Beyond Cyber-Doom: Assessing the Limits of Hypothetical Scenarios in the Framing of Cyber-Threats

Lawson, Sean

doi:10.1080/19331681.2012.759059

Cited by 68 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…This would require developing sophisticated cyber weapons, communicating these capabilities to potential adversaries in the cyber realm, and being willing to follow through with action that may harm civilians, lead to escalatory retaliation, and provide enemies with digital technologies they did not have before the attack. Yet this type of thinking is an enduring one as more high-profile data breaches, usually espionage campaigns or disruptive information operations and rarely physical degradations continue to proliferate and be misconstrued in popular narratives (Lawson, 2013). According to the data, offensive posturing and digital arms races that the US may set into motion as policy could be self-defeating policies (Craig & Valeriano, 2016).…”

Section: Expanding Cyber Security Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

How We Stopped Worrying about Cyber Doom and Started Collecting Data

Valeriano

Maness

2018

PaG

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Moderate and measured takes on cyber security threats are swamped by the recent flood of research and policy positions in the cyber research field offering hyperbolic perspectives based on limited observations. This skewed perspective suggests constant cyber disasters that are confronting humanity constantly. The general tone of the debate argues that cyber war is already upon us and our future will only witness more cyber doom. However, these hyperbolic perspectives are being countered by empirical investigations that produce the opposite of what is to be expected. It is generally observed that limited cyber engagements throughout the geopolitical system are the dominant form of interaction. Our task here is to offer a different path forward. We first posit what can be known about cyber security interactions with data as well as what cannot. Where is the water's edge in cyber security research? We then examine the known works in the field that utilize data and evidence to examine cyber security processes. Finally, we conclude with an offering of what types of studies need to be done in the future to move the field forward, away from the prognostication and generalizations so typical in the discourse in this constantly changing and growing field.

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Section: Expanding Cyber Security Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

How We Stopped Worrying about Cyber Doom and Started Collecting Data

Valeriano

Maness

2018

PaG

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“…Eschatological discourses of cyber war are perhaps symptomatic of this apocalyptic aesthetic but they also derive from a long-standing antipathy or ambivalence to the sociopolitical effects of technology. As scholars of the social construction of cyber security threats have observed, concerns about information technology are older than we sometimes recognise (Cavelty, 2008;Lawson, 2012Lawson, , 2013, even if they have taken on an urgency hitherto unprecedented in its global intensity. Disquiet about the 'information revolution' and its supposed benefits has, even before the last two decades of massive Internet growth, raised critical questions about the political basis of such claims (Webster and Robins, 1986) and identified the constraining logics instantiated by the ideology of the information revolution itself (Slack, 1984).…”

Section: Cyber War and Apocalyptic (Post)modernitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Discourses of cyber security-of which 'cyber war' is a distinct subset-are heavily reliant on the articulation of catastrophic 'cyber doom' scenarios to mobilise political resources (Cavelty, 2008;Lawson, 2013). Strategic cyber war is also framed in ways prioritising the catastrophic nature of these scenarios, although their nature and character remain poorly understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Apocalyptic Visions: Cyber War and the Politics of Time

Stevens

2013

SSRN Journal

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“…In addition, the question is whether states are putting the right agencies and organisations forward to combat the right threats (Dunn Cavelty 2014). Many researchers warn about the danger of 'threat inflation' and the unhelpful language of national security and warfare (Brito and Watkins 2011;Betz and Stevens 2011;Libicki 2012;Rid 2013;Lawson 2013). This does not mean that all of the Internet has been securitised or militarised, but policymakers are increasingly looking at cyberspace through different eyes.…”

Section: Internet Security Versus National Securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Public Core of the Internet: An international Agenda for Internet Governance

Broeders¹

2016

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It advised the Dutch government to make cyberspace and Internet governance a serious priority for its foreign policy. The successful organisation of the Global Conference on Cyber Space in April 2015 (gccs2015) in The Hague provided the Dutch government with an excellent stepping stone to promote its goals of a safe and open Internet through the global arena of cyber diplomacy. Dutch cyber diplomacy will be intensified in the wake of this conference, building -amongst others-on the insights and recommendations put forward in this report.The core messages in the original report and in this book are not limited to the Netherlands however, but have a global appeal. Its main argument is that the Internet's infrastructure and core protocols should be regarded as a global public good that is in need of protection against unwarranted interventions by states and other parties. Its main policy recommendation is that states should work towards establishing an international standard that identifies the Internet's core protocols as a neutral zone in which governments, pursuing their national interests, are prohibited from interfering. This is a goal that is of crucial importance for all states whose societies and economies depend on the integrity and functionality of the Internet. Increasingly, that is the vast majority of states.The original report was drawn up by a project team headed by Dennis Broeders, senior research fellow at the Council and professor of Technology and Society at Erasmus University Rotterdam. The other members of the group were Erik Schrijvers and Lisa Vermeer, both research fellows at the Council. Member of the Council Mark Bovens was also involved in the project.While writing this report, the project group consulted numerous experts in the fields of Internet governance and cybersecurity. Their comments were extremely valuable and the Council would like to thank the interviewees for their time and effort. The Council would also like to thank Jan van den Berg, Nico van Eijk, Marieke de Goede, Erik Huizer and Corien Prins, who commented on earlier versions of the Dutch report. Prof. André Knottnerus Chairman Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy summaryThe Internet's core of key protocols and infrastructure can be considered a global public good that provides benefits to everyone in the world. Countering the growing state interference with this public core requires a new international agenda for Internet governance that departs from the notion of a global public good.internet governance between the technical and the political Everyday life without the Internet has become unimaginable. It is inextricably interwoven with our social lives, our purchasing behaviour, our work, our relationship with the government and, increasingly, with our everyday objects, from smart meters to the cars we drive and the moveable bridges we cross en route. For a long time, Internet governance was the exclusive domain of what is known in Internet circles as the 'technical community'. That community laid the fo...

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Beyond Cyber-Doom: Assessing the Limits of Hypothetical Scenarios in the Framing of Cyber-Threats

Cited by 68 publications

References 17 publications

How We Stopped Worrying about Cyber Doom and Started Collecting Data

How We Stopped Worrying about Cyber Doom and Started Collecting Data

Apocalyptic Visions: Cyber War and the Politics of Time

The Public Core of the Internet: An international Agenda for Internet Governance

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