Cybersecurity is often discussed in technical terms: protecting data from breaches or ensuring networks remain stable. But this focus fails to capture the lived realities of digital harms. What does it mean for people themselves to be secure in the digital context? A new book places the human experience at the centre of cybersecurity.
Although cybersecurity is a powerful concept that draws political, legal, and financial attention, there is still no single accepted definition. Traditionally, the field has focused on protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data, often in the context of national security or corporate risk management. As a result, many of the individual and collective ways that humans experience harm in the digital environment remain overlooked or under-researched.
The Security of Self: A Human-Centric Approach to Cybersecurity contends that cybersecurity is in need of a new understanding to enable societies and individuals to thrive in a digital context. Exploring how law, policy, technology, and human behaviour intersect to shape the future of cybersecurity, the bookredefines what it means to be secure in the digital context.
Dr. Florian Martin-Bariteau and Dr. Emily Laidlaw invite policymakers and researchers to move beyond definitional debates to explore how human factors shape cybersecurity experiences. Rather than solely examining the concept through the traditional lens of national security and organizational risks, the authors explore a new human-centric approach to cybersecurity: the “security of self.”
The peer reviewed collection argues that the human-centric “security of self” approach provides a crucial lens for rethinking rights and responsibilities in law, policy, and governance. This perspective shifts the conversation from infrastructure or organizational protection to understanding human thinking, behaviour, and lived experience.
With a distinct Canadian focus and case studies spanning the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and social media, The Security of Self charts a path forward for cybersecurity, grounded in law, policy, and practices that advance the security of self. It will be a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, regulators, and individuals seeking to understand and shape the future of human-centric cybersecurity.
“Cybersecurity is a powerful term that needs a new understanding to empower our societies—and ourselves—to thrive in the digital context. […] The Security of Self is a manifesto for a holistic and collaborative approach to cybersecurity.”
Emily B. Laidlaw and Florian Martin-Bariteau
Dr. Emily Laidlaw is the Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity Law and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary, and an Associate member of the University of Ottawa Centre for Law, Technology and Society. Dr. Florian Martin-Bariteau is the University Research Chair in Technology and Society and the Director of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa, where he is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section.
The collection features contributions from other members from the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, including professors Teresa Scassa, Jane Bailey, Jacquelyn Burkell, Kristen Thomasen, alongside other leading Canadian researchers including Amarnath Amarasingam, Matthew Bush, Pascale-Marie Cantin, Benoît Dupont, Sébastien Gambs, Nick Gertler, Akim Laniel-Lanani, Jordan Loewen-Colón, Atefeh Mashatan, Fenwick McKelvey, Alex Megelas, Adam Molnar, Sharday Mosurinjohn, Jonathon W. Penney, Fyscillia Ream, Chris Tenove, and Heidi Tworek.
This collection is one of the flagship outputs of the Human-Centric Cybersecurity Partnership, a research initiative supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, leveraging a transdisciplinary group of academic, government, industry and not-for-profit partners to generate research and mobilize knowledge that will help create a safer, more secure, more democratic and more inclusive digital society.
The collection is available in print, but also in open access thanks to the support provided by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity Law and the University of Ottawa Research Chair in Technology and Society.
Discover the details of the collection.
The book is available to order in paperback and hardcover version with the University of Ottawa Press.