Cybersecurity Overview

Principles

Definition

Cybersecurity is an interdisciplinary academic field investigating the principles, technologies, and practices required to protect digital information systems, networks, and data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction, thus ensuring their confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Ontological type

Core Principles

Security Technologies

Threat Landscape

Key developments

Key Figures

Governance and Risk Modeling era

Majid Yar[1], affiliated with Lancaster University[3] and Keele University[4], typifies governance-centered security scholarship in the Governance and Risk Modeling era. His key contribution lies in articulating the novelty of the concept of cybercrime through the paper The Novelty of ‘Cybercrime’[7], a resource that underscored the need for governance and risk-aware framing of cyber threats in this era. Srinivasan Raghunathan[2], affiliated with The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center[5] and Washington University in St. Louis[6], represents a healthcare-security bridging perspective in this era. His papers The Value of Intrusion Detection Systems in IT Security Architecture[8] and Cyber Insurance and IT Security Investment: Impact of Interdependence Risk[9] collectively advanced risk-informed security governance by showing how IDS deployment and interdependent insurance-investment dynamics influence governance decisions and investment priorities in this era.

State-Centric Cyber Governance era

Adam Hahn [1] was a cybersecurity scholar whose work in the state-centric governance era connected with Washington State University [3] and Iowa State University [4]. His sole paper Cyber–Physical System Security for the Electric Power Grid [5] analyzed vulnerabilities in electricity grids and argued for integrated cyber-physical resilience to protect critical infrastructure in this era. Richard A. Clarke [2] was a central figure shaping state-centric cyber policy through policy institutions [2] during this era. His 2011 work Cyber war: the next threat to national security and what to do about it [6] framed deterrence and international negotiation strategies for cyberspace, underscoring why policy-led governance mattered in the cyber domain.

Adaptive Risk-Driven Cybersecurity era

Jason R. C. Nurse [1], affiliated with Imperial College London [3] and the University of Oxford [4], contributed to adaptive, risk-driven cybersecurity scholarship in the 2018–2024 era. His key contribution is the paper Cyber security in the age of COVID-19: A timeline and analysis of cyber-crime and cyber-attacks during the pandemic [7], which analyzed the surge of threats during the pandemic and underscored the need for adaptive, evidence-informed defenses. Wu He [2] is associated with Jilin University [5] and Harbin Engineering University [6] in this era, reflecting cross-institutional emphasis on cybersecurity education and awareness. Wu He’s contributions include the 2018 paper Investigating the impact of cybersecurity policy awareness on employees’ cybersecurity behavior [8] and the 2019 paper Improving employees’ intellectual capacity for cybersecurity through evidence-based malware training [9], which together underscore the central role of policy awareness and evidence-based training in reducing social engineering and enhancing organizational resilience in adaptive risk settings.