Cyber-security

Alex Tanchev: The strategic dimensions of cyber-security – an interdisciplinary approach, AIES Fokus 7/2018

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20.12.2018

With the 2016 US Presidential Election, the question of cyber-security entered the mainstream and set the focus on how nations and other entities use cyber-space as an extension of their "real-world" agendas. This question is by no means new, yet it has remained somewhat overlooked, perhaps, not in small part due to the dynamism, complexity and technicality of the subject, acting as gatekeepers for novices. That being said, a certain level of understanding about cyber-security could be reached through combining approaches from other fields, international relations, political science, security studies to name a few, in order to see the "big picture" and how the geostrategic ambitions of actors could be reflected in cyber-space. Furthermore, in the near future, technology will continue to become a more and more integral part of our everyday lives, so awareness of the possible threats and mindfulness of our actions are key to mitigating the possible dangers that our societies might face.

This brief overview will attempt to provide the necessary basis upon which further knowledge could be built, looking at the rules and actors of cyber-space. These segments, along with how future developments would affect the sector cannot be done justice in such a limited format, so this text should be viewed as a roadmap to where the main debates in the field lie.