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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the trends and challenges relating to research into the human aspects of ransomware.

A systematic mapping study was carried out to investigate the trends in studies into the human aspects of ransomware, identify challenges encountered by researchers and propose directions for future research. For each of the identified papers from this study, the authors mapped the year of publication, the type of paper, research strategy and data generation method, types of participants included, theories incorporated and lastly, the authors mapped the challenges encountered by the researchers.

Fifty-nine papers published between 2006 and 2022 are included in the study. The findings indicate that literature on the human aspects of ransomware was scarce prior to 2016. The most-used participant groups in this area are students and cybersecurity professionals, and most studies rely on a survey strategy using the questionnaire to collect data. In addition, many papers did not use theories for their research, but from those that did, game theory was used most often. Furthermore, the most reported challenge is that being hit with ransomware is a sensitive topic, which results in individuals and organisations being reluctant to share their experiences.

This mapping study reveals that the body of literature in the area of human aspects of ransomware has increased over the past couple of years. The findings highlight that being transparent about ransomware attacks, when possible, can help others. Moreover, senior management plays an important role in shaping the information security culture of an organisation, whether to have a culture of transparency or of secrecy.

This study is the first of its kind of systematic mapping studies contributing to the body of knowledge on the human aspects of ransomware.