Cybersecurity in Context

Cybersecurity has become instrumental to economic activity and human rights alike. But as digital technologies penetrate deeply into almost every aspect of human experience, a broad range of social-political-economic-legal-ethical-military and other considerations have come to envelop the cybersecurity landscape. Cybersecurity in Context will explore the most important elements that shape the playing field on which cybersecurity problems emerge and are managed. The course will emphasize how ethical, legal, and economic frameworks enable and constrain security technologies and policies. It will introduce some of the most important macro-elements (such as national security considerations and the interests of nation-states) and micro-elements (such as behavioral economic insights into how people understand and interact with security features). Specific topics include policymaking (on the national, international, and organizational level), business models, legal frameworks (including duties of security, privacy issues, law enforcement access issues, computer hacking, and economic/military espionage), standards making, and the roles of users, government, and industry.