Research Design for the research question:
Cyberweapons are constantly in use by criminals to commit cyberwarfare whereby the weapons are designed to interfere with the normal computer program by exposing it to cybersecurity threats through computer malware such as viruses, Trojans, and spyware. Criminals learn different computer technologies to gain financial and social benefits despite causing harm to the societies of the world. The internet connections allow cybercriminals to carry out criminal offenses without necessarily being physically at the crime scenes making it hard to trace them. According to Prunckun, (2018) the criminals can apply cybercrime technologies such as spoofing, phishing, Trojan programs, and designing a fake website. The information networks appear to be vulnerable to undergo many threats as a result of cyber insecurities. The theme of this paper is to investigate different cyber weapons and how they affect the world states in terms of security of data in information management in different sectors such as business administration and security firms and establish the states’ response to help combat cyber weapons that cause cybersecurity threats in their Information system (IT).
- The states seek to develop cybersecurity technologies to create self-awareness in cyber systems so that the citizens can report cybersecurity threats in time so that the government takes action to curb the insecurity threats.
- The research aims to protect the small utility grids where methodologies are undertaken by the states to help protect information from cyber weapons from the other states and criminals.
- Establishing the security of mobile platforms and other applications that are used in information management to help prevent malicious applications that are designed to bridge the security network. The states develop a platform to configure security networks by accessing mobile calls to enhance authentication, and get information in the web browsers that relate to cybercrimes so that the government formulates a remedy to address such issue.
- Research takes into account the social behaviors of people concerning the security of sensitive information, economic issues in cyberspace, and cybersecurity to help protect computers from malicious malware attacks.
- To provide a comprehensive review of the cybersecurity weapons that affect the security system of the world.
To
- study the current security management programs that the governments have put in place to to coubnter attack cyberwepons of other states
- To identify and describe the impact of cyber weapons and they interfere with a state’s privacy
- To identify the types of data that are more exposed to security threats and give reasons on how to install security surveillance that can detect unauthorized information access through malpractices such as spoofing and computer malware.
- What are the major threats that cyber weapons impose on the security system of the states across the globe?
- What are the methods that need to be undertaken to protect the computers from cyber weapons that involve hackers and other predators?
- What are the types of cybersecurity threats in Information Technology (IT)?
- What are the effects of cybersecurity threats?
According to Roman and Alexander, (2019) Information security is a great step in achieving millennium goals of development of every state whereby the state invests in intellectual knowledge to help citizens discover the role of information security and embrace the governments’ effects to mitigate the issues of cybercrimes. The literature review aims to identify the current security management laws, possible cyber weapons that hinder the security of data, and try to get solutions to the security problems the state undergoes.
States define policies to help protect computers from cyber weapons such as malware, phishing, and attacks on the Internet of Things IoT) devices such as the sensors that collect security data in the country. Peltier, (2016), argues that, every state outlines the purpose of the information is designed to serve and in case of the security breaches such as misuse of a technology and computer systems the country takes action to help maintain her reputation. The information security objectives such as confidentiality need to be maintained, integrity, and availability to authorized users need to be enhanced to help protect information from cyber weapons that can distort its meaning. The countries need to design and implement legislations such as Access and control policies by using strong passwords and hierarchal management to help secure information from unauthorized sharing and internet hackers. Littlefield, Nalathambi and Chanchlani, (2019), suggest that states create data backups, data protection regulations, and strict movement of data especially within the protocols to prevent unauthorized users from accessing sensitive information.
The Importance of a Research Proposal
According to Osanaiye, Choo and Dlodlo, (2016, p.147), Information Technology face cyberattacks such as the use of a botnet to weaken the security links in a Distributed-Denial-of –Service (DDoS) attacks in cloud computers where sensitive and back up information is kept. Gross, Ganetti, and Vashdi, (2017, p.49), suggests that cyber terrorism interferes with human psychology, policymaking in political activities, and personal psych, therefore, become less productive for a given state. Perdisci and Feamster,( 2010, p.14), argue that the information faces malware problems that risk the security of data of the original user and expose the computer to the contracting virus, apart from getting exposed to logic bombs.
A cyber weapon such as computer malware and virus tend to sneak through the government regulations despite the government’s strict implementation of law and order to have total control on and help minimize them. The state needs to punish citizens who fail to adhere to confidentiality, availability, and integrity of data in the computers. Unauthorized production distribution or having computes with the information objective; cia, need to be considered a state crime.
Raymond et al, (2013, p.2) says that the states through the United Nations (UN) formulate laws to regulate the production of chemical weapons that are harmful to human health such as atomic plants. The United Nations also sets these regulations to help prevent the occurrence of deadly military fights between nations.
States’ response to cyberweapons of criminals and other states
The states encrypt digital information and hide the security links by the veils of the government secrecy so that they are not exposed to the enemy making it difficult for an enemy to access security details of a state.
The states’ through the United Nations ensures that there are inspections on the impact of weapons from other states before they are manufactured. The state carries out a legal review on the effects of the weapon such as the damage on the civilians’ health. The country ensures that the weapon can be used lawfully without violating the rights of citizens by establishing regulations that ensure that the weapons are used purposefully.
The states’ through the United Nations Security Council uses force when it discovers that a different country is a threat or breaches their security. The United Security Council helps to declare war against the countries that do not adhere to cyberweapon regulations. The nations establish trade barriers with the conflicting nation to minimize their export income in the economy so that they minimize the production of nuclear weapons that threaten the nation’s economy.
