Security

Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems, or any other entity or phenomenon vulnerable to unwanted change.

Security referents may be persons or social groups, objects, institutions, ecosystems, or any other phenomenon vulnerable to unwanted change by the forces of its environment.

They include, for example: Any action intended to provide security may have multiple effects.

[5][6][7] Others argue that security depends principally on building the conditions in which equitable relationships can develop, partly by reducing antagonism between actors, ensuring that fundamental needs can be met, and also ensuring that differences of interest can be negotiated effectively.

The field has growing importance due to the increasing reliance on computer systems in most societies.

[10] It concerns the protection of hardware, software, data, people, and also the procedures by which systems are accessed.

The security of ecosystems has attracted greater attention as the impact of ecological damage by humans has grown.

[12] Food security is gaining in importance as the world's population has grown and productive land has diminished through overuse and climate change.

In practice, state governments rely on a wide range of means, including diplomacy, economic power, and military capabilities.

[4][19] For example, a fear of death by earthquake is common in the United States (US), but slipping on the bathroom floor kills more people;[19] and in France, the United Kingdom, and the US, there are far fewer deaths caused by terrorism than there are women killed by their partners in the home.