Describe the top three careers of social science graduates that you would be interested in considering. What is it about those jobs that you find interesting?
Politics, economy, and industrial-organizational psychologist are the three highest earning careers in regards to social science according to degreequery.com. Political science as a top earner makes the most sense to me as it required one to have an understanding of people in order to convince or sway their minds to get their vote. Social science is not just for politicians but their staff and advisors as this helps them create strategies to also help their candidate or incumbent appeal to the masses. The amount of political science majors that are employed in the US is relatively small, 7000, with the average yearly salary of $122k. What I found interesting in this list however is the industrial-organizational psychologist was a career I had to look up to understand. From what I gather, these people are the keepers of the personnel within an organization. They develop training, conduct recruitment, assess quality or work life, and more. Without an I/O psychologist, I believe an organization would likely have a lot of learning pains prior to hiring someone to fulfill that role.
https://www.degreequery.com/highest-paid-careers-social-sciences/Links to an external site.
https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/industrialLinks to an external site.
Identify which theories you think best explain cybercrime and discuss what you like about that theory.
Behavior, personality, cognitive, neutralization, psychodynamic, and psychological; these are the theories that could explain cybercrime. When computers first became interconnected in a national/global sense, cybercrime was mostly for those that were already involved in the scene of computers. Some people even believed that email and streaming was a joke when we had letters and blockbuster. In this instance, I believe that cybercrime was a cognitive thing in the early days. To me it just makes sense. The early adopters were no match for those that were the developers or creators. I could also say that neutralization played a part in the cognitive theory. A second theory for modern times is behavioral. The internet and technology are integral to our lives. Because of our early exposure to this tech our behaviors can be molded and influence by it. We literally communicate with our world via the internet.
Watch this video and pay attention to what the biggest risk of cyber threats are. After watching the video, post an entry in the discussion board describing what you think about the “human firewall”.
In lecture 6 there is mixed research data that suggests that users, no matter their level or knowledge, take risks. However, I believe that the knowledgeable users make calculated risk whereas uninformed users take blind risks. I grew up when the internet was dialup. AOL was a juggernaut of an organization, chain letters baited you spreading their “message,” and Napster began a music industry shakeup. I was fortunate enough to have a parent that was not only incredibly savvy with tech but was considered a geek because of his passion for everything computers. This isn’t to say that I never succumbed to a virus, but I was educated in “internet hygiene” at an early age which helped me to make better decisions. Now a days I prefer to not engage online because of the rampant toxicity of it all. Additionally, I prefer to read the comments because the majority of the time you get to see both sides of the argument. Sometimes, there are people pointing out the flaw in the post like the striper name post ala “this information can be used to hack you don’t fall for it!”
Post a comment in the discussion board answering the question: “Apply the phrase victim precipitation to cyber victimization.”
The theory of victim precipitation is that the victim holds some of the blame for being victimized. From my research, there are two types of victim precipitation, Active and Passive. Active is when a victim knowingly provokes the offender via clothing, spoken/body language, threats, or minor attacks. Passive is more behavioral, character, personality, or ethnic based. When we translate victim precipitation into the cyber world, this is more akin to posting on Instagram, having an SSID called “I bet you cannot hack me”, or having a weak password. The victimizer uses information that is stolen, fabricated, or readily available to cause mental or even physical harm to the victim. These actions, when used with network connected technology, is called cyber victimization and it includes but is not limited to harassment, stalking, abuse, assault hostility, happy slapping, outing, and flaming. While one can reduce their levels of active or passive victim precipitation, it cannot be 100% stopped. The unfortunate thing is that simply existing opens one up to victimizers.
Identify two research questions that researchers might address related to the social aspects of cybersecurity.
Would daily cybersecurity education prior to access improve or reduce attack? How much training in terms of style/time would result in the maximum return on investment? The reason for this question is because education is a proven method to minimize attacks. However, there is complacency that occurs when training is too repetitive, easy, or frequent.
