CYSE 201S Cybersecurity & Social Science

Journal Entry #1
“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.” Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework) | NICCS (cisa.gov)Links to an external site.

While looking at the NICE Workforce Framework website I found several categories that appealed to me that I could see myself specializing in shortly after I graduate or even just researching more about. The “Investigation (IN)” category particularly appealed to me the most, especially regarding the roles of Cybercrime Investigation and Digital Evidence Analysis. I have recently found myself going into the rabbit hole watching true crime series or YouTube content the fact how the big break in the case usually involves a significant amount data found on the perpetrator’s electronic device. These two roles appeal to me because of my fascination with the challenging landscape of investigating cybercrimes and applying forensic skills, analyzing, and collecting digital evidence to solve cases. I would enjoy the technical problem-solving skills and the opportunity to contribute to justice and my community. The administrative, networking and analyst roles don’t seem to appeal to me that much, but I could understand if I started my career working those jobs to gain experience and technical skills. 

Journal Entry #3

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 website, PrivacyRights.org offers a plethora of information as it is a database that is often used as a resource to publicly report data breaches. The website pulls together a publicly collected data breaches from U.S. government agencies into their, “Data Breach Chronology.” The Data Breach Chronology is a searchable platform that the public can use to research and analyze data breaches in depth, trends and find methods to identify and access common vulnerabilities that attacks exploit. For example, if I would like to search for detailed information about a particular breach, the data that was comprised, and the methods used to breach the data granting unauthorized access I can freely do so as a valuable resource. I can gain insight into the ever-changing digital landscape as cybersecurity threats and methods are constantly changing and requires multiple resources to study and be informed of the recommended policy to enhance data protection and defending against data breaches.

Journal Entry #2
Explain how the principles of science [Empiricism, Determinism, Parsimony, Objectivity etc.,] relate to cybersecurity?

• Empiricism – Makes sure that cybersecurity measures are based on data that is observed like network traffic, system logs, and threat patterns instead of speculatory claims.
• Determinism – refers to cyber incidents that have identifiable causes which allow security professionals to trace attack and perform forensic investigations in order to predict future attacks.
• Parsimony – Allows non-technical personnel who are not specialized in the subject matter to understand effectively security models and policy while avoiding unnecessary complexity while maintaining strong safeguards and compliance.
• Objectivity – As providing unbiased analysis induces precise threat assessments and decision-making and is vital in research.
• Replicability – By utiliziing controlled experiments that are testable and repeatable, cybersecurity experts strengthen and augment security measures.

Journal Entry #4
Review Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and explain how each level relates to your experiences with technology.

Today, technologies fill many levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. At the physiological level I order food with apps, I track my health with smart devices and I manage my sleep. Cybersecurity tools like VPNs & two-factor authentication meet my safety needs and my personal data. Belongingness and love are reinforced through social media, video calls & online gaming with family & friends. Professional networking on LinkedIn and recognition for achievements in online learning reinforce needs for respect. For self-actualization I use technology to learn about cybersecurity, play Capture the Flag competitions and work towards a career. Technologies help me personally and professionally.

Journal Entry #6

It is our responsibility to protect our personal information and to avoid scams requires the knowledge to identify fake websites and look for any signs of suspicious activity.  Fake websites usually mimic real ones to trick users into believing that they are accessing a legitimate website but actually the fake website is created to collect personal information from the user.  An example of a fake website would be a PayPal phishing site that uses a fake URL such as, “paypa1.com” or “www.paypalsecure.com.” The URL is close enough to appear that is the real website to trick the user. One way to sort out if a website is legitimate or not is by the URL, the real website for this example would be “https://www.paypal.com” the https in the front is one way to test the legitmacy of the website since HTTPS protocol is more secure than HTTP. The real Paypal website also has a padlock icon Infront of the URL. On the fake website there would likely be misspellings and grammatical errors which is another indicator that the website is fake. Fake websites would also include a fake retail store in order to extract payment information as well. The user would need to pay attention to any lack of privacy policy trust seals and negative reviews online. It is our own responsibility to protect our own personal data as we are the first line of defense when it comes to data security. Having the proper cyber awareness is crucial as scammers constantly adapt their tactics but if we also adapt and have the due diligence to notice any suspicious signs of a false website, we can be a step ahead of scammers.

Journal Entry #8

The Media’s Impact on the Perception of Cybersecurity


Movies & TV shows alter public perceptions of cybersecurity in misleading ways. The video shows how Hollywood makes hacking scenes instantaneous, overly visual and dramatically simple. Though, hacking takes knowledge, patience and time. The media often portrays Cybersecurity and hacking techniques in a exaggerated way that creates a false sense of fear and fascination about hackers as being portrayed as cyber-criminals being geniuses who hack into systems that can cripple whole systems or even countries in seconds.

