This class focused on the relationship between technology and cybersecurity and how they are connected to cultural, political, legal, ethical, and business topics. The assignments below display my discussions with these topics of cybersecurity which allowed me to realize how much of an impact cybersecurity and technology has on a society and how to identify these impacts.

  1. How does your major relate to cybersecurity technology? 

My major relates to cybersecurity technology due to the fact that my major is cybersecurity. Cybersecurity are the actions and process of protecting programs, networks, business interfaces from damaging attacks and hackers. In today’s world, this is very important due to the fact that we are now using more devices as well as using the internet more than ever. Since we are using technology more than ever, we have to find a way to protect our data from hackers and other damaging attacks that may release sensitive information. Cybersecurity is also extremely important due to the fact that it keeps order. I see the internet and the cybersecurity world as an analogy to the real world in that cybersecurity represents the police keeping order protecting peoples and businesses personal data from criminals. As it keeps order throughout the internet, it also challenges people mentally every day due to not only problems that come from the hackers but also those problems that come from regular accidents and crashes. Cybersecurity is also now a necessity in today’s world due to many reasons. One is the new vulnerabilities since people are constantly finding new ways to use the internet, the more flaws come with it so we need cybersecurity professionals to catch these flaws. Another one, like I said in the beginning of this essay it that due to the rapid increase of using technology and the internet for everything, we have to use more protection as we add more of our personal information to the internet. Lastly, wars. Wars are now more likely to happen with technology and with this technology, it can be hacked so we need cybersecurity to protect our own inventions and  are now being fought with technology more than they are being fought on foot with guns.In conclusion, cybersecurity is a very important upcoming skill in today’s world in that it uses cybersecurity technologies and such to defends people’s private information or just any mishaps/ flaws in the program itself.

2.Select four other majors offered by ODU and explain how those majors relate to cybersecurity.

There are many majors that relate to Cybersecurity and that also depend on it to protect it. One major that I am very interested in and that relates to Cybersecurity is International Studies. Although it may not seem like these two would relate, they have a lot more in common than you would think. Technology and the internet has only been in this world for a few decades, we need cybersecurity to protect our data that we put into the internet which is shared to the world. Since the internet is something that can be used anywhere with a connection, tons of people use it to share things across the world through different cultures. With an international studies degree, you can become someone that keeps good relations between countries and this includes some cybersecurity due to the fact that it can be used for countries that want to talk to each other but want to keep it secret to prevent other countries from overhearing sensitive information. Another major that relates to cybersecurity is dental hygiene and this can require cybersecurity in some situations. When you’re a dentist, you have many patients that may have sensitive information that they don’t want to get out to the public so cybersecurity would be used to protect and defend their information. Yet another major that relates to cybersecurity is finance. Finance sometimes relates to cybersecurity in that with a degree in finance, you then can sometimes get a job that deals with someone’s money. When dealing with someone’s money you want them to trust in you that their money is in good hands and to secure that, you would need some sort of cybersecurity so a hacker can’t reach the sensitive information and money involved with the job. Lastly, a major offered by ODU that relates to cybersecurity is nursing. Now I know nursing may not seem like it can relate to cybersecurity much but in some situations it does. For example, a patient admitted into a hospital has all of their records kept very safe inside their systems which use cybersecurity to protect it and allow only those who need it for specific reasons to access it. Although there are many majors that relate to cybersecurity, these are four majors that I chose from the ODU academic undergraduate bachelor list that relate to cybersecurity in some way.

3. Describe four ethical issues that arise when storing electronic information about individuals. 


When storing information about an individual you need to look after the individuals rights and be morally conscious about their information. Although when storing this sensitive information you are posed with an ethical issue of whether to do good with this information or to do the wrong thing. One ethical issue that comes up when storing information of a customer or that is part of a bigger organization is that you need to be responsible and accountable for your actions. Being responsible with the information means that you need to be respectful of not only the information but of the individual’s privacy. Another ethical issue that is dealt with when storing someone’s information is that of doing only what is asked of you to do to the information. This means that you shouldn’t go along and collect the information for personal use/gain and along with only doing what you’re supposed to do is that it builds trust not only you and the customer but also between you and the company making you a valuable asset to the company. Yet another ethical issue along with storing someone’s or something’s information is that you shouldn’t share it among others. You shouldn’t share it among others for moral reasons and also for you’re own good. Morally you shouldn’t do it due to that you need to respect their information and you wouldn’t want the same to happen to you. Lastly, an ethical issue that arises while dealing with others data is that of doing a good job securing it and treating it carefully in the process. You shouldn’t only do half of what your supposed to do or treat it without care because if you are to treat the information like that then the trust between you and whoever gives you the information to store won’t be there anymore possibly losing you business in the process. In conclusion, storing an individual’s information can be a very dangerous but also if taken the right steps then can be rewarding. In short, when storing someone’s information you should respect their sensitive information as you wouldn’t bad things to happen to your personal information.

