What kind of cyber security? Theorising cyber security and mapping approaches

17 May 2018

This newly published paper by Laura Fichtner is part of the Internet Policy Review special issue "Networked publics: multi-disciplinary perspectives on big policy issues".

PUBLISHED ON: 15 May 2018 DOI: 10.14763/2018.2.788

Abstract
Building on conceptual work on security and cyber security, the paper explores how different approaches to cyber security are constructed. It outlines structural components and presents four common approaches. Each of them suggests a different role for the actors involved and is motivated and justified by different values such as privacy, economic order and national security. When a cyber security policy or initiative is chosen by policymakers, the analysis of the underlying approach enhances our understanding of how this shapes relationships between actors and of the values prioritised, promoted and inscribed into the concerned technologies.

See full paper, which is part of:

Internet Policy Review, Volume 7 (2)
Special Issue by William H. Dutton (2018) Networked publics: multi-disciplinary perspectives on big policy issues

Abstract
This special issue of Internet Policy Review is the first to bring together the best policy-oriented papers presented at the annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR). This issue is anchored in the 2017 conference in Tartu, Estonia, which was organised around the theme of networked publics. The seven papers span issues concerning whether and how technology and policy are reshaping access to information, perspectives on privacy and security online, and social and legal perspectives on informed consent of internet users. As explained in the editorial to this issue, taken together, the contributions to this issue reflect the rise of new policy, regulatory and governance issues around the internet and social media, an ascendance of disciplinary perspectives in what is arguably an interdisciplinary field, and the value that theoretical perspectives from cultural studies, law and the social sciences can bring to internet policy research.