Given the pace of port digitalisation, this study provides a mapping of the smart port cybersecurity literature to clarify its intellectual structure and emerging research directions. Bibliographic records period 2010–2025 were retrieved from the Scopus and analysed Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny. The dataset comprises 460 publications from 344 sources, with an annual growth rate of 11.02% and an average of 9.97 citations per article, indicating a expanding research domain. The analysis examines publication trends, co-authorship and citation networks, and conceptual structures through bibliometric and text-mining techniques. Results show a sharp increase in publications after 2017, driven by the integration of the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and automation in port systems. International collaboration is prominent, with research leadership concentrated in the USA, China, India and the UK. Conceptual analysis highlights network defence, intrusion detection and AI-based security, while revealing gaps at the intersection of governance, cyber–physical resilience and operational security in smart ports.

Maritime cybersecurity has attracted increasing attention in industrial and academic scope, which may be relevant to the increasing cyber-incidents in the maritime shipping industry. This paper presents a critical review of publications related to cybersecurity in the maritime transportation industry, to explore the current research status and gaps, as wells as to guide new probe avenues by employing bibliometric approaches. With the advantage of bibliometric methods, the research focus and evolution are conformed and visualised. Representative papers are reviewed together to demonstrate maritime cyber-threats recognition and categories, as well as potential consequence assessment and risk mitigation actions recommendation. This paper also created a detailed database that is comprised of attack form, occurring time, targets, purpose, as well as potential results and cost, which has been included in the Appendix and is fully portable and extendible.

There is an undeniable recognition that maritime cybersecurity risk management should involve process, technology, and people. However, thus far, most studies have focused on the technical and process aspects of maritime cybersecurity, more than on the human element. On a vessel, the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) is, amongst all the electronic devices on the bridge, a complex and indispensable maritime sociotechnical system that must consider both technical and human aspects. In the context of maritime cyber resilience, it is important to note that when developing strategies for maritime cybersecurity, one cannot only consider technical security measures and ignore human error, as this does not adhere to good cybersecurity practice. To address this, this study aims to identify the navigating officers’ responsibilities for ECDIS cybersecurity and find the human error probabilities during these tasks via the SLIM-based human reliability analysis method. The outputs of this study provide an insight for industrial policies and best practices, in ECDIS cybersecurity risk management in terms of the behavioural and cultural aspects of shipping.