4. Compare cybersecurity risks in the U.S. and another country

Although it may be common sense to think that cybersecurity risks in the U.S. and the rest of the world are the same, but through culture and level of technology, the cybersecurity risks are going to vary. A cybersecurity risk, according to www.upguard.com, is the probability of exposure or loss resulting from a cyber attack or data breach on your organization. In the United States, the biggest risks come from those that are inside the U.S. and not foreign, this also applies to any other country in that any attack or risk is far greater when it comes from its own country. This is because those inside the U.S. have a better understanding of the politics, infrastructure, and the internet itself. Although there are attacks from other countries, (such as Russia attacking the United States) they will not be as serious as those coming from the country itself. Some examples of cybersecurity risks are malware attacks, data breaches, hacking, and any other risk that involves the loss or damage of sensitive information. Here I’m going to compare the biggest cybersecurity risks between two countries, the United States and Spain. I chose the United States because I simply live in it but I chose Spain because I studied abroad there which made me more familiar with a foreign country than any other. In the United States, according to cnbc.com, the biggest cybersecurity risk is that of employee negligence. Employee negligence can bring up a number of issues due to the fact that if an employee isn’t given the right training or not knowledgeable of something, then that is a vulnerability/ weak spot in the company and this is a gold mine for cyber attacks. Employee negligence doesn’t just have to be lack of training, it could also be just leaving your workspace not secure with papers laying out or leaving whatever you’re working on up on the screen. Just something as little as that could bring down a whole business if serious enough which can be fixed just by the right training and paying attention. In Spain, to my knowledge and what I’ve witnessed, the biggest cybersecurity risk that poses to them is lack of knowledge on computer systems. When I was studying abroad, I was mostly friends with those who we would identify as “Script Kiddies” and would just troll for fun and although it was sometimes funny to watch, it was also eye-opening in that it showed me how easy it was for them to shut down a network or to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data. Also, according to s2grupo.es, only 20% of vulnerabilities in Spanish industries require deep knowledge of hacking. This signifies that risks in Spain are far greater and there are way more vulnerabilities in Spain than in the United States. A great point made by José Rosell, who said that due to the high percentage of attacks that don’t need a high knowledge of the internet, the hackers don’t need to be relatively close or actually know the company at all to organize an attack on them. In conclusion, the United States and Spain differ in cybersecurity risks in that the U.S. is way more prepared against cyber attacks and the risks that compare to Spain and they also differ from their level of importance of cybersecurity.

5. Use the letters of the word CYBERSECURITY to list legal ways to make money in cybersecurity.

Creating your own cybersecurity company. 

Yahoo security department

Backup administrator for a company

Ethernet LAN server protector

Research for cybersecurity or at a university

Security for any business that has vulnerabilities through the internet.

Engineering as a cybersecurity professional.

Creating software that defends from cyber attacks.

U.S. Army Cyber Officer (this is actually the job I want when I commision through ROTC)

Ransomware detection and protection for companies

IT manager for a company

Threat protection for a companyYoutube security and protection

6. How has cyber technology created opportunities for workplace deviance?

Cyber technology has created many opportunities for workplace deviance and it will only grow from here. Workplace deviance, according to wikipedia, is described as a deliberate desire to cause harm to an organization. Some examples of workplace deviance can be sexual harassment, bullying, and even just intimidation. Some examples of cyber workplace deviance could be extreme cases of cyberbullying, virtual harassment, and disclosure and announcement of sensitive information. One way that cyber technology has created workplace deviance is that it makes it easier for these workplace deviances to happen due to the availability of the technology and how almost anything can be accessible from a computer. For example, a regular IT employee of a company has access to nearly the whole system right in front of him increasing the temptation to go after sensitive information whether it be for personal reasons or monetary gain. Although if you look at the position that a janitor has, he doesn’t have the same opportunities as the IT guy would have due to lack of technology and knowledge. Although cyber technology can create many opportunities for workplace deviance, workplace deviance greatly depends on the type of person and the availability of information or level of security implemented into the system. For example, if an employee was going to commit deviance in the workplace and there was no/ barely any level of security, the employee is much more likely going to commit the deviance act but if the company blocks any sites not related to work and a high level of security then the employee is less likely to put in the effort to commit the deviant act. With cyber technology creating opportunities for workplace deviance, there is also space to defend and protect your system to minimize the chances of workplace deviances happening or you could ban certain sites while at work to also help minimize the probability of deviance behavior in the workplace.

