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Cybersecurity Research Meets Science and Technology Studies
[journal article]
Abstract This article sets out to show how different understandings of technology as suggested by Science and Technology Studies (STS) help reveal different political facets of cybersecurity. Using cybersecurity research as empirical site, it is shown that two separate ways of understanding cybertechnologies... view more
This article sets out to show how different understandings of technology as suggested by Science and Technology Studies (STS) help reveal different political facets of cybersecurity. Using cybersecurity research as empirical site, it is shown that two separate ways of understanding cybertechnologies are prevalent in society. The primary one sees cybertechnologies as apolitical, flawed, material objects that need to be fixed in order to create more security; the other understands them as mere political tools in the hands of social actors without considering technological (im)possibilities. This article suggests a focus on a third understanding to bridge the uneasy gap between the two others: technology defined as an embodiment of societal knowledge. The article posits that in line with that, the study of cyberpolitics would benefit from two innovations: a focus on cybersecurity as social practice - enacted and stabilized through the circulation of knowledge about vulnerabilities - and a focus on the practices employed in the discovery, exploitation and removal of those vulnerabilities.... view less
Keywords
information technology; criminality; Internet; data security; science studies; technology studies
Classification
Sociology of Science, Sociology of Technology, Research on Science and Technology
Free Keywords
actor-network theory; cybersecurity; cyberwar; science and technology studies; sociology of knowledge
Document language
English
Publication Year
2018
Page/Pages
p. 22-30
Journal
Politics and Governance, 6 (2018) 2
Issue topic
Global Cybersecurity: New Directions in Theory and Methods
ISSN
2183-2463
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed