Security

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Last Sourced: 2021-02-01
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Security

Security is freedom from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive change) caused by others. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems or any other entity or phenomenon vulnerable to unwanted change.

Security mostly refers to protection from hostile forces, but it has a wide range of other senses: for example, as the absence of harm (e.g. freedom from want); as the presence of an essential good (e.g. food security); as resilience against potential damage or harm (e.g. secure foundations); as secrecy (e.g. a secure telephone line); as containment (e.g. a secure room or cell); and as a state of mind (e.g. emotional security).

The term is also used to refer to acts and systems whose purpose may be to provide security (e.g.: security companies, security forces, security guard, cyber security systems, security cameras, remote guarding).

Security is not only physical but it can also be Virtual.

Etymology

The word ‘secure’ entered the English language in the 16th century. It is derived from Latin securus, meaning freedom from anxiety: se (without) + cura (care, anxiety).

Overview

A security referent is the focus of a security policy or discourse; for example, a referent may be a potential beneficiary (or victim) of a security policy or system.

Security referents may be persons or social groups, objects, institutions, ecosystems, or any other phenomenon vulnerable to unwanted change by the forces of its environment. The referent in question may combine many referents, in the same way that, for example, a nation state is composed of many individual citizens.

The security context is the relationships between a security referent and its environment. From this perspective, security and insecurity depend first on whether the environment is beneficial or hostile to the referent, and also how capable is the referent of responding to its/their environment in order to survive and thrive.

The means by which a referent provides for security (or is provided for) vary widely. They include, for example:

Any action intended to provide security may have multiple effects. For example, an action may have wide benefit, enhancing security for several or all security referents in the context; alternatively, the action may be effective only temporarily, or benefit one referent at the expense of another, or be entirely ineffective or counterproductive.

Approaches to security are contested and the subject of debate. For example, in debate about national security strategies, some argue that security depends principally on developing protective and coercive capabilities in order to protect the security referent in a hostile environment (and potentially to project that power into its environment, and dominate it to the point of strategic supremacy). Others argue that security depends principally on building the conditions in which equitable relationships can develop, partly by reducing antagonism between actors, ensuring that fundamental needs can be met, and also that differences of interest can be negotiated effectively.

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Perceptions of security

Since it is not possible to know with precision the extent to which something is ‘secure’ (and a measure of vulnerability is unavoidable), perceptions of security vary, often greatly. For example, a fear of death by earthquake is common in the United States (US), but slipping on the bathroom floor kills more people; and in France, the United Kingdom and the US there are far fewer deaths caused by terrorism than there are women killed by their partners in the home.

Another problem of perception is the common assumption that the mere presence of a security system (such as armed forces, or antivirus software) implies security. For example, two computer security programs installed on the same device can prevent each other from working properly, while the user assumes that he or she benefits from twice the protection that only one program would afford.

Security theater is a critical term for measures that change perceptions of security without necessarily affecting security itself. For example, visual signs of security protections, such as a home that advertises its alarm system, may deter an intruder, whether or not the system functions properly. Similarly, the increased presence of military personnel on the streets of a city after a terrorist attack may help to reassure the public, whether or not it diminishes the risk of further attacks.

Further Reading

• Venture capital finance: A security design approach – academic.oup.com [PDF]
• Security markets versus bank finance: legal enforcement and investors' protection – onlinelibrary.wiley.com [PDF]
• The global governance of security and finance: Introduction to the special issue – journals.sagepub.com [PDF]
• Sovereign wealth funds and the (in) security of global finance – www.jstor.org [PDF]
• Pension funds: retirement-income security and capital markets: an international perspective – ideas.repec.org [PDF]
• How different is Japanese corporate finance? An investigation of the information content of new security issues – academic.oup.com [PDF]
• The law of secured finance: an international survey of security interests over personal property – ideas.repec.org [PDF]
• Dynamic security design and corporate financing – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]