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Peer Reviews (175)

Published on in Vol 2, No 2 (2021): Apr-Jun

Preprints (earlier versions) of this paper are available at https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/29096, first published .
Peer Review of “COVID-19 and Cybersecurity: Finally, an Opportunity to Disrupt?”

Peer Review of “COVID-19 and Cybersecurity: Finally, an Opportunity to Disrupt?”

Peer Review of “COVID-19 and Cybersecurity: Finally, an Opportunity to Disrupt?”

Authors of this article:

Anonymous 1
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    Peer-Review Report


    This is a peer-review report submitted for the paper "COVID-19 and Cybersecurity: Finally, an Opportunity to Disrupt?"


    Dear Authors,

    Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this paper [1]. I found it very interesting, useful, and well-written. I have made some comments on how the paper, in my view, can be further enhanced. Please consider them as suggestions:

    Introduction

    For reader-friendliness: provide a short explanation of abbreviations (eg, COVID-19) the first time they appear in the text.

    I miss some references in a few sentences, such as “Within the literature, recommendations are that data analyses are initiated and concluded openly, in accordance with the law and with respect for privacy.”

    I also think that this section can be expanded.

    At the end, when you outline the focus of the study and possible implications, it would be interesting to learn more about in the way in which documentation can serve as a learning tool. I recommend adding examples of practical and theoretical implications.

    COVID-19, Cybersecurity, Privacy, Security, and Safety

    I would like to see information on how we are dealing with misinformation and false news and groups resisting the response to the pandemic under the topic of Education/Media, as this is an important issue the European Union and other countries are facing. Is this an EU or country-by-country initiative?

    Conclusion

    The introduction to the conclusion is very similar to the beginning of the paper. The conclusion, to me, has the feel of being more of a summary than an actual conclusion. I would recommend narrowing down this section.

    Language

    The language is overall very good. Some editing is recommended to ensure consistency in terminology and structure.

    Limitations

    The paper is very positive without discussing limitations, challenges, and problems sufficiently. I suggest either incorporating this discussion throughout or providing a section at the end that also discusses the effectiveness of the measures as understood to date as well as current and future anticipated challenges.

    References

    References should be expanded to include current literature. You should also add more references. Please include the following references: [2-6].

    1. Ferreira A, Cruz-Correia R. COVID-19 and cybersecurity: finally, an opportunity to disrupt? JMIRx Med 2021 May 5;2(2):e21069 [FREE Full text] [CrossRef]
    2. Ahmad T. Corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic and work from Home: challenges of cybercrimes and cybersecurity. SSRN Journal. Preprint posted online on April 5, 2020. [CrossRef]
    3. Ali Khan N, Brohi SN, Zaman N. Ten deadly cyber security threats amid COVID-19 pandemic. TechRxiv. Preprint posted online on May 11, 2020. [CrossRef]
    4. Goniewicz K, Khorram-Manesh A, Hertelendy AJ, Goniewicz M, Naylor K, Burkle FM. Current Response and Management Decisions of the European Union to the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Review. Sustainability 2020;12(9):1-12.
    5. Johnson H, Gossner CM, Colzani E, Kinsman J, Alexakis L, Beauté J, et al. Potential scenarios for the progression of a COVID-19 epidemic in the European Union and the European Economic Area, March 2020. Euro Surveill 2020 Mar;25(9) [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]
    6. Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O'Neill N, Khan M, Kerwan A, Al-Jabir A, et al. World Health Organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Int J Surg 2020 Apr;76:71-76 [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]

    Edited by E Meinert; This is a non–peer-reviewed article. submitted 25.03.21; accepted 25.03.21; published 06.05.21

    Copyright

    © Anonymous. Originally published in JMIRx Med (https://med.jmirx.org), 06.05.2021.

    This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIRx Med, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://med.jmirx.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.