Journal #1: The semester started out with an introduction to what cybersecurity is and how it intersects with the many different social sciences. The journal for this week focuses on an article published on the NICCS website that explains the NICE framework, a resource that helps employers develop their cybersecurity team, by breaking it into different categories and roles within those categories. This journal discusses what categories and specific jobs I find interesting.

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Journal #2: In this week’s lecture, we focused on applying the principles of the social sciences to cybersecurity, as it is an interdisciplinary study. The journal from this week was to take the principles of how scientific research is conducted and studied then relate it back to cybersecurity.

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Journal #3: Week three was centered around how to scientifically study cybersecurity in a way that minimizes ethical issues. The journal entry asked us to explore the website privacyrights.org to see what type of, public, information was obtained about those data breaches, then we were asked to use what we learned from this week’s reading/lesson to determine how information from those breaches can be used to study data breaches.

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Journal #4: Week four was based on the human factor of cybersecurity and the different psychological factors that impact how humans interact with each other both in person and online. During the lecture, we analyzed Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that suggests as the lower levels of the hierarchy are met, we start focusing more on meeting the upper-level needs. Maslow’s theory is that humans strive to reach self-actualization, but very few meet that. This week’s journal entry was to analyze Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and relate it with our experiences with technology.

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Article Review #1: The Psychological Aspect of Cybersecurity: Understanding Cyber Threat Perception and Decision-Making

For this course, we had to do two article reviews that relates cybersecurity to the social sciences. We had to analyze scholarly articles that focus on seven goals: (1)how the topic relates to the principles of the social sciences, (2) the study’s research questions or hypotheses, (3) the types of research methods used, (4) the types of data and analysis done, (5) how concepts discussed in class relate to the article, (6) how the topic relates to the challenges, concerns, and contributions of marginalized groups, (7) and the overall contributions of the studies to society. For this review, I chose to focus on the psychological aspects of cybersecurity.

Article:

ThePsychologicalAspectofCybersecurity

Review:

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Journal #5: Week five focused on applying psychological principles of cyber offending, victimization, and professionals. We talked through seven different theories that consider the motives behind cybercrimes: (1) multiple reasons, (2) monetary reasons, (3) revenge, (4) political reasons, (5) recognition, (6) boredom, (7) entertainment.

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Journal #6: Week six was based on psychological research and human factors in cybersecurity. In any case, human errors are more likely to occur than technological errors. In this lecture, we talked about the potential for humans to fall for phishing attempts not only in their emails, but from fake websites. This journal asked us to spot three fake websites and compare them to real websites.

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Journal #7: Week seven focused on cybersecurity and the social dimensions of data science. This unit framed how people interact with technology, rather it be through social media or the hierarchies of the cyber world. This module was heavy on the human aspects that relate to cybersecurity, which is discussed in the journal that week where we are given the choice between using the provided stock photos and choosing our own to make cybersecurity related memes, then explaining them.

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Journal #8: Week eight focused on the social dynamics and structures within cybersecurity. This unit used sociology (the study of social life, social changes, and social causes and consequences) to relate to how society views cybersecurity and how those views impact the way people operate online. For this week’s journal entry, we were asked to watch three videos of real-life hackers reacting to hacking scenes in movies and on television. The prompt asks about how we think the media influences the way people think about cybersecurity, if that ideology changed over time, and about how media changed to reflect the times in relation to hacking scenes.

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Journal #9: Week nine was about culture, social media, and cybersecurity. This lecture went into not only how different cultures of people react to cybersecurity and the cyber world, but also how cybersecurity has its own culture. This week’s journal was to complete the social media disorder scale, which is a short test on how addicted to social media the taker is. We were then asked to share our score and discuss the items on the scale, as well as the different patterns that can be found across the world.

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Journal #10.1: In week ten we had two journals, the topic for week ten was social cybersecurity. For the first journal we were asked to read an article posted by the Army Military Press which discussed social cybersecurity as “an emerging nation security requirement”. For this journal, we were asked to write a response about the article.

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Journal #10.2: The second journal entry asked us to watch a video which describes the position of being a cybersecurity analyst and discusses how it relates to social behaviors. The journal entry asked us to write about the social themes that were prevalent in the video.

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Article Review #2: Digital Criminal Investigations in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: A Comprehensive Overview

For this course, we had to do two article reviews that relates cybersecurity to the social sciences. We had to analyze scholarly articles that focus on seven goals: (1)how the topic relates to the principles of the social sciences, (2) the study’s research questions or hypotheses, (3) the types of research methods used, (4) the types of data and analysis done, (5) how concepts discussed in class relate to the article, (6) how the topic relates to the challenges, concerns, and contributions of marginalized groups, (7) and the overall contributions of the studies to society. For this article review, I chose to focus on the intersection of criminology and cybersecurity.

Journal:

6-IJCC164_REdited

Article:

Criminology-and-Cybersecurity

Journal #11.1: Module eleven also contained two journals. For this week, we talked about economics as it relates to cybersecurity. For the first journal was a case study where our goal was to analyze a sample data breach letter and describe how two different economic and social sciences theories relate to the letter.

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Journal #11.2: The second journal directed us to an article about bug bounties, self-employed ethical hackers that find holes in websites then report them to the website’s admin. The goal was to write a summary/reaction to the policies laid in the article.

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Cybersecurity Career Professional Paper

Select a type of cybersecurity career and write a two-page paper describing how professionals in that career require and depend on social science research and social science principles in those careers.  Pay specific attention to the key concepts learned in class and demonstrate how those concepts are applied in the career you selected.   The focus should be on demonstrating how the material from class relates to cybersecurity professionals’ daily routines.  Specific attention should be given to how the career relates to marginalized groups and society in general.  Students should use at least three reliable sources to write the paper.

For this paper, I chose to write about government-level cybersecurity analysts, using documents from the CIA, the NSA, and a website that describes the job of being a cybersecurity analyst for the government while also providing samples of what possible resumes look like.

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Journal 12: Week twelve was about conceptualizing cybersecurity as a crime. This module goes into aspects of cybercriminology, the study of crimes committed using technology and people who commit them. For this journal entry, we were asked to read an article that describes actions from everyday people on the internet that are actually illegal. We were then asked to rank what we think are the top five serious offenses from the article.

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Journal 13: Week fourteen was focused on studying and addressing cyber harm through a criminological and political framework. This week was heavily focused on criminology and studying the actions of cybercriminals. This module also talks about the politics surrounding cybercrimes and how the justice system deals with criminal behavior in cyberspace. For the final journal, we were asked to watch a video and describe our opinions on how the speaker obtained a career in digital forensics.

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