The Connection Between Cybersecurity and Social Science
Shaquile Garces-Phillips
Old Dominion University
CYSE 201 S Cyber Security and Social Science
April 14, 2025

Kevin Mitncik ones said, “Companies spend millions of dollars on firewalls, encryption, and secure access devices, and it’s money wasted; none of these measures address the weakest link in the security chain.” As time continues to go on and on, technology continues to adapt and evolve over time, and that is one of the reasons why I believe that cybersecurity analyst plays a crucial role in safe guarding our sensitive data, critical infrastructure, and our confidentiality. Although individuals of view this career about technology, it can also be lined to social science and research. As looking forward to working in the career field as a cyber security analyst I have learned that they need to understand how individuals think, how society works, what is the correct way and wrong way to go about  preventing a threat, construct a resilient defense and have safe digital atmosphere. This paper will discuss how social science research supports a career as a  cyber security analyst, connect academic lesson to real world complications, highlight how this career is connected to challenges faced by marginalized communities and explain how this career has an impact on our daily lives.

A cyber security analyst job is defined as planning and carrying out security measures to protect an organization’s computer networks and systems (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024)

In order for Cyber Security analysts to accomplish their job efficiently, they rely greatly on social science research. One of the know facts about cyber security is  that us humans are one of the weakest links in the security chain. The reason being is because that several breaches was not due to technical failure but due to us human making mistakes, not paying attention or being manipulated. We have learned in this course that social science field of study focus on studies such as such as Anthropology, Criminology, economics, geography, political science, psychology, and sociology which help us understand why people act the way they do online and how they would react to risks and authority figures (Bhattacherjee). For instance, behavioral psychologist assist specialist understand why people make certain decisions while being stressed or in a new digital setting. With this information it allows analyst to create a stronger training regimen to help reduce risky actions.

During this academic semester we have learned that our course material aligns with cyber security analysts. Focus points such as human factors in cyber security and principles of science  such as empiricism, determinism, parsimony and objectively. These focal points play a crucial role in cybersecurity analyst because it shows how to collect information, examine threats and make evidence-based decisions. This For instance empiricism relates to the use of evidence needed to make an educated decision. Cyber security analyst is not able to just guess they must study logs and system behavior so that they can have comprehend why it happen. In addition, parsimony means the simplest explanation. Cyber security analyst likes basic explanation to solve a problem instead of following a difficult one lastly during their investigation they are not able to be biased during their analysis, instead they go with the fact to make a sound decision. 

Further cyber security analyst also has an impact of different communities, in which is way they should consider how these different groups will be affected by their software and polices. For instance, if a biased program is crafter and utilized for scams or investigation, it can influence minorities or those that live in a low in come area. In addition, those who are in low-income areas are limited to the number of resources they have, in which makes them easier targets for cyber threats such as identity theft and social engineered attack . In order to help situations like this, cyber security analyst can help by assistant with equal security rules,  creating a software and program that also treats everyone equally, and develop a clear and simple education program. 

In addition, a career as cyber security analyst does more than just keeping a computer safe, they have an impact on the entire word, by keeping everyone safe and secure. In the world we live in today, a lot of information is store digitally such as, government documents, classified data, financial record, health care records etc…. It has been reported that e 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created each day (Marr, 2023). With that being said our digital assets are more important than ever. For instance, by protecting our health care records from Ransome ware attack, it helps society trust keeping our information stored digitally 

TO conclude this paper. A career as a cyber security analyst  has shown that it is not just sitting behind a desk writing codes and preventing cyber-attacks, they also have an impact on our daily lives by connecting society with technology. Analysts can safeguard both data, sensitive date, and the individual that it belongs to  by utilizing social science knowledge and social science principle. In addition, they can addressee the impact of different communities by demonstrating the importance between the connections of both social responsibility and digital technology. 

Work Cited

Bhattacherjee, A. (2012). Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, Practices   

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2024, August 29). Information security analysts. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/information-security-analysts.htm 

Marr, B. (2023, September 12). How much data do we create every day? the mind-blowing stats everyone should read. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/05/21/how-much-data-do-we-create-every-day-the-mind-blowing-stats-everyone-should-read