CYSE 201s
Prof. Yapli
Ahmed Kargbo
Why choose a career in Cybersecurity?
With cybercrime on the rise, cybersecurity is the fastest growing field ranking #4 on Career One Stop. According to cyber expert George Mutune “Cybercrime is projected to cost the world trillions of dollars in the coming years” (Mutune 1). Mutune also goes on to talk about how cybercrimes are headlined in the news everyday. Due to cyberattacks getting worse day by day, cybersecurity has become a very popular job choice and has a wide range of over 50 jobs just from the field of cybersecurity. The cyber field presents you with many opportunities in an effort to combat crime in today’s digital world. You have the power to become a hero and help protect the new world.
Threat Analyst
Technology is a vastly broad field with endless possibilities. The lone category of Cybersecurity alone has over 50 different jobs associated with the security aspect. Specifically I would like to land a career in the Cyber Threat Analyst department. A Cyber Threat analyst is someone who helps protect a company from cyber attacks by looking for, and analyzing potential threats. A Cyber Threat Analyst uses deep critical thinking skills to come up with strategies to mitigate threats. Typically a threat analyst is also tasked with a lot of paperwork, such as filling out and writing reports to provide feedback for an organization.
Relation to Social Science
To understand how a role as a Cyber Threat Analyst relates to Social Science research and principles, we must first firmly define the term Social Science. Social science is the study that covers human society and behavior, all social relationships and interactions, and the ultimate goal of the study is to understand all social occurrences, make predictions and evaluate human behavior and actions. With a brief understanding of social science we can now make connections between threat analysts and social science. As a threat analyst you are required to understand the behavior and motivations of cybercriminals. Understanding specific behaviors and several behavioral patterns can help predict and detect potential threats which can then be countered. Working with a team and analyzing how individuals interact with technology and the cyber world can give insight on several vulnerabilities and how to plan ahead.
Relation to Determinism
The principle of determinism is the idea that all events in the universe are inevitable due to external factors, previous events, and natural laws. Determinism is simply a cause and effect, chain reaction type of principle which allows individuals to predict patterns and events similar to a Cyber Threat Analyst. A threat analyst would take a look at several red-flags, like past cyber-attacks and compare them to current trends to help predict and prevent future threats. By simply analyzing patterns from external factors and previous events, a threat analyst can determine future activity from cybercriminals and plan accordingly.
Relation and Impact on Society
A role as a cyber threat analyst highly relates to society because threat analysts are responsible for protecting society against threats that can affect: daily life, businesses, national security, financial wealth, even medical information. By finding and mitigating potential attacks, threat analysts guarantee that our personal information remains secured and our digital framework operates smoothly. Similarly when discussing the impact a cyber threat analyst has on our society, all the basics remain the same. The work of threat analysts prevents the loss of information, data breaches, identity theft, securing network communications and transactions with encryption. A huge impact cyber threat analysts have on our society is protecting our critical infrastructure.
Relation to Marginalized Groups
Many marginalized groups face high rates of cyberbullying. Marginalized groups face unique forms of cyberbullying such as: targeted harassment, doxing, identity theft etc. Cyber threat analysts are typically responsible for identifying and mitigating these risky threats. Threat analysts protect vulnerable populations from digital harm to promote a more safe and comprehensive digital environment for everyone.
Conclusion
With society moving toward a tech driven world cybercrime is on the rise and these cybercrimes occur daily. Cybersecurity is a thriving job market and is growing rapidly. Globally the cybersecurity market ranged at $222.66B last year (2023) and is approximately estimated to reach over 2 trillion dollars in coming years which is a 12% percent growth. Cybercrime rates are rising daily with about $10.5 trillion expected to be lost by the year 2025 which is only a few months away. The world of cybersecurity has a lot of opportunities but it is best to find a niche and specialize in it because nowadays just about every aspect of our daily life has implemented security. Regardless of your specific discipline you’ll always be required to implement and study human behavior in your work, because at the end of the day cybersecurity is all about humans using machines to fight humans.
Cites
Mutune, George. “The Quick and Dirty History of Cybersecurity.” CyberExperts.Com, 31 Dec. 2021, cyberexperts.com/history-of-cybersecurity/.
“What Is Cybersecurity?” Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA, 24 Jan. 2024, www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/what-cybersecurity.
EC-Council. “What Is Cyber Threat Intelligence: Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst: Types of Threat Intelligence: EC-Council.” Cybersecurity Exchange, 14 Aug. 2024, www.eccouncil.org/cybersecurity-exchange/threat-intelligence/what-is-cyber-threat-intelligence/#:~:text=Cyber%20intelligence%20analysts%2C%20also%20known,share%20with%20the%20respective%20department.
Morgan, Steve. “Cybercrime to Cost the World $10.5 Trillion Annually by 2025.” Cybercrime Magazine, 27 Apr. 2021, cybersecurityventures.com/hackerpocalypse-cybercrime-report-2016/ .
“Cyber Security Market Size, Share & Trends Report, 2030.” Cyber Security Market Size, Share & Trends Report, 2030, www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cyber-security-market#:~:text=Cyber%20Security%20Market%20Size%20%26%20Trends,12.3%25%20from%202023%20to%202030 .