CYSE 200T

Cybersecurity, Technology, and Society

in CYSE 200T I explored how technology is related to cybersecurity from an interdisciplinary orientation.  Attention is given to the way that technologically driven cybersecurity issues are connected to cultural, political, legal, ethical, and business domains. The learning outcomes for this course are as follows:

  1. Describe how cyber technology creates opportunities for criminal behavior,
  2. Identify how cultural beliefs interact with technology to impact cybersecurity strategies,
  3. Understand and describe how the components, mechanisms, and functions of cyber systems produce security concerns,
  4. Discuss the impact that cyber technology has on individuals’ experiences with crime and victimization,
  5. Understand and describe ethical dilemmas, both intended and unintended, that cybersecurity efforts, produce for individuals, nations, societies, and the environment,
  6. Describe the costs and benefits of producing secure cyber technologies,
  7. Understand and describe the global nature of cybersecurity and the way that cybersecurity efforts have produced and inhibited global changes,
  8. Describe the role of cybersecurity in defining definitions of appropriate an inappropriate behavior,
  9. Describe how cybersecurity produces ideas of progress and modernism.

Course Material

Here, I will include the free response and discussion board posts from the class.

 

From Verbeek’s writing (Mod 6, Reading 4) Designing the Public Sphere: Information Technologies and the Politics of Mediation

TOPIC QUESTION

How should markets, businesses, groups, and individuals be regulated or limited differently in the face of diminishing state power and the intelligification (Verbeek, p217) and networking of the material world?

RESPONSE:

Verbeek shows how smart, connected technology now shapes our behavior in ways the state can’t fully control, so we need new limits on how businesses and individuals use it. Regulation has to be shared across governments and tech creators to keep things balanced. Without that, intelligent systems could start guiding decisions more than people do.

The “Short Arm” of Predictive Knowledge

From this week’s Jonas Reading: How should we approach the development of cyber-policy and infrastructure given the “short arm” of predictive knowledge?

Jonas writes about this concept throughout the article. Here is a synopsis of what we mean by “The Short Arm of Predictive Knowledge.”

The “short arm of predictive knowledge” refers to the limited foresight humans historically needed when acting in the world. In the absence of global technological platforms such as the Internet and social media, and of ubiquitous networking, traditional actions had small, local, and short-term effects. People only needed to predict immediate outcomes to act ethically. Long-range consequences were either unknowable or irrelevant.

However, modern technology breaks this pattern! Our actions now have global, long-term, and irreversible effects—so the old, short predictive horizon is no longer adequate for responsible decision-making.

TOPIC QUESTION

So, are we *really* thinking through the long-term consequences of modern technology?

RESPONSE:

Jonas made me realize that modern technology has its consequences, and these consequences stretch far beyond here and now, so our old short-term way of thinking doesn’t work anymore. In cyber-policy, most the time we look for the quick fix, not thinking of the effects in the long term. In reality, those choices can shape the digital world in ways we wouldn’t dream of for years. The challenge is slowing down and thinking ahead so we don’t create problems for the future while also adapting to the changes were currently facing now.

Write-Up: The CIA Triad

Using the Chai Article (Links to an external site.), along with additional research you will conduct on your own, describe the CIA Triad, and the differences between Authentication & Authorization, including an example.

RESPONSE:

CIA Triad
The CIA Triad, standing for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Accessibility, Is the main guideline for information security in all organizations and companies. Confidentiality stands for a company’s privacy in their data, making sure all attempts at accessing a company’s data are within employee roles. Then we have integrity, making sure all data
is trustworthy and consistent and that data is not changed or altered by unauthorized people. Finally, Availability, meaning information is ready to be accessed when it is needed for people with clearance, and keeping systems up to date that hold that data.


Authentication VS. Authorization
Authentication is basically how a system makes sure you are really who you say you are. For example, when you log into your bank’s app with your username and password, or even your fingerprint, the system checks that information against what it has on file (Microsoft, 2023). Authorization comes right after that, deciding what you’re allowed to do once you’re logged in (IBM, 2022). Using the same bank example, you might only be able to see your own account details, while a bank employee with special access could view multiple customer accounts.