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The ontological politics of cyber security: Emerging agencies, actors, sites, and spaces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2020

Tobias Liebetrau Open the ORCID record for Tobias Liebetrau [Opens in a new window]  and
Kristoffer Kjærgaard Christensen
Tobias Liebetrau*
Affiliation:
Centre for Military Studies, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Kristoffer Kjærgaard Christensen
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

In this article, we show how Annemarie Mol's notion of ontological politics helps to open up the research agenda for cyber security in Critical Security Studies. The article hence seeks to further the debate about STS and Critical Security Studies. The article's main claim is that the concept of ontological politics enables an engagement with the complex and transformative dynamics of ICT and the new security actors and practices that shape security politics in the digital age. By examining the virulent attacks executed by the Mirai botnet – one of the world's largest, fiercest, and most enduring botnets – we point to four aspects of cyber security that attention to the ontological politics of cyber security attunes us to: the proliferation and entanglement of security agencies, actors, sites, and spaces. These aspects of cyber security, we argue, are becoming increasingly prominent alongside the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G network technology. In conclusion, we discuss the wider security theoretical and normative-democratic implications of an engagement with the ontological politics of security by exploring three avenues for additional conversation between ontological politics and Critical Security Studies.

Keywords

Cyber SecurityCritical Security StudiesOntological PoliticsScience and Technology StudiesInformation and Communication Technology (ICT) and Internet of Things (IoT)
Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of International Security , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 25 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the British International Studies Association

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References

1 Undeniably, cyber threats and risks are presented as some of the most pressing security issues confronting contemporary societies. In 2018 the cyber threat was once again ranked among the biggest threats in the World Wide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community (Daniel R. Coats, ‘Statement for the Record: Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community’ (Washington, DC: Office of the Director of National Intelligence, 23 May 2017); Along the same lines, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker stated in his 2017 State of the Union Address that ‘Cyber-attacks can be more dangerous to the stability of democracies and economies than guns and tanks.’ Jean-Claude Juncker, ‘President Jean-Claude Juncker's State of the Union Address 2017’, European Commission (13 September 2017).

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10 An argument often associated with security practices that are said to empower bureaucracies and everyday professionals and/or invoke a technocratic security logic. See Amicelle, Aradau, and Jeandesboz, ‘Questioning security devices’; Bigo, ‘The (in)securitization practices of the three universes of EU border control’; Huysmans, Security Unbound; Monsees, Linda, Crypto-politics: Encryption and Democratic Practices in the Digital Era (London and New York, Routledge, 2020)Google Scholar.

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14 Balzacq and Cavelty, ‘A theory of actor-network for cyber-security’.

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25 Commonly known as one of the largest and most disruptive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks hitherto.

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32 Hansen and Nissenbaum, ‘Digital disaster, cyber security, and the Copenhagen School’.

33 Eriksson, ‘Cyberplagues, IT, and security’.

34 Cavelty, ‘From cyber-bombs to political fallout', p. 106.

35 Ibid., p. 118.

36 Hansen and Nissenbaum, ‘Digital disaster, cyber security, and the Copenhagen School’, p. 1166.

37 Ibid.

38 Cavelty, ‘From cyber-bombs to political fallout’, p. 107.

39 Bendrath, Eriksson, and Giacomello, ‘From “cyberterrorism” to “cyberwar”, back and forth’, p. 61.

40 Hansen and Nissenbaum, ‘Digital disaster, cyber security, and the Copenhagen School’, pp. 1167–8.

41 This is further underlined, as Hansen and Nissenbaum state that they break with Ronald Deibert's claims regarding the importance of materiality and technology outside of sole discourse. See Hansen and Nissenbaum, ‘Digital disaster, cyber security, and the Copenhagen School’, p. 1162, fn. 6.

42 Balzacq and Cavelty, ‘A theory of actor-network for cyber-security’, p. 179.

43 For an overview of the engagement with the technologisation of security, see fn. 6.

44 Collier, ‘Cyber security assemblages’, p. 15.

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61 Mol, The Body Multiple, p. 54.

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84 Balzacq and Cavelty, ‘A theory of actor-network for cyber-security’.

85 In 2016 approximately 17 billion IoT devices were connected to the Internet. By 2019 that figure has risen to approximately 25 billion. Statista, ‘Internet of Things (IoT) Connected Devices Installed Base Worldwide from 2015 to 2025 (in Billions)’, available at: {https://www.statista.com/statistics/471264/iot-number-of-connected-devices-worldwide/accessed 29 August 2019}.

86 The Mirai botnet embed a decentralised peer-to-peer architecture that turns every bot into a server that can handle instructions to other bots.

87 See fn. 9 for definition of botherder.

88 Tara Seals, ‘Mirai botnet sees big 2019 growth, shifts focus to enterprises’, Threatpost, available at: {https://threatpost.com/mirai-botnet-sees-big-2019-growth-shifts-focus-to-enterprises/146547/} accessed 6 January 2020.

