Since I was a little my idea of science was just beakers and test tubes. People in lab coats like Bill Nye The Science Guy coming up with hypotheses and conducting tests to see if he was right. Although this idea wasn’t completely wrong it just isn’t the whole truth. “Science is both a body of knowledge and a process. In school, science may sometimes seem like a collection of isolated and static facts.Just as importantly, science is also a process of discovery that allows us to link isolated facts into coherent and comprehensive understandings of the natural world” (What Is Science, 2022). Some principles of science that I would like to explore more in depth would be: objectivity, parsimony, empiricism and ethical neutrality.
“Objectivity refers to the way that scientists study topics in a value-free manner”, Dr. Leigh Armistead. Depending on the specialty of cybersecurity a person decides to dive into, some topics like should we monitor the digital footprint of pedophiles, and to what extent? Objectivity is to advance knowledge, so even if we have strong opinions on the issue we can’t let that skew our work and research.
“Parsimony means that scientists should keep their levels of explanation as simple as possible” Dr Leigh Armistead. For example during a crime investigation, cyber security analysts are taught to follow the order of volatility when collecting evidence. Keeping it simple helps everyone do their job better and the more you understand the more you know what to do and how to execute.
“Empiricism means that social scientists can only study behavior which is real to the senses (e.g., we can touch, see, taste, hear, or smell it)” Dr. Leigh Armistead. One instance that I can see this come up is in relation to an insider threat. An insider threat is just someone that works for your company that has ulterior motives, like stealing and selling sensitive information. Just because we suspect someone of this, doesn’t mean we can act without hard evidence. So data loss prevention systems would be used to help identify them.
“Ethical neutrality refers to the fact that scientists must adhere to ethical standards when they conduct their research” Dr. Leigh Armistead. One of the big issues today that bring up this principle would be the use of artificial intelligence. Currently, one of the main arguments of the writers strike is the restriction of using this technology for future movies and tv shows. The ability to tell artificial intelligence to write a script is highly intriguing to entertainment execs but is that a fair thing to do. Cutting out thousands of jobs and affecting all the lives in the process.
References
University of California Museum of Paleontology. (2022, September 9). What is science? – understanding science. Understanding Science – How science REALLY works… https://undsci.berkeley.edu/understanding-science-101/what-is-science/