STS 6031 - [Cyber Conflict and Trust]

(CU-CEL, CU-SBY)

Fall. Not offered 2017-2018. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

R. Slayton.

Hacktivism, cyber-crime, cyber-espionage, and cyber-war have become worrisome for individuals, corporations, and nation-states. This course analyses cyber conflict as technopolitics, showing how the specific affordances of information technology shape political possibilities, and how politics in turn shape the evolution of information technology. It is a reading, discussion, and writing-intensive course is designed for graduate students in any field of study who wish to gain a better understanding of the interactions between social, political and technical dimensions of cyberspace. Subjects include the origins of hacker culture and computer security expertise; the rise of public concerns over computer security and privacy; critical infrastructure’s growing dependence on information technology; market failures in computer security; and government policies aimed at correcting those failures.