Cybersecurity as a Social Science
In this course, I explored cybersecurity through a social science lens, diving into its social, political, legal, criminological, and economic dimensions. I examined the human behaviors and societal structures that contribute to cyber incidents, as well as the legal and political tools used to regulate and respond to them. Through reflective journal entries, I was able to connect theories and real-world applications, building a deeper understanding of how various disciplines come together to shape the field of cybersecurity.
I became familiar with essential concepts such as cyber criminology, cyber law, digital forensics, human factors, cyber policy, and cyberwarfare, and explored how professionals across cybersecurity careers apply these ideas in practice. I also developed foundational research skills, including how to form hypotheses and research questions, and how to collect and analyze data within the social sciences.
Journal entry 1
I do not have a specific pathway I would like to take my cybersecurity career but there are a couple of field options I would be most interested in. For instance, I’m interested in gathering or investigating information or defending and the protection of information. I’d like to learn and use my cybersecurity skills to gather information for a private company or proving instances of fraud and other criminal activities. Additionally, I’d like to learn how protect information and use mitigation skills to prevent to loss of data. I’d be least interested in the maintenance of information such as technical support as I don’t think I’d like troubleshoot systems or provide maintenance to systems.
Journal entry 2
The principles of science relates to many aspects of cybersecurity. For instance, the principle of relativism relates to cybersecurity in the fact that everything is connected to technology in our age of society. Without cybersecurity, different industries wouldn’t be able to use technology to do their work more efficiently and simply. This relates to the principle of parsimony in the fact that the principle of parsimony works to make an explanation simply. The other section of cybersecurity: cybercrime has its own section of trying to find out why people commit cybercrimes which isn’t easily explained. Furthermore, another principle of science related to cybersecurity is determinism. Determinism can relate to the world of cybersecurity in the fact that there is a cause and effect in why people would commit cybercrimes leading to the need for cybersecurity.
Journal entry 3
With the rising age of technology, people have found more and more way to expose data. The breach data page can be used to bring to light more examples of a specific type of breach. Additionally, it can be used to identify a breach by the characteristics described in each breach. Additionally, with the rising forms of breaches, it can help researchers find out about new types of breaches that aren’t listed on the page. This can help to warn people about the type of data information breaches that are available. Data breaches come in many forms and having the knowledge about the different type of them available is necessary for keeping personal information safe as well as company data safe.
Journal entry 4
After reviewing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid, technology has started to become incorporated into every part of the chart. To start, technology effects the physiological needs layer in the fact that technology has made it easier to gather those basic needs. I’ve begun to use technology to get food and water to me and my home. Additionally, technology is affecting the safety layer of the pyramid through the advancements in security such as cameras, two-factor authentication, and having the ability to find homes, hotels, or airbnb’s through the internet. Technology has affected the third layer of the pyramid through the expanded use of the internet and how people are able to meet and interact constantly. It has affected the fourth layer through internet mediums such as social media and how people are able to describe their accomplishments to a mass amount of people. Lastly, technology has affected the fifth layer through the massive use of social media and how people will do many things for a like/share on social media to have a feeling of “self-fulfillment”.
Journal entry 5
To rank the motives behind why someone would commit a cybercrime I would start with multiple reasons ranking as number 1 as to why it would make the most sense for someone to commit a cybercrime. Multiple reasons could include any of the following reasons along with any others that aren’t included. I would then rank the motive of money as the number 2 in motives as with poor circumstances, many people will resort to crimes to get money to survive. Number 3 in the rankings would be political due to how much politics can influence our lives that it could cause someone to commit a crime towards them to make a change or a statement. Number 4 would be revenge as people will commit acts out of being hurt or to get attention from someone that they will take their issues into the internet space. Number 5 would be recognition due to hacker groups wanting to be known for their part in a cybercrime such as the group Anonymous. Number 6 would be entertainment since people may have cyber skills that they will put to practice in the real internet world. Lastly, boredom would be ranked as the number 7 and the least sensible reason to commit a cybercrime due to there being a plethora of activities to do in the real world or the internet.
Journal entry 6
One fake website I found was the abc news website. The real website is abcnews.go.com while the fake is ABCnews.com.co. The fake website is more clearly fake with the amount of content that is on the page and the certificate issued to the fake website and the certificate issued to the real website. There was also a website that imitated CNN news that had the URL breaking-cnn.com when the real website URL is CNN.com. Through a screenshot of what the website used to be, it was more easily seen as a fake website through the background coloring of the website which was navy blue and gray. Lastly, a fake news website that emulated fox news with the URL fox-new24.com. The real fox news website has the URL www.foxnews.com and is identifiable in the fact that the website template is completely different than the fake website with the fake website not having a foxnews emblem on it.
Journal entry 7
The meme relates to human systems integration in the fact that there is a team meeting being described in one image which is to describe humans coming together to find and solve a system problem. The second image describe how it can often feel as if there isn’t a human working at the company and an animal is doing the work which would clearly make mistakes. Human systems integration is important as many problematic instances in the cybersecurity world happen due to a human error.
