Career Paper

My career paper will focus on the task of a cyber security analyst focusing more into fraud. There aren’t many titles out there directly to a “fraud analyst” hired under the cyber security umbrella. Especially, with today’s time in age and so many people taken advantage of whether it’s phishing or bank card fraud. That is why this is where my focus will be, and drive will be for my career.

I’ve been working in the Tech work for about 3 years now and educating myself since high school. But in all those years phishing has stayed prevalent and has only gotten worse. It’s something that has become much easier to do and caused several different types of impacts on those affected. Whether you are old or young it can become a mental toll on someone. If this happens to you, you might think to yourself why you didn’t notice it or why you weren’t more careful. But attackers have gotten better with making these attempts look more legit and sounder more real. All in all I hate the fact people get taken advantage of because of the lack of information they might have on fraud and phishing or just simple because they’re vulnerable. Older people getting hacked or being a victim of fraud or phishing bother me especially because they can get hacked for their whole life savings and or retirement. I, myself and other family members have been victims to a phishing and banks fraud attack. 

The connection to social sciences in this aspect of the course this semester was really cool because it touched on both the criminals and us, the victims. Hackers leach on the vulnerability and greed they have. People of the world fall short because of being in a rush or not educated. Hackers/criminals usually have some sort of motive as we’ve spoke about in class whether it’s money or revenge. But one thing is for sure they are greedy and can’t stop. Most of them but not all feel that once they’ve gotten one person, they can get multiple others. They may also feel that once they’ve gotten away with one or two victims they can get away with more. This may explain why several people committing these crimes maybe feel it’s easy to commit the same crime again. 

Not only do we see phishing and fraud in young and old individuals but people with businesses as well. Phishing and fraud are also a problem/issue seen in businesses all across the board. This problem in businesses may cause a loss of data, reputation damage, and of course money loss. Depending on the kind of business you may be running the loss of data may be a key factor to how you keep track of all your customers for several factors such as knowing the money they put into your business and the advertising you are able to give customers to help bring them back into your business. Reputation damage can severely affect you and or business because your reputation is what makes you or your business a credible source. Money loss is one of the most impactful consequences of them all. Once phishing and fraud becomes an issues for any person or business it almost immediately always means money is at risk. 

All these factors can cause a severe financial impact on one’s business enough to not allow them to be able to operate. People and business owners can also be impacted with emotional impact. They could become stressed, uncertain, and develop anxiety over what may happen to them. This was briefly spoken about more in depth in chapter/week 10. As we dove into the aspects of social engineering which is the strategy to seek information about you to steal you identify and or password. We talked in depth about the four stages which are information gathering, relationship development, exploitation, and execution. The main things I touched on was phishing as it is most common, but spear phishing and whaling are two others that are effective. As well as tailgating which is following an individual physically into a space and stealing their information. But just in 2023 we saw the most phishing attacks compared to 2022. There were 1.76 billion cases which was a 51% increase from 2022. Which is why being a cyber security analyst with a more in tune insight on fraud would help mitigate this.

          A cybersecurity analystis responsible or protecting an organization’s computer systems, networks, and sensitive data from cyber threats, such as hacking, malware, ransomware, and other forms of cyberattacks. Their job involves monitoring, detecting, preventing, and responding to security incidents, ensuring that the organization’s digital infrastructure remains secure and resilient against potential threats. Which all falls under the scope of fraud essentially. This is very close in relation to a fraud analyst as well, as they strictly detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent activities within an organization or individual. But their responsibilities involve analyzing data, identifying suspicious patterns, and implementing strategies to minimize financial and reputational risks due to fraud. A cybersecurity analyst and a fraud analyst share several similarities in their roles, particularly in terms of their focus on identifying, preventing, and responding to harmful activities that can damage an organization’s assets, reputation, and integrity. Both positions require a strong understanding of security risks, vigilance, and the ability to analyze data for signs of malicious activity or breaches. But I personally feel just these jobs aren’t enough individuals must also be trained as well to detect these things. Training is just as important as us as cyber security analyst doing our jobs.

          Once I am some day In this role at whatever company I will make it my duty to implement the the proper training for employees. As I feel yes people know it is a big deal, but I feel no one takes fraud or malicious attacks serious unless they are a victim. Which is another reason I want to get into the role. Doing things like going to movies sites to see movies in theaters isn’t legal nor safe. But people don’t care. Connecting to WIFI’s in your local coffee shop is convenient but most don’t know they are putting themselves at harm. That instead connecting to a personal hotspot is a lot better. But they say if you don’t know any better how would know you could be doing better? I feel like that is the case for a lot of people across the world. Technology is steady evolving, but people aren’t told the risk they are being exploited to as things change.

          That in a nut shell is my idea and my main drive for my career. The more I work in the tech field as a support analyst currently I see how people differ from one another. How the knowledge gaps are and see how carelessly reckless some people are. But I also know that criminals look for any small gap they can exploit whoever and whatever. I look forward to making may way up the ladder and being a cyber security analyst someday.