Cyber

Cybersecurity is about protecting computers, networks, and data from hackers and other threats. One important job in this field is being a cybersecurity analyst. These professionals look for signs of cyberattacks and work to stop them. While many people think cybersecurity is all about technology, it also has a lot to do with people. That’s where social science comes in. Social science helps cybersecurity analysts understand human behavior, how people interact online, and how to make better decisions about security. In this paper, I will explain how cybersecurity analysts use social science in their jobs and how their work ties into society.


How Social Science Helps Cybersecurity Analysts

Social science includes subjects like psychology, sociology, and criminology. These topics help cybersecurity analysts understand why people do the things they do online. For example, psychology helps explain why people click on phishing emails or use weak passwords. Analysts can use this knowledge to make better training programs to teach people how to stay safe online. Sociology looks at how groups of people act, including how online communities behave. This is important for understanding how certain online groups, like hacker forums, plan and carry out attacks. Criminology helps analysts figure out what causes people to commit cybercrimes. This helps them predict what kind of attacks might happen and who might be responsible.


Social Science in Everyday Work

In our class, we learned about human behavior and how it affects security. Cybersecurity analysts see this all the time. Many security problems happen because of human mistakes, like opening suspicious emails or using the same password for everything. Understanding human behavior helps analysts create better rules and systems to protect people from making these kinds of mistakes. Another concept we talked about is social engineering. This is when attackers trick people into giving away private information. To fight this, analysts need to understand how people think and what kind of messages they trust. They often use social psychology to make security training that shows people how to spot scams. Social science also helps with big questions like how to protect people’s privacy without invading their privacy. Cybersecurity analysts use this information to help companies and governments make fair and ethical decisions.


Cybersecurity and Marginalized Groups

Cybersecurity doesn’t affect everyone the same way. Some groups, like women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and low-income communities, face more threats online. These can include cyberbullying, online stalking, or even being unfairly targeted by security systems. Social science research helps analysts understand these problems and create safer spaces for everyone online. Also, the cybersecurity field itself doesn’t have much diversity. This means that some issues that affect marginalized groups might be overlooked. By learning about inequality and bias through sociology, analysts can work to make cybersecurity more inclusive and better for everyone.


Why Cybersecurity Matters to Society

Cybersecurity is important for the whole society. It affects our money, our privacy, our freedom, and even our elections. Cybersecurity analysts help protect all of these things. Social science helps them understand how their work affects people and how to make choices that are good not just for technology, but for society as a whole. If a company uses facial recognition software, analysts need to think about how it might impact people unfairly. Social science gives them tools to look at these issues and suggest better ways to protect both security and rights.


Conclusion

Cybersecurity analysts do more than just stop hackers. They use social science to understand people and how they act online. Psychology, sociology, and criminology help them do their jobs better and more fairly. By using social science, analysts can help protect not only technology, but also people, especially those who are more at risk online. Social science makes cybersecurity smarter, safer, and more human.

References

Parsons, K., McCormac, A., Butavicius, M., Pattinson, M., & Jerram, C. (2014). Determining employee awareness using the Human Aspects of Information Security Questionnaire (HAIS-Q). Computers & Security, 42, 165–176.

Wall, D. S. (2007). Cybercrime: The transformation of crime in the information age. Polity.

Solove, D. J. (2006). A taxonomy of privacy. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 154(3), 477–564.