the strategies of organizations and policy implications, the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be
Research Topic gives us a set of knowledge that is strong and good construed as a potential conflict of interest.
for scientists, professionals, and policymakers who are seeking to
build secure and resilient digital ecosystems.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the
Author contributions authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
SS: Formal analysis, Writing – original draft. NJ: Formal reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
analysis, Writing – review & editing. MK: Formal analysis, Writing claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or
– original draft. DY: Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing. endorsed by the publisher.

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