Journal Entries:

Journal 1: 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.

I would like to focus on a few areas for my career and most of those areas would be more on the technical side of cybersecurity. Sure there are parts of cybersecurity that are monotonous and full of policy writing. I am just the type of person that likes to break stuff and figure out how to put it back together so getting into the nitty gritty of computer systems really intrigues me. Penetration testing and vulnerability testing appeal to me the most and policy writing and analysis really just bore me beyond belief.

Journal 2: Explain how the principles of science relate to cybersecurity

There are six principles of science and each of these principles interacts or relates to cyber security in different ways. Relativism: “Relativism can be understood to mean that all things are related.” Basically, it’s the way things relate to each other. So in a very basic example, you could say, The survival of cyber security relies on companies using giant computer systems. Objectivity: Basically objectiveness is all about not being tied to anything and looking at the situation from above. So you could say that people who don’t use strong passwords are going to be hacked. You don’t offer to advise and you have no care really because you are being objective. Parsimony: “As a principle of science, parsimony means that scientists should keep their levels of explanation as simple as possible.” So as the chapter notes said parsimony is just keeping stuff simple. In cybersecurity, you can say it’s a bunch of nerds making people safe. Empiricism: is a principle that you study by your senses, so of course studying cybersecurity might be hard because you can’t really taste or touch security. But it can relate to physical id cards for security. Ethical Neutrality: Basically it’s being neutral regarding rules via ethics and morality. So for cyber security, you can just hack whomever and say it is for cyber security cause we have no morals…right? Determinism: Basically it is determining what path you want to take due to events that have happened. So doing a penetration test because you have been hacked is determinism in cyber security.

Journal 3: How might researchers use this information to study breaches?

I think researchers would use different sources for studying past breaches just to figure out how those breaches occurred. This is helpful because it would provide real-time information for case studies and see how the defenses did not provide enough defense to stop those types of breaches. This would help cybersecurity engineers to develop the skills and tools necessary to stop these threats before they occur.

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

 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can be simply divided into or chopped into 3 major categories or columns. Those categories include Basic Needs, Psychological Needs, and Self-fulfillment Needs. Starting with the basic needs category, sure we don’t really need a piece of technology but some people have a hard time functioning without their “daily dose” of technology. This can be compared to a drug where people addicted get to a point where they can’t actually stop or they die. Physiological needs can pertain to anxiety and feeling safe by hiding behind technology to state their minds. Or using technology for say smart homes and stuff like that. Self-fulfilling could pertain to people who use technology to invent and create companies and services around the technology.

Journal 5: Review the articles linked with each individual motive. 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: Entertainment Motive (https://9to5mac.com/2021/07/19/man-behind-linkedin-scraping/)

2: Recognition Motive (https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/30/bradley_niblock_election_ddos/)

3: Political Motive (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/new-generation-of-angry-youthful-hackers-join-the-hacktivism-wave-adding-to-cyber-security-woes/articleshow/81707844.cms)

4: Boredom Motive (https://www.heraldlive.co.za/news/2021-05-31-cyberbullying-and-online-sexual-grooming-of-children-on-the-increase/)

5: Multiple Reasons (https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/what-drives-hackers-to-a-life-of/?cf_chl_jschl_tk=pmd_c1d89a4695edbd23f2bceb54d70f35ce5e536e86-1626721164-0-gqNtZGzNAfijcnBszQi6)

6: Revenge Motive (https://newsfromwales.co.uk/revenge-porn-victims-in-wales-often-feel-let-down-by-the-law-as-cybercrime-slips-through-the-net/)

7: For Money Motive (https://threatresearch.ext.hp.com/sex-drugs-and-toilet-rolls-how-cybercriminals-spend-their-money-infographic/)

My reason for organizing these motives in this specific order mainly was just which one sounded more “motived” than the others. See I think the entertainment motive was the motive that sounded the most motivated or the most sense for the hacker doing that specific action. The second one, recognition motive, well goes without saying that person did get the recognition he deserved. This continued in the same trend throughout the whole journal entry.

Journal 6: Can you spot three fake websites and compare the three fake websites to three real websites, plus showcase what makes the fake websites fake?

