In cyber-security, social science is an aspect that is involved in most if not all cyber-security careers. Cyber-Security deals with figuring out where vulnerabilities are or threats and getting rid of them through many different means. For this paper I chose the job of Security Administrator. Security Administrators deal a lot with Social Science due to being a leader of a cyber-security team overlooking an entire network rather than having one or two tasks by being a leader and the main bridge between other aspects of a company.
To start out a security administrator is usually defined as the leader of a cyber-security team (Sherwood). This is very similar to a management role at any type of company who looks over its employees but a bit more specific. This means they have the abilities of most of the people under them as well as some leadership qualities as well. Cyber Security divisions can be very important for a lot of companies and society. Things like schools all have cyber divisions and require routine maintenance to make sure their systems are always up and running and with this comes a Security Administrator. Security Administrators are found at any company that involves a network of computers and may have multiple people in the same position depending on how big the company (Sherwood). These responsibilities can be defending systems from outside access, monitoring traffic in the network, and developing certain protocols to help prevent a security breach (Sherwood). A big part of social science in this position and one of its responsibilities is training its employees (Sherwood). It is the security administrators’ job to keep their employees up to date on training. This is also known as psychology awareness about Cyber-Security. Although the employees know that the purpose of their job is to prevent attacks, technology is continuing to evolve, and threats can go right under people’s noses. Something that an administrator can do to help its workers and people he interacts with is general deterrence. In a legal sense general deterrence is defined as punishment on the general public (Stafford and Warr). In a job such as this one it is good to make it clear to individuals involved with the company or in the company of certain cyber-threats.
When looking at cyber security in general a lot of the time workers will have to interact with people outside of the field. More often than not the Security Administrator takes on this responsibility (Sherwood). In an article interview on Larry Sobers who is a leader in a security department in information security, he describes on how he hires individuals (CISOMAG). He stated that his philosophy is looking for people with better communications skills rather than their experience (CISOMAG). This is a great showcasing of psychology and social science being important in a job that is more information overload based. When working in cyber-security against threats from hackers and various malware a big thing is to try and think like the hacker. Everyone has a motive in doing something whether it is meaningful or not. As a security administrator you are the leader of the group that interacts with these threats. Teaching the team things like behaviors of these criminals can be very crucial to helping prevent more attacks. Cyber threats and attacks are not something that randomly happens they are pre-meditated and take strategy. This is why it is important to not only know the cyber aspect of a threat but also the mental and psychological as well. In an article by Jennifer Sherwood, she interviews Rebecca McKeown, a psychologist, on how psychology in cyber-security can improve incident response along with some other things (Donegan). She goes into how important cognitive readiness is and especially in a crisis situation (Donegan). In a security administrator job, it is extremely important to be calm and collected. Being in panic mode not only slows down solving the issue, but it also reflects on the people who you are in charge of. Cognitive readiness should be applied to most jobs but especially in ones that require urgency and leadership. She states that is important to not introduce any type of bias in a crisis situation and learn how to understand things efficiently (Donegan). Security Administrators who do this correctly can properly train the people under them.
Security Administrator is a job that uses a lot of social science principles due to its leadership qualities. They are responsible for a group of people that work against threats from other users. Instilling proper social science principles can create a very efficient job environment with not too many issues regarding communication.
Works Cited
CISOMAG. “Few Minutes with Larry Sobers.” cisomag.eccouncil 10 July 2018.
Donegan, Katie. “The case for applying psychology in cybersecurity training .” TechTarget January 2021.
Sherwood, Jennifer. “Your Next Move: Security Administrator.” CompTIA 7 May 2018.
Stafford, M C and M Warr. “Reconceptualization of General and Specific Deterrence.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency (1993): 123-135.