When looking at The Social Order, by Robert Bierstedt (1970), Rober Bierstedt stated that the social sciences relate to some of the same principles as those in natural sciences. These principles then can be applied to the study of cybersecurity through a social science framework.

Relativism

Relativism is the principle of all things being related in some way. Bringing that over to a cybersecurity standpoint, cybersecurity is a very broad subject that talks about the physical and software security of network devices. This can be the use of firewalls, multi-factor authentication, or even locking the door that holds all the server components. Now with everything becoming more technological, everything includes healthcare, the school system, and even currency. The types of attacks from these systems are all the same and can all be implemented the same. This brings relativism into the study of cybersecurity and how all the systems are related in some way.

Objectivity

Objectivity can be understood as the way scientists do research in a value-free manner. This means that the research done on a topic like cybersecurity is done only to gain more knowledge and not to promote biased standards on the subject. Objectivity can be used in cybersecurity when trying to punish a hacker who has broken some cyber law. As stated before, technologies are constantly advancing, and determining what is legal and illegal has been up for debate. A judge not having a biased viewpoint on the subject will better determine and advance the law-making within cybersecurity.

Parsimony

Parsimony can also be understood as paraphrasing because parsimony is the understanding that scientists need to simplify their explanations so that the general public can understand the recent findings. IT specialists can go into very deep detail about the complicated procedures of configuring and implementing a firewall on different levels of security within a big organization. They can also do the same for how an attacker was able to penetrate their firewall and gain access to the network. However, being able to simplify their findings will help the end users within the organization understand what happened and the steps they need to take to prevent further attacks.

Empiricism

Empiricism is the principle of studying behavior that is real to the senses. This means that in the event of an attacker being able to penetrate a network, the IT specialists would have a better knowledge and understanding of the situation when they can physically see what the attack did and what went wrong on their side of the network. Being able to see that an inside man planted a malicious code using a flash drive, will allow the IT team to better protect their network using more physical security, like a key card to access the computer.

Ethical Neutrality

Basically in its name, ethical neutrality means that researchers must follow a set of ethical codes and standards when conducting their studies. There are always two sides to hacking, the ethical side and the unethical side, and an IT specialist must abide by a set of ethical understands when they have access to confidential information. Since the IT team built the network and configured all the security features, they were also able to put a back door or leave open ports if they wanted to hack the network. Doing so does not follow ethical neutrality, so the IT team must be able to ethically handle the duties of making sure all steps are taken to ensure proper security of the network.