Career Paper: Cyber Security Analyst
Rythem Anderson-Seawell
Cybersecurity and Social Science
Old Dominion University
Career paper- Cyber Security Analyst
Cybercrime Investigators and Social Science Principles
Cybercrime investigators are vital in safeguarding people, organizations, and governments from cyber threats as the world moves to increasingly digitized options. Their role may seem purely technical, but their work is saturated with the merest of social science research and principles. The meeting point of cybersecurity and social science, from crowdsourcing data to how people behave on the Internet, is critical. Cybercrime investigators crack the technical rope and analyze that threat’s sociological and psychological aspects, making their work partly sociological, partly psychological, and primarily technological.
Social influence and behavior are central to cybercrime investigation as a social science. In a discussion of Social Cybersecurity, Kathleen M. Carley’s (2020) virtue lies in her work emphasizing the essential and valuable role that computational social science can play in detecting and mitigating misinformation and online manipulation campaigns. Network analysis and agent-based modeling, borrowed from social science and psychology, are used by cybercrime investigators to follow the path of fake news, phishing campaigns, and coordinated influence operations. These models are crucial to these investigators for predicting behavior patterns of networked systems, finding nodes of influence in cyber networks, and deploying targeted countermeasures (Carley, 2020). These tools contribute to the technical ability of cybercrime investigators and reinforce the need for social science in considering and responding to sophisticated digital threats.
Further, social identity theory is used to profile cyber criminals and understand the hacker community. Groups from these communities usually have strong group identities, values, and goals. This will allow the investigators to know what drives the attack, predict the attacks, identify the insiders, and at the same time conduct online penetration to get the intelligence about them. Secondly, the concepts of criminology, such as routine activity theory, can explain the increase in cybercrime incidents based on the combination of the absence of capable guardianship and the presence of motivated offenders and suitable targets.
However, a relationship with marginalized groups is often overlooked, but it is a crucial part of cybercrime investigation. Underrepresented populations, such as people of ethnic minorities, women, and low-resource communities, are disproportionately impacted by cyber threats. For example, people who are less digitally literate are targeted by scams and misinformation campaigns. Therefore, cybercrime investigators have a role in protecting the population against cybercrimes. This protection can be achieved by posting culturally responsive education in cybersecurity, arguing that such an inclusive workforce can better understand and protect these vulnerable populations (Mountrouidou et al, 2019). Therefore, cybercrime investigators have to be aware of societal inequities and biases, not only to perform effectively to protect these groups but also to refrain from perpetuating these inequities through surveillance or profiling of these people.
There are a lot of challenges in cyberspace for marginalized groups, one of which is restricted availability of resources required for proper cyber hygiene. Algorithmic biases may also exist in investigative tools and work to further the existing social inequalities. Mergen et al. (2025) noted that such biases can yield discriminatory outcomes that unfairly impact underserved populations. Additionally, distrust of law enforcement is profound because it has historically been inflicted. These issues hinder the efforts of cybercrime investigation and response. It is essential to realize and overcome these challenges to achieve trust and fair cybersecurity across all segments of society.
The dynamic and various ties between greater cybercrime investigation and society are broad. Investigators do not just solve crimes—they help define what constitutes risk in technology and design how we behave around losing data. They contribute to creating a digital social contract using public awareness campaigns, digital literacy education, and policy advising. For example, Cyber Hygiene Services by the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are behavioral interventions for which organizations are guided towards safer digital practices (CISA, n.d.). Communication, education, and sociological insight help investigators carry out their responsibilities to ensure these practices are within sight and understood.
References
Carley, K. M. (2020). Social cybersecurity: An emerging science. Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 26, 365–381. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10588-020-09322-9
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). (n.d.). Cyber hygiene services. https://www.cisa.gov/cyber-hygiene-services
Mountrouidou, X., Roy, S., Menzel, C., & Holmes, J. (2019). Securing the human: A literature review on broadening diversity in cybersecurity education. In ITiCSE-WGR ’19: Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. https://www.wicys.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Securing_the_Human.pdf
Mergen, A., Çetin-Kılıç, N., & Özbilgin, M. F. (2025). Artificial Intelligence and Bias Towards Marginalised Groups: Theoretical Roots and Challenges. In AI and Diversity in a Datafied World of Work: Will the Future of Work be Inclusive? 12,17-38.