Constructing cybersecurity: power, expertise and the internet security industry

Abstract

Constructing cybersecurity adopts a constructivist approach to cybersecurity and problematises the state of contemporary knowledge within this field. Setting out by providing a concise overview of such knowledge this book subsequently adopts Foucauldian positions on power and security to highlight assumptions and limitations found herein. What follows is a detailed analysis of the discourse produced by various internet security companies demonstrating the important role that these security professionals play constituting and entrenching this knowledge by virtue of their specific epistemic authority. As a relatively new source within a broader security dispositif these security professionals have created relationships of mutual recognition and benefit with traditional political and security professionals.