Journal entry 8
After reviewing the video, it can be seen that they hyperbolize the cyber-world. For instance, they may add 3D effects to codes and add additional numbers to Hexi-decimals. They also may incorporate real cyber terms to make it more realistic. Additionally, they also speed up the cyber-process as it isn’t possible for a human to look at a screen and instantly know what is going on and how to solve it. Media influenced how cybersecurity is interpreted when they started to show more realistic hacking. This is from showing coding, hacking devices, and types of hacking such as phishing.
Journal entry 9
I would rank myself between a 2/9 – 3/9 on the social media disorder scale. I think the item in the scale involve real and accurate events that happen due to overuse of social media. A very common result of heavy social media use includes neglecting activities in place of using social media. I would say there is a scale for how detrimental this result can be due to heavy social media use. Different patterns of how people rank on the scale of social media use is due to the amount of affordances people have in their life. People in less developed countries or in life situations that forces them to place more time into the real world to survive have fewer affordances than people in high social status positions.
Journal entry 10
The article describes the factors and history of social cybersecurity from the American perspective and how it affects our American society. It emphasizes on how we are in a new generation of war where it isn’t declared but rather is continually taking place and it directly on information. Due to information being decentralized more than ever before it, it has led to many ways for outside intervention of information and to cause and spread disinformation. This is in part of how information is commonly gathered from people through social media and the fall of trusted information such as journalism. Now it is up to the user level to verify information which can cause mass information or deliberate disinformation. Additionally, social platforms are subject to attacks on information through tactic like misdirection, hashtag latching, smoke screening, thread jacking, opinion leader co-opting, community building, community bridging, false generalizing, or more notoriously, the use of bots as a force multiplier. The article concluded by describing the need to individually vet the facts of information we consume that directly influences our beliefs. Furthermore, we must remove the wedges in our society caused through disinformation and enforce the discipline of social cybersecurity.
Journal entry 11
In the video, she describes the job of being a cybersecurity analyst as being the first line of the defense for monitoring the networking and responding to incidents. This revolves around the human factor of cybersecurity to solve a technical problem. The job requires all social dimensions such as teamwork, problem solving skills, writing skills, communication, and critical thinking. Additionally, she describes the areas many cybersecurity experts go such as Washington DC, New York, and Atlanta, Georgia. Furthermore, she describes the importance of a resume for getting into a job or internship and the importance of experience through the industry.
Journal entry 12
The sample breach notification describes to users about a breach in the company’s website from hackers who gained information about customers credit card information. The company describes when they found out about the breach, when the breach occurred, why they’ve held information about the breach for law enforcement, and the people they’ve notified about the breach. Two economic theories relevant to this would include information flow and liability. Information flow is included due to how information was held and gathered before delivered to the potentially effected clients. Additionally, liability is included due to them needing to inform their clients of them being potentially at risk due to the attack. Two social science ideas this would include would be economics and anthropology. Economics would be included due to the distribution of wealth being affected for the company and other companies related to them as less customers would be trusting of them. Furthermore, anthropology would be included as any customer that was affected by the breach would be less trusting of the company. They would have the natural human behavior of being hurt and going away.
https://academic.oup.com/cybersecurity/article/7/1/tyab007/6168453?login=true
Journal entry 13
The article describes the bug bounty hunters use of ethical hacking to detect any vulnerabilities in their company’s infrastructure. The main points of the article focused on the literature review and the findings from the hackers. The literature review describes how they can help companies find bugs in their code base that they are not aware of, and they allow companies that are not able to recruit top talent the ability to engage with freelance hackers. After researching and testing, their main finding was that all companies can benefit from bug bounty hunter no matter their size or prominence.
https://academic.oup.com/cybersecurity/article/7/1/tyab007/6168453?login=true
Journal entry 14
The article describes 11 illegal activities unknown by most people. All of these offenses should be known by anyone using the internet however, some of these particular offenses should be more widespread to protect the user’s while using the internet. For instance, recording a voice over IP call without consent is illegal and should be known by anyone who attempts to record someone over the internet without their consent. Additionally, faking one’s identity online is a serious offense people should know about. It can heavily protect the user, so they won’t be in dangerous online situations and others, so they are protected if someone tries to defame them. Furthermore, using internet networks that do not belong to them is illegal as people should know not to use people’s internet WI-FI without permission. Also, collecting information of underaged children is dangerously illegal as they are not able to give consent of information given while offenders could use the information maliciously. Lastly, internet users should know that internet searches can be illegal which can help deter them from committing a serious crime.
https://clario.co/blog/illegal-things-you-do-online/
Journal entry 15
The speaker describes his career in digital forensics and its importance within the criminal world. Digital forensics are needed to collect data in order to preserve it and present it within the court of law. They are able to get information about who, what, and where a cyber crime has occurred. Additionally, their work is important as it helps to give the judge or jury the significance and the full depth of the cyber crime someone has committed. The speaker was able to relay to the audience the importance of the digital forensics department.