The video gives positive examples of some films that showcase Cybersecurity and hacking in a more accurate manner by using actual techniques or tools.  The movie, “The Matrix “ is mentioned although still highly exaggerated, has shown real hacking techniques like Nmap and SSH vulnerabilities. This gives the portrayals of more positive influence in Cybersecurity and influence since it depicts hacking techniques as more methodical and complex. For the sake of entertainment most still favor entertainment over accuracy. The over-dramatization found in media influences public perceptions and sometimes policy decisions in hacking techniques, and network infrastructure creating misconceptions about cybersecurity threats.

Journal Entry #9

After watching that video, “How Cybercriminals Can Use Your Social Media Activity Against You” it made me realize just how vulnerable people make themselves by oversharing online. The character Dave represents many users today who are accepting connection requests from random sources, disclosing their private life details to attackers. What I found interesting is how easily someone like Ron could take that information and make a targeted social engineering attack and make it seem to believable.

On the suggestive Social Media Disorder scale I scored 4 which indicates moderate risk. When it comes to questions like lying about online time or ignoring and neglecting certain duties because of choosing to spend that time on social media really made me think. I don’t feel addicted since I don’t really post too much on social media, but I see how easy it is to cross that line when social media is so ingrained in everyday life and sometimes, I find myself scrolling just to scroll.

Cultural norms, internet access and societal expectations may explain different usage patterns around the world. In some regions social media is business and identity driven while in others it is casual or recreational. I think this assignment in general taught me to think before I post online for my own safety and that of others.

Journal Entry #11

Watch this video.  As you watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYtmuHbhmS0Links to an external site. Think about how the description of the cybersecurity analyst job relates to social behaviors.  Write a paragraph describing social themes that arise in the presentation.

The video on how to become a cybersecurity analyst goes beyond the technical overview of what consists in being an analyst, it also reveals important social dynamics in the field. Collaboration and user interaction are key themes. Analysts aren’t just observing network firewalls they’re directing uses, making them aware of phishing attacks and even training others which creates another layer of security, creating “human firewalls.” For a cybersecurity analyst it makes communication and the practice of empathy critical soft skills. especially when converting complex risks to plain English that end users can understand. Very rarely will an analyst work alone so being able to work in a team is paramount as proper communication will lead to success.  
 
Another theme the speaker mentions is the workplace culture/lifestyle as it may feel like these shifts feel like 24/7 security monitoring which can impact personal life and relationships as it often becomes a lifestyle and challenging to turn the mindset of work off. New analysts take graveyard shifts which are often socially isolated but rewarding for those just getting started as well. The video also discusses how salary, location and even local tech communities affect career satisfaction and growth, as well as networking and community involvement. Social behavior whether it’s volunteering, tech meetups or building a professional profile online clearly plays a huge part in getting into or staying in cybersecurity. 

Journal Entry #13

A later module addresses cybersecurity policy through a social science framework. At this point, attention can be drawn to one type of policy, known as bug bounty policies. These policies pay individuals for identifying vulnerabilities in a company’s cyber infrastructure.  To identify the vulnerabilities, ethical hackers are invited to try explore the cyber infrastructure using their penetration testing skills.  The policies relate to economics in that they are based on cost/benefits principles.  Read this article https://academic.oup.com/cybersecurity/article/7/1/tyab007/6168453?login=trueLinks to an external site.  and write a summary reaction to the use of the policies in your journal.  Focus primarily on the literature review and the discussion of the findings. 

In the article “Hacking for Good: The authors use HackerOne Data to build an Economic Model of Bug bounty programs. These programs recruit freelance ethical hackers to find and report security holes for cash rewards. The literature review regards bug bounties as solutions to two problems: The global shortfall of cybersecurity talent and the diversity of bugs that internal teams may overlook. 
 
Authors explore data from HackerOne using regression models to identify real-world factors influencing hacker participation. Interestingly, they found little motivation for hackers to use money as price elasticity was low at the median suggesting more non-financial motivations such as reputation, skill-building and curiosity are involved. Company size, revenue and brand recognition also were not strong predictors of success, so smaller or less-known organizations can still benefit from these programs. 
 
In social science terms, this model of cybersecurity crowdsourcing is interesting. This centralizes security responsibility and creates economic incentives for global contributors. I liked especially the idea that while bigger, famous companies pay more, smaller companies get to enjoy crowdsourced protection. The article also questions long-term sustainability: bug bounty programs get fewer reports unless their scope is expanded. This is natural: once the low-hanging fruit vulnerabilities are found, new ones are harder to find. 
 
In general, this article made me appreciate how bug bounty programs represent a transition from centralized control to collaborative, market-based problem-solving in cybersecurity. It reiterated how important sound policy frameworks such as vulnerability disclosure policies (VDPs) are to ethical hackers in terms of being safe and encouraged to participate. This synthesis between economics, security and human behavior shows that multi-disciplinary thinking is necessary when designing cyber policies.

Journal Entry #7

Office Manager:” We take Cybersecurity very seriously in our company!”
Also Office Manager: Proceeds to write the office’s Wi-Fi password on the whiteboard behind him.

This relates to human-centered cybersecurity because often human errors lead to data leaks or people with bad intent to have access of a company’s network through a careless display of the Wi-Fi password being written down on a whiteboard or sticky note. Using secure password managers and routinely changing Wi-Fi passwords would be better practice.

