Introduction
Throughout my time in the cybersecurity program, I have learned many skills that will benefit me in the future. These interdisciplinary skills have helped prepare for a career after I shortly graduate for a future in a cybersecurity or technology related field. The combination of experience in research, proficiency of knowledge in expertise, and developing communication skills have helped prepare for a future career. Throughout my time taking different courses in the cybersecurity major program I will talk about different artifacts that have stood out to me. These artifacts have developed both hard and soft skills that will help me in the future as I pursue a career in cybersecurity/technology. In this reflection, I will mainly focus on three artifacts, being my final paper on cyber war, my business plan, and I will conclude in talking about cyberwarfare and the impact on military strategy. I will also briefly look at six additional artifacts that represent work that I have done throughout my time in the cybersecurity program. All together these artifacts/experiences in research have helped me grow with an interdisciplinary mindset while helping me prepare for complex work within the workforce.
Artifact One
One of the artifacts that stands out to me was a paper conducted just recently. This paper had me analyze cyberwar. The question being posed at the beginning of the paper was, “Is cyberwar at risk of being militarized?”. Throughout this paper I talked about the history of different warfare domains and how they evolved. Continuing this pattern, I talked about the history of the cyber domain. The beginnings of domains like air and cyberspace had similar beginnings. Both started with the idea to accomplish great things, but quickly became more militarized overtime. Over the past couple of decades we have seen rapid growth of budgeting in militarizing cyberspace by many countries around the world. However, cyberspace is different when compared to domains like land, air, sea, and space because a majority of the actions that occur in cyberspace are non-kinetic. Additionally, while these attacks are non-kinetic they are mostly also non attributable. This means that countries that are attacked are likely to not know where the attack originated from.
When looking back on this paper I particularly looked at the section of paper when I talked about the three global powers being the United States, China, and Russia. I looked at these three countries and analyzed how they differ in how they operate in the cyber domain. For example, I talked about how the United States is more focused on defensive cyber operations while countries such as China and Russia are more focused on offensive cyber operations. This contrast in operations was interesting when I analyzed these global powers throughout the power. When analyzing I realized that there was a origin to all of those ways in which those countries operated. Throughout this research I realized that ideas of a nation often stem from prior experiences and shape how a country operates. I previously thought that actions were made solely off of current circumstances and past events played little role in how decisions were made. This specific example taught me the interdisciplinary structure of how our world operates in combining history with human behavior and technology like cybersecurity. I realized how narrow my viewpoint was in analyzing current events and why they potentially happen. I now better understand the importance of having an interdisciplinary view on history and analyzing how current events occur and looking at the motive behind actions.
Artifact Two
Secondly, another artifact that I will talk about is my work on my business plan. I built this business plan as a final for my entrepreneurship class. This class challenged me to be creative in thinking of new ideas. Throughout this course I was trying to figure out what my business idea was going to be based on. I finally realized that one of the most intriguing technologies that is being integrated into businesses is artificial intelligence. This revelation sparked my mind and interest, and I looked into artificial intelligence and the growing impact that it has had on business and the world. Artificial intelligence is a rapidly growing technology that learns more and more everyday, this technology is becoming more accurate over time. With this accuracy I knew that I could create a company that was centered around preventing cyber phishing attacks using artificial intelligence.
While looking at all of my course work, this artifact stood out to me because I created a full fledged business plan using all of my ideas and knowledge gathered from all of the courses in the cybersecurity major. When making this business plan I realized that I was grabbing from many different courses when making the plan. From my courses on coding in linux to my course in cybersecurity in social sciences. I was using all of these courses when making the plan, and this helped me brainstorm ideas that benefited the overall product of the plan. I was able to think about operating the business in the mindset of a leader while looking to create a budget all at the same time. I was combining different interdisciplinary ideas like business, leadership, computer science, and engineering. I realized that creating a plan in the technological field requires work from other disciplines in order for the plan to be successful.
Furthermore, as the business plan began to flesh out I realized that I had to tailor this plan to a user centered experience. This business plan wasn’t just about making money and being profitable or being successful. This plan was about the user experience and finding ways in which we can help people and their companies combat phishing attempts. The most important part of this business plan that I realized towards the end, was how important the human element was. This resonated with me because one of my goals in life is to help people, and sometimes we have to take a step back and look at a whole project from a wide scope. Overall, this business plan was successful because I blended many different disciplines and previous knowledge to create something productive. This project strengthened some of my skills involving problem solving and being creative.
