| Summary: | <p>Cyber security is typically provided by a highly complex and diffuse network of actors. Public, private, global, and local security providers operate within the same structures. The relationships between these actors are highly varied – cooperation, coordination and even conflict exist within these cyber security assemblages. Furthermore, the distinctions between actors are often blurred as hybrid structures emerge.</p>
<p>This thesis explores the implications of these trends on cyber security outputs and international relations. Three case studies examine the cyber security of critical national infrastructure in the UK, encryption in the US, and digital society in Estonia. The type of actors providing cyber security (including their incentive structures and resources), the relationships between actors, power dynamics, and levels of fusion are all found to have an influential bearing on the nature of cyber security provision.</p>
<p>In developing these ideas, it is argued that examining security actors is an important, yet often neglected component of cyber insecurity. While much attention is paid towards threat actors and the structure of cyber conflict, an examination of who provides cyber security and the dynamics discussed above remains comparatively underexplored. This thesis therefore seeks to develop theoretical, conceptual and empirical findings that emphasise the importance of thinking about security provision.</p>
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