Securing Repair: Examining Cybersecurity's Influence on the Right to Repair

ABSTRACT Cybersecurity is a perennial concern for technology companies, consumers, and policymakers. Recently it has become a lever of opposition against the Right to Repair movement as companies and industry groups position security and reparability as antagonistic, even incompatible, interests. This paper pushes back on those claims. We use critical discourse analysis to explore two contemporary controversies at the intersection of security and repair: (1) the U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's statements concerning automotive repair in Massachusetts and (2) the memorandum of understanding between John Deere and the American Farm Bureau Federation concerning agricultural equipment repair. We find that security concerns are raised as featureless specters of harm rarely supported by concrete or compelling evidence that reparability risks security. Rather, these arguments reflect a rhetorical strategy aimed at thwarting the repair activities of consumers and independent technicians, shifting ongoing policy debates, and influencing public sentiment around the right to repair.