Article Review #1: Working From Home
2/14/2024
Introduction
The article that I will be reviewing is “Cybersecurity when working from home during Covid-19: considering human factors” by Monica Whitty, Nour Moustafa, and Marthie Grobler. This article looked at the lives of employees who worked from home during the pandemic. The focus of the article is to improve employees’ cybersecurity practices.
Research
There are multiple research questions that will be answered in this article. These questions are “What were participants’ lived experiences when transitioning from the office to home, and how did these impact cybersecurity learning and behaviors?”, “What did cybersecurity mean for participants when working from home?”, “How did participants learn about cybersecurity when working from home?”, and “What recommendations might we give to organizations based on our findings?”(Whitty, 2024). These questions are followed up by each other, so to find the answer to them you must understand the previous one. The first question is keying in on the lifestyles and environment of the employees’ home and how it affects their cybersecurity. The second looks at what the individual thinks about cybersecurity, and the last two focuses on how the organization teaches their employees.
The method used in this research was conducting interviews with people that were sent to work from home. The pool of participants was very diverse as they come from different jobs, ethnicities, age groups, and gender. The thing they all had in common was that they worked in an office environment and had to transition to working from home in a short period of time (Whitty, 2024).
Data & Results
Since the research method was an interview style, the data came directly from what the participants were saying. Researchers took what every individual said and compared it to the rest to create themes. The themes were created by a large percentage of the participants conveying the same message to the interviewers. One of the themes was that the transition to home was stressful.
How This Relates To The Principles Of Social Science
The first principle of social science this article relates to is relativism. It relates to relativism because it showcases a change in what these employees are used to, and that causes changes in other areas. In this case the change is the environment they are working in. The next principle this study relates to is parsimony. Parsimony is shown by the results of this research. They try to keep explanations of the trends as simple as possible. The last principle this article relates to is determinism. The behavior of the employees is determined by what the organization taught them about cybersecurity.
Connections & Conclusion
A concept from our class that you can connect to this article is human and psychological factors. The idea that the employees have poor cybersecurity practices at home can fall under victim precipitation. A marginalized group this can affect is senior citizens that haven’t retired yet. They can have trouble using the technology from home and get no help. This article can also connect to society by calling on organizations to raise cybersecurity awareness in the workplace. If this happens everyone will be safer.
Reference Article
Monica T Whitty, Nour Moustafa, Marthie Grobler, Cybersecurity when working from home during COVID-19: considering the human factors, Journal of Cybersecurity, Volume 10, Issue 1, 2024, tyae001, https://doi.org/10.1093/cybsec/tyae001
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Article Review #2: Cyberbullying During The Pandemic
3/14/2024
Introduction
The article I will be reviewing is “Cyberbullying During Covid-19 Pandemic: Relation to Perceived Social Isolation Among College and University Students” by Nadya S. Neuhaeusler. When the pandemic started and everyone was on lockdown, internet use skyrocketed. With the increase of internet use came the increase of cybercrime. This article focuses on cyberbullying and the effects it has on college and university students in the United States. Has cyberbullying affected quality of living since the pandemic?
Research
In this study there were 3 hypotheses. These hypotheses were “Cyberbullying victimization has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic”, “Social media usage is positively associated with cyberbullying victimization”, and “Perceived social isolation is positively associated with cyberbullying victimization” (Neuhaeusler, 2024, p.29). These hypotheses are similar but answer completely different questions. They can also combine to bring up points. If the first two hypotheses turn out to be true then you can assume that social media usage has increased during the pandemic. The method for collecting data for this study was conducting surveys. The survey was conducted on a moderately diverse group of college and university students in the US. Most of them were students at Midwest university and between the ages 18 and 24 (Neuhaeusler, 2024).
Data & Results
The survey in this study was based on a previous survey in 2021(Neuhaeusler, 2024). While analyzing the data, it is found that it does not support that cyberbullying victimization have increased during the pandemic (Neuhaeusler, 2024). It is found that social media usage during the pandemic has increased but it is not correlated with cyberbullying victimization. The last hypothesis is also not supported by the data collected. The feeling of social isolation was caused directly by the pandemic and not cyberbullying. So all of the hypotheses made were not supported by the data from the surveys, however they were not discredited either.
How This Relates To The Principles Of Social Science
A principle of social science this study relates to is relativism. This is because it is suggesting that cyberbullying is related to all these other things. Ethical Neutrality is also shown by the dedication to keep students and certain information anonymous to protect them. Another principle related to this is determinism. Scientists tried to argue that cyberbullying and social media determined how individuals felt. A concept from our class power points that this article relates to is psychological consequences of victimization in module 5. Even though the data did not support that cyberbullying made individuals feel isolated, it still proposed and tested the idea.
Connections & Conclusion
This study is related to the issues of marginalized groups. Cyberbullying can be a problem for people in the LGBTQ+ community and people of color. These marginalized groups can be discriminated against and harassed online. The contributions to society that this article can make is highling cyberbullying and its effects so we can stand up and do something about it. The hypotheses in this article were wrong but the issue of cyberbullying is still among us.
Reference Article
Neuhaeusler, N. S. (2024). Cyberbullying during COVID-19 pandemic: Relation to perceived social isolation among college and university students . International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime, 7(1), https://doi.org/10.52306/2578-3289.1140