Cybersecurity, Technology, and Society

Since I started the cybersecurity, technology and society class back in August, I have learned many different aspects of cybersecurity. I have completed a number of activities including a multitude of discussion boards, essays, quizzes and exams. Some of the main points that I have learned so far are listed below. 

Cyber Technology and Criminal Behavior

In class we talked about how cybercrimes are traditional crimes that are committed differently than they were in the past. For example bullying in the past may be picking on people in the hallway of school. Nowadays people can bully others no matter where they are. We also talk about different types of hackers. For example state sponsored hackers are hired by a government to hack into the computer infrastructure of other governments or businesses. On the other hand, hacktivists are hackers who hack as a form of activism and use their hacking to publicize perceived wrongs. 

Impact of Cyber Technology with Crime and Victimization

The idea of victimization is new to me. First we dove into some of the theories and studies that explore cyber offending and victimization. The neutralization theory shows offenders justify behavior before committing the crimes. Victimization is the concept that the victim plays a role in the crime. For example of cyberbullying, the more of an online presence one has the more they are likely to experience cyber bullying. 

Ethical Dilemmas of Cybersecurity 

Since the advancement of technology has improved our lives so has the inverse. Some of the ethical problems that we have talked about in class are pornography in cyber. The internet is described as the “principle medium for distribution” of child pornography. Computers allow production, storage, distribution, and communication with victims and other offenders. Looking and diving in on who engages in internet sex crimes can we now discuss the ethical dilemmas of cybersecurity. 

Costs and Benefits of Cyber Technologies

Cybersecurity is used in almost every business. Without a good cybersecurity structure in place businesses may lose up to millions of dollars. For example they cyber attack on MGM where they were losing up to 8.4 million dollars per day as their slot machines were paralyzed. Learning how a business survives and the part that cybersecurity plays a role in that is vital. Also knowing that not every organization and business have the same goals or the same amount of resources to allocate to cybersecurity. 

Cybersecurity and Inappropriate Behavior

This topic was addressed many times throughout the course. The one that stood out the most from class was the Mahr reading assigned to me. According to Mahr, “The term workplace deviance refers to any voluntary employee behavior that breaks significant company norms with the result of jeopardizing the well-being or productivity of the organization or its employees” (2022). How I see it,  the type of deviance slides on a scale. It can go from one extreme like taking a little longer in the bathroom, or spending a little more time on break than currently allowed to the other extreme like selling company secrets, or knowingly spreading viruses from the inside. 

Cybersecurity Ideas of Progress and Modernism

It is assumed that humanity is on an upward trajectory but it can be confused with the much less certain idea that technology is better. In class we dove into this idea and how the adaptation of technology over time. Some of the examples are how it took 25 years for the cell phone to go from 10% to 96% adoption in 2019. With the speed and advancement of technology we have started to solve some of our biggest problems. We currently have technology to change baby embryos to modify their dna. With the advancement in this field many other ideas of how we can change society for the better can occur.