via Fierce Government IT

Metaphors about cyberspace and cybersecurity have obscured as much as clarified, says a paper by Adriane Lapointe, a National Security Agency official currently a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In a paper published Sept. 9 by CSIS, Lapointe starts by questioning usage of the most prominent cyber metaphor, that of a “cyber ecosystem.” The idea that cyberspace is a complexly interconnected environment with functional interdependencies isn’t without appeal, but when so broadly defined as to include “people, electrons, and everything in between [it] is rather like the category ‘things on earth.'” Lapointe says. “Useful as a label, but not likely to tell us anything very substantive about the relationship between any two members.”

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