Cyber Security Workshop

On the Friday immediately after the 2013 AAP New Zealand Conference (13 December), we are hosting a Workshop on The Philosophy of Cyber Security: Confronting Practice with Reflection.

The Workshop is free of charge, but participants must register for it HERE.

The venue is the same as that for the 2013 AAP New Zealand Conference: The University of Auckland, Faculty of Arts, Arts 1 (Building 206) at 14a Symonds Street (corner of Symonds St and Grafton Rd).

Morning and afternoon teas will be provided.

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Cyber security is of increasing importance for individuals, businesses, and nation states. Yet the ethical and social aspects of cyber security are not well understood.

With the increase of internet use world wide and the rise of the 'digital generation', the future evolution of this area is becoming important from a philosophical, and political and legal perspective. A key question is the sort of digital society that we want. Hence, the evolution of the internet and its security poses new questions for social philosophy, ethics, personal identity and epistemology.

This workshop aims to bring together practitioners in the field of cyber security with a philosophical audience, from the viewpoint that both may benefit from such a confrontation.

Philosophers will benefit from a better understanding of the current state of security in cyber space and the capabilities of modern surveillance tools, the structure of the underground economy, attack tools and malware.

Practitioners will benefit from philosophical reflection on various aspects of cyber security where these inform action plans in security planning, incident response, and policy development.

The purpose of this workshop is primarily to act as a forum for information sharing, discussion and reflection. The leading idea is that there is value in bringing together philosophers and cyber security experts to further develop (and reflect on) some of the issues that are part of the cyber security landscape. The papers presented at the conference will be published as part of an edited collection.

Topics for discussion include:

  • Cyberspace as a public sphere
  • Characterisation of friends, enemies and adversaries in cyberspace
  • Cyber security policies: could a dash of philosophy improve them?
  • Big data, freedom, security and surveillance
  • Cyber conflicts, cyberwar and the Talinn manual


The format of the conference will be based on written papers, which will be distributed prior to the conference, followed by on-conference presentations with ample room for discussion.

Authors should submit their paper proposals to EasyChair HERE.

For questions that are particular to the Workshop, please contact Dr Hinne Hettema.