 7. What are the costs and benefits of developing cybersecurity programs in business? 

Implementing and developing cybersecurity programs into business have many benefits but with these benefits come a cost. One huge benefit of putting a cybersecurity program into your business and probably the biggest reason to have one installed is that it provides protection for your business. Providing protection for your business is super important as it ensures that not only your business but also your employees are safe and kept away from potential threats. Another benefit of implementing and developing a cybersecurity program is that it increases productivity. It can increase productivity due to the fact that the program can block viruses that slow down computers thus slowing down productivity but if the cybersecurity program blocks and eliminates them, then productivity will increase among employees. Yet another benefit of implementing and developing a cybersecurity program into your business is that it ensures trust between the business and the customer. It ensures trust due to the fact that a customer wants their sensitive information to be transacted and handled securely and if they see that a business doesn’t have a safe online branch then they most likely won’t do their business with that company. Another benefit of developing and putting in a cybersecurity program into a business that ties along with my first point is that it can stop your website from crashing and going down. If a business manages their own website then if a breach or a hacker destroys your business website then you could lose a major amount of profit and transactions that are lost. Along with these many benefits, there comes a cost and a price that provides this service. According to www.mdsny.com, the cost that comes with a cybersecurity program in your business is somewhere between $168 and $600 a month to ensure your businesses safety.

9. How do engineers make cyber networks safer? 

Engineers play a crucial role in protecting and defending cybersecurity entities whether they be physical or the software on the internet. First I will talk about the physical entities that engineers make safer and then I will move on to the cyber entities that engineers make safer. One way that engineers make physical cyber entities safer is by making the safeguarding technology that surrounds and protects the network from natural disasters and human attackers. Another way that engineers can ensure the physical safety of a cyber network is by installing and designing alarms and security cameras around the physical network. Doing this ensures the physical safety of the network by seeing and monitoring who is around the network and alarming when someone isn’t supposed to be there or that unauthorized personnel are around said network. Although engineers provide many different ways of protecting cyber networks physically, they also can protect the software inside the computer. One example of engineers protecting the software of cyber networks is that the security engineer looks over and analyzes the network and makes sure that they’re running securely and if they’re not, then they can design and install the right program to ensure safety in their system. Another way that engineers can secure and make cyber networks safer is that they can design a whole computer system to have and be equipped with the right cyber security programs to deal with all types of cyber attacks. A security engineer also makes cyber networks safer in that these engineers try to see in the future what attacks or mishaps may happen so they can prevent them whatever they may be. Although you may think that it is a cyber security engineers job to take care of the issues and address them accordingly, but cyber security engineers can make the cyber networks safer and make the job easier for him by educating the employees on the danger of all the different types of cyber attacks and also the cyber security engineer can educate them on how to update their basic security software so it can be done as soon as possible.

10. What is the overlap between criminal justice and cybercrime? How does this overlap relate to the other disciplines discussed in this class? 

Criminal justice is considered as the follow through and deliverance of arresting someone who has committed a crime and the criminal justice system is the judicial system we have in place today. Cybercrime is described as the criminal act that someone commits online and over the internet. As technology is a relatively new concept in our world, how the criminal justice system overlaps with this and how it deals with this is still catching up with cybercrime. To start off, cybercrime is seen as easier to get away with and is considered more common in the recent years due to the fact that a computer is now becoming a household item making it more common for these crimes to happen. Also since these types of crimes don’t usually physically hurt people this makes the crimes even more likely to happen. With this new type of crime and technology, the government and its agencies will have to review their laws set in place right now for these cybercrimes and will constantly have to review them and even add more. As for the main overlap of criminal justice and cybercrime, and as I said before cybercrime is a new area of crime in our society so it is still a new subject to the criminal justice system so as time goes along we will see more law enforcement being pushed onto cybercrime. This overlap relates to everything that we have been talking about in class due to our class focusing on the subject of cybersecurity itself which is pretty much the protection and law enforcement of cybercrime. An example of a discipline that we studied in our class that overlaps the subject is that of the discipline of ethics. Ethics in cybersecurity is what makes cybersecurity what it is. If someone is trained in cybersecurity but has bad ethical standards, then they’re a lot more likely to commit a cybercrime than the person that is also trained in cybersecurity but has good ethical standards.