IT Guy who part of the Cybersecurity of the company: “Hmm I don’t remember entering an online giveaway.”

*Clicks link anyway on the email*
Congratulations! “Malware gets injected in the entire system*

This relates to human-centered cybersecurity because of the human error that the IT guy did by clicking a suspicious email link that is disguised as an online giveaway but it turns out to be a simple phishing attack to inject malware into the computer system by carelessly clicking a link. The IT Guy should have verified the sender email and URLs prior to clicking, he was initially suspicious but clicked the link anyways he should have known better. The email link would have led him to a fake website disguised as something familiar.

Hacker activist group member: ”Boss, I’m in”

Reality: They simply just opened up the login page. This relates to human-centered cybersecurity by the idea that real hackers are similar to what we see in the movies but in reality, it requires an extensive amount of time and planning to simply crack a password. These brute force hacking attack aren’t as simple as shown in movies because in reality MFA and secure passwords are usually there to prevent hackers from entering unauthorized systems, in movies it is usually done by one person who gets pass the entire company’s network security with a few strokes of the keyboard but some attack can take days using multiple people and computer systems.

Journal Entry #10

Read this and write a journal entry summarizing your response to the article on social cybersecurity

 https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/English-Edition-Archives/Mar-Apr-2019/117-Cybersecurity/b/Links to an external site.\

In their article Social Cybersecurity: An Emerging National Security Needle, Lt. Col. Beskow & Dr. Carley introduce social cybersecurity as part of modern national defense. They define social cybersecurity as scientific study of cyber-mediated changes in human behavior and societal outcomes with a view to constructing the necessary infrastructure for societal resilience in the face of cyber threats. 
 
Lt. Col. Beskow and Dr. Carley both described how technological advances have enabled state and nonstate actors to manipulate information more quickly. They stressed how the utilization of information warfare is now a major instrument of weakening adversaries through distrust of institutions and “societal cohesion” which is how people in a society band together in cohesion. This is seen in tactics like disinformation often found in social media platforms used to change public opinion and to destabilize societies by spreading false narratives and false news.  
 
Upon reflection of the article, it seems that the traditional boundaries of cyber and information warfare are blurring increasingly. Integration of social cybersecurity into national defense strategies is critical to countering sophisticated ways adversaries exploit societal vulnerabilities. It thus shows that national security in the digital age requires both technological and social solutions.

Journal Entry #12

Read this https://dojmt.gov/wp-content/uploads/Glasswasherparts.com_.pdfLinks to an external site. sample breach letter “SAMPLE DATA BREACH NOTIFICATION” and describe how two different economics theories and two different psychological social sciences theories relate to the letter. 
 
The articles sample what a data breach letter would be like and link both economic and psychological theories. The company used a cost-benefit analysis when it came to notifying its customers and from an economic standpoint, I think this is a smart decision because it allows the company to take accountability and publicly inform its customers. Luckily there was no confirmed misuse of the data breach, however, the repercussions of not sending the letter would likely lead to legal action and losing trust in their customers. Such breaches can happen despite how secure the Company’s safeguards are and would need to be investigated further so that it wouldn’t happen again, these are referred to as negative externalities which is something that affects customers but it’s something that they didn’t cause and was caused likely by a third party. The customer’s data should be held as a top priority and if there was any breach or anything related to their data the company should be transparent and take accountability by communicating with their customers.  

Another psychological social science theory that is linked well is with Cyber-criminology especially as how it relates to someone becoming victims of cybercrime. As customers trust the company and website to keep their data safe and if a breach or hack occurs that trust is now compromised. It is now the responsibility of the company to investigate cybercrime and do due diligence for the action to not occur again to further break the customer’s trust. The customers are the true victims of these crimes because if their data gets compromised then it could lead to identity theft, financial theft and the emotional impact of the stress and anxiety of having their data being compromised.  

Journal Entry #14

In the article, “11 Illegal Thing You Unknowingly Do on the Internet” several actions are listed that pose to be potentially illegal and dangerous in the digital space. The top five most serious violations that I found to be more serious offenses are using torrent site, soliciting the dark web, jailbreaking / rooting devices, hacking Wi-Fi networks that are not your own, and cyberbullying. These offenses negatively impact cybersecurity, privacy, and the law. Torrenting, which is essentially pirating, spreads malware by downloading files from an unknown origin and violates various copyright laws at an international level. By simply browsing the dark web can expose users to highly illegal markets and dangerous content. Jailbreaking devices may seem like they aren’t hurting anyone since they are essentially modifying software/hardware but it very well voids warranties and encourages software piracy. Hacking into Wi-Fi networks is a clear violation of property laws since it is not your own network and can compromise other’s personal data. Finally, cyberbullying can cause someone to undergo severe emotional and mental harm that impacts someone’s life and result to legal consequences. Although these 5 actions may seem relatively common, but they are quite serious offenses because they threaten an individual’s security and their wellbeing in digital spaces.