Step 10: Prepare a Profile Matrix
Now that you have familiarized yourself with the concepts of hackers and standards, policies, and guidelines, it is important to understand how to match the two in an organization.
For this assignment, prepare a Profile Matrix that lists the different types of hackers in the first column, and for each, list the psychological profile, main motivations, threats to the organization, benefits to the organization, and whether or not a standard, guideline, or policy best applies to them. Be sure to identify an example of a standard, guideline, or policy that may apply.
You should identify a minimum of six hacker-type examples. This will assist you in both helping upper management identify insider threats and to prevent future breaches.
Finally, at this point in your assignment, you should have encountered concerns about using profiles to “watch” employees and the benefits and dangers of doing so. Include a short paragraph about your findings to the matrix.
Submit your Profile Matrix for feedback.
Additional info
Step 7: Ethical vs. Unethical Hackers
As the cybersecurity field expands, the larger community discourse leads to changes in terminology. While some of our course materials may differentiate between the terms “hackers” and “crackers” as threat actors, we will use the terms “ethical hackers” and “nonethical hackers” to make the same differentiation. Learn about the different types of hackers, or nonstate actors, and document the following:
- How do the profiles for ethical and unethical hackers differ?
- Should these psychological attributes make a difference as to the amount of, or nature of the punishment meted out to those who are caught? Why or why not?
- Describe how certain factors can also motivate ethical hackers, or those who defend against cyberattacks? (e.g., revenge, patriotism, fear of government abuse, pride, respect for the law, ownership, anger, retaliation).
While you do not need to submit your findings, they will be essential to the completion of your matrix in a later step.
Step 8: Hacker Profiling
In the previous step, you learned about the psychological factors that motivate hackers. In this step, you will go a bit further by learning how to profile hackers—a skill that is essential to the success of cybersecurity professionals. Read about hacker profiling and document the following:
- How do profiles of ethical and unethical hackers differ?
- While psychological profiling of criminals is not a new field, should we attempt to profile cybercriminals?
- What sort of things do we already know about the personalities of cybercriminals?
- Do we have enough evidence to indicate there is a distinct psychological pattern that would help in the apprehension of cybercriminals?
In the next step, you will use all the information you’ve learned about hackers to create a matrix.
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