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First broad and systematic horizon scanning campaign and study to detect societal and ethical dilemmas and emerging issues spanning over cybersecurity solutions

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Abstract

Cybersecurity and cybercrime cannot exist without each other. They are not contraries, but rather two opposite poles of the same idea. Although it may seem that it is a rather black and white kind of relationship, the measures aimed at protecting innocent people raise a myriad of ethical dilemmas. This paper presents the results of a horizon scanning study aimed at identifying the ethical and human rights dilemmas that may arise in relation to cybersecurity and cybercrime; in the paper, the identified “weak signals” have been presented, that is, the ideas or concerns which are less obvious, not widely researched or present in the media. The cybersecurity-related ethical issues arise as part of the relations between the affected people and other entities; thus, in this paper, the identified dilemmas have been organized according to the nature of the relations.

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Funding

This work has been performed under the H2020 833115 project PREVISION, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme.

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Correspondence to Aleksandra Pawlicka.

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Pawlicka, A., Choraś, M., Kozik, R. et al. First broad and systematic horizon scanning campaign and study to detect societal and ethical dilemmas and emerging issues spanning over cybersecurity solutions. Pers Ubiquit Comput 27, 193–202 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01510-3

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