This course was build around ODU’s Cybercriminology program and it taught to me from a criminal justice perspective rather than a technical one. The work here looked at how cybercriminals carry out their attacks and how some tools and techniques listed below (coursework artifacts) are used in their operations. Some of these tools can also be used by law enforcement and cybersecurity professionals to stop them. Assignments leaned heavily on applied content creation, including video presentations, rather than traditional papers. Feel free to watch some of them below.

Coursework Artifacts

Reflection

Throughout my time in this course, I noticed my role shift from student to investigator. I felt like each presentation allowed me to see different approaches on the same question of how information gets exposed and exploited. I did hands-on learning with new tools and techniques instead of reading up on them. My biggest learning moment was realizing how much of this applies to my own life. Researching my email through haveibeenpwned and pulling metadata off a photo to reveal certain information about me made the risks feel personal in a way that reading about them never had.

I’ve also learned that cybersecurity is not just about the technical stuff, such as firewalls and encryption, but it also includes human behavior as well. Your cybersecurity hygiene can leave the door open for attackers if overlooked, so it’s important to educate yourself on best cybersecurity practices. This experience changed how I approach cybersecurity as a field. Before this course, I mostly thought about protecting systems from the defender’s side. Now I understand that thinking like an attacker, understanding their tools, their motivations, and how they gather information, is just as important for building real, effective defenses. This shift will stick with me as I move forward into more technical and policy-focused work in my career.