Scientific principles such as relativism, objectivity, parsimony, empiricism, ethical neutrality, and determinism are all related to cybersecurity. Cybersecurity and scientific principles rely on human behavior and characteristics to determine the cause and fix a problem.
Relativism
Relativism is how all things are connected to one another. Cybersecurity is a growing industry as more devices are connected to the internet. Any IoT device is vulnerable to attack from outside and insider threats. In return, this affects people’s lives. Vulnerable devices can lead to identity theft, money laundering, or fraud. As technology continues to grow, people rely more on its everyday use. Cybersecurity will grow as technology grows exponentially.
Objectivity
Objectivity refers to the way scientists study topics in a value-free manner. This means that internal factors should not affect a person’s judgement. Internal factors can include emotions and prior beliefs that are not backed by academic research or facts. Objectivity states decisions should be made on the object or objective itself and nothing else. For example, a teenager could hack into a company’s web server. The company should treat this as a serious incident even if the offender is a minor. The company should focus on the objective of preventing future security incidents from happening.
Parsimony
Parsimony means to keep levels of explanation simple for miscommunication and for the concept to be easily understood. A level of simplicity allows for further research to be done and to determine further causes of an event. For example, there could be a buffer overflow attack on a login form on a website. After the bug is found, it can be written down in simple terms for people that are not as technologically inclined, head of the department, or the CEO of a company. This helps get the point across to others without making it too complicated.
Empiricism
Empiricism means scientists make observations based on the human senses: touch, smell, taste, hearing, or seeing. For example, a hacker might have bad operational security and get caught by leaving traces on a server. Based on the evidence gathered, the prosecutors can see what files the hacker touched or saw. However, the prosecutors will not know why the hacker decided to hack the server as thought and motivation are not apart of the human senses.
Ethical Neutrality
Ethical neutrality means that scientists must adhere to ethical standards when they conduct their research. This includes protecting the rights of an individual. Through the cybersecurity and cybercrime lens, this can lead to implications for the individual online. Some questions are does limiting internet access to certain communities reduce cybercrime, should the police use digital technologies that track human behavior, or can professors monitor students’ online coursework to make sure they are actually doing their work? All of these propose ethical implications of privacy and the right to free speech.
Determinism
Determinism as a principle of science means that behavior is caused, determined, or influenced by preceding events. For example, if a server has a protocol such as ssh open and there are no security measures in place, then hackers will eventually find the exposed port and attack the unsecured port. Determinism can also answer questions such as why individuals commit internet fraud. There could be preceding events such as economic status and wealth that can influence whether a person engages in illegal online activity.
