Artifact 1:

Leadership in Internship Cohort Management — Navy Federal Credit Union

In my role at Navy Federal Credit Union, I had the opportunity to lead a cohort of interns through their onboarding process and integration into the team. This responsibility involved coordinating orientation activities, facilitating introductions, and ensuring each intern understood their roles and expectations. I served as the primary point of contact for questions, concerns, and support, helping to address any issues promptly and effectively.

By guiding the interns through their initial days and helping them acclimate to the team culture and workflow, I fostered an environment of collaboration and open communication. This experience strengthened my leadership skills by requiring me to be approachable, organized, and responsive. It also reinforced the importance of clear communication and empathy when supporting new team members.

Managing this cohort allowed me to develop practical skills in mentoring and team coordination, which are essential for future roles such as a security analyst or team lead. It also gave me firsthand insight into the dynamics of workplace onboarding and the value of creating a positive and supportive environment for new professionals.

Artifact 2:

CYSE 201S Career Paper — The Role of Social Sciences in Cybersecurity

While a big portion of the discussion around cybersecurity is technical, the social aspect is typically forgotten. Cybersecurity analysts are one such role in which social science plays a major role. Cybersecurity analysts handle an organization’s IT infrastructure and security, identifying threats to it and taking steps to mitigate such risks. Even though they spend most of their time executing and improving technical defenses, concepts like human behavior, group dynamics, and criminal activity come under social science umbrella with psychology, sociology, and criminology as the broader areas of interest. In this paper, we investigate the reliance of cybersecurity analysts on social science research as a means to increase their effectiveness, and how these principles work in favor of protecting marginalized groups and society at large.

Psychology

Psychology is used by cybersecurity analysts to counter the most familiar and frequent cybercrime attack called social engineering attacks. It utilizes devious human actions like phishing, pretexting, or impersonation to deceive individuals into disclosing sensitive information. Cybersecurity analysts can use their knowledge of cognitive biases, for instance, trust or urgency, and the fact that an attacker may be preemptively trying to exploit this bias in users to set down a security measure plan. This psychological insight also assists analysts in creating training programs for employees to understand how social engineering works so they can avoid falling into this trap, thereby minimizing the chance of a breach.

Sociology

Sociology is another aspect of the social science in cybersecurity. Cybersecurity analysts take sociological concepts to examine social structures in the organization and interaction between people and technology, as well with each other. Insider threats — cases where employees or contractors intentionally or inadvertently compromise security — for instance, can be understood from a group dynamics and organizational culture perspective. This knowledge is utilized by analysts to create policies that encourage safe behavior and deter insider threats. They might also think about how the different roles that people hold in a group or organization affect compliance with security and use those ideas to customize training and policies.

Criminology and Crime Prevention

Criminology assists in many aspects of cybersecurity, where the focus is more on cybercrime prevention and detection. Analysts can apply criminological theories around criminal behavior, meaning they understand the motivations and tradecraft of cybercriminals. Understanding that attackers may be motivated by financial gain or political ideology, for instance, allows analysts to determine how cyber threats can and should be prioritized. Insights into these motivations also help in designing better defenses and incident response plans. Furthermore, criminology can provide analysts with a better understanding of the social and situational dynamics in which cyberattacks unfold, thus enabling more accurate threat modelling around repeat incidents.

The Importance of Safeguarding Marginalized Groups

Cybersecurity analysts play an equally important role in defending marginalized communities from cyber violence. Cybercriminals target masked entire groups of our society as well (not just at the individual level, but collectively): the homeless population, people with mental disabilities or no computer skills, racist and xenophobic types of low-income communities, and LGBTQ+ communities. For example, they may be more susceptible to online harassment, identity theft, and exploitation. Social science research can help cybersecurity analysts identify these vulnerabilities and create more equitable security processes that cater to the needs of a specific population.

Additionally, by applying criminological and sociological principles, analysts can ensure that cybersecurity efforts do not inadvertently victimize these groups. For instance, the law on privacy or surveillance could be weaponized to crack down on vulnerable populations and incite violence against them. Cybersecurity analysts must manage the tightrope between maintaining security without trampling on civil liberties as well, taking care that those already marginalized are not surveilled or stigmatized.

Use of Major Principles

Cybersecurity analysts use concepts from class, like risk assessment or security policies, or threat modeling on a day-to-day basis. Analysts should not just determine the potential for a technical attack but also consider the social variables that could affect human behavior in risk assessment. For instance, being aware of the psychological nature of social engineering attacks enables an analyst to determine if this vector represents a risk.

Analysts should consider organizational culture, group dynamics and the potential for insider threats when developing security policies. Taking social aspects into consideration makes it possible for analysts to broaden the scope of policies, ensuring that they are effective and applicable, which means compliance among various social groups in an organization. In the same manner, threat modeling uses some aspects of criminology to forecast potential cybercrimes. By comprehending how cybercriminals work and what their motives, and actions are; analysts can prepare defenses in advance or identify holes within the system before being used to gain credibility.

Description:
This paper explores how cybersecurity analysts use psychology, sociology, and criminology to prevent cybercrime and protect marginalized groups. It shows my ability to approach security problems through multiple disciplines and think critically about the human side of digital threats.