Donte Staves
Professor Duvall
April 18, 2023
Cybersecurity Specialist Career Professional Paper
A cybersecurity specialist plays a very key role in actively securing information just like all other cybersecurity roles do. They have other names that they can be referred to as well, such as information security specialist and cybersecurity professional. According to CompTIA, the role of a cybersecurity specialist is to “detect cyberthreats and implement changes to protect an organization”. In which they typically work in teams that most likely have multiple levels of cybersecurity specialists that have responsibilities of observing, managing, mitigating, and repairing IT threats. They have the possibility of being assigned to installing, regulating, and diagnose security solutions. They also can write up security guidelines and training forms for their associates.
Cybersecurity specialists depend on and require social science research in their field of work. The type of research used in the field is multi method research. This is applied by them using archival research, questionnaires and interviews. They use these research methods in order to gather information from people. As (Baskerville et al.) states “our primary source of data includes interviews and documents on the organizational environment and information security management practices.” In which they also conducted interviews with senior information security managers. With the use of archival research, they look at companies who have had number of records in data spills of companies such as Yahoo, River City Media and Exactis. With the use of a questionnaire (Pollini et al.) states “The Human Aspects of Information Security Questionnaire (HAIS – Q) builds upon hypothesis that as computer users’ knowledge of cybersecurity policy and procedures increases, their attitude and beliefs towards information security policy and procedures improves, which should translate into more risk-averse information security behaviour.” These different methods of research give them various amounts of data to help prevent any attacks that could happen.
Principles in social science are also shown in this field. Some of which are parsimony, ethical neutrality, and determinism. These principles are required and depended on because it is best and easiest to describe their job as prevention and finding solutions for cyber-attacks. There are ways to stay within a company’s guidelines when they are conducting research to provide solutions for certain situations. As (Baskerville et al.) states “Complicating the risky nature of new technologies is an innate contradiction. It lies between the particularly valuable system features, such as operability/functionality, and security features, such as operability/functionality, and security features that attempt to confine behaviors along allowable lines.” As well as potential risks in the company and because of that they then become victims to cyberattacks which cybersecurity specialists then are responsible for preventing, detecting, and responding to. Cybersecurity specialists relate to marginalized groups because there is an underrepresentation of races in the field. They relate to society because they serve as protection for businesses and people.
Works Cited
Baskerville, Richard L, et al. “The Cybersecurity Risk Estimation Engine: A Tool for Possibility Based Risk Analysis.” Computers & Security, Elsevier Advanced Technology, 29 May 2022, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016740482200147X.
Baskerville, Richard, et al. “Incident-Centered Information Security: Managing a Strategic Balance between Prevention and Response.” Information & Management, North-Holland, 19 Nov. 2013, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378720613001171.
“Cybersecurity Specialist Career Path: Job Description & Salary: CompTIA.” CompTIA, https://www.comptia.org/content/it-careers-path-roadmap/cybersecurity-specialist.
Pollini, Alessandro, et al. “Leveraging Human Factors in Cybersecurity: An Integrated Methodological Approach – Cognition, Technology & Work.” SpringerLink, Springer London, 11 June 2021, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10111-021-00683-y.