Governing Cyber Espionage Threats via the Integration of the Risk Society-Cyber Securitisation Theory

In the last decade, virtual attacks in the form of cyber espionage has become more and more rampant. The commission of such crime is through state and non-state backed actors against government websites, public and private networks, individuals and also economic giants. Cyber espionage is seen as a developing crime due to the unlimited connectivity of these cybercriminals to cyberspace which translates it as a visible threat to national security. The risk of cyber espionage is more prevalent and viable as the cyberspace environment facilitates anonymity. The predominant theories adopted to understand cyber espionage is the Risk Society Theory (RST) and the Cyber-Securitisation Theory (CST). However, on their own, these two theories are deficient in that RST relies on the risks and insecurities that come with modernisation, and CST only focuses on the transformation of a domain into a matter of national security. Given these problems, this paper aims at examining each model and expanding and integrating the RST and CST, which would mitigate the understanding of cyber espionage and modalities to prevent such crime. This paper employs a qualitative methodology, with primary data derived from semi-structured interviews with appropriate respondents. The data is triangulated using specialists from two different ministries. Secondary data sources include applicable cyber law, the Penal Code, books, academic publications, online databases, and library-based sources. The findings suggest that focusing on securitisation alone will not be effective in governing such crime, instead, understanding the risks and how to manage and mitigate such risks would be more effective. The integration of both theories would be significant to stakeholders especially government entities that focused on cybersecurity and also endorses the concept of individual responsibility for corporate entities and computer users in protecting themselves against such crime.