Cybersecurity Research Meets Science and Technology Studies

TLDR

Cybertechnologies are viewed either as apolitical, flawed objects needing fixing or as political tools wielded by social actors, ignoring technological possibilities. The article proposes a third perspective—technology as an embodiment of societal knowledge—to bridge the gap between the two views. It argues that studying cyberpolitics through a focus on cybersecurity as a social practice and on the practices of vulnerability discovery, exploitation, and removal can reveal political facets of technology. Empirical analysis shows that two distinct understandings of cybertechnologies coexist in society.

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 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.