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Paper short abstract

In this paper, I draw on Serres’ concept of the ‘parasite’ to examine cyber insurance as a technology designed to tame the vulnerabilities of digital infrastructure. The analysis is based on interviews with cyber security specialists, insurers, and cyber-insurance brokers.

Paper long abstract

Michel Serres develops, in The Parasite (1982), a conceptualisation of communication that emphasises what occurs in between the communicating partners. He names this in-between element the ‘parasite’. Notwithstanding the negative connotations the term carries in English, for Serres it is more ambivalent: while it denotes the impossiblity of closing communication loops, it also highlights the transformative work performed by what comes in between. In this paper, I draw on Serres’ ideas to examine cyber insurance as a technology designed to tame the vulnerabilities of digital infrastructure. The analysis is based on interviews with cyber security specialists, insurers, and cyber-insurance brokers.

The great promise of digitalisation has been its capacity to intervene in tasks previously carried out by analogue means and render theme more efficient. Communications, industrial processes, and the public sphere have all been transformed, and a multifaceted dependence on digital infrastructure has become an unnoticed part of everyday life. However, glitches and stoppages every now and then disrupt this sense of taken-for-grantedness. These interruptions may be caused by bugs, unintended mistakes, or criminals who exploit the vulnerabilities of datafied communication channels. The insurance industry, for its part, has positioned itself as a mediator that can come in between and provide protection against such vulnerabilities that, from the industry’s perspective, constitute a business opportunity. Yet insurers themselves are not immune to threat; as risks continue to change, the insurance industry continues to be challenged by the difficulty of containing the ever-developing parasitic vulnerabilities of digital infrastructure.