Should organizations implement a stricter control at all levels for their employee’s open-source information to minimize linking them to the organization? This would include having a security review of information prior to its release/use on social media such as Facebook or LinkedIn. The first step in the cyber kill chain is reconnaissance, a step hackers use to gain information to determine the method, type, and delivery of their attack. There is no doubt that companies must have information available for contact and business reasons. While it seems that these businesses have a format and practices in place, there seems to be less of a control in place for their employees that tend to be the target of reconnaissance. For example, due to the nature of my job in the military, we had guidelines of what we were allowed to say about it in order to reduce the likelihood of being targeted. I understand there is a level of overreach here that is usually only seen in the government or high-level positions in businesses, but they are not the ones being targeted it is the lower level employees that tend to be targeted.
What does economics have to do with cybersecurity?
In the economically and electronically interconnected society that we are presently in, cybersecurity can make or break a company/organization. Being perpetually online means that a company can reach patrons across the globe and earn money 24/7; traditional brick and mortar business hours are shorter and primarily cater to the local cities and townships. This paradigm shift in business has allowed for economic growth across the board. Without an online presence, you significantly stifle this growth. However, the downside to being always available means you are always available to attacks too. Cybersecurity is the defense and protection businesses should utilize to safeguard their financial growth. Without some semblance of digital security for businesses that use or rely on a LAN or WAN, hackers could very easily steal, manipulate, and control many aspects of an organization. If this business were to go under due to the ruin brought on to them by hackers the employees could be let go, the patrons might leave, and if the business shuts down the economy of their area would suffer.
Watch this video about a 12-year-old cyber security expert. Pay attention to how he has embedded himself into the cybersecurity culture. Also, pay attention to how the ideas of knowledge, technology, and secrecy relate to his expertise. On the discussion board post an entry about how the video relates to something you read for this class – either from the readings or this module.
After some additional digging/research I found that Reuben is the CEO of Prudent Games, a company that makes learn as you play games. This is an amazing accomplishment for someone so young. He is labeled a prodigy of his field but from what I was able to learn, he is incredibly busy with numerous hobbies and pastimes all while maintaining straight A’s in school.
That aside, one thing that stood out to me was the information Reuben was able to gather from the interviewer, David Begnaud, cellphone all because he connected to his phone to the “open/free Wi-Fi.” Not only that, but with that access to accounts, Reuben would easily be able to steal further information from the interviewer’s social media and potentially sabotage the account. While some random person’s social media information may not be considered quality, the stolen credentials and information of someone in the public eye could have massive ramifications. The pre-Elon Twitter blue check mark had much more “meaning” than it has today, but with the reach some of these people have, a hacked account could cause damage.
What do you think about the principle of determinism as it relates to computer hacking?
I wrote in my module two journal about determinism being more inline with ones belief in a higher power’s design or free will. Regardless of belief, determinism can be seen as a “perfect storm” that explains how a person or event got into it’s current position. Adding determinism to computer hacking we can learn and understand how a person made their choices the ultimately lead to them initializing an attack. When we consider laws, social contracts, and ethical codes this does not absolve bad actors of their transgressions. There are situations where there is cohesion coercion or payment for services of hacking, but these are external forces against one’s will and still fall under the previously mentioned considerations.
Why do you think individuals don’t report cybercrime victimization?
There is a helplessness and hopelessness about being a cyber crime victim. In this sense, why bother reporting the crime if nothing can/will be done about it. Even if it were reported, the personnel and resources required outweigh the value of what was lost which puts many individuals financially unable to foot the bill. To add to this, if the criminal is in another country (or a non US friendly country) there is almost nothing that can be done. Some people also just don’t care enough about what data lost or they know that can just reimage their system if they have a clean and recent backup. From a company’s perspective, they probably would not want their public reputation to be marred any more than it has to so if the crime/ransom is minor, they will more than likely deal with it internally.
Watch this video and explain what it has to do with routine activities theory.
Crime occurs when three conditions are met: motivation, absence of guardians, suitable target. Online shopping and scams have increased since the start of the pandemic. With people being stuck at home, this has motivated hackers and scammers to increase their presence in order to turn a buck. These malicious actors know that there are increasing amounts of technologically illiterate people out there that have had their routines disrupted and lack the proper training to identify these scams which makes them suitable targets and also defenseless. These are the ingredients which allow bad people to thrive and good people to be victims.