A collection of journals assessing cybersecurity situations and problems using an interdisciplinary mindset.
Journal 1: Should I have to specify a certain field based on the NICE Framework I would specify Threat Analysis due to the logistical nature of the field. When exploring the possible fields, I found that the suggested skills and knowledge of Threat Analysis to include the majority of the research and theoretical skills that I have acquired throughout my areas of study at ODU and within my internship, with specific mention of A0087 and A0106 which read “Ability to focus research efforts to meet the customer’s decision-making needs,” and “Ability to think critically” respectively. Of the fields I would be least interested in, ‘Multi-Disciplined Language Analyst’ is one that I believe I would find the least success in as my specialties deal with policy development and research opposed to the cultural analysis skillsets that this path requires.
Journal 2: Above all else, the primary principle of science declares that the pursuit of knowledge be done so with academic, and social integrity, honesty, and objectivity. Within cybersecurity, these principles should always apply, especially considering the highly confidential nature of most cybersecurity positions with the handling of sensitive data. Particular fields such as ethical hacking should absolutely follow the principle of honesty and integrity, as the skillset and career choice is highly dangerous should the individual lack integrity and choose to break into systems in a malicious way.
Journal 3: Researchers can and use breach detection informational tools to determine what types of attacks are popular, and which they need to better protect themselves from. PrivacyRights.org while serving as a great tool to discover where and when attacks are taking place, but also to discover what possible tools are being used such as the type of malware. Should there be an influx of ransomware attacks, researchers using a tool like this to track attack patterns could conclude that a new form of ransomware deployment could be circulating within digital environments, leading to new discoveries on how to defend against, or remain aware of this type of malware.
Journal 4: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can be used to personally connect with and better understand an individual’s usage of digital spaces and technology that ultimately could be used to determine their psychological affect by it, or their position within the evolving technology. For personal analysis, my physiological needs primarily concern rest, in that I often employ the usage of technology when it is time to wind down or relax. Primarily, this includes a form of media or digital connectivity such as video games or by streaming a new movie or show, sometimes talking with my friends over digital message boards. Safety needs while not seeming obvious actually share a more personal sentiment for me. Having anxiety issues that develop into a panic disorder means that as a younger individual you often find ways to calm yourself should your personal control begin to weaken, for me, my usage of the internet has always been a calming measure. When my anxiety becomes too much to handle, I routinely explore ASMR videos on YouTube, with a personal favorite being restoration videos such as an individual restoring old car parts, ultimately finding them calming and allowing my brain to connect with a beautiful transformation, taking my mind off of the panic. Belongingness and Love is best categorized with that aforementioned connectivity, and in my opinion is the easiest of the needs to connect with on a digital landscape. While I do not personally use them, dating apps allow individuals from all over the world to connect with one another in more intimate ways, however there are more personal means that friends such as mine use to connect an entire group together for games, movie nights, or simply to talk. Esteem needs are a bit more personally achieved, differing heavily from individual to individual, however for me personally I connect with this most through my work and digital portfolio that I have been developing over the course of the past four years. While I ultimately view my portfolio as a declaration of my accomplishments, I take great pride in updating it with new information and work that showcase my position within my academic career. Self-actualization is the final, and more difficult need to translate onto a digital space, however ultimately it is best left up to personal implementation and creativity. For me personally, my position within this need comes from my level of outreach to employers, using the digital landscape to connect with potential collaborators or professionals in the field I wish to become a part of, whether that be for inquisitive purposes or creative means. Ultimately, like most things, the hierarchy of needs can be tuned to reflect one’s usage of any category of things, with positives being able to be determined from each category, with in depth understanding of how the individual works and connects with the world through their examples.
Journal 5: Of the possible motives as to why individuals commit cyber offenses, I believe that the most obvious would be tied between recognition, money, and political means. The trio of motives reflect the three primary tenets of cybercrime, in that the individual either does it for fun, for profit, or for a more directed reason. These are also the three most obvious motives that are explored frequently throughout investigations that I have taken part in, with monetary gain being the highest probable motive behind an attack. The fourth most obvious motive would be revenge mostly because of the highly dependable access to anonymity that a digital landscape grants you. For cyber offenders, it is easier to justify their actions if they can ensure that the individual does not know it is them committing it, leading to situations were physical disagreements turn into digital wars conducted by rivaling factions that ultimately do nothing but aggravate one another. Should this be harmless, it would not be talked about more, however cyber deviance very often has the potential to affect innocents as well such as situations where DDoS attacks are deployed to take down services. Boredom and entertainment are two motives that I do not necessarily connect with being as prevalent as they once were, with the more obvious of the two being entertainment, as script kiddies continue to run rampant, however ultimately when compared with other motives there are less likely to be tied to a particular crime or event. The seventh most obvious motive would simply be ‘multiple reasons’ as this ties together numerous of the previously discussed motives, often resulting in more complex, and rarer instances of cyber deviance.
