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November 2023

Thinking about the phrase ‘cybersecurity’

Do you ever wonder whether “cyber security” might just be one of the modern world’s most famous examples of an oxymoron? I mean, if you stop to think about it, is it really any different from the jokes people used to make about oxymorons, like when they poked fun at phrases like “military intelligence” or “compassionate conservatism”? I’ll admit it, I’m beginning to wonder if a case might be made for “cyber security”. Maybe that’s why the trend now is to put the two words together. Perhaps turning it into a compound word (“cybersecurity”) is a sneaky bid to throw us off the scent of oxymoronism. You have to acknowledge that if it is, it’s definitely worked. And yet that doesn’t mean it fails to qualify as an oxymoron. Let’s go back to basics, starting with cyber. According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of cyber is: “Relating to, or involving computers or computer networks (such as the internet)”. That seems pretty accurate to me, so I’m not going to argue about it. Similarly, with security which, according to Wikipedia, is ...

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