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2020 | Book

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Digitalisation and Human Security

A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Cybersecurity in the European High North

Editors: Mirva Salminen, Gerald Zojer, Kamrul Hossain

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : New Security Challenges

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" , Springer Professional "Technik"

Table of Contents

About this book

This book constructs a multidisciplinary approach to human security questions related to digitalisation in the European High North i.e. the northernmost areas of Scandinavia, Finland and North-Western Russia. It challenges the mainstream conceptualisation of cybersecurity and reconstructs it with the human being as the referent object of security.

Frontmatter

Introduction

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. A Human Security Perspective on Cybersecurity in the European High North

Abstract

Digitalisation is rapidly changing both societies and human activities worldwide, including the European High North, that is, in the northernmost parts of Finland, Sweden and Norway, as well as in north-western Russia. National and regional policies, as well as commercial endeavours, have been designed to advance digital development and/or to mitigate its harmful effects, although only limited attention has been paid to the interests, needs and fears of the people and communities experiencing this development. The primary aim of digitalisation and cybersecurity efforts should be the advancement of human wellbeing through a well-contextualised, human-centric approach. Alongside a human security perspective on cybersecurity this chapter introduces the content of the book.

Mirva Salminen, Gerald Zojer

A Multi-Disciplinary Cybersecurity Approach

Frontmatter

Chapter 2. Comprehensive Cybersecurity and Human Rights in the Digitalising European High North

Abstract

This chapter presents the interconnection between ever-advancing digitalisation, cybersecurity, human security and human rights in the European High North. While digitalisation brings forth multiple opportunities for individuals and communities in the area, it also generates concerns to them. Mainstream cybersecurity approaches neglect many of people’s everyday concerns. Therefore, the authors claim, a human security approach to cybersecurity provides a more inclusive understanding of both the enabling and constraining effects of digitalisation by deepening and widening the prevailing conceptualisations. They back their argument by highlighting the interconnection of human security and human rights. Such an approach places individuals and communities to the heart of cybersecurity and examines the changes that digitalisation generates in their everyday life.

Mirva Salminen, Gerald Zojer, Kamrul Hossain

Chapter 3. The New Frontier for Human Cybersecurity: Russia’s Cybersecurity Policies in the Arctic

Abstract

This chapter examines the development of Russia’s official cybersecurity policies with regard to the Arctic since the early 2000s, which is when the first Strategy for the Development of an Information Society was adopted. The primary focus is on examining how the notion of cybersecurity is framed at the official level and determining who its major target groups are. More specifically, this chapter analyses whether the issues associated with human security are included in Russia’s official cybersecurity discourse. The subject of Russia’s official discourse on cybersecurity in the Arctic is important in terms of revealing the critical actors who will enforce and benefit from cybersecurity at a time characterised by the increasing digitalisation of the Arctic.

Nadezhda Filimonova, Mario Portugal-Ramirez

Chapter 4. Critical Human Security and Cyberspace: Enablement Besides Constraint

Abstract

This chapter applies a critical human security perspective to cyberspace. It contends that emancipation provides human security with its core purpose, as it frees people both from the constraints imposed by despotic regimes (freedom from fear) and from an exploitative economic system (freedom from want). The idea that human emancipation can challenge the pre-existing order is reflected in the literature that foresees the digital revolution ushering in an age of transparency and empowerment. Conceiving security as emancipation, this chapter utilises the conceptual tool of the “three faces” of power to examine how human agency is enabled by the digital revolution (freedom from) as well as being simultaneously constrained by it (oppressed by).

Alan Collins

Human Rights and Digital Infrastructure

Frontmatter

Chapter 5. Social Exclusion as Human Insecurity: A Human Cybersecurity Framework Applied to the European High North

Abstract

Digitalisation is changing the way governments provide public services. This has significance for geographically peripheral and sparsely populated regions like the European High North, which is facing challenges associated with an ageing population and labour shortages. A successful transition from traditional to digital services requires adequate digital competence and infrastructure. Without this, rural villages and elderly people in particular are at risk of suffering disadvantage. To address this, we present a cybersecurity framework that combines human security and social exclusion theory. Drawing on key informant interviews conducted in Norway, Sweden and Finland, we show that while digitalisation provides benefits to remote areas, it can also result in digital exclusion. Significant attention must therefore be paid to whose voices and interests shape the current digitalisation agenda.

Kristin Smette Gulbrandsen, Michael Sheehan

Chapter 6. Mobile Internet Access as a Human Right: A View from the European High North

Abstract

Even in developed countries, in many rural areas the mobile phone coverage, to say nothing of the mobile internet coverage, remains limited. Looking at the evolution of both mobile internet standards and state actions in this regard, this chapter considers mobile internet access from the perspective of human rights. Tracing different approaches to internet access within the framework of human rights, the existence of a right to sufficiently fast mobile internet access without location-specific discrimination is examined. Particular attention is paid to the sparsely populated areas of the European High North and the chapter investigates the importance of internet access in relation to the enjoyment of other human rights as well as the enforcement of this emerging social human right to mobile internet access.

