University Research Proposal: Data Breach and Cyber Security

This research proposal addresses the growing concern of data breaches in today's information-driven world. It begins with an introduction that highlights the increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber-attacks, emphasizing the need for enhanced data security measures. The proposal outlines the research aim, objectives, and research questions, focusing on identifying the causes of data breaches, proposing improved security techniques, and designing a comprehensive cyber security strategy. The literature review explores the existing research on cyber-crime, highlighting the limitations of current approaches and the need for a more integrated approach. The research methodology chapter details the data acquisition method using questionnaires distributed to various organizations. The conclusion reiterates the importance of data security, especially with the rise of cloud technology, and emphasizes the need for continuous research to protect sensitive information from cyber threats. References to relevant research papers are included.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON THE DATA BREACH
RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON THE DATA BREACH
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON THE DATA BREACH
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction........................................................................................................................2
Chapter 2: Literature review.................................................................................................................4
Chapter 3: Research methodology.......................................................................................................4
Chapter 4: Conclusion:.........................................................................................................................5
References:...........................................................................................................................................7

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON THE DATA BREACH
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background
Data breach has become an important issues in recent years. Hackers are considering
improved means and measures to access important and sensitive data. Due to this, it is difficult to
deal with these cyber-crimes and hence improved and advanced techniques are required for dealing
with these issues. As number of cyber-crimes are increasing over the years, protecting
organizational information has not only become necessary, but an essential strategy as well. Various
researches have been conducted in these field, however the scope of improving the quality of the
research to find even more enhanced and advanced cyber security technique is in demand which
present a broad aspect for conducting this research.
1.2 Problem statement
As dependency on the information technology is increasing, the amount of data produced is
increasing as well which brings the concern for the data breach as cyber-criminals try to access
those data which include trade secrets, customer data and proprietary business data. It is not only
important to protect these data, but need to ensure data integrity and data availability as well which
is often compromised in data breach. Hence proper planning and enhanced technique is required for
dealing with the data breach. In this research proposal these issues are addressed properly.
1.3 Aim, objective and research question
Aim of the research:
The aim of the research is to investigate cyber security issues and to propose appropriate
solution to deal with these issues and ensure proper data security for the important and confidential
data.
Objective of the research:

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON THE DATA BREACH
The objective of the research is to:
 Identify various reasons for data breach and categorize techniques as per importance and
popularity of application
 Suggest improved and advanced technique for protecting important data from the data
breach
 Design an overall strategy for the cyber security maintenance
Research question:
 Why intrusions have so much success in cyber-crime?
 What are the most important cyber-security issues?
 Why cyber-security needs proper review for information security?
 Why cyber-crimes are not always identified?
 What are the actual motivation behind cyber-crime?
1.4 Summary
This chapter discusses about background of the research along with the problem statement
of the research to provide a clear overview about the research. The paper also discusses about the
aim and objective of the research along with the research questions considered for this research
which provides the context for the research.

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON THE DATA BREACH
Chapter 2: Literature review
Cyber-crime is increasing without any restriction, not just because people are not properly
aware of it, but the techniques to defend them are not proper and often individual or organizations
are not able to formulate a dedicated approaches for combating the crime. The authors also seems to
agree on this topic and further clarifies that organizations often thinks that once defence is
established against a particular cyber-crime technique, the information system is secured which is
not the case as cyber-criminal often relies on various techniques for illegal access to the database
which is not meant for public access as those information are confidential and sensitive in nature.
Cyber-criminals hence experiment with various techniques and analyse them properly to identify
which method wok best and make the choice for the techniques accordingly. Hence it is also an
essential requirement for the information owner to design and develop proper cyber security system
which is able to protect valuable information from the cyber-crime. However as already mentioned
that the hackers are not dependent one any specific technique for conducting cyber-crime, hence it
is required to conduct periodic review of the existing cyber-security system for identifying issues
with the existing system and identify measures to improve those issues so that a proper and strong
cyber-security system is developed. Although various research has been conducted in this aspect
and various research papers have been published in this context, most of those research are focused
on certain features or certain aspect of cyber-security aspects. The combined aspect of the cyber-
security is not addressed in most of the research project which needs to be properly addressed for
effective cyber-security system. This research aims to integrate various elements of cyber-security
measures and present a combined and integrate approach for cyber-security for individual as well
for the organizations.
Chapter 3: Research methodology
In order to conduct the cyber-security issues, the method that will be most appropriate is the
data acquisition method. In this method, filled questionnaire will be distributed to various

