A Review of Value-Conflicts in Cybersecurity

An assessment based on quantitative and qualitative literature analysis

Journal article (2017)

Authors

Markus Christen University of Zürich
Bert Gordijn Dublin City University
Karsten Weber Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus
I.R. van de Poel Values Technology and Innovation
E. Yaghmaei Ethics & Philosophy of Technology - TPM
Department
Values Technology and Innovation
Copyright: © 2017 Markus Christen, Bert Gordijn, Karsten Weber, I.R. van de Poel, E. Yaghmaei
Moral Values Privacy Cybersecurity Value Conflicts Contextual Integrity
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Published Date

2017

Language

English

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Department

Values Technology and Innovation

Abstract

Cybersecurity is of capital importance in a world where economic and social processes increasingly rely on digital technology. Although the primary ethical motivation of cybersecurity is prevention of informational or physical harm, its enforcement can also entail conflicts with other moral values. This contribution provides an outline of value conflicts in cybersecurity based on a quantitative literature analysis and qualitative case studies. The aim is to demonstrate that the security-privacydichotomy—that still seems to dominate the ethics discourse based on our bibliometric analysis—is insufficient when discussing the ethical challenges of cybersecurity. Furthermore, we want to sketch how the notion of contextual integrity could help to better understand and mitigate such value conflicts.