Cybersecurity Career Professional Paper

When it comes to the field of cybersecurity, there are many different forms
of employment that one can go for. For example, one can shoot for Network
security, Security engineering, Threat hunting, and many more. While all of these
careers require and depend on social science research as well as social science
principles, the one that I feel demonstrates all of these principles would be a SOC
analyst or a security operation center analyst. SOC analysts implement many
different forms of social sciences on a day-to-day basis such as sociology,
criminology, and psychology. How would something like psychology come into
play for someone who focuses on the security of a computer-based network? Well,
that’s easy, see psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. When a SOC
analyst or anyone who deals with a company’s cybersecurity operations has to
respond to a form of a cyber attack they have to be alert and aware of everything
and in times like those the analyst has to be able to read and understand the
attackers motive and what the attackers next move may be. Cybersecurity involves
much more mind games than what the naked eye can see. In this essay, I will break

down the other forms of social science as well as psychology to describe the role
they play in the day-to-day life of a SOC analyst.
Psychology is something that can be implemented in many different
scenarios which includes cybersecurity. Cybersecurity implements the principles of
psychology to understand and respond to unsafe cyber behaviors.
Cyberpsychology is the term used to best explain this use of psychology. This
examines how we interact with others using technology, how our behavior is
influenced by technology, and how our psychological states can be affected by
technology (Kirwan, 2016). The article “Why Psychology Matters to
Cybersecurity” by James Coker tells us that the involvement of psychology is the
core for being able to successfully protect and defend a network. The SOC team
should always hold a strong understanding of human behaviors in order to
successfully retaliate against any form of cyber-attack. Due to this need for
understanding of psychology in the cyber field, employers have even went as far to
implement psychology techniques in pre employment training sessions just make
sure new onboarding analysts understand the importance of the understanding of
psychology in the SOC analyst role.
Another social science that is just important in the cyber world as
psychology would be criminology. Criminology is known as the study of crime,
criminals, and society’s response to them. Knowing this we know that when SOC

analysts are faced with the task of retaliating to any form of a cyber attack, that the
person behind it must not be a good guy. This is where criminology can come into
play. Requiring the SOC analyst to play his/her cards right and understand how to
respond to this type of cyber-criminal. The article “Criminological Explanations
of Cybercrime” tells us that cybercriminology plays a great role in providing an
understanding of the behavior of a cybercriminal and creating effective plans to
protect and respond to these attackers and maintain the security of the overall
network operations. Analysts with a solid understanding of criminology can
implement this strength in order to understand and analyze the patterns and
behaviors of the cybercriminal in order to provide for a stronger defensive
response. Not only does it help in the moment of an attack, but it helps when
creating effective protocols to abide by in the event of a future attack if one was to
ever occur.
The final social science that comes to mind when thinking of a combination
with cybersecurity would be sociology. Sociology is known as the study of social
life, social behavior, and social institutions. These studies go hand in hand with
cybersecurity because not only does cybersecurity focus on the study of preventing
vulnerability breaches and resolving security issues but it also focuses on the social
behaviors of the users and their behaviors on that same network. SOC analysts are
usually like the army for a business providing protection the same way our US

military is out there to protect our country. And in order to protect a high volume
of users the analysts have to have a strong understanding of the software’s and
movements these users make on the network on a day-to-day basis. The article
“Social Cyber-Security” makes a few great points on exactly how sociology is
implemented in cyber security. One great example given by the article was
messaging and communication. Analysts have to be able to keep track and monitor
day-to-day communication in order to ensure that there is no communication or
sensitive information being shared with unauthorized senders that can lead to
possible breaches in the network. This requires a great sense of sociology by
making sure that all communication is valid and safe. Hence why sociology can
play such a vital role in keeping organizations safe and keeping SOC analysts on
top of their game.
Inconclusion, the role of a SOC analyst depends highly on many forms of
social sciences including the ones that have been listed along with others that may
have not been listed. Cybersecurity is much more than clicking and typing and
knowledge of hardware and software’s. It can in many instances become a game of
mental reading as well. To be able to excel in the field of cybersecurity or in the
position of a SOC analyst one must make sure that they are brought up to speed
and have a grasp for all different forms of social sciences and how they can
implement these social sciences in order to keep the company they work for and

the users around them safe and protected. While there are many people who may
believe having just a knowledge of firewalls and antivirus systems will keep them
protected, the ones who go above and beyond to implement social sciences in their
work are the ones will be able to achieve great success.