PSYC6352 - Cognitive Psychology Essentials for Cyber Security

PSYC 6352 Cognitive Psychology Essentials for Cyber Security (3 semester credit hours) Cybersecurity involves human judgment and action both on the attack and defense sides. This course is an introduction to the human-side of cyber security. It will provide an in depth overview of the scientific study of the mind and the mental processes involved in cyber-defense as well as cyber-attack. The course begins with an examination of the different cognitive processes that are important for effective cyber security. These include perception, attention, working memory, and long term memory. We next focus on different forms of reasoning and decision making relevant to interactions in cyberspace. These include inductive, deductive, analogical, and abductive reasoning. Lastly, we will consider how human judgment, heuristics, biases, expertise and social/group problem solving affect human performance. We will also consider the relevance of technology characteristics and human-computer interaction methods. These topics will all be covered from both a cyber-attack and a cyber-defense position to provide a thorough understanding of the possible mindset, motive, and capabilities of an attacker and how best to implement defense methods. The focus throughout will be on current research and theory in this rapidly evolving field. Department consent required. (3-0) R