Journal 6: The primary determining factor when comparing fake websites to real websites comes from their presence online. When coming across a website that leaves you skeptical, ask yourself if their popularity was earned or bought. The most common instance of individuals falling for scam sites posing as real ones comes from the imposter website paying Google directly to appear higher within the search results, often appearing immediately at the top as a “sponsored” website. Should the website be sponsored, it is often not able to be trusted as their reputation was purchased instead of earned in a trustworthy way. Another example would be the type of payment for services acquired, most notably with examples where the admins demand payment prior to receiving any semblance of service or product, a far too common form of scam that still remains dominant today. The final and more obvious way of detecting whether a website is a scam or not comes from the quality of their website, with most scam sites only representing the bare minimum. If you suspect that a website may be a fake, explore the website greatly, by clicking on different areas of the site or by exploring different tabs to see if any of them are less complete than others. Should the website be real, this issue will most likely not exist, with each area of the site being filled with information about services or products, compared to fake sites where some pages may appear blank or not filled in all the way.
Journal 7: Social media use throughout the world, especially within adolescent populations is reaching what I believe to be a critical point that displays a turning point in internet culture. This is best symbolized in the Social Media Disorder Scale, a tool developed by researchers used to determine whether or not an individual is linked to social media use in an overwhelmingly negative way. While this mostly determines whether or not the individual could be viewed as addicted to social media, it also seeks to determine if their usage of social media has critically impacted their ability to understand and interact with social settings that have the potential to be negative. While on the range of the scale I do not fall within a category of addict, I did notice myself agreeing with much of the sentiments towards individuals having negative interactions with friends or family members based on their social media postings, something I have internalized in the past. While social media is to be used as a platform to express free speech or one’s ideas and personality, far too often to people use it as a platform to spread hateful messages or ideologies, something I have struggled with in the past. Whether that be family members sharing hateful political messages or strangers spreading hateful comments on personal friend’s posts, I find myself more easily disconnected than I would be in a traditional social setting, leading me to understand that my social media usage has caused me to disconnect from conflict due to the large quantity of it within a digital atmosphere. Ultimately I view this as a separate variable compared to what others have scored on this scale, whether that be because they are indeed addicted, or because their usage of social media has done the opposite of what it has done to me.
Journal 8: Social cybersecurity, or the understanding that individuals need to defend themselves against digital information warfare, is a highly useful skill that individuals operating online must learn to adapt to. As evident throughout the past year involving the war in Ukraine, information is a primary avenue of war within a digital landscape, often leading individuals to disconnect from facts, instead believing rumors or whatever conspiracy information they uncovered. Anonymity throughout the internet allows individuals to say what they want, far too often resulting in the vast spreading of misinformation or “fake news.” Ultimately, this leads conflicting powers to post opposite information, creating a divide between populations as parts believe opposing individuals, outlined most prominently within American politics throughout the last especially three years. While it should be the official’s job to post only accurate, truthful information, world politics especially have reached a point where it is now the individual’s job to ensure that they are only internalizing the truth, rather than radical ideologies that seek to harm their connection to the world, and people around them.
Journal 9: Similarly to social cybersecurity, a cybersecurity analyst seeks mainly to understand and connect social interactions within a digital landscape to determine what threats may be particularly dangerous for the environment that you are situated within. While this does not necessarily mean that an analyst works exclusively to understand people, it means that their job largely revolves around the systems they are protecting, including the individuals who may work on those systems. It is the job of an analyst to ensure that the network and her systems run in a routine, uninterrupted way, ensuring that all connections (including personal within the network) can interact in a way that is safe and effective, while also monitoring for errors (such as possible attacks) that could cause downtime or loss of data.
Journal 10: Andriy Slynchuk’s analysis on commonly ignored laws within a digital landscape is a particular piece of research I found interesting due to the highly realistic approach to understanding innocent victimization. Of the eleven crimes mentioned, the five that I found the most interesting exist not as a cautionary tale, but as a reflection into how internet culture has allowed individuals to evolve away from a fear of crime, adapting more into a fearless lack of care. Pirating movies through streaming sites, torrenting software and games, and sharing copyrighted content are the three most egregious examples I have come across on the internet throughout the past decade. Particularly due to the ease of access to this type of illegal content, individuals on the internet have moved away from even viewing this as illegal, rather a tool in their arsenal that is allowed because of the often-connected idea of the internet being a lawless and free place. Anonymity on the internet greatly influences this, as individuals who view themselves as untouchable seek these types of illegal activities because the gain is great while the risk is presumably low, creating a feeling of riskless deviance that is able to exist within all ages that are using the internet. Another form of this is bullying, or the more common extreme variant, “trolling.” Anonymity connects greatly here as individuals on the internet, often not connecting with their true identity, seek arguments or discourse with other individuals more freely, often resulting in hostile exchanges made without the usual empathy that an individual might feel should the argument take place in person. Some individuals on the internet routinely deploy racist, homophobic, or sexist efforts to derail or takeover an argument, with these techniques also being used to target harassment towards selected individuals, sometimes escalating to hateful orders intended to cause physical or mental harm. As previously mentioned this also connects with another of Slynchuk’s online crimes which is the faking of one’s identity within a digital atmosphere, a routinely used tool to maintain anonymity for those who wish to continually employ deviant actions or efforts.