E-Mail: madeleine.myatt@uni-bielefeld.de
Doctoral Project: Cybersecurity a Shared Responsibility? The Role, Implementation and Strategic Promotion of Cooperative Partnerships with the Cybersecurity Industry
Since 10/2017 | Doctoral Researcher in the Research Training Group "World Politics", Bielefeld University |
2017 | Teaching & Research Associate, Political Sociology (Political Organisations and Communication, Right-Wing Populism), Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University |
2016 - 2017 | Teaching & Research Associate, Comparative Politics and Public Policy (Comparative Democracy Research, Public Safety & Security), Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University |
2010 - 2014 | M.A. Political Science & European Studies (dual structure), University of Hannover |
2006 - 2010 | B.A. in Political Science, University of Hannover |
Digital technologies are increasingly pervasive in the social, political and economic sphere. Global interconnectivity - especially via the internet - can justifiably be referred to as a revolutionary step in the transformation of modern societies. Moreover, an open, free and secure cyberspace is mainly seen as a key driver for the promotion of political and social inclusion, the diffusion of fundamental rights, economic growth and international competitiveness. Thus, the reliance on the internet and different information and communication technologies (ICTs) offer new opportunities as well as challenges and risks. Therefore, a secure cyberspace becomes an essential matter of national and international security and the growing influence of digital and smart grid technology as a distinguishing feature of security actors and the strategic value of data is significant. In this sense, our digital footprints are likewise, a security relevant resource and protection objective. In response, various states took on a strategic approach by developing a national cybersecurity strategy (NCSS). Although, the current NCSS-landscape reveals country and/or regional specific differences, similarities can be identified e.g. the categorization of cybersecurity as "shared responsibility" with an emphasis on public private partnerships and a strategic promotion of the cybersecurity industry. The latter is often underlined with an intention of becoming a "leading nation" or "forerunner" in cybersecurity. While most of previous research focus on public private partnerships regarding the protection of critical infrastructures, this project aims to stay abreast of changes and put a special emphasis on partnerships between the public sector, the cybersecurity industry and science.
The first aim of the research project is to map the NCSS-landscape and accompanied initiatives on the regional and international level to reflect the role of public private partnerships as a negotiation and discourse arena, also in terms of power politics and relations. Therefore, the introduction of a multistage-analytical scheme and a combined content-analysis of relevant security strategies (incl. text-mining tools) is used, to identify inducing contextual conditions, path-dependencies and patterns.
In a second step, the analytical perspective will be expanded on the export dimension of cybersecurity technology as a consequence of the strategic approach, to foster the cybersecurity industry and relevant partnership forms. It does so, by exploring the demand for a modernization and enlargement of transnational control regimes regarding the export of so called "dual-use" digital surveillance technologies.