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON THE DATA BREACH
organizations and data will be acquired through these questionnaires. In order to properly design
questionnaires, systematic literature review will be conducted to develop an appropriate
questionnaires for the survey and make a comprehensive research on the topic of cyber-security and
data breach.
This questions will be focused on the identification of different cyber-security measures that are
implemented within those organization, type of cyber-crimes encountered, measures taken and its
impact on the organization as well. The inclusion measures will be all companies, business
organizations and government institutions that are considering using the private networking systems
for managing their functions and integrity. The exclusion measures will be any business or agency
that considers and uses the public network systems for implementing and managing its functions.
The findings of this research will be provided to the organizations in the form of feedback so that it
is easier for the organizations to review existing cyber-security measures in an appropriate manner
and implement those measures and hence develop a secure information system that is efficient in
securing database containing important and authorized information.
Chapter 4: Conclusion:
As reliance on the information technology is increasing, the quantity of data created is rising
as well which lead to the concern for the data breach as cyber-criminals attempt to access those
data. It is not only significant to defend these data, but need to guarantee data integrity and data
availability as well which is often a major concern in data breach. Hence appropriate planning and
improved technique is necessary for dealing with the data breach.
As organization is trying to increase security for database, cyber-criminals are also
improving their technique for formulating hacking to implement data breach. Data and information
security is not any optional topic for companies now and it has become more of a concern to
companies and organizations who needs to deal with the process of producing, storing, forwarding
and consuming data. The increase that has been observed in the application and the use of

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON THE DATA BREACH
information systems and various related technology which is an integral part of it has compounded
the problem which is often faced by companies in the attempt of protecting sensitive data as there
are various attempt made from various cyber actors who has the intention to commit crime either
for money or for fame, but the intention is associated criminal act.
Companies who needs to consider dealing with data, it is important to note that companies
must always endeavor to maintain the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data. Cloud
technology, another advanced technology in this context, has opened some different aspect of data
security which is not often considered by the expert. Hence proper research should be conducted in
this field to identify new and improved means for data security so that it is possible for the
organization to protect important data from the cyber-criminal, especially from the data breach.

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON THE DATA BREACH
References:
Ablon, L., Heaton, P., Lavery, D. C., & Romanosky, S. (2016). Data Theft Victims, and Their
Response to Breach Notifications.
Ablon, L., Heaton, P., Lavery, D. C., & Romanosky, S. (2016). Consumer attitudes toward data
breach notifications and loss of personal information. Rand Corporation. Lee, K., Lee, K.,
Kim, H., Suh, C., & Ramchandran, K. (2018). SGD on Random Mixtures: Private Machine
Learning under Data Breach Threats.
Cheng, L., Liu, F., & Yao, D. D. (2017). Enterprise data breach: causes, challenges, prevention, and
future directions. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Data Mining and Knowledge
Discovery, 7(5).
Cherdantseva, Y., Burnap, P., Blyth, A., Eden, P., Jones, K., Soulsby, H., & Stoddart, K. (2016). A
review of cyber security risk assessment methods for SCADA systems. Computers &
security, 56, 1-27.
Goode, S., Hoehle, H., Venkatesh, V., & Brown, S. A. (2017). User compensation as a data breach
recovery action: An investigation of the Sony PlayStation network breach. MIS
Quarterly, 41(3).
Manworren, N., Letwat, J., & Daily, O. (2016). Why you should care about the Target data
breach. Business Horizons, 59(3), 257-266.
Nourian, A., & Madnick, S. (2018). A systems theoretic approach to the security threats in cyber
physical systems applied to stuxnet. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure
Computing, 15(1), 2-13.
Parn, E. A., & Edwards, D. (2019). Cyber threats confronting the digital built environment:
Common data environment vulnerabilities and block chain deterrence. Engineering,
Construction and Architectural Management.

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Sen, R., & Borle, S. (2015). Estimating the contextual risk of data breach: An empirical
approach. Journal of Management Information Systems, 32(2), 314-341.