Cyberweapons and Cybersecurity Threats
The states invest in the anti-fraud system to deal with criminal attempts and secure the security systems to store sensitive information on businesses and national security. The states use strong passwords to help protect sensitive information from spyware that can obtain the country’s security details without her consent.
To address the key research objectives, the proposal suggests the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the data to ensure that there is an extensive examination of cyber weapon problems. Research methodologies need to be relevant. Bryman, (2017, P.57), suggests that the qualitative methods such as interviews tend to address specific concepts in depth while the qualitative approach is used to categorize data and suitable in explaining specific information in detail.
The study population needs to consist of security firms such as Optus Security Services to help the researcher identify the cyber weapons, their threat to security, and establish the solutions that the firm can use to prevent cybercrimes. Schmutz and Mäusezahl, (2018, p816), suggest that the population of the study is the total number of people whom a researcher decides to engage to find solutions to research aims that are defined in the objectives. The researches need to employ a purposive sampling technique to avoid deviating from the cyberweapons’ control.
Prada et al, (2018, p.97) suggest that the researchers need to collect data by applying both primary and secondary data collection methods since both qualitative and quantitative methodologies are used to help establish a piece of extensive information about dealing with cyber weapons from countries and criminals. The method for data collection needs to be effective and efficient so that it fulfills the purpose it is meant to achieve in the objectives.
- Interviews
The researcher needs to conduct interviews that involve direct verbal exchange with the respondents in the security firm. The researcher asks questions and gets clarification from the respondent. Doody and Noonan, (2013), suggest that through the interviews, the researcher gets immediate feedback and is also able to discover the respondents’ knowledge concerning dealing with Information security.
- Questionnaires
The researcher designs a list of questions from the objectives to help form a questionnaire. The researcher needs to apply a closed questionnaire where choices are given to help build concrete feedback. Hilton, (2017, p.21) says that questionnaires are designed in a procedural manner that enhances credibility and intended goal since they can be easily understood by the respondents. The researcher ensures that there is an identical list of questions but mixed up to help avoid biasness in the responses.
- document review
Information Security Objectives of States
The researcher conducts a review of security information in written documents such as books, journals, newspapers, security websites, and other weblogs. Bretschneider et al, (2017) argue that document review helps the researcher gather relevant first-hand information that is synthesized and readily available. The researcher plays the compact disc records to find out security information in them and gather relevant information on how to curb cybercrimes.
(a) Cyberweapons are continuous warfare; cyber weapons seem to originate from the activities of Information Technology that are mainly influenced by human decisions on cybersecurity. Some of the information may appear complex to get a permanent solution making it impossible to have total control on cyber weapons within and outside a state.
(b) Making improvements on how to control cyber weapons in different states helps in reducing cyber breaches and cyber warfare. However, when a country carries out new tests of weapons such as nuclear tests, the impact controlling cyber weapons becomes minimal and ineffective.
Conclusion
Cyberweapons contain complexity as it tries to surpass the legislations of states to thrive in every state, therefore there is need for the governments to work together with international communities such as United Nations Security Council to help protect vulnerable information in computers from attacks such as malware, whooping, virus, worms, and Trojans. Researchers need to gather any relevant information through research interviews, questionnaires and document analysis to help build strong information that can solve security issues that result from cyber weapons so that cyber warfare is minimized and if possible get abolished.
References
Bretschneider, P.J., Cirilli, S., Jones, T., Lynch, S. and Wilson, N.A., 2017. Document review as a qualitative research data collection method for teacher research. SAGE Publications Ltd.
Bryman, A., 2017. Quantitative and qualitative research: further reflections on their integration. In Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research (pp. 57-78). Routledge.
Doody, O. and Noonan, M., 2013. Preparing and conducting interviews to collect data. Nurse researcher, 20(5).
Gross, M.L., Canetti, D. and Vashdi, D.R., 2017. Cyberterrorism: its effects on psychological well-being, public confidence and political attitudes. Journal of Cybersecurity, 3(1), pp.49-58.
Hilton, C.E., 2017. The importance of pretesting questionnaires: a field research example of cognitive pretesting the Exercise referral Quality of Life Scale (ER-QLS). International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20(1), pp.21-34.
Littlefield, D.A., Nallathambi, V.K. and Chanchlani, G., CommVault Systems Inc, 2019. Data recovery operations, such as recovery from modified network data management protocol data. U.S. Patent Application 16/297,330.
Osanaiye, O., Choo, K.K.R. and Dlodlo, M., 2016. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) resilience in cloud: Review and conceptual cloud DDoS mitigation framework. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 67, pp.147-165.
Peltier, T.R., 2016. Information Security Policies, Procedures, and Standards: guidelines for effective information security management. CRC Press.
Perdisci, R., Lee, W. and Feamster, N., 2010, April. Behavioral Clustering of HTTP-Based Malware and Signature Generation Using Malicious Network Traces. In NSDI (Vol. 10, p. 14).
Prada-Ramallal, G., Roque, F., Herdeiro, M.T., Takkouche, B. and Figueiras, A., 2018. Primary versus secondary source of data in observational studies and heterogeneity in meta-analyses of drug effects: a survey of major medical journals. BMC medical research methodology, 18(1), p.97.
Prunckun, H. ed., 2018. Cyber weaponry: Issues and implications of digital arms. Springer.
Raymond, D., Conti, G., Cross, T. and Fanelli, R., 2013, June. A control measure framework to limit collateral damage and propagation of cyber weapons. In 2013 5th International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CYCON 2013) (pp. 1-16). IEEE.
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