The Repository @ St. Cloud State

Open Access Knowledge and Scholarship

Date of Award

12-2019

Culminating Project Type

Plan C Paper

Degree Name

English: Rhetoric and Writing: M.A.

Department

English

College

College of Liberal Arts

First Advisor

Shaon Cogdill, Chair

Second Advisor

Judith Kilborn

Third Advisor

John Madden

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Keywords and Subject Headings

communication, computer crime, computer hacking, computers and information, countermeasures, cyber espionage, cyberattack, data security digital rhetoric, internet, internet security, inter-disciplinary studies, malware, phishing, privacy, privacy-invasive software, rhetoric, technical communication, security, writing

Abstract

Rhetsec_ examines the rhetorical situation, the rhetorical appeals, and how phishing emails simulate "real" emails in five categories of phishing emails. While the first focus of cybersecurity is security, you must also understand the language of computers to know how to secure them. Phishing is one way to compromise security using computers, and so the computer becomes a tool for malicious language (phishing emails and malware) to be transmitted. Therefore to be concerned with securing computers, then you must also be concerned with language. Language is rhetoric's domain, and the various rhetorical elements which create an identity of the phisher themselves, the false author, and their perception of their victims help us understand cyberattacks both offensive and defensively.

Comments/Acknowledgements

This git repository serves as a copy of Jennifer Mead's portfolio as a culminating project for her Masters of Arts in Rhetoric & Writing at St. Cloud State University. This git repository is a direct copy of http://www.linuxfingers.com from December 2019, deemed sufficient for graduation and completion of the Masters program. The sole intent of this git repository is posterity and preservation of my project for degree fulfillment. The original project (with tracked changes) is found at linuxfingers/portfolio.

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