The Security Awareness Specialist
A Security Awareness and Training Specialist is a very important profession within cybersecurity. Their job is not to manage technical aspects or code within an organizations systems. Instead, their job is to change human behavior in the rest of the employees. This role focuses on the “Human Element” and relies on ideas from psychology and sociology. This would create a deep link between social science and their daily professional tasks.
Dependence on Social Science Principles
The work of a Security Awareness Specialist is based on core social science principles. Relativism shows that when one system changes, it causes changes in others. As an example, a specialist needs to consider how new security rules (such as multi-factor authentication) may affect the family system. Additionally, the success of training is measured using Empiricism. A specialist would have to look and analyze measurable data rather than guessing what works. Finally, Determinism would help guide a specialist in their efforts to predict behavior. They aim to find specific human factors that determine what happens in the workplace when it comes to security. This can help them predict and prevent future security incidents.
Application of Class Concepts
This career requires adequately using many different major class concepts. The entire job has to do with human factors, meaning that specialists must apply knowledge about human weaknesses to build simple tools and training to reduce human mistakes. Additionally, specialists are constantly fighting security fatigue, which is how frequent security warnings may lead to people getting tired of them. They could make rules simpler to lessen this psychological burden. A specialist must also understand the psychological role of an attacker in order to create training that effectively fights social engineering tactics. As an example, knowing that attackers play on basic human needs, a specialist can teach employees that good security hygiene protects their job, which ties directly in with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Lastly, specialists use knowledge of social cyberspace to learn how online groups may spread risky behaviors.
Marginalized groups and Societal Challenges
Accessibility and Disability: Employees with disabilities such as visual, hearing, or cognitive challenges, may have trouble with standard security training. Kävrestad et al. found that employees with cognitive disabilities find it easier to learn material when it uses clear language, simple design, and assistive tools. If a specialist creates training material that does not meet these needs, it leaves out a major part of the workforce and increases human mistakes (Kävrestad et al.).
Socioeconomic Status and Fraud Vulnerability: Socioeconomic status can affect how people respond to online threats. Wang et al. found that people with lower incomes or low internet experience are more likely to fall for scams. In the workplace, such an individual may fall for phishing emails that promise quick money. The job of a specialist here would be to create training that helps these employees avoid such tricks (Wang et al.).
Global Language, Culture, and Inclusion: At an international company, cultural and language differences may make it difficult to understand security training. Owen showed that people’s culture and language may affect how they view online threats. Training that uses humor, slang, or examples from one’s own culture may confuse those from other cultures. Specialists should translate materials carefully and localize examples (Owen).
Societal Interaction and Impact
The relationship between society and a Security Awareness Specialist is dynamic. When society becomes more dependent on technology, the role of the specialist keeps growing to address new risks and online behaviors. Simultaneously, social issues directly affect how specialists create training material and strategies. This “back-and-forth” shows how deeply rooted society and the specialists work are with one another.
Works Cited
Kävrestad, Joakim, et al. “Design Principles for Cognitively Accessible Cybersecurity.” Computers & Security, vol. 137, 2024. ScienceDirect, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167404823005400.
Wang, Shujun, et al. “Navigating Online Perils: Socioeconomic Status, Online Activity Lifestyles, and Online Fraud Targeting and Victimization of Old Adults in China.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2024, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4835478.
Owen, John. “Cultural and Societal Influences on Phishing Awareness.” Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Security Education, 2024. EasyChair, https://easychair.org/publications/preprint/HTJx/open.