Explain how the principles of science relate to cybersecurity:
Relativism: Every new development is made; new hacks can be made. Each updated system can possibly have new holes for hackers to find. This is a never-ending cycle of closings and openings to be found
Objectivity: How can we as individuals decide what to do about cybersecurity and cybercrimes without letting our opinions get in the way? We must objectively identify issues and solve problems without being led by our opinions, this is essential when punishing cyber criminals. This has to be researched and studied with an objective view in order to find the correct trends rather than finding evidence only to support a specific viewpoint. We have to create unbiased ways to understand cybercrimes, how to prevent them, and how to persecute them.
Parsimony: We need to keep explanations as simple as possible for most people to understand. Specifically given the example of self-control theory, are individuals with low self-control more likely to commit crimes than those who have more self-control? This is a tricky answer and would depend on the sophistication of the crime. Cybercrimes requiring the least amount of planning could be caused by low self-control; however, those crimes that take months or years of planning are done by individuals with extremely high self-control. But that is the simple explanation, we could go into great detail about why the human mind thinks that way, but parsimony allows us to keep these theories short and straight to the point.
Empiricism: This uses actual evidence rather than opinions or biased decisions. Methods used for empiricism in the quantitative sense are experiments, surveys, polls, casual-comparative, correlational, cross-sectional, and longitudinal. Methods used for empiricism in the qualitative sense are interviews, observation, textual analysis, case studies, and focus groups. When using empiricism in cyber security we are usually looking at analytics and digital forensics to gather information about cyber-attacks and other cybercrimes. This relies heavily on what can be proved rather than what people think (their opinions) is occurring.
Ethical neutrality: This is the ethical standards that are required for scientists to adhere to when testing. A large factor in ethical neutrality is accurately protecting the rights of individuals being studied and being willing to empirical and objectively study topics. A big issue when creating cyber laws or persecuting cybercrimes is by looking at the ethicalness of the crime. Some crimes May not seem to be so bad because they are being done online, however when looking at it from the victim’s side the crime is causing a lot of crime. A big issue here that is currently a problem is digital piracy. Digital piracy is when people illegally sell or buy digital media without the authors/producers getting credit/payment for the transaction. Those who buy and sell the media May not think it is that bad, but the companies or people that sell the media lose a lot of the income from those thefts being made. That is why we need to have a standard of ethical neutrality when looking at cybercrimes and creating cyber laws.
Determinism: This term means that behavior is caused, determined, or influenced by preceding events. In other words, human actions are predetermined or influenced by previous events. However, many people also believe that we all have free will and full control over our actions. I see this in both manners. It is hard to determine which is correct. It has been proven through experiments that punishments and rewards can influence one’s actions, but does this mean the choices one makes in the future ate predetermined due to this conditioned response? In a sense, we all have the ability to make choices, but our past has shaped us into thinking in a specific way. When this is in relation to cyber security, those who believe they can get away with cybercrime will commit one, this has to do with either of their acquired knowledge or a history of not being caught.