Improving Interdisciplinary Communication With Standardized Cyber Security Terminology: A Literature Review

Abstract

The growing demand for computer security and the cyberization trend are hallmarks of the 21st century. The rise in cyber-crime, digital currency, e-governance, and more, is well met by a corresponding recent jump in investment in new technology for securing computers around the globe. Recently, business and government sectors have begun to focus efforts on comprehensive cyber security solutions. With this growth has emerged the need for greater methods of collabo-ration and measurement of security. Despite all these efforts, this need has not been met, and there is still too little cross-disciplinary collaboration in the realm of computer security. This paper reviews the new trends in cyber security research, their contributions, and some identifiable limitations. We argue that these limitations are due largely to the absence of co-operation required to address a problem that is clearly multifaceted. We then identify a need for further standardization of terminology in computer security and propose guidelines for the global Internet multistakeholder community to consider when crafting such standards. We also assess the viability of some specific terms, including whether cyber should be used as a separate word when it is a descriptor (e.g. cyber security or cybersecurity), and conclude with recommendations for writing future papers on cyber security or the broader new field of all things relating to cyberspace, which has recently been dubbed Cybermatics, a term we also examine and propose alternatives to, like Cyber or Cybernomics. By furthering the effort of standardizing cyber security terminology, this paper lays groundwork for cross-disciplinary collaboration, agreement between technical and nontechnical stakeholders, and the drafting of universal Internet governance laws.