ADVANCE GUARD

AS PRIVATE CYBERSECURITY ORGANISATIONS’ ROLES IN POLICING THE CYBER SPACE GROW, IS THERE A NEED FOR INCREASED REGULATORY CONTROL FOR THIS SECTOR? DANIEL BARDSLEY INVESTIGATES.

- DANIEL BARDSLEY

A few decades ago, researchers talked of a “quiet revolution” brought about by the growth of the private security industry.

Where once only the police held sway, in the brave new world of the 1970s and 1980s, a parallel private security sector developed.

Nightclubs, industrial facilities and other premises were being guarded by private operators who would sometimes use physical force against those who they felt had breached the rules.

While the quiet revolution term originated in North America, a similar phenomenon was seen in many other regions.

In response, governments and local authorities began regulating the private security sector, keen to ensure that it operated within reasonable parameters.

Now, a researcher has described the development of the private cybersecurity industry as being a “second quiet revolution” and has asked if regulations are needed to govern it too.

In a paper published this year in the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Professor Mark Button, of the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, notes that this sector is fast eclipsing the physical private security industry in revenue and scale.

Button, whose paper is entitled, The “New” Private Security Industry, the Private Policing of Cyberspace and the Regulatory Questions, suggests that there has been little debate among researchers about the implications of the sector’s growth or of the policies needed to govern the new landscape.

“Most of the issues, the questions that arise with physical security, also arise in the cyber world. There are some areas where I would be very surprised if there isn’t need for some kind of regulation,” says Button.