Trustworthy systems are achieved through a mix of component parts, some technical, some procedural, some informed by economics and others by legal obligations. To create secure, private and trustworthy technology and systems requires an understanding of the relationship between the component parts and an active consideration of how one domain interacts with the other. Technology deployment decisions made without an understanding of how the decisions relate to policy, and policy decisions made without an understanding of the existing assumptions of the security architecture, often yield problematic results.

In the absence of a holistic approach to considering how to embed values in technical systems a range of failure modes appear. Policy makers may not appreciate the dependence of the policy model on a particular feature of a given technological system. Similarly, technologists may not understand the way in which the policy framework disparately supports a value based on seemingly innocuous technological design choices. Given the dependencies between technology, markets and policy, interdisciplinary policy research is essential for the development of meaningful improvements in network and information security.