Effects of Cybersecurity Knowledge on Attack Detection - Course Work Example

Scientific Knowledge, Contributions and Methodology Form

Unit 7

Use the research study approved for the Unit 2 assignment to complete this form. Type directly in the questions. Provide APA-style citations as needed.

Write the APA-formatted reference for your article.

Ben-Asher, N., & Gonzalez, C. (2015). Effects of cybersecurity knowledge on attack detection. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 51-61.

2. Paste the persistent link for your article here.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.01.039

3. What was the methodology used in the article, either qualitative or quantitative?

Quantitative

4. What was the approach used in the article? If your article was qualitative, the approaches include case study, phenomenology, ethnography, and grounded theory. If your article was quantitative, the three approaches are experimental, quasi-experimental, and non-experimental.

The approach used was experimental because the researcher could identify the course of and effects as well manipulate the study by rewarding and punishing the participants. At the end of the research, one could understand the relationship between the numbers of years the participants have worked and the results they got.

5. For research to have scientific merit in your field of study, it must contribute new, meaningful knowledge to your field. In a few sentences, summarize the new knowledge that was contributed by this research. Then, write one or two paragraphs explaining how this knowledge is meaningful to your field. Also, address the importance of the application of this knowledge by professionals in real-world settings.

The study contributed to a better understanding of the process human being used in detecting cyber-attacks. The study showed that there is major difference between novices and expert in detecting an attack is that both could detect malicious events taking place, but a novice could not detect whether the event would lead to cyber-attack compared to their counterparts. This is because experts had comprehensive knowledge that helps them to infer the network event, and understand the relationship between various attributes involved in an event and judge the events correcting within the context. The importance of applying this knowledge is that employers in large companies dealing with crucial information will be able to select gurus to work in their companies to ensure all essential information are protected.

6. For research to have scientific merit, it must advance the theories in your field of study. In one or two paragraphs, describe the theoretical foundations of the research and how the research advanced those. For example, the research may have tested, confirmed, extended, or modified a theory. Perhaps it generated a new theory.

Positivism theory is applied in the research to understand a complex nature of protecting data from cyber-attack (Michell, 2003). The study is broken into small parts to ensure the results are accurate. This is achieved by separating the novice and IT experts to identify who is more accurate to detect a cyber crime and how each group countered the event. The experiment will help in measuring how the numbered of years worked increased human cognitive levels.

7. Describe the sample and the sampling procedure; that is, the way in which the participants were selected. Avoid quoting the article, and use your descriptions. Evaluate whether the sample and sampling procedures were appropriate for the methodology and approach.

The researchers may have used a multi-step cluster selection when selecting the students who were only studying computers related courses such as computer science and IT (Oakshoott, 2016). From this group, 50 participants are selected randomly to participate in the study. In additions, computer experts from various organizations were selected randomly online to participate in the research. This procedure was appropriate and would give reliable results since the investigators selected their participants freely hence the results were not biased.

8. Describe the data collection procedure. This would start after participants gave informed consent, and end when the participants have completed the study. Avoid quoting the article, and use your descriptions. If your methodology was qualitative, you might be describing interview procedures, for example. If your methodology was quantitative, make sure you describe any group assignment methods or any repeated measures, such as a pretest or post-test. Evaluate whether the data collection procedure was appropriate for the methodology and approach.

The participants participated in a pretest procedures where they were tested whether they could be able to detect whether an event was a cyber-attack or no- attack events. They have presented the scenarios using IDS-tool, and each new event appeared on the monitor after every 10 seconds. A post-test was conducted where the novice viewed ten scenarios randomly and answered a question to know their confidence when making their decision. The experts were presented with three random scenarios and also given questionnaires to fill. The novice took 60 minutes to complete the questionnaires while the experts used just 25 minutes. This procedure is appropriate as it shows that experts have confidence in their decision-making hence can quickly avert a cyber attack.

9. Describe the data analysis procedure. You need only describe the procedure or the statistical tests if your methodology was quantitative. Avoid quoting the article and use your descriptions. Evaluate whether the data analysis procedure was appropriate for the methodology and approach.

The data was analyzed using tabulation method to show the percentages of a novice who were able to make the correct decision as well as the experts (Oakshott, 2016). This procedure is appropriate since it shows clearly in percentage form the group that is fit to be employed in the organization to detect cyber-attacks and protects the data well.

10. Describe the findings and the conclusions the researchers made. Evaluate whether the conclusions allowed the researchers to answer the research questions and address the research problem.

Due to the amount taken to make a decision, it is clear that experts are more confident in making cyber-attack decisions than a novice. Also, cyber security analysts are cautious when monitoring a network to avert cyber crimes. The facts that novice took a longer time to make decisions shows that the level expertise and practical knowledge are crucial in the analysis cyber crime events. This answers the questions of how the human cognitive levels affect the cyber security.

11. Include an APA-formatted references list here.

Michell, J. (2003). Pragmatism, Positivism and the Quantitative Imperative. Theory & Psychology, 13(1), 45-52.

Oakshott, L. (2016). Interpreting with confidence: analysis of sample data. Essential Quantitative Methods, 172-190.