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ABSTRACT
Based on one specially created corpus of U.S. cybersecurity-related laws, this study employs the corpus approach to examine the referent objects and securitizing actors in U.S. cybersecurity legislative discourse, which are two critical issues in constructing security, including cybersecurity. Through corpus data analysis, it is found that unlike traditional security, cybersecurity has become more people-oriented in terms of referent objects with critical infrastructure as a key referent object. Additionally, the role of private sectors and cooperative security are highlighted in U.S. cybersecurity legislative discourse. From a sociosemiotic perspective, it is noted that the meaning-making process of U.S. cybersecurity not only is conveyed by the texts but also interacts with other sign systems, such as historical background, cyberspace as a virtual realm and social contexts, which suggests that the specific meanings of signs constructing cybersecurity and cybersecurity itself should be interpreted in specific temporal or spatial contexts. Furthermore, a sociosemiotic approach to U.S. cybersecurity legislative discourse also offers valuable insights to how signs and concepts in cybersecurity contribute to sketching a holistic landscape of cybersecurity and further security on a large scale.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Le Cheng, Wei Shaoxiang Chair Professor, is a concurrent professor at School of International Studies and Guanghua Law School at Zhejiang University. He is currently Associate Dean of School of International Studies, Director of Institute of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Director of Center for Legal Discourse and Translation and Director of Center for Contemporary Chinese Discourse Studies at Zhejiang University. Additionally, he is the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Legal Discourse and Acting President of Multicultural Association of Law and Language. His main research interests include semiotics, language and law, terminology, and discourse studies.
Jiamin Pei is Research Fellow in the Center for Contemporary Chinese Discourse Studies, School of International Studies, Zhejiang University. Her research fields include legal discourse, (socio-) semiotics, corpus linguistics and cyber law.
Marcel Danesi is Professor in the Anthropology Department at University of Toronto, and Editor-in-Chief of Semiotica. His main research interests are linguistic anthropology, semiotics and youth culture.
Notes
1 Congressional Research Service Report: Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Overview of Major Issues, Current Laws, and Proposed Legislation, by Fischer, Eric A., pp. 1, available at https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R42114.pdf (Accessed September 1 2018).
2 Report on Securing and Growing the Digital Economy, released by a Presidential Commission, Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, on 1 December 2016, available at https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2016/12/02/cybersecurity-commission-report-final-post.pdf (Accessed September 1 2018).
3 “Laws” here are interpreted broadly including federal statutory laws and executive orders having the force of law.
4 Report on Securing and Growing the Digital Economy, released by U.S. Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity on 1 December 2016. https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2016/12/02/cybersecurity-commission-report-final-post.pdf (Accessed 1 September 2018).
5 Since the official report (Report on Securing and Growing the Digital Economy) doesn’t embrace the laws issued from 2016 till date. In order to have a more comprehensive overview, the keyword search was conducted with “cybersecurity” as the search term at the official website of the U.S. Congress in order to identify the cybersecurity-related laws.
6 Corpus of Contemporary American English corpus sample, available at https://www.corpusdata.org/formats.asp (Accessed 9 September 2018).
7 Similarly, function words and genre-specific categories of words were also excluded in other result lists of this study.
8 National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, available at https://www.us-cert.gov/sites/default/files/publications/cyberspace_strategy.pdf (Accessed 1 September 2018).
9 For more information, please visit https://www.eac.gov/election-officials/elections-critical-infrastructure/ (Accessed 20 September 2018).
10 Section 1702, Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018.
11 The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace in 2013, pp. ix, available at https://www.us-cert.gov/sites/default/files/publications/cyberspace_strategy.pdf (Accessed 1 September 2018).
12 Implementing 9/11 Commission Recommendations, Progress Report 2011, released by U.S. Department of Homeland Security, available at https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/implementing-9-11-commission-report-progress-2011.pdf (Accessed 10 November 2018).
13 For more information, please visit http://www.cica-china.org/eng/zxghd/yxdscfh/t1170126.htm (Accessed 13 November 2018).