Security challenges in digital access systems in vocational education

The rapid digitalisation of vocational education has increased reliance on digital access systems for learning management, assessment, credential verification, and learner authentication. Despite their growing importance, security challenges within these systems remain underexplored, particularly in low-resource and Non-Western vocational education contexts. This review synthesises empirical evidence published between 2020 and 2025 to identify the principal security challenges affecting digital access in vocational education. Using a focused systematic review guided by PRISMA principles, 64 peer-reviewed studies were analysed through the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) triad. The findings reveal four dominant challenge areas: data integrity and credential fraud, cybersecurity awareness and training deficits, ethical and privacy risks in AI-driven systems, and infrastructure-related access disparities. The review further demonstrates that weaknesses in infrastructure, governance, and digital literacy create interconnected vulnerabilities across all CIA dimensions. This study contributes to the literature by providing a vocational education-specific synthesis of cybersecurity challenges, introducing the concept of security inequity to explain uneven vulnerability exposure across institutional contexts, and integrating the CIA triad with a socio-technical perspective to support context-sensitive security analysis. The findings underscore the need for coordinated technical, educational, and policy interventions to promote secure, resilient, and equitable digital access systems in vocational education.