Cyber Analyst

Introduction

Cyber analysts are a part of the cybersecurity field where professionals specialize in safeguarding computer networks and systems from cyberattacks. Cyber Analysts are responsible for observing networks, identifying possible cyber threats, and developing strategies that will protect organizations from being put at risk by cybercriminals. It’s important to be upfront with the ongoing issues cyber analysts deal with on a daily basis. It’s noted that a cyber analyst isn’t an easy job; it requires a large amount of time for analysis and preparation to know who or what got into messing with the systems. The prevalence of cyber analysts is to uphold the integrity of the cybersecurity field; no matter how dreadful things get, protecting people’s information is a must for cyber analysts.

Social Science Principles

Within social science principles of cybersecurity, four main concepts that are focused on the most in the cyber analyst field are psychology, criminology, sociology, and anthropology. These four are important key concepts that are used to help enhance cybersecurity strategies. Psychology is to analyze the reasons behind these cyberattacks, where they exploit individual vulnerabilities for financial gain or ideological extremism for one malicious goal. Psychology studies why cybercriminals are motivated to use something like social engineering to exploit people’s trust for devious intent. Criminology is used to form strategies and examine patterns where cybercrime is committed and how society responds. Moreover, they study the characteristics of cybercriminals to Sociology is used to study how humans interact within their social life, behavior, and institutions. It also analyzes how societal impacts could change how cybersecurity professionals handle security protocols. Anthropology talks about how cybersecurity practices are influenced by cultural factors like diverse communities or regions. It analyzes how cultural values shape the way technology is being adopted and program. Cyber Analysts’ use of these methods to combat the ever-growing. For this reason, these concepts are important to learn about first before entering and becoming a cyber analyst.

Responsibilities of a Cyber Analyst & Their Effects on Society

Cyber analysts are the frontline protectors of an organization that shields digital assets and is tasked with safeguarding network data and systems from cybercriminal attacks. Their primary duty is to safely monitor the traffic system for any form of suspicious activity that could be a major risk to people who use social media every day. In addition, the number of threats that can happen on a daily basis is staggering. Cyber Analysts take the time to analyze these ongoing incidents and find solutions to end them. From Zhong et al. (2017), cyber analysts are responsible for analyzing different levels of cyberattacks, and their goal is to achieve cyber situational awareness. The awareness of knowing when, what, where, why, and how these cyberattacks keep happening. Cyber Analyst efforts have profoundly stabilized our society by protecting financial systems, healthcare, organizations, infrastructure, and preserving our data privacy.

Without a doubt, cyber analysts are somehow connected to what our society has become in the past decade. Cyber Analysts are important members of society because they’re in the line of defense against cybercriminals across the world who want to destroy legitimate organizations that protect people’s data. Without the work of cyber analysts, our society would have a high vulnerability in our systems, in which cybercriminals will be able to exploit and sell people’s sensitive information to an unknown entity on the dark web. Cyber Analysts are needed to protect our national security from foreign governments that are possibly spying through their hackers to find secret pieces of information on the USA. All things considered, a cyber analyst is positive for society’s protection and survival.

Marginalized Groups & Social Engineering

Unquestionably, marginalized groups are the most targeted minority races when it comes to malicious things like social engineering. For one, social engineering where the use of practices to deceive and manipulate online users into obtaining access to their sensitive computer data and stealing it in the process. In addition, it exploits human weakness to make it easier for cybercriminals yet. According to Albladi and Weir (2020), they said that studies have shown that the vulnerability to social engineering affects individuals’ characteristics on social media networks. That means that social media are ground for cybercriminals to use social engineering to attack and exploit people on social media to get what they want. Another source, Ween et al. (2021) says that cyber warfare is challenging due to having an advanced structure that requires a cyber analyst to form a framework to combat these digital attacks.  In the end, marginalized groups are affected by social engineering from cybercriminals should be punished for the amount of harm that they have inflicted onto the marginalized groups.

Conclusion

As expressed, learning what it means to be a cyber analyst to being responsible for things that can negatively affect the world in a big way. Cyber Analyst to explain the importance of fundamental safeguards in safeguarding people, systems, networks, and data from cybercriminals who will take everything from innocent people. Ultimately, having a strong moral compass as a cyber analyst is crucial to have because it’s important to have people in the field who will do everything in their power to ensure that everyone’s private information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

Work Cited

Albladi, S. M., & Weir, G. R. S. (2020). Predicting individuals’ vulnerability to social engineering in social networks. Cybersecurity (Singapore), 3(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42400-020-00047-5

Ween, A., Dortmans, P., Thakur, N., & Rowe, C. (2017). Framing cyber warfare: an analyst’s perspective. The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation: Applications, Methodology, Technology, 16(3), 335–345. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548512917725620

Zhong, C., Yen, J., Liu, P., Erbacher, R. F., Garneau, C., & Chen, B. (2017). Studying Analysts’ Data Triage Operations in Cyber Defense Situational Analysis. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 10030, 128–169. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61152-5_6