Conceptualizing Internet Security Governance

Abstract

Current internet security research seems to lack decent conceptualizations of internet security. At times, the idea of internet security seems to be simply based on anecdotical descriptions, partly driven by fear-mongering scenarios or framed by personal or organizational interests of authors or editors. Researching on internet security governance however precludes a clear conceptualization of the central term. This paper seeks to conceptualize internet security governance by utilizing previous works in the fields of security studies, international relations, policing studies, social security policy analysis and computer science. What students of internet security governance can learn from non-internet security governance research is a) a more differentiated categorization of institutions and actors in security governance and, linked with that, b) the processualisation and segmentation of security provisioning. The internet is however regulated by more pluralized modes of governance. More philosophical discourses of security point at the narrowness of today’s conceptualizations of internet security and suggest a broader, more political understanding of internet security. In the first section, I will discuss the notion of security more generally. I will show that current conceptualizations of internet security lack depth and are loaded with ambiguities, thereby decreasing the analytical capabilities of the concept of internet security. The second section will analyze concepts of security governance and the way they are used in disciplines other than internet studies. And finally, this paper will break down security and its governance into their basic characteristics to be used for the analysis of internet security politics.