Stefan Kirchner

Chapter 7. The Legal Regime Governing Submarine Telecommunications Cables in the Arctic: Present State and Challenges

Abstract

Submarine telecommunications cables play a crucial role in the daily data transmission between continents and states. The number of submarine cable systems is increasing worldwide, which underlines their significance in relation to modern communications. Recently, cable networks have reached the Arctic. Several cables have already been laid on the seabed of the Arctic Ocean, and more projects are forthcoming. This chapter examines the general legal regime governing submarine cables under international law, the legislation of the Arctic states regarding submarine cables and the challenges facing the present legal regime applicable to the Arctic in light of current and upcoming submarine cable projects.

Daria Shvets

Chapter 8. Connecting the Arctic While Installing Submarine Data Cables Between East Asia, North America and Europe

Abstract

The Arctic Connect Project aims to connect East Asia, North America and Europe by running a submarine fibre-optic cable through the Northeast Passage. Along with the Quintillion Submarine Cable System, which originates in Alaska, it is one of the most visible elements of the lively discussion concerning Arctic connectivity. This chapter clarifies the role of the European High North and other Arctic regions in such initiatives. The human security framework is utilised as a flexible conceptual tool for analysing the role of local people and local communities as well as the different meanings, hopes and fears associated with these international market-driven projects. The European High North serves as the spatial focus of the research, although references are also made to other geographical locations.

Juha Saunavaara

Society and Environment

Frontmatter

Chapter 9. Cybersecurity of Digital Citizens in the Remote Areas of the European High North

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how digital citizens in the remote areas of the European High North experience cybersecurity. The empirical research was conducted in the Finnish regions of Lapland, Ostrobothnia and North Karelia. The research comprised a postal survey (n = 1063) for citizens, web-based questionnaire for public sector professionals, two workshops for experts and additional interviews conducted with Sámi people and third-sector representatives. The research data were examined by means of a three-phase gap analysis. Based on the results, citizens are slightly more critical than officials with regards to cybersecurity, and they experience cybersecurity in a broader sense than simply as customers. Further, active digital citizens in remote areas experience cybersecurity problems that may eventually decrease the social acceptability of e-services.

Ville Kivivirta, Leena Viinamäki, Arto Selkälä

Chapter 10. Analysis of Online Social Networking When Studying the Identities of Local Communities

Abstract

The chapter discusses new avenues for analysing identity on the basis of a social networking analysis, opening up in connection with digitalisation. The first issue addressed is whether there is a conceptual framework or model that is both representative enough and sufficiently adequate in terms of complexity for use with the experimental tools under consideration. The second issue is whether there are adequate approaches available to analyse the identities of local communities on the basis of social networking data. A review of the modern social networking analysis methods and applications relevant to the problem at hand is presented as well as the difficulties and limitations connected to such analysis, prompted by technical, legal and ethical aspects.

Maxim Shishaev, Andrey Fedorov, Igor Datyev

Chapter 11. The Interconnection Between Digitalisation and Human Security in the Lives of Sámi with Disabilities

Abstract

This chapter adopts an intersectional approach to examining the interconnections existing between digitalisation and both the positive and negative aspects of personal and community security in the everyday lives of Sámi persons with disabilities living in Finland. Based on interviews conducted with Sámi persons with disabilities, the chapter provides an analysis of the concrete and complex ways in which digitalisation and personal security interact and intersect in the everyday lives of the interviewees. Then, the discussion turns to the intersection of digitalisation and community security, particularly its cultural aspects, such as languages, traditional livelihoods and connection to Sámi communities. This chapter emphasises the importance of considering the heterogeneity and multiple identities of minority groups—which give rise to special needs—when designing future digital solutions.

Laura Olsén-Ljetoff, Liisa Hokkanen

Chapter 12. Emerging Pathogeneses and Satellite Telemetry: Containing Contagion in the European High North

Abstract

Creating a digital framework for reporting pathogen incidents across the Arctic and Boreal regions is vital in terms of information-sharing, more so than filing reports in specific academic journals or government archives. Regular intervention in relation to species susceptible at higher latitudes is difficult, both because such species may be migratory and wild and because the ethics involved in interventionist studies are accurately strict. Examining the science of emerging pathogeneses in the European High North, this chapter highlights ethical and practical considerations in opening up the northern latitudes. Greater access to endemic sub-Arctic areas may facilitate pathogenic transfer, species survival and, in turn, traditional peoples’ livelihoods. Disease mapping is of considerable value to human security with regards to building both predictive capability and outcome resilience.

Alexandra L. Carleton

Conclusions

Frontmatter

Chapter 13. Moving the Human Being Into the Focus of Cybersecurity

Abstract

Acknowledging the importance of information and communication technologies (ICT) in relation to the functioning of contemporary societies, the states of the European High North have endorsed information and/or cybersecurity strategies which aim to safeguard both information and information infrastructure. However, the strategies neither fully recognise the challenges and threats associated with the use of ICT in everyday life nor acknowledge regional peculiarities within the different states. This chapter elaborates the enabling and constraining effects of digitalisation at the regional level. It discusses how a human-centred security approach to digitalisation could broaden the current cybersecurity frameworks by considering the impacts of digitalisation on the individual and sub-state community levels. The chapter concludes that a human-centred cybersecurity approach positions human wellbeing as the focus of cybersecurity.

Gerald Zojer

Title: Digitalisation and Human Security
Editors: Mirva Salminen
Gerald Zojer
Kamrul Hossain
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-48070-7
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-48069-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48070-7