ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the network of computing systems and databases known as 'cyberspace', also defined in Annex D of the National Plan for Information Systems Protection Version 1.0 as the world of connected computers and the society that surrounds them. It shows that the convergence between the intensification of counter-terrorism policies on the one hand, and the progressive rise of critical infrastructure protection issues on the other, has a deep impact both on the traditional spatio-temporal demarcations that have hitherto prevailed and on the 'art of governing people'. The chapter argues that, as part of a long-term historical trend, the developments in counter-terror-ism in the US accelerate and deepen the process of convergence in which coercive agencies have long been engaged. It also shows that the bureaucratic dimension of the security assemblage, mainly in the application of authoritative texts or claims, is experiencing a reconfiguration of its prerogatives, missions and internal power struggles around the computer networks and the digital trace.
