ScienceDirect

ScienceDirect is a great resource for technical research because it also searches abstract and uncorrected proofs for research articles that are to be published in the near future.  This database is fantastic if you have a specific resource in mind, but I decided to simply search for “cybersecurity” and then limit it to the most recent articles available – only for publication years 2014 and 2015. Specifically, I was hoping to retrieve an article that gives an idea of major concerns and trends in the industry.

The third article in my list of results seems to fulfill exactly my desired search! This article from the Journal of Computer and System Sciences is a general overview of cybersecurity trends as they stand in August 2014. Browsing many of the other retrieved articles resulted in many papers that were very technical and did not give a broad overview of developments in the industry of cybersecurity and privacy.

What I Learned

One of the major upcoming concerns in cybersecurity is employees oversharing information about their company and corporate secrets though social media, believing that they are protected because of the privacy settings on their social media accounts. This is very much untrue, as hackers and cybersecurity attackers are able to access information on social media accounts through spam attacks or through internal sources (people who are able to friend or follow you but are seeking to maliciously acquire information).

Reflection

ScienceDirect is absolutely a resource I will be using in the future. The search feature is ideal for tracking down a technical citation. In my work as a reference librarian, I often find that researchers in STEM fields come to me with an already selected resource and they simply want access to that one article. They do not typically come to me with a broad question. This database by design makes that very specific search extremely easy to conduct. I also liked that I could access information about upcoming articles, including abstracts and uncorrected proofs.