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97 The highest densities of infected devices were in Vietnam, Brazil, the United States, China, and Mexico. Scott and Spaniel, ‘Rise of the Machines'.

98 Simon and de Goede, ‘Cybersecurity, bureaucratic vitalism and European emergency’, p. 80.

99 Balzacq and Cavelty, ‘A theory of actor-network for cyber-security’, p. 188.

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101 Bennett, ‘The agency of assemblages and the North American blackout’, p. 457.

102 Law, ‘Actor Network Theory and material semiotics’; Mol, ‘Ontological politics’.

103 Mol and Law, ‘Complexities’, p. 1.

104 Aradau et al. (eds), Critical Security Methods, p. 78; Bennet, ‘The agency of assemblages and the North American blackout’; Bennett, Vibrant Matter.

105 See, for example, Huysmans, ‘What's in an act?’; Walker, R. B. J., The Subject of Security in Critical Security Studies: Concepts and Cases, ed. Krause, Keith and Williams, Michael C. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997)Google Scholar. Rather, cyber security practices involve ‘actors who are different in power and kind (state, corporate, group, individual) and connected nodally through networks rather than hierarchically through states’. Derian, James Der, Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment-Network, 2nd edn (New York and London: Routledge, 2009), p. 209CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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109 Brad Smith, ‘The Need for Digital Geneva Convention’, Keynote address, RSA Conference, San Francisco, 2017.

110 Manos Antonakakis et al. ‘Understanding the Mirai Botnet’, p. 1093.

111 Brian Krebs, ‘Naming & shaming web polluters: Xiongmai’, Krebs on Security, available at: {https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/10/naming-shaming-web-polluters-xiongmai/} accessed 29 August 2019; Brian Krebs, ‘Hacked cameras, DRV's powered today's massive Internet outage’, Krebs on Security, available at: {https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/10/hacked-cameras-dvrs-powered-todays-massive-internet-outage/} accessed 29 August 2019; Brian Krebs, ‘Who makes the IoT things under attack’, Krebs on Security, available at: {https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/10/who-makes-the-iot-things-under-attack/} accessed 29 August 2019.

112 Manos Antonakakis et al., ‘Understanding the Mirai botnet’, p. 1094.

113 Ibid., p. 1100.

114 Christensen and Petersen, ‘Public–private partnerships on cyber security’; Christensen and Liebetrau, ‘A new role for “the public”?’; and Kristoffer Kjærgaard Christensen, ‘Corporate Zones of Cyber Security’ (PhD dissertation, University of Copenhagen, 2018) also explore the role of private companies beyond national security practices

115 Bruce Schneier, ‘We need to save the Internet from the Internet of Things’, Motherboard – Tech by Vice, available at: {https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ezpq3m/we-need-to-save-the-internet-from-the-internet-of-things} accessed 29 August 2019.

116 Cavelty, ‘From cyber-bombs to political fallout'; Hansen and Nissenbaum, ‘Digital disaster, cyber security, and the Copenhagen School’.

117 Dan Goodinn, ‘Creepy IoT Teddy Bear Leaks >2 million parents’ and kids’ voice messages’, Ars Technica, available at: {https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/02/creepy-iot-teddy-bear-leaks-2-million-parents-and-kids-voice-messages/} accessed 29 August 2019; Joanna Stern, ‘The connected medicine cabinet: Bluetooth pregnancy test makes debut at CES 2016’, Wall Street Journal, available at: {https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-connected-medicine-cabinet-bluetooth-pregnancy-test-makes-debut-at-ces-2016-1452045541} accessed 29 August 2019.

118 Mol, ‘Ontological politics’, p. 74.

119 Ulrich Beck, World Risk Society (Cambridge: Polity, 1999).

120 Walters, William, Governmentality: Critical Encounters (London and New York: Routledge, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

121 Law, John and Urry, John, ‘Enacting the social’, Economy and Society, 33:3 (2004), p. 404CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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126 Mol, ‘Ontological politics’, p. 82.

127 Schouten, ‘Security as controversy'; Walters, ‘Drone strikes, dingpolitik and beyond'; Rothe, ‘Seeing like a satellite'.

128 Buzan, Barry, Wæver, Ole, and de Wilde, Jaap, Security: A New Framework for Analysis (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998)Google Scholar; Wæver, Ole, ‘Securitization and desecuritization’, in Lipschutz, Ronnie D. (ed.), On Security (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), pp. 46–86Google Scholar.

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130 Huysmans, ‘What's in an act?'.

131 Hansen and Nissenbaum, ‘Digital disaster, cyber security, and the Copenhagen School’.

132 See, for example, Amicelle, Aradau, and Jean Jeandesboz, ‘Questioning security devices’; Huysmans, ‘Critical methods in International Relations’, ch. 7; Monsees, ‘Public relations’.

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