The emergence of liminal cyberspace : challenges for the ontological work in cybersecurity

Abstract

This philosophy-oriented paper examines cybersecurity and its ontological work in relation to spaces which are created by conventional perimeter security model and Zero Trust model. We argue that security works by a code of inclusion and exclusion, e.g., an individual user seeking access is either included or excluded in relation to the system. Therefore, cybersecurity divides the space through employing the code of inclusion/exclusion which directly affects the agency of users. We examine how the growing complexity of network environment makes information and cybersecurity to struggle with the simplicity of the inclusion/exclusion code. The simplified bifurcation is held by maintaining a strict order of the space for included users (i.e., how users and devices can behave once they are let in). Furthermore, we analyse the emergence of liminal spaces that contain both included and excluded actors. Liminal spaces, which have increased during the pandemic era, provide an intriguing spot through which security can be examined in terms of what it does, how it works out the ontological status (included/excluded) of its subjects.