Dawn Weston

October 1, 2023

CYSE 201S_22131

Article Review #1

I reviewed the article entitled ‘Cyberbullying and Psychological Stress among Female Employees.” The topic relates to the principles of the social sciences by addressing a specific group of people (Sociology) and researching how they feel and react to this particular topic (Psychology). 

This article aimed to see if there was a positive or negative effect on cyberbullying in the workplace for females specifically in Saudi Arabia, where there had previously been a lack of research. Their listed hypotheses included: 

1. Workplace cyber bullying negatively influences the organizational commitment of female employees.
2. Workplace cyberbullying is positively associated with psychological stress of female employees.
3. Workplace cyberbullying negatively influences perceived interactional justice of female employees
4. Perceived interactional justice is associated with job satisfaction.
5. Perceived interactional justice mediates the relationship between workplace cyberbullying and job satisfaction.

The research methods used were pre-existing, previously validated, questionnaires, from 2016, filled out by women from Saudi Arabia across various companies that previously had not been researched. The women were asked questions related to: workplace cyberbullying, perceived interactional injustice, job satisfaction, psychological stress, and organization commitment. They then analyzed the answers to this survey using scaling tools. There were many different tools and scales that were used to determine evaluate this data such as: Scales: For the variables of perceived interactional justice was derived from the research conducted by Beugre and Baron (2001). The measurement of psychological stress was conducted by modifying the  instrument developed by Banksetal (1980). The measurement of organizational commitment was conducted by modifying the instrument utilized in the research conducted by Mowday et al(1979). The measurement of job satisfaction was conducted by employing the instrument developed by Warr, Cook, and Wall (1979). And the variables were assessed using a 5-point Likert scale. The Tables for analysis were generated using Statistical package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and the hypothesis testing was conducted utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM).

Women in Saudi Arabia are already a marginalized group of people. There have historically been stricter rules that they’ve had to abide by over their male counterparts, such as not being allowed to travel or get an education without the approval of a man. Therefore women existing in the workplace in Saudi Arabia makes them a smaller and even more marginalized group. 

The findings of the study proved their hypotheses: that cyberbullying has a negative effect on female employees. It affects their mental health, leading to stress and anxiety. It affects their physical safety: they feel physically unsafe. It affects their workplace performance: it has a negative effect on their daily work tasks and gives them a decline in performance. And ultimately they do not want to work at an organization that does not protect them. 

Reference: 

https://cybercrimejournal.com/menuscript/index.php/cybercrimejournal/article/view/161/61

Review the articles linked with each individual motive in the presentation page or Slide #3.  Rank the motives from 1 to 7 as the motives that you think make the most sense (being 1) to the least sense (being 7).  Explain why you rank each motive the way you rank it.

1. Money-Money makes the most sense to be because money drives almost everything. If you are smart enough and in need, cyber crimes such as credit card fraud, could be an easy way to make money. This could supply you with food, or maybe help you get your feet on the ground and start a business.

2. Multiple Reasons- I would almost put this at number one, and imagine that it is as close to one as I can get it. The reason that I put money over it is because I don’t feel that there needs to be any other motive to money other than “I need money right now to live.” However, if we are talking about all other crimes, I believe they are all motivated by multiple things. I don’t think you can only want recognition or only want revenge. There is always more to it.

3. Political- I believe politics can be a very motivating factor for a lot of people. After Trump was elected, the country went through a lot of political division and when people have such a strong stance on one side or another it is very motivating to do everything in your power to get people on your side, or to “wake them up” and see your point of view.

4. Revenge- This article spoke about revenge porn, and while I think people that commit this crime are completely unhinged and immature, I do think revenge is a strong enough motivating factor to want to commit any sort of revenge crime.

5. Recognition- This is a very plausible motive for committing a cyber crime, but i feel like it doesn’t happen that often. The article talks about a guy launching a ddos attack on a political website so he could draw likes to his twitter page. While I do believe people that are able to do something “tricky” would like to brag about it, they normally do it anonymously and I dont believe it is ever the only motivating factor.

6. Entertainment- I believe that people that are new to hacking or committing cyber crime do it for entertainment – or to see if they can actually “pull off” the crime. However, this article speaks about a man who pulled millions of user accounts and its data off of Link’d in, bragged about it on a forum, and said he did it for fun. I refuse to believe that someone does a crime that big just for fun- and obviously that wasnt the only factor because ‘recognition’ was tied in.

7. Boredom- This article, in my opinion, made zero sense. It said that kids get bored go online and then by posting, are subjected to cyberbullying or basically sex offenders. This is kind of victim-blaming. Every other reason spoke about the reasons a cyber criminal commits an offense, and this one is regarding the victim.

Review Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and explain how each level relates to your experiences with technology. Give specific examples of how your digital experiences relate to each level of need.

Visit PrivacyRights.org to see the types of publicly available information about data breaches. How might researchers use this information to study breaches? Enter a paragraph in your journal.

The PrivacyRights website gives researchers detailed insights into *reported public* data breaches within the United States over the course of 17 years. These data breaches are broken down by type of breach (example: Hack) and type of organization (example: Government) as well as location. Researchers can narrow down what location the most people have been affected, what organizations have been hit the hardest, and how often they occur. Another helpful addition to the site is the break down of laws state by state. This gives researchers more information on what is allowed vs what isn’t in regard to cyberlaw.

Explain how the principles of science relate to cyber security.

Relativism, objectivity, determinism, parsimony, ethical neutrality, skepticism, and objectivity are the scientific principles that relate to the social sciences and thus cyber security.

Relativism means that all things are related to each other such as how technology drives the development of cyberspace and thus new types of crimes and security issues arise.

Objectivity refers to how topics are studied without a point of view involved, this way the only influence on an outcome is data. As it relates to cyber security, some fields may be asked to study subjects such as terrorists promoting their material online. Its important to keep an objective stance and not let feelings influence a decision.

Parsimony means that an explanation should be kept as simple as possible. (and thats what i’m doing here!)

Empiricism says that social scientists can only study behavior which is real to the senses. This basically means that we cant inform our understanding of the cyber field from opinions but rather data.

Ethical Neutrality is exactly what it sounds like- scientists must adhere to ethical standards when conducting research ie. protecting the rights of the individual.

Skepticism means not accepting an answer or solution based on feelings or info that was passed down from another person, but rather based on pure data.

Determinism means that everything is influenced by a preceding event. This basically means that every event is already planned out and no one has free will. It’s the absence of choice. However in the social science world this becomes a little harder to explain as if you were to ask the question of “why is someone a hacker” you could argue that they had no choice, everything in their life led to that moment. Or, you could say, this person had free will and infact did have a choice.

Review the NICE Workforce Framework. Are there certain areas that you would want to focus your career on? Explain which areas would appeal the most to you and which would appeal the least.

Cyber Investigation and Digital Forensics appears to be the most interesting areas of the NICE Workforce Framework. I enjoy learning about people and why they do what they do and digital forensics and cyber investigation seems to combine that along with “capturing the bad guy.” Seems pretty rewarding. Least appealing is Vulnerability Assessment and Management, based on my experience if you work for a bigger company with a lot of assets, this seems like a never ending job. There are almost always issues with assets being out of date and constantly vulnerable; very tedious work for not a lot of reward.