Bryce L. Cooper
Old Dominion University
CYSE 201S: Cybersecurity as a Social Science
Dr. Trinity Woodbury
4th October 2026

With the creation of new technologies come with the risk of threat actors utilizing said technologies for any specific reason. To combat those threats, cybersecurity analysts, a career within the field of cybersecurity, are responsible for monitoring pivotal systems, investigating threats, and helping organizations protect information against malicious threat actors. Social science research, specifically psychology, can help analyst professionals understand why individuals behave differently when faced with cybersecurity risks. Through the social concepts of psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, and personality theories, cybersecurity analyst professionals can understand security-related behavior while considering cybersecurity effects on marginalized groups and society.

While cybersecurity can protect systems from individuals attempting to gain unauthorized access, it is important to recognize that these cyber occurrences are not exclusively technical. According to Schaltegger (2025), “individual risk perception and behavior are important, as individual actions in digital environments can have large negative outcomes” (p. 3). For example, an employee is working for an important company and receives an email that at first glance is credible. However, they were deceived by that phishing email, and now a threat actor has gained unauthorized access to the company’s systems. A cybersecurity analyst in this instance could identify the phishing technically, but preventing future phishing attacks would require understanding of why individuals are deceived by them to begin with.

Cybersecurity analysts apply many of the concepts we have discussed in class. For instance, psychodynamic theory, developed by Sigmund Freud, suggests that unconscious incentives, emotions, or prior experiences could influence an individual’s behavior. Analysts could utilize such information to identify why an employee reacts emotionally to an urgent message or an authoritative figure within a phishing email. Moreover, cognitive theories focus on how individuals process information, interpret situations, and make pivotal decisions which cybersecurity analysts utilize to understand why individuals may incorrectly interpret a phishing attempt as a credible email. Additionally, behavioral theories propose that behavior is influenced by environmental factors. This is further supported by personality theories, where scientists explore how personal psychological traits contribute to individual behaviors. Cybersecurity analysts can utilize both theories together to identify why employees respond differently to threats, security policies, and workplace expectations, as one security-awareness strategy won’t necessarily be suitable for everyone.

Marginalized groups, specifically racial ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ communities that have limited digital literacy, digital access, and socioeconomic barriers, have an inherent risk of attracting threat actors who are seeking to exploit those vulnerabilities for momentary benefit or to disrupt the existing cultural and traditionally established resources (Nguyen 2024). For those reasons, cybersecurity analysts must consider how security policies affect diverse populations as assuming ever user has the same resources, knowledge, and experiences could lead to unintentional mistakes when identifying and implementing cybersecurity tactics. This is further exemplified with the introduction of artificial intelligence, where the vulnerability landscape for hackers has increased exponentially, resulting in pivotal vulnerabilities with heightened repercussions when relating to security breaches (Vulpe et al., 2024). To put simply, when technologies change, they introduce cybersecurity risks, and societal habits can result in new and complex security types, with new laws and social expectations influencing how organizations protect their data. Cybersecurity analysts take these implications seriously, as protecting personal information is a fundamental aspect of their professional responsibilities. Moreover, both cybersecurity and responsible analysts can affect healthcare individuals, businesses, and government officials. However, if those practices fail, the result of societal backlash could be detrimental, as people’s privacy and trust in technology could determine how these procedures are implemented in the future.

In conclusion, cybersecurity analysts need both technical knowledge and an understanding of the people who use said technologies. Each of the psychological theories provides analysts with different ways of understanding human behavior and how it interacts with technology. Although, analysts must consider marginalized communities and society as a whole, meaning that effective cybersecurity implementation involves both protecting pivotal systems and the individuals who utilize them on a daily basis.

References:

Nguyen, C. D. (2024). Digital cultural heritage in the crossfire of conflict: cyber threats and cybersecurity perspectives. Insights the UKSG Journal, 37, 7–7. https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.647 ACCESSED: 27th SEPTEMBER 2026

Schaltegger, T., Ambuehl, B., Bosshart, N., Bearth, A., & Ebert, N. (2025). Human behavior in cybersecurity: an opportunity for risk research. Journal of Risk Research, 28(8), 843–854. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2025.2539109 ACCESSED: 28th SEPTEMBER 2026

Vulpe, S.-N., Rughiniș, R., Țurcanu, D., & Rosner, D. (2024). AI and cybersecurity: a risk society perspective. Frontiers in Computer Science (Lausanne), 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2024.1462250 ACCESSED: 1st OCTOBER 2026