Cy­ber Se­cur­ity, Reg­u­la­tion, and Policy in Di­git­al Busi­ness

Fagets indhold

Tech policy is no longer niche topic but the key area where the future of digital business and increasingly the future of geopolitics is being decided as we watch. Today’s business leaders need to understand the emergent security, regulatory and policy environments to guide their companies to prosperity in the middle of rapid change. Every business leader needs to understand current politics around platform regulation, Cloud providers and AI regulation. They also need to understand the cyber threats facing their business and ensure that cyber risks are managed professionally. This course is designed to ensure that every graduate of the masters degree has this vital knowledge.

The first part of the course will equip students with the knowledge and tools to analyze the most important political debates about the regulation of tech companies, from gatekeeper rules for the largest platforms to rules about managing high risk AI models that apply to the smallest companies running them. How can Europe ensure its digital sovereignty in business cloud computing, and should be buy it as a premium service from US Big Tech companies? How are the US, the EU and China going about regulating AI, and what approach is the most sensible?

The second part of the course will introduce students to the concepts and tools necessary to understand and assess the cybersecurity risks faced by companies, as well as to the security controls and procedures available to manage this risk. Students will learn how cyber risks are managed professionally, who is affected by the new NIS 2 Directive and why its implementation can be so challenging, and why supply chain cybersecurity is fast becoming a priority in the field.

The final two classes combine both strands by looking at the political side of cybersecurity and its geopolitical implications. One class studies the cyberwar in Ukraine, for example its use of western volunteers in Ukraine’s IT army, the Russian approach to hybrid warfare or the platformization of warfighting as shown in Ukraine’s new Delta platform. The final class will study the geopolitical aspects of a cybersecurity landscape caught between Big Tech’s dominance, the battle between liberal and authoritarian states in UN Cyber norms making and the EU’s attempt to establish a tech environment that is both digitally sovereign and secure.

In this way, the course provides the students with practice-oriented insights while offering reflections on current and future developments in the context of digital business cyber security, regulation, and policy, and the ways in which they will affect tech companies from the smallest to the largest.