The three websites I chose were: https://www.dhmo.org/, https://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/, and http://www.thedogisland.com/. All three of these sites are “fake” and what makes them fake is almost comical and ingenious. The first website dhmo.org, this website explains how harmful dihydrogen monoxide is to the world, when in fact dihydrogen monoxide is really H2O or water. The second website tells the users all about a tree octopus and it is very convincing at first sight. Lastly, the third website is about an island that has free dogs where that can live together away from humans. All of these websites are pretty funny but this shows how an innocent-looking website could contain malware or malicious software in the code. All it takes is one click to destroy your whole day.

Journal 7: Create a meme that relates to Human Systems Integration.

For the image: https://unsplash.com/photos/gySMaocSdqs I created this meme:

This meme shows how a new guy can finally practice his knowledge after proving himself to the higher-ups. This relates to Human Systems Integration by showing how people have to prove themselves so that they won’t cost the company money from newbie mistakes or human error.

Journal 8: How do you think the media influences our understanding of cybersecurity?

The media influences our understanding of cybersecurity just as they do with the news around the world. The whole “game” of the media is to instill fear or brush off everything until it’s too late. Most of the time we don’t care about cybersecurity in the media because it’s usually not reported or when it is reported it’s overly exaggerated. The only way for people to understand the attack is to venture off and read some reports published about it by cybersecurity analysts. It either be super afraid and know little to nothing or not even see it on the news.

Journal 9: Complete the Social Media Disorder scale. How did you score? What do you think about the items in the scale? Why do you think that different patterns are found across the world?

To be honest, I had a “perfect score” due to the fact that I barely use social media. Mostly I use it for my robotics research or connecting with old friends. I don’t usually post items unless it’s securely filtered so only my closest friends can see them. I think the items in the scale relate to most people now who are “addicted” to social media. I think that certain people are more inclined to live their lives on social media like that one video in this week’s readings. The patterns would also say where in the world social media has a greater presence like in the U.S. vs the less populated desert areas on the other side of the globe.

Journal 10: Write a journal entry summarizing your response to the article on social cybersecurity.

Well, that article was a lot to take in at once but I think I retained most of it. The biggest thing that any country has to do is to develop a strong cybersecurity force. In order to do that you have to educate and create a dynamic and multidisciplinary look at cybersecurity, a take on cybersecurity from many different angles. This is like any other company or group that wants to take on cybersecurity you have to have different views on it since it can affect many different people not just the “nerds”.

Journal 11: Describe how two different economic theories and two different social sciences theories relate to the letter.

The two economic theories that could relate to this letter would be well the most well-known, Supply and Demand and well Classical Economics. Supply and demand and classical economics all relate to why the person used that website to buy parts for their washer. The conflict theory and structural-functionalist would pertain to this letter I do believe. The conflict theory relates to the letter by showing that there was a problem or conflict that occurred but was resolved. The structural-functionalist theory fits because hackers are a part of the “framework” of society and it’s something we have to deal with.

Journal 12: Bug Bounty Policies

Bug bounties are a big part of software development and in companies in general. They are programs that are incentivized for third-party individuals to find the bugs and weaknesses in a program used in the public domain. Most of the time the people who find these bugs in companies’ systems are just the average IT person who is looking for something fun and a way to get his foot in the door to his next career. These bug bounty programs are a great way for companies to find bugs but also for new cybersecurity pros to be found and demonstrate their skills.

Journal 13: Review what the author says describing the five most serious violations and why you think those offenses are serious.

1: Collecting information about Children

2: Using Copyrighted Images

3: Faking your Identity Online

4: Extracting Audio from Youtube Videos

5: Using Other Peoples’ Internet Networks

I think these violations are the most serious because they all affect people directly or can affect them directly. Number one is that collecting information about children is a big violation to me because they are innocent and their information is no one’s business. The rest just fall into basically copyright infringements and cheating people out of their money or stealing their money/identity.

Journal 14: Write a journal entry describing what you think about the speaker’s pathway to his career.

This speaker’s pathway to his digital forensics career defiantly was an interesting one but it’s not uncommon. His pathway was more a stumbling into the career by chance starting off as an accountant and slowly transitioning to IT just by luck. There are tons of companies that like to hire within instead of posting jobs on Indeed or LinkedIn due to the cost and just annoying complexity of those systems. Once he got into the IT field he stumbled into digital forensics and continued his career from there. Just by luck and being there at the right time did he find a job he loved.