Premium
CSIRT s and Global Cybersecurity: How Technical Experts Support Science Diplomacy
Author(s) -
Tanczer Leonie Maria,
Brass Irina,
Carr Madeline
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
global policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1758-5899
pISSN - 1758-5880
DOI - 10.1111/1758-5899.12625
Subject(s) - geopolitics , diplomacy , state (computer science) , political science , public relations , politics , international security , the internet , national security , international relations , sociology , public administration , law , computer science , algorithm , world wide web
Ongoing efforts by state actors to collaborate on addressing the challenges of global cybersecurity have been slow to yield results. Technical expert communities such as Computer Security and Incident Response Teams ( CSIRT s) have played a fundamental role in maintaining the Internet's functional structure through transnational collaboration. Responsible for security incident management and located in diverse constituencies, these coordination centres engage in joint responses and solve day‐to‐day cybersecurity problems through diverse national, regional and international networks. This article argues that CSIRT s form an epistemic community that engages in science diplomacy, at times navigating geopolitical tensions in a way that political actors are not able to. Through interviews with CSIRT representatives, we explain how their collaborative actions, rooted in shared technical knowledge, norms and best practices, contribute to the advancement of international cooperation on cybersecurity.