Artifact Three
Thirdly, the last artifact that stood out to me was my final paper in my technology and war class. This paper also talked about cyberwar and the increasing significance that the cyber domain will have in the world. I looked at different case studies and read many different books in preparation for this paper. I looked at many different concepts like Clausewitz’s writing “On War” and looked at theories like arms racing and looked at how doctrine plays a role in all of this.
When beginning this paper I thought that writing the paper would be easy because I had prior knowledge in cyberspace and cyber war, but that was not the case. When writing this paper I was tasked with incorporating different theories and case studies into my paper with my already existing knowledge. Taking my already existing knowledge and combining it with new knowledge gained from theories was hard at first. However as I progressed in the making of the paper I got better at analyzing information and combining it with previous knowledge. Whether my previous knowledge was wrong or has since changed when writing the paper, I was able to take my skills gained from other courses in writing and apply them when writing this paper. Being able to stay open minded and be flexible when writing papers will help me in the future. When making presentations in my future jobs I have the ability to stay open minded and have the experience to look at many sources for information.
When looking at this artifact from an interdisciplinary perspective, I combined various disciplines like communication, cybersecurity, and history. Looking back on this paper, I not only learned that staying open minded can help me with credibility, but also that when we look to solve problems we will also incorporate an interdisciplinary mindset to do so. We can solve many problems that we have both on an individual and world scope through our perspective in solving problems using many disciplines.
Artifact Four through Nine
The fourth artifact that I will talk about is my interdisciplinary final paper. This paper looks at the internet and how we can use different disciplines to solve problems. This paper helped me figure out the importance of incorporating different disciplines to solve problems effectively.
The fifth artifact that I will talk about is my paper on the importance of having cybersecurity in High Schools. This paper helped me realize the importance of cybersecurity in protecting sensitive information. This helped me develop my knowledge on various cybersecurity topics which I can carry over into my future employment.
The sixth artifact that I will discuss is the presentation that I gave in my public speaking course. This presentation was an 8 minute presentation in which I talked about the importance of cybersecurity in our everyday lives. This artifact helped develop my communication skills, so that in the future I can effectively communicate if I had to present an idea/product.
The seventh artifact that I highlight is my personal leadership philosophy done in my entrepreneurship class. In this assignment I was tasked with explaining my own leadership philosophy and how that relates to being a successful entrepreneur. In this assignment I develop my leadership skills while furthering my development in communication.
The eighth artifact that I will discuss is my work in my cybersecurity technique and operations class. In this assignment we worked on ethical hacking which could help me look competitive when looking for jobs. This assignment increased my proficiency in expertise when working through this difficult assignment.
The last artifact that I will highlight was one of my book analysis assignments in technology and war class. In this assignment I looked at a book and analyzed the contents in combinations with ideas from different additional sources to come to a conclusion. This assignment helped me develop my experience in research and developing my expertise in cyberspace.
Conclusion
While building my e-portfolio and reflecting back on these three artifacts that stand out, I now see what skills I have gained throughout my time in the Cybersecurity program. When looking back on these artifacts, they all contribute to the skills that I have gained through these works. Using interdisciplinary perspectives showed me that we can solve problems more effectively when using ideas from different disciplines. The interconnectedness when combining ideas from different disciplines is where I saw great success in my work.
Reflecting on my academic journey as a whole, I gained some skills of experience in research, proficiency of knowledge in expertise, and developing communication skills. Having these skills will directly affect my future and career readiness in a tremendous way. Each of these artifacts challenged me beyond my narrow view on many cyber related topics. Throughout all of the reading, lectures, and assignments helped prepare me for my future career in a technology related field. The lessons that I learned throughout my coursework and specifically these three artifacts have strengthened my view and will stick with me as I continue my journey.
Works Cited
Jacob, J., Peters, M., & Yang, T. A. (2019). Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity: Rethinking the approach and the process. In Advances in intelligent systems and computing (pp. 61–74). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31239-8_6
Bronstein, L. R. (2003). A model for interdisciplinary collaboration. Social work, 48(3), 297-306.
Bigelow, B. (2019, May). What are military cyberspace operations other than war?. In 2019 11th International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon) (Vol. 900, pp. 1-17). IEEE.
Caforio, G. (Ed.). (2006). Social sciences and the military: An interdisciplinary overview.
Kumar, V. (2024, March 24). Interdisciplinary Strategies for Combatting Cybercrime: a global imperative. Law Audience. https://www.lawaudience.com/interdisciplinary-strategies-for-combatting-cybercrime-a-global-imperative/#:~:text=This%20article%20embarks%20on%20an%20extensive%20exploration%20of