TY - JOUR
AU - Joe Burton
AU - Clare Lain
AB - Drawing on the societal security concept established by the Copenhagen School of International Relations, we seek to reframe cybersecurity theory and policy. In the first section of the article we establish a theoretical approach to cybersecurity that emphasises the impact of cyberattacks on society, including on the health, energy and transport sectors. The second section draws on the history of cyberconflict to assess the ways the internet has been used to exacerbate societal tensions between identity groups and to create incohesion and societal security dilemmas. This section reinterprets the way the Kosovo War, Millennium (Y2 K) Bug, 9/11 and the WannaCry incident shaped and reflected cyber policy. The final section explores how a process of cyber desecuritisation might be achieved, including through discursive change and an enhanced role for the societal sector in the event of major cyberattacks.
BT - Informa UK Limited
DA - 2020-09-01
DO - 10.1080/23738871.2020.1856903
N1 - The theoretical implications of this article are worth closing with. A continued pre-disposition to view cybersecurity as an issue of national security exists in the literature.Theoretical frameworks that rely on identity, discourse and societal dynamics are stillunderdeveloped and underapplied to cybersecurity issues. Continuing to adapt andsupplement these frameworks with societal and socio-psychological analyses of thecauses and impact of cyberattacks is, in our view, one of the most important researchagendas in the still emerging cybersecurity discipline. We contend that the historicalevidence presented in this article has highlighted the lack of attention to theseissues and their general validity in understanding how the cybersecurity environmenthas evolved.
N2 - Drawing on the societal security concept established by the Copenhagen School of International Relations, we seek to reframe cybersecurity theory and policy. In the first section of the article we establish a theoretical approach to cybersecurity that emphasises the impact of cyberattacks on society, including on the health, energy and transport sectors. The second section draws on the history of cyberconflict to assess the ways the internet has been used to exacerbate societal tensions between identity groups and to create incohesion and societal security dilemmas. This section reinterprets the way the Kosovo War, Millennium (Y2 K) Bug, 9/11 and the WannaCry incident shaped and reflected cyber policy. The final section explores how a process of cyber desecuritisation might be achieved, including through discursive change and an enhanced role for the societal sector in the event of major cyberattacks.
PY - 2020
T2 - Informa UK Limited
TI - Desecuritising cybersecurity: towards a societal approach
UR - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23738871.2020.1856903
SN - 2373-8871
ER -