11. How does cyber technology impact interactions between offenders and victims?

The relationship between offenders of a crime and the victims of a crime can be very different due to different points of view, class, lifestyle, but these could be notably altered through cyber technology. One way that cyber technology impacts interactions between an offender and a victim is that most of the time, the offender and the victim never meet. In some situations the victim and the offender know each other and the reasons for the offender to commit the cyber crime could be more personal but most of the time the offender commits the cybercrime without knowing the victim through attacks like: DDoS attacks, man in the middle attacks, phishing attacks and spear phishing attacks, and even Cross site scripting attacks. With these attacks they are a lot more common now due to there being barely any relationship between the offender and the victim making the offender feel less remorse and bad for what he/ she’s done. Another big way that cyber technology impacts the interactions between offenders and victims is that depending on the cybercrime offender and their knowledge, the interactions between the two could never happen and the cyber criminal gets away with it or they could later meet in court if the cyber criminal is later found. Although, on the other hand, if the victim in this situation puts up a firewall to protect their sensitive information then the interaction between the two will be minimized and sometimes if the victim has the right cyber security technology program installed that is up to date, the interaction between the offender and the victim will be nonexistent. Another way that cyber technology impacts the interaction between the offender and the victim is that if the offender tries to attack the victim’s system but the victim get notified of the attack, then the interaction between the two will be minimized.

12. How should we approach the development of cyber-policy and -infrastructure given the “short arm” of predictive knowledge? 

To primarily understand how we should approach the development of cyber-policy and cyber-infrastructure given our limited amount of knowledge is to first understand the basis of them. Cyber-policy, according to irmi.com, is the cyber and privacy policies that cover a business’ liability for a data breach in which the firm’s customers’ personal information is exposed or stolen by a hacker or other criminal who has gained access to the firm’s electronic network. Some examples of a customers’ personal information would be their social security number, their credit card number, or even a customer’s health information. A cyber-policy designated to a certain individual or company should include that of which cybersecurity programs should be put into and implemented to decrease the chance of a virus, hacker, or even mistakes from happening in the company. Cyber-infrastructure consists of the computing systems, other systems that store data, higher quality appliances and data archives, visualization environments, and people, that are all linked together by software and high performing networks to improve research productivity and enable new developments not possible any other way. We can approach the development of cyber-policy and cyber-infrastructure but it’s not a question of how can we, it’s a question of how should we. With the limited predictive knowledge we have, we should approach the development of cyber-policy and cyber-infrastructure both with an open mind, by precisely looking at the environment around it, and also by using it to the best of our ability. With cyber-policies, we should approach the development of these by improving along with all of the findings we have on the subject and by also improving the trust between the customers and contractors. With cyber-infrastructure, we should approach the development of this by letting the researchers do their research so we can find out more and do more with the new technology.

13. How should markets, businesses, groups, and individuals be regulated or limited differently in the face of diminishing state power and the intelligification and networking of the material world? 

In the face of diminishing state power, markets, businesses, groups, and individuals should be and will be regulated by the people. When government power is being taken away, the people and the press take the place of the government regulations by exposing the truth and by using freedom of the press to regulate these companies and businesses. This makes sure that the businesses and companies are not taking advantage of the people for profit and making sure that they businesses are staying in check. One example of this is the press. We’ve already seen multiple examples of the press regulating and exposing different businesses for wrongdoings in today’s world and it is also very common in today’s world too. With the diminishing government regulation on things, businesses will use that to their advantage but once they’ve taken a step out of line and the press get their hands on it, the businesses get put on blast and if it’s a big enough issue then the networking about the issue between the people will increase dramatically. With the people and the consumers regulating the businesses, they have no filter and will not hesitate a single second to notify not only the business itself but also every single person around them that they either have bad products, are doing something skeptical to their products, or even something as simple as bad service. Having the people and the regular consumer regulate the businesses through networking makes the business stay on top and in regulation of not only the little government input but also to the everyday consumer. In short, the people are ruthless and most of the time give no sympathy when it comes to business reviews. Also, when the government regulators put in their regulations on a company or business, most of the time they don’t have the peoples special interest but with the people regulating the businesses that they most likely see everyday, they make the business comply to their reviews or special rules (if the company isn’t already successful enough to not care).


Freewrite Activity

To my surprise, when I searched my name on google, my name came up. Searching my name on google can end up either in good results, or bad ones. When scrolling through the answers, I saw my name come up numerous amounts of times but only from my past. One thing I saw that first came up was my social media. I had my old twitter, instagram, and facebook show up. This meant that everything that I posted on any of my social medias would not be private and be shown to the world. Another thing that commonly came up was my high school athletic record. This came up most likely because I was super active in high school and my soccer and cross country coach put my athletic stats and progress on a page for records. Lastly, I saw my past presentations in high school and in middle school. Others would learn that I studied abroad in Spain, I’m very active, and that I’m also very active on social media. To think about how all of your information is available to anyone is scary and to also think how maybe if there was no such thing as cybersecurity, a lot more information would be out there.