What are the Humanities?

Since this is a Humanities course, we should begin by understanding what the Humanities are. Humanities courses generally include arts, literature, philosophy, languages, and similar courses. What these all have in common is their focus on human expression and experience. According to the Ohio Humanities Council:

The humanities are the stories, the ideas, and the words that help us make sense of our lives and our world. The humanities introduce us to people we have never met, places we have never visited, and ideas that may have never crossed our minds. By showing how others have lived and thought about life, the humanities help us decide what is important in our own lives and what we can do to make them better. By connecting us with other people, they point the way to answers about what is right or wrong, or what is true to our heritage and our history. The humanities help us address the challenges we face together in our families, our communities, and as a nation. (Ohio Humanities Council, 2014)

One way of understanding the humanities is that they are various attempts to explore the question: What does it mean to be human?

What do the Humanities have to do with Technology?

Humans have been intrigued by machines, and as we will see throughout this course, humans depend on their machines, sometimes too much. Many science fiction stories, such as in the film I Robot, have explored the possibility of machines taking over and controlling humans. But ultimately, the machines depend on humans. Technology is something we use to make our lives better, and we should not forget that, even when it seems to make life more difficult.

In The Green Hills of Earth, Robert Heinlein wrote a “future history” in which he speculated about what it might be like to be human in the distant future, when humans have moved into outer space. As you read the story, consider how Heinlein’s basic idea of humanity could have been set in any number of historical periods and in any number of places on Earth. Wherever and whenever humans exist, we have heroes, we sing songs, we work hard, and we sometimes have to face difficult choices.

All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace. 

Post a paragraph response (about 200–300 words in length) to the following questions:

• Do you behave and communicate differently online than you do face-to-face? How so? Give specific examples.
• What does it mean to be “fully human”? In light of your definition, do you think we can be “fully human” while interacting with others in a virtual space? Why or why not? 

Submit a short (200–300 word) paragraph that includes a summary of the results of your checklist that assessed how you are using technology. Include in your summary:

• What surprised you about your use of technology and the kinds of technology you use?
• Which, if any, of the technologies have more to do with your professional life than your private life?
• What does your technology and the way you use it say about you as a person?

E-Commerce and Mobile Technologies

Your company is experiencing decline in business because of competition. Your manager thinks they may be able to turn the company around if they can get help from an IT professional on E-Commerce and Mobile Technologies. Assume your company is a traditional retail entity similar to Sears, Macy’s or K-Mart, suggest ways your company can use E-Commerce and Mobile Technologies to increase its visibility and sales. In your discussion, explain what is E-Commerce and Mobile Technology 

Write a respons to bellow 

example of someone already respond to this

The topic I researched continues to be an examination of how well current federal policies are impacting the insider threat to government networks and systems.  This week I pulled a peer reviewed article from the APUS library titled “User Awareness of security Countermeasures and Its Impact on Information Systems Misuse: A Deterrence Approach”.  This article comes out of the gate describing the insider threat as responsible for 50-75% of security incidents posed to organizations. This is roughly inlibe with other references indicating the high rate of risk coming from inside the doors.  Most strategies for combating threats include deterrence, prevention, detection, and recovery.  Various aspects of deterrence detection and prevention can all be addressed in some form with an adequate insider threat training program.

Doing an online Google search with the key phrase of “training to deter cyber insider threats” yielded several good articles and even a few articles from trade journals.  Cyber Defense Magazine had a promising article titled Training to Tackle Insider Threats” which did a very good job of highlighting the significant threat that insiders pose to all organizations and their information systems.  Burke points out that 74% of all breaches originate from within an organization and uses a very good hook to grab the reader with his “age-old horror movie trope, when it comes to cyber security, the calls are coming from inside the house” line (Burke).  Employees should be screened from the beginning with thorough background checks before they ever step foot inside the door, then the training begins (Burke).  This includes both initial and periodic training to keep the concepts fresh.  Be on the look put for the contractor, both individual and partner companies (Burke).  A contractors credentials were used to hack OPM in 2015.  Home Depot was hacked by backdooring through a third party contractor’s network that wasn’t firewalled properly.

I found it interesting that a generic Google search did bring up several trade journal articles.  One hit was from the European Journal of Information Systems called “A review and analysis of deterrence theory in the IS security literature: making sense of the disparate findings.  This articles discusses how deterrence theory predicts that malicious intent and complacency can often be overcome with the threat of various punishments that when carried out in a swift and severe way can keep individual users in line.  A side note on this article is that it is co-authored by the same person who co-authored the peer reviewed article above and it is important to not use the same author to many times so I probably wouldn’t use this as an actual reference in my paper if I can help it.

My dependent variable now would be to determine how effective insider threat training (along with general IS/IA training) is to mitigating the threats inherent in the user domain for federal agencies.  IE- has there been a measurable percentage drop in errors, breaches, etc in a given timeframe.  Some dependent variables include measuring any statistical data against variations in amounts of threats both internal and external (Growth in employee population and changes in number of threats faced can both skew the statistics).

D’arcy, John, Hovav, Anat, Galletta, Dennis. (2009). User Awareness of Security Countermeasures and Its Impact on Information Systems Misuse: A Deterrence Approach. Retreived from https://search-proquest-

Example  to follow

Karl,

The insider threat is by far the most serious threat that any organization faces.Recent history with classified government information has proved that the insider threat poses an incredible risk to the organization.One individual with full access to sensitive information can completely take down a company’s operations.The perfect example is Edward Snowden, his public disclosures compromised an enormous amount of intelligence operations forcing massive changes in the organization in response.The biggest shortfall in the current outbreak of government disclosures is likely the background security check that takes place before granting access.Almost all of the individuals that have been involved with the large scale security leaks have been from one defense contractor: Booz Allen Hamilton.To me, this makes the best solution easy, a massive audit on the screening conducted by that company of potential employees.The Army has a training program in place for being able to identify a potential insider threat so they can be countered.However, the training has become incredibly stagnant.I have taken the same insider threat training for several years and it has become nothing but another annual training class that I have to get through as quickly as possible and I never really learn a thing.Insider threat awareness training should be more comprehensive, especially in the military.

Gregg

question was

Discuss your literature review findings regarding the topic you researched

Based on your literature review redefine and state your key variables

Social Research Methods: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/

The Research Methodology: http://www.experiment-resources.com/research-methodology.html

Type of Research: http://www.researchamerica.org/public_opinion?gclid=CO_rg_jv0aMCFRr6iAoda3FWtg      

Sage Research Methods Online: http://www.methodspace.com

APA Format and Writing Style: http://www.apa.org

APUS Capstone Manual: Capstone_Manual.pdf 

Literature Review Article: Cybercrime article for literature review.pdf

due Jul 16

Discussion 1 – 200 words minimum

Use the Internet to research up-and-coming technologies (www.howstuffworks.com is a good starting point). Prepare a list of innovations that you believe will occur in the next ten years. Determine how they will be integrated into society and the effect they will have on our culture. (Must be 200 words to receive 100 points)