Cynthia Yee Ting Ng

Research Interests: critical cyber security, politics of cryptography, controversy analysis, science and technology studies, end-to-end encryption, privacy, digital trust

Supervisors: Dr. Matt SpencerLink opens in a new window and Prof. Noortje MarresLink opens in a new window

Thesis Title: Encryption as Controversy: The Interplay between Security, Technology and Democracy in the Disputes over End-to-End Encryption

Research Topic:

My thesis engages with the ongoing controversy around encryption. This decades-long controversy involves stakeholders from fields of cryptography, intelligence and civil rights, who have contested over the socio-technical as well as policy development of encrypted communications. The encryption controversy is often framed by cyber security researchers as a zero-sum “war” between the so-called technology community and intelligence community, which represents privacy and digital security on one side and public safety and national security on the other. Drawing on controversy analysis in science and technology studies (STS), this thesis moves beyond the “war” framing to provide a dynamic sociological account of the contestations involving encrypted communications. It advances dialogue between security studies and STS by demonstrating how controversy analysis explains the interactions between social actors and technologies in making of (in)security. At a methodological level, it offers an alternative approach to studying the ongoing encryption disputes as a controversy, which values contestations as a driving force of democracy and is attentive to the nuanced relationships among actors. At a theoretical level, the thesis elucidates how securitisation (Aradau, 2010; Buzan et al., 1998; Huysmans, 2006, 2011; Wæver, 1995) in the encryption controversy engages democracy and produces security through technological innovation or its promise. Empirically, my thesis focuses on controversies involving end-to-end encryption between 2018 and 2024 in the UK. I take an object-oriented approach to controversy mapping (Callon et al., 2009; Latour, 2004, 2005a, 2005b; Marres, 2005, 2007), which emphasises the thingness (Heidegger, 1967) of controversial objects in assembling antagonistic but jointly implicated actors for contestations. The thesis centres on three controversial objects: exceptional access, client-side scanning and accredited technology in the Online Safety Act 2023. These cases show that the encryption controversy in this time period features a reformulation of the security problem and solution coupling (Garfinkel, 1967; Neyland & and Milyaeva, 2016). This reformulation is prompted by a rearticulation of social context from challenges in crime investigations to the proliferation of child sexual abuse materials on end-to-end encrypted platforms. Each formulation of the security problem is coupled with a proposed solution grounded in technological innovation, and its reformulation perpetuates the encryption controversy. In essence, this thesis asks: what do ongoing encryption disputes mean for society, as they are reformulated rather resolved. It argues that the encryption controversy enriches democracy by involving the public in contesting the configurations of societal and security challenges.

Background:

I have an interdisciplinary academic background in social science, computer science and technology management. I hold a Master of Arts in Science and Technology Studies from the Technical University of Munich. During my postgraduate studies in Germany, I was a research assistant at the Digital Media Lab, Munich Centre for Technology in Society. Prior to that, I studied technology management and obtained my dual degree in computer science and business management, with a minor in social science, from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

In addition to my academic background, I have worked as a cyber security professional with substantial credentials in the industry:
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP by (ISC)2)
Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA by ISACA)
Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE by ISACA)

Grants:

Chancellor’s International Scholarship by the University of Warwick Doctoral College for 3.5 years of full-time study.

Publications:

Ng, C. (2024). Digital Security Controversy Analysis: A Case Study of the Debate over GCHQ Exceptional Access Proposal. In: Bieker, F., de Conca, S., Gruschka, N., Jensen, M., Schiering, I. (eds) Privacy and Identity Management. Sharing in a Digital World. Privacy and Identity 2023. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 695. Springer, Cham.

Contact

Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL

Email: Cynthia.Ng@warwick.ac.uk