CISB412 Ethics & IT

Professional
Practices
An insight into Issues
pertaining to Network
Communication

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Specific issues to be discussed:
• Email and Spam
• Control over www
• Censorship
• Children
• Trust issues
• Identity theft
• Online Predators
• Internet Usage and Addiction

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Email Spam
Email Spam
• Email spam, 3 important attributes:
1. anonymity: the sender’s identity and address are concealed
2. mass mailing: spam email is sent to a large number of recipients and in high
quantities
3. unsolicited: the individuals receiving spam would otherwise not have opted
to receive it

• Amount of email that is spam has increased

8% in 2001  40% in 2003  More than 50% in 2004 to about 56% in 2017

• Spam is effective!!!
More than 100 times cheaper than “junk mail”
Profitable even if only 1 in 100,000 buys product . Try do the math!!!
College of Information Technology, UNITEN
Email Spam
• How firms get email addresses
• Opt-in lists
• Dictionary attacks
• Spammers seek anonymity
• Change email and IP addresses to disguise sending machine
• Hijack another system as a spam launch pad
• Spam blockers
• Attempt to screen out spam
• Have led to more picture-based spam

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Battle against SPAM - Not an easy task
Spam is flooding the Internet with many
copies of the same message, in an attempt
to force the message on people who would
not otherwise choose to receive it. Most
spam is commercial advertising, often for
dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or
quasi-legal services. Spam costs the sender
very little to send -- most of the costs are
paid for by the recipient or the carriers
rather than by the sender.
Many people - anyone with measured
phone service - read or receive their mail
while the meter is running, so to speak.
Spam costs them additional money. On top
of that, it costs money for ISPs and online
services to transmit spam, and these costs
are transmitted directly to subscribers.
Source: http://
spam.abuse.net/overview/whatisspam.shtm
l Computing
Image-based spam defeats filters
Junk emails using pictures rises to 30 per cent of all unsolicited messages.
Spam messages that use images, rather than text, to ply their wares now account for 30 per cent
of all unsolicited email, new figures show.
Stats released by security firm Secure Computing show that emails where spammers hide
messages in image files to escape detection have increased 200 per cent over the past few
months. 
Filtering image spam is more difficult than with text-based messages as traditional methods are
not effective.
"Image-based spam is a particularly difficult problem for a couple of reasons," said Michael
Osterman, founder and principal of Osterman Research.
"It is much harder to detect with conventional spam filtering and blocking technologies, and is
typically much larger than normal text-based spam, consuming much more bandwidth and
storage."
Image spam can even defeat filters that use optical character recognition software to convert
images into text.
"Traditional anti-spam software depends on content filtering techniques such as keyword filtering
and Bayesian analysis to detect spam," said Dr Paul Judge, chief technology officer at Secure
source:
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/67644,image-based-spam-defeats-filters.aspx#ixzz3VAnYozur
CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
• Controlling the Assault of Non-
Solicited Pornography And Marketing
Act of 2003
• Signed into law by President George
W. Bush on December 16, 2003;
• Establishes the United States' first
national standards for the sending of
commercial e-mail and;
• Requires the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) to enforce its
provisions.
• Took effect January 1, 2004
• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003:Businesses
Promoted by Spammers
• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: Criminal Liability
• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: Enforcement by States
• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: Legislative Context and Backgro
und
• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: Policy Goals and Purposes
• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: Pornographic Material
• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: Preemption
• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: Private Right of Action for "Inter
net Access Service" Providers
• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: Problematic Spamming Techniq
ues
• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: Role of the Federal Trade Com
mission
• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: Senate Commerce Committee R
eport
