Cybersecurity, Technology, and Society

Students in IT/CYSE 200T will explore how technology is related to cybersecurity from an interdisciplinary orientation.  Attention is given to the way that technologically-driven cybersecurity issues are connected to cultural, political, legal, ethical, and business domains. The learning outcomes for this course are as follows:

1. Describe how cyber technology creates opportunities for criminal behavior,
2. Identify how cultural beliefs interact with technology to impact cybersecurity strategies,
3. Understand and describe how the components, mechanisms, and functions of cyber systems produce security concerns,
4. Discuss the impact that cyber technology has on individuals’ experiences with crime and victimization,
5. Understand and describe ethical dilemmas, both intended and unintended, that cybersecurity efforts, produce for individuals, nations, societies, and the environment,
6. Describe the costs and benefits of producing secure cyber technologies,
7. Understand and describe the global nature of cybersecurity and the way that cybersecurity efforts have produced and inhibited global changes,
8. Describe the role of cybersecurity in defining definitions of appropriate an inappropriate behavior,
9. Describe how cybersecurity produces ideas of progress and modernism.

Course Material

Students in this course have completed a number of activities including an reflection essay, weekly technology and cybersecurity journal,  and several quizzes and exams. Please include some of these artifacts on this page, particularly the reflection essay, explaining what you did and how these projects helped you engage with the outcomes listed above. Listed below are a few cybersecurity discussion board posts throughout the course.

What benefit can organizations gain from using this framework, and how would you use it at your future workplace?

In the reading ahead you will be learning about different cybersecurity aspects and the way they are ran. After reading about the NIST cybersecurity framework, I noticed that it has many benefits that organizations can gain from. NIST cybersecurity framework helps manage, better understanding and it reduces the risk of any company being hacked and it protects the company’s network and data. I would use this at my future workplace by maintaining a cybersecurity program, and so I know that all my network and data will be as safe as possible and get a better understanding to manage and understand my workplace.

In this discussion board, you are the CISO for a publicly traded company. What protections would you implement to ensure availability of your systems (and why)?

Here is a little intake on the Chief information security officers do their jobs, for starters, I believe the best CISO’s are the ones who have learned about policy and controls and are very strong technologists. The CISO role must evolve with the threat landscape and technologies. You must understand the technical side of cybersecurity. As the CISO, my top priorities would be to protect the business, allow the business to grow, and make that growth secure as possible. You must constantly be shifting, adapting, and learning. I would spend about two hours every morning just understanding what has changed since the night before, rather it be new threats, bad actors, or vulnerabilities.

Bio Cybersecurity involves protecting the security and integrity of biological data, systems, and prevents cyber-attacks. There are multiple ethical considerations that need to be addressed. Access to data: Researchers require access to data to develop treatments and cures, but there are concerns about data being used for unauthorized purposes. Privacy: With the increasing amount of biological data being collected, stored, and analyzed, there is a risk of violating others privacy. Equity: There is a risk of bias and discrimination in Bio Cybersecurity, such as with any field.  The considerations should be at the forefront of Bio Cybersecurity. Research is done to ensure that the benefits of this field are recognized without compromising individuals. My position would be to achieve these measures in a way that is fair to all individuals of the society.

In conclusion, the three topics that were talked about above are very important to the cybersecurity and technology world, just in many ways. When we think of cybersecurity, these three topics do not pop in our minds first, yet they are about a cybersecurity framework that helps protect and defend, how differently all Chief information security officers work and how effective their work is to the cybersecurity world, and lastly different way to protect biological data.