IT/CYSE 200T

More and more on the news we hear about the scare of companies and foreign agents collecting and selling our data from using websites or services. Many companies have even responded citing the need for the data in data science and government ventures and are safe for users. Although these companies have put forward the reasoning for why the collection of private data from computers is safe is something to note but I believe it is also very important to take into account the ethical issues of such a practice. I believe that breaking the ethical issues into social problems and dilemmas could help highlight those issues. The four issues I find most impactful from the collection of data is that of the racial, socio economic, political, and defense kind. Firstly, to speak on the ramifications of racial division I believe one must first go to the companies that may take data relating to race and sell that data to politicians who may in turn use the data to further redlining of housing districts and gerrymandering based on racial demographics to gain a win on a campaign, the most devastating thing about this is that the collection may not be known to most of these communities. Another such problem with the collection of data in terms of ethics is what it could mean for lower income or underfunded areas, many companies who collect private data also own smaller companies that may target lower class neighborhoods for business and as such may use the data to consolidate all business to those areas as a way of stamping out competition among residents of these areas. Thirdly, as touched on previously the political impact of data collection could be significant as it could increase the frequency and difficulty of election fraud or espionage due to the ability for parties to subpoena certain information that may have been private previously to slander someone. Lastly, it is most important to talk about defense as many companies who collect data are not impervious to data breaches themselves and if these companies collect and store data that data could be lost at the push of a button and sold to unsavory figures all around the world.  

Cybersecurity as a practice and profession is a very broad choice for many people. Cybersecurity can act as a blanket term for the many different specializations of those who use cybersecurity as a defense mechanism. This fact is important because in terms of majors offered at ODU this reasoning can still be used as many majors may work hand in hand with cybersecurity. If this post went really far it could be argued that almost all majors work hand in hand with the security of systems as they make up a major part of our society today in all fields of work. Four majors offered by ODU however could definitely relate heavily with cybersecurity and those are criminal justice, computer science, electrical engineering, and finally philosophy. Firstly, criminal justice as a major is described as the study of law relating to the definitions, investigations, processing and punishment of crimes, which may benefit from the use of cybersecurity engineers aiding in the investigation of criminals. For example, criminal justice refers to the punishment of crime and much of the crime now occurs through use of the internet and as such cybersecurity majors and criminal justice majors may coincide in study to learn both about how the criminals operate on the internet and how to stop them through cyber methods. Secondly, computer science as a major is to study computation and computers through the use of mathematics. Computer science and cybersecurity practically work hand in hand with each other as both follow the same principle when it comes to understanding computers and computation while computer science goes more into computers in general the same practices used in that field are still used in cybersecurity specifically for defense. Thirdly, as technology finds itself more and more in the operation of electrical grids, cybersecurity majors may be increasingly related to electrical engineers as security for these vital industries becomes more important. Lastly, Philosophy may be related to cybersecurity as the findings learned about cyber crime and terrorism may be used in studies by primarily ethics philosophers to understand the damage attacks may cause on people.

The Journal for the first week of CYSE 200T asks why I may be interested in practicing and learning about Cybersecurity technology, and to that I have many different answers. Firstly, I have always been in a household surrounded by technology and we rely so much on the many different kinds of tech be it computers, smart televisions, home security systems, and of course, the smartphone. I might not have realized initially that the tech all around me is vulnerable and can be used against my family, and with all the recent developments and news about data breaches and ransomware attacks I definitely want to be knowledgeable about what these attacks really are, how they could affect me and my fellow citizens, and how I can do my part to defend against them. Secondly, I think my professional goals after college definitely motivate my interest in cybersecurity. After college I would definitely like to try work in some way with the government by either joining the Air Force or trying to get into working for the FBI and as such my ultimate goal with trying to join these organizations is to help serve and protect the country from the many tech attacks from around the world. I have always wanted to help people in some way and to learn more about the ways to protect the United States digitally makes me feel like I am doing my best to defend my fellow citizens. Lastly, and most comically, I am really interested in learning more about cybersecurity because of my friends throughout the years. One of my good friends Thomas had shown me many different basic measures of defending my personal computers since I was in high school and he had somehow made the field interesting and when I found out he had gotten a good paying cybersecurity job only when he was 19, I knew I wanted to get into a field that I really am interested in and make a living from it.