Cybersecurity, Technology, and Society

Students in IT/CYSE 200T will explore 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

Selected Work

The following work demonstrates my understanding of cybersecurity as both a technical and societal issue. These assignments allowed me to explore cybersecurity principles, critical infrastructure, real-world cyber incidents, and the role human behavior plays in cybersecurity.

The CIA Triad: The Structure for Cybersecurity

This write-up examines confidentiality, integrity, and availability as foundational principles of cybersecurity and applies them to the 2024 Change Healthcare cyberattack.

SCADA Systems and Their Vulnerabilities

This write-up examines the role of SCADA systems in critical infrastructure and explores cybersecurity risks involving network exposure, weak authentication, legacy systems, and industrial control devices.

How Human Factors Affect Cybersecurity

This write-up examines how psychology, cognitive biases, social engineering, workplace behavior, and organizational culture can influence cybersecurity risks and applies these concepts to the 2020 Twitter cyberattack.