| University Libraries
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) defines Cybersecurity as, "the art of protecting networks, devices, and data from unauthorized access or criminal use, and the practice of ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information." This guide seeks to be a resource for GMU students and faculty researching cybersecurity based on these core elements.
Background information can give you a general overview of a research topic, including facts surrounding your topic, such as key terms, people, places, industries, events, dates, and concepts. Background information can help you pull together a succinct research question, keywords for searching databases, and it can highlight areas of your topic that you may want to research further.
For example: If your research question is, "How do memory-based vulnerabilities in embedded systems pose unique security risks to critical infrastructure sectors, and what countermeasures have proven most effective in mitigating these threats?", the question needs to be refined. To focus the question, I'd specify an industry instead of leaving it as just, "critical infrastructure sectors".
Background information can show what the top industries are for embedded systems. The new research question could be, "How can the automotive industry mitigate memory-based vulnerabilities to their embedded systems?" You can search for the different types of memory-based vulnerabilities, and the different types of embedded systems, to either inform yourself, or to specify in your research question to further refine it (if necessary). This is why background information can be important and why students should do this to start their research.
• Subject-specific encyclopedias
• Trade publications
• Article databases
• Google - It is outdated to say that we shouldn't use Google at any point of the research process. Google is helpful for background information searching. It should not be used to find peer-reviewed articles. Use Google to answer questions about parts of your topic that you are unfamiliar with. Skip or verify the Ai overviews.
Below is a list of databases providing articles, conference papers, and proceedings related to Cybersecurity-related topics, including artificial-intelligence, and various other disciplines.
Below are several ways you can find books or ebooks on Cybersecurity-related topics.
Below are the Library of Congress classification numbers for some Cybersecurity-related topics:
• QA75-76.95 Calculating machines
• QA75.5-76.95 Electronic computers. Computer science
• QA76.75-76.765 Computer software
• TK5101-6720 Telecommunication Including telegraphy, telephone, radio, radar, television
• HV6251-6773.55 Crimes and offenses
The below resources provide theses and dissertations. Some will be free and others might need to be ordered using InterLibrary Loan (ILL).
For individual or small group research help, schedule an appointment with Raeshelle Cooke using our handy online calendar by clicking the link below.
This is a real time calendar with available times for students, faculty, and staff conducting research regarding topics in computer science, technology, statistics, or game design fields. If one librarian has no availability, try the other person!
If you need an appointment outside of office hours, please email the Librarian directly.
