Cyber or Cybernetic Security as a Naming Problem and the Referential Gap in the Ontology of Security

The adoption of the Cybernetic Security Act in the Republic of Croatia has sparked debate over the appropriateness of its title and its relation to the concepts of cybersecurity, information security, and information and communication technology (ICT) security. Critics maintain that cybernetic security is not an unambiguous translation of cybersecurity and does not follow the established international referential framework. This paper argues that the issue extends beyond translation and reflects a deeper mismatch between naming and the ontological framework within which security is conceptualized. Drawing on legislative definitions and Kripke’s theory of rigid designators, it contends that cybersecurity functions internationally as a stable designator, whereas cybernetic security does not inherit the same referential chain. Within the cybernetic paradigm and Norbert Wiener’s systems theory, however, cybernetic security acquires a broader meaning as the security of sociotechnical systems of control and communication. The justification of the Act’s title thus depends on the ontological framework adopted.