Blessed Votio
The Role of Social Science in the Work of a Cybersecurity Analyst
BLUF: A cybersecurity analyst uses social science to understand human behavior. This principle also permits the professional to protect diverse communities, and it can also help him to foresee threats in the future. This profession demonstrates how there is an interconnection between technology and human behavior which is even more related to marginalized populations and societal systems.
Introduction
There are several responsibilities that a cybersecurity analyst has to perform, some of these responsibilities are technical troubleshooting and system monitoring. Besides technical troubleshooting and system monitoring, they also use social science research and principles to understand the impacts of human behavior on digital security: this is important because we can see how human vulnerabilities has and keeps being exploited by today’s fast growing cyber threats. This paper will be exploring how cybersecurity analysts rely on social science research and social science principles in their career.
Social Science as a Cyber Security Analyst
Cybersecurity analysts make use of psychology, sociology, and criminology to understand and mitigate vulnerabilities that might be caused by humans. Through the lessons that were learned in this course, we could notice that cyberattacks mostly exploit human behavior: this is why it is vital to understand human motives as well as social patterns. For instance, cybersecurity analysts make use of behavioral psychology to the root of how people keep falling for phishing scams, and why users do not follow the basic security policies that are provided by the given site (Hadnagy, 2018). This action helps the professionals to bring up more awareness to their users or find measures that could be implemented to avoid these cyberattacks. In addition, sociology concepts such as group norms and organizational culture helps cybersecurity analysts to apprehend insider threats and determine their co-workers’ behaviors that might lead to risk-taking actions within the organization (Parson et al., 20214).
Social norms concept also shows how a lot of people nowadays will bypass login procedures due to factors such as productivity pressure which shows how group norms may influence one’s behaviors. Another aspect is cultural context. This is important for implementing cybersecurity policies because each region/area has his/her rules on how people in each different area view privacy.
Interacting with Marginalized Groups
It is well known that there are a lot of vulnerabilities which have caused harm to several marginalized groups. These groups may range from LGBTQ+ individuals, to ethnic/racial groups, to low-income groups. Some of the factors that lead to a more concerning cybersecurity charge for marginalized groups are online harassment, surveillance, targeted scams, and limited access to digital literacy resources.
There are tailored security solutions that cybersecurity analysts who work with non-profit organizations, educational institutions, or public sectors have put together to serve the marginalized groups. By creating a mobile friendly educational material with limited broadband access for low-income populations of people who are computer illiterate, this permits to reduce phishing risks. There are also algorithmic biases that misidentify members of minority groups: this is why cybersecurity analysts work with these algorithms to prevent such situations (Levy, 2021).
The biggest challenge is to address systemic issues that are embedded in security protocols and data collection. If these professionals lack social science perspectives/concepts, they might unwillfully risk reinforcing discrimination or even worse, exclude some populations from effective protection. This is why it is empirical for cybersecurity analysts to work hand in hand with social scientists and community leaders to make sure that inclusive design, policy and outreach efforts are attained.
The Role of a Cybersecurity Analyst in Society
There are several roles played by a cybersecurity analyst in society, some of these roles are; serving as intermediaries between complex technical systems and the public, responsible for identifying threats and communicating risks and security practices via methods that helps users, and they also support critical infrastructure, guide democratic processes, and assist to erect trust in digital systems.
The society progresses in different ways via digital technologies, digital activism, trends like remote work, and technology integration. This could also be seen as relativism because the cybersecurity landscape becomes more interconned with daily life. In this situation, cybersecurity analysts have to adapt to these advancements in public behavior, media consumption, and political climates. This flamboyant interrelation reinforces how important social science lens in understanding how societal stressor might be apparent in the digital world, this could include the spread of misinformation ro cyber-radicalization (Parsons et al., 2014). With all these evolutions, cybersecurity analysts influence society by responding to incidents, coming up with policy recommendations alongside security training, they also help change the appearance on how individuals and institutions perceive and engage with technology, and they have an important role in sustaining digital equity and resilience.
Conclusion
It can be seen how the career of a cybersecurity analyst fuses between technical skill and social understanding. Cybersecurity analysts make use of psychology, sociology, and criminology to understand and mitigate vulnerabilities that might be caused by humans. Through the lessons that were learned in this course, we could notice that cyberattacks mostly exploit human behavior: this is why it is vital to understand human motives as well as social patterns. cybersecurity analysts influence society by responding to incidents, coming up with policy recommendations alongside security training, they also help change the appearance on how individuals and institutions perceive and engage with technology, and they have an important role in sustaining digital equity and resilience.
Works Cited
Hadnagy, C. (2018). Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking. Wiley. Social Engineering
Parsons, K., McCormac, A., Butavicius, M., Pattinson, M., & Jerram, C. (2014). Determining employee awareness using the Human Aspects of Information Security Questionnaire (HAIS-Q). Computers & Security, 42, 165–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2013.12.003
Levy, K. E. C. (2021). The Rationalizing Power of the Imitation Game: Algorithmic Fairness and the Tensions of Technological Governance. Big Data & Society, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211006744