FloCon 2019

Cybersecurity data science (CDS) is a fast emerging professional discipline. The field seeks to apply data analytics methods and processes to goals and practices associated with cybersecurity. As an emerging domain, many aspects of mature professions–standards, best practices, a body of knowledge–are still evolving.

The rapid evolution of technical infrastructure and tools, cyber threats, and data science methods, as well as political, regulatory, legal, and organizational complexities, combine to make this a challenging domain. Collaboration is difficult as practitioners often work in secrecy, organizational isolation, and under tight tactical pressures.

This presentation seeks to derive and categorize a set of common threads which characterize the emerging professional discipline from the perspective of practitioners. A comprehensive examination of the nascent profession is offered with a view to iterating towards professionalization.

As a central anchor, the presentation reports on research into cybersecurity data science best practices based on interviews with a representative sample of recognized global practitioners conducted in 2018.

Through the results of the interview research, the presentation seeks to address the questions:
• What is the professional status of cybersecurity data science?
• What are perceived central challenges?
• What methodological and technical trends are emerging?
• What are key best practices based on the collective experiences of peers?
• What aspects of data science are appearing on the adversarial side?

The objective of this research is to better understand and report on key factors underlying cybersecurity data science as an emerging profession. Utilizing qualitative research methods, results have been examined quantitatively to identify trends, challenges, and best practices resident in the nascent field.

As this research will lead to a forthcoming book publication, the hope is to gain active feedback from the community through discussion and debate on the best practices and challenges identified.

Attendees will Learn:
This talk seeks to take a step back from methodological insights and case studies to ask larger questions concerning the status of cybersecurity data science as an emerging profession.

Is the discipline a temporary trend, a solution in search of problems, or an enduring and expanding phenomenon? To resolve these disparate views, a social science based qualitative research initiative was undertaken.

A representative sample of global cyber security data scientists were interviewed to gain insights into the professional status of the domain. Qualitative feedback from practitioners was analyzed through quantitative methods to derive a set of key trends, challenges, and best practices.