Public and Private Governance of Cybersecurity

Analyses the current framework of cybersecurity governance, its limitations and how private actors and geopolitical considerations shape responses to cybersecurity threats.

As the Internet increasingly affects how we live and work, the challenges posed by borderless cybersecurity threats remain largely unaddressed. This book examines cybersecurity challenges, governance responses to them, and their limitations, engaging an interdisciplinary approach combining legal and international relations disciplines.This book examines, through the interdisciplinary lenses of international relations and law, the limitations of cybersecurity governance frameworks and proposes solutions to address new cybersecurity challenges. It approaches different angles of cybersecurity regulation, showing the importance of dichotomies as state vs market, public vs private, and international vs domestic. It critically analyses two dominant Internet regulation models, labelled as market-oriented and state-oriented. It pays particular attention to the role of private actors in cyber governance and contrasts the different motivations and modus operandi of different actors and states, including in the domains of public-private partnerships, international data transfers, regulation of international trade and foreign direct investments. The book also examines key global (within the United Nations) and regional efforts to regulate cybersecurity and explains the limits of domestic and international law in tackling cyberattacks. Finally, it demonstrates how geopolitical considerations and different approaches to human rights shape cybersecurity governance.