A Feminist Critique of Cybersecurity: Technofeminist Imaginaries of Vulnerability and Care

The internet, in its commercialised and increasingly centralised form, is not safe, particularly for women and non-binary and trans people affected by intersectional patterns of discrimination and oppression. In this article, we investigate how cybersecurity can mitigate or contribute to gendered experiences of insecurity. As a field of practices, discourses and tools, cybersecurity is currently dominated by narrow conceptualisations of security as ‘freedom from threat’. Instead of framing matters of security solely through a lens of individual protection, we argue for a paradigm shift in the academic and political discourse of cybersecurity following differential and power-sensitive approaches. Based on a technofeminist analysis and different modes of critique confronting gendered cyber-insecurities, we draft the outlines of technoimaginaries based on feminist notions of vulnerability and care. The concept of digital care allows for a more holistic perspective on issues of security, and stresses the relevance of collective practices that aim towards being safe/r in hybrid offline-online environments.