Relativism means that everything in a system is related to and affects one another in said
system. This idea can be more palatable when looking at any system as an ecosystem. In
an ecosystem, the changing or introduction of something into the ecosystem will alter
everything in the ecosystem in some way. This thinking helps us view the macro and micro
events that occur in a system. In Cybersecurity, this can be seen in the way that new
vulnerabilities being found in one system will lead to either vulnerabilities being abused or
patched in others. Whether that is from the company to company or even in different fields
like medical and judicial.
Objectivity means that research results must be free from personal bias or opinions to
objectively come to fair conclusions. This keeps results based on facts versus feelings,
which is the core of science. In cybersecurity, this can be applied to avoid people from
using unethical practices to justify using methods such as spying on others through their
cameras. Also, giving cybersecurity offenders fair verdicts based on what fits the crime
instead of how much the crime is believed to be punishable by an individual who has
personal experience with said crime says it should be.
Parsimony means that research should be explained in a way that is in the most digestible
and logical way possible. This is to avoid complex solutions, creating too many variables to
focus on. This can be seen in cybersecurity with the idea of least privilege. It is easier to
control a system in which people can only get access to what they need versus what they
can have. The lower-level employee having access to top secret information can lead to
misuse or leaking to hostile entities while they should have just enough to do their job.
Empiricism means that something must be obtainable with the senses to be applied to our
general knowledge. This is related to all five of our physical senses. This can be used in a
deeper sense in something akin to objectivity in which we have to use concrete evidence
(observable data) rather than assumptions to shape our views of a subject. Decisions on
whether a threat actor is going to strike a particular point should be based on actual logs
and data instead of a person’s gut feeling.
Ethical Neutrality means that a person should not let their opinion or personal bias get in
the way of treating a subject fairly within a code of ethics. With this line of thinking
everything has to be judged on a case by case basis so nothing is inherently good or bad.
Hacking has to be judged based on its intent and not by the fact that it is inherently invasive
in nature. Criminals can be hacked to ensure the safety of others while usually it is used for
malicious intent. As said before, even with malicious intent the crime must be judged
fairly.
Determinism means that something is caused by an event that happened before itself. This
can be seen as cause and effect. Something had to happen to have created a current
problem. People will commit lower-level cybercrime due to being in financial struggles or
due to peer pressure.