Three Decades of Publications on Hacking and The Law: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

This study examines three decades of scholarly output on hacking and the law, addressing the growing need to understand how legal, regulatory and ethical dimensions of hacking have evolved in response to rapid technological change. Despite the proliferation of cybersecurity incidents and corresponding policy developments, there has been limited systematic assessment of the intellectual landscape shaping this field. To address this gap, the study employed a structured bibliometric methodology. Data were collected using Scopus advanced searching, covering publications from 1995 to 2025, yielding an initial dataset of 246 documents that was subsequently refined to 236 through the application of inclusion criteria. Statistical trends and distributional patterns were analysed using the Scopus Analyzer, while OpenRefine was used to clean, standardise and harmonise author names, keywords and source information to ensure data accuracy. VOSviewer was then applied to generate visualisations of co-authorship networks, keyword co occurrence structures and thematic clusters, enabling the identification of dominant research themes and collaborative patterns. The results demonstrate a marked increase in publication activity after 2010, with notable peaks between 2020 and 2025, and reveal substantial thematic concentration around ethical hacking, cybersecurity, penetration testing and legal governance of digital intrusions. Co-authorship mapping further highlights the central roles of the United States, India and the United Kingdom, alongside emerging contributions from Malaysia and selected European countries. The analysis shows that research in this domain is expanding, diversifying and becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. The study concludes that bibliometric insights provide a robust foundation for understanding how legal scholarship is adapting to the complexities of contemporary cyber threats and regulatory transformations, while also identifying future research directions in technology law and governance.