Cybersecurity is more than a Technological Matter – Towards Considering Critical Infrastructures as Socio-Technical Systems

Abstract

Cybersecurity is still considered a purely technological challenge; however, despite all technological progress, this challenge remains unsolved – as emphasized by many high-impact attacks against public administration and industry worldwide. We postulate that the mere focus on technology fogs the bigger picture, since people generate, operate, and interact with all technological systems, thus making them socio-technical systems. Hence, in this commentary we argue for a change of perspective towards a holistic, interdisciplinary view on our technological infrastructure. By example of the European power grid – inarguably a critical infrastructure not only for daily life but also for the continuity of our polity – we show that through interpretation as a socio-technical system, systematic and interdisciplinary studies would allow to reveal how its (cyber)security is not only a technological matter. An interdisciplinary approach combining STEM disciplines and Social Sciences would additionally advance the understanding of stakeholders and their goals and mindsets as well as the manifold dependencies between technology and human actors. While interdisciplinary endeavours appear to be generally supported by funding agencies, reviewers, universities, and researchers, they rarely occur in practice. We discuss why this is the case and present ideas on how to facilitate more interdisciplinary research.