Technical codes’potentialities in cybersecurity. A contextual approach on the ethics of small digital organizations in France

With the proliferation of malware and phishing attacks, information security has become a major challenge for companies. Organizations of all sizes have had to develop efficient cybersecurity strategies. Part of the literature has explained the growing cyber risks by the human factor such as the mistakes of users. Our aim is to analyze the user’s cybersecurity ethics in their working context. We used the Feenberg’s concepts of technical codes’ potentialities to critically interpret the technical codes of users. We found three technical codes representing a variety of dimensions and combined a diversity of point of view about cybersecurity ethics: interest, values and priorities. These technical codes allow us to uncover alternative representations of user’s ethics and to think critically on the way researchers, practitioners and information security specialists view and imagine the future of information security among small organizations. Our empirical findings are based on a critical qualitative research among small organizations with similar cybersecurity systems in France.