Publication details
The Search for Cybersecurity Social Contract in Democracy: The Citizen´s Perspective
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The Social Contract Theory (SCT) applied to cybersecurity has started to receive academic atten tion lately, and scholars agree that it is a pressing need. The SCT theoretical applications to cybersecurity identify three main actors – a state, its citizens, and the private sector. The latter makes it distinct from the classical SCT, which dominantly works with the two former actors. Users are the weakest of all the cybersecurity layers and thus often function as a vector for attacks that are threatening critical state infrastructure (e.g., botnet or phishing attacks). Eloquent examples are attacks aga inst the healthcare sector, which were very severe and damaging due to the COVID - 19 pandemic. Some states like California or Estonia and organizations like the EU have already started to implement legal, subsidiary, or educational measures to meet this cha llenge of unsecured citizens. Individuals function on the receiving end of steps and commercial decisions implemented by the state and private sector. Literature is consistent in stating that for any SCT real - 64 world application to be functional, among other aspects, citizens ´ requirements and basic needs must be sufficiently reflected by the remaining two stakeholders – a state and the private sector. Understanding the demand side of the cybersecurity SCT thus represents an appropriate starting point. This r esearch fills the gap by identifying the individuals ´ requirements and needs in the security of their cyberspace. It does so by employing the exploratory logic using the qualitative survey inquiries via the Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing service. How ever, is the Mturk primarily used for quantitative designs (e.g., experimental), there are also successful applications in the qualitative spectrum. Generally, the paper brings the citizens ´ perspective into the ongoing search for a viable cybersecurity so cial contract. Such focus on the receiving end of states measures and the private sector ´s commercial decisions lays a foundation for the future exploratory studies into the remaining two stakeholders of the cybersecurity social contract. |
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