The rapid expansion of Edge Computing (EC) and Internet of Things devices has introduced significant cybersecurity challenges, necessitating advanced and privacy-preserving attack detection strategies. Traditional cyber-attack detection methods and centralized machine learning solutions face critical limitations in addressing privacy concerns, resource constraints, and the evolving nature of cyber threats in edge environments. Federated Learning (FL) offers a transformative solution by enabling distributed model training across edge devices while preserving data privacy. This systematic literature review investigates FL for cyber-attack detection in EC environments using the PRISMA methodology, analyzing 131 primary studies from 2020–2025 across five major databases. Our contributions include: (1) a comprehensive PRISMA-compliant framework encompassing seven thematic areas with detailed comparative analysis, (2) an in-depth gap analysis with actionable recommendations for privacy-performance trade-offs, scalability, and standardization challenges, and (3) a forward-looking research agenda addressing generative models, collaborative defense, 6G-enabled intelligence, and zero-trust architectures. Unlike existing surveys, this work provides the most comprehensive scope with bibliometric analysis, multi-perspective evaluation, and practical deployment guidelines, serving as a foundational reference for advancing federated cyber-attack detection in edge computing environments.
Sharmin et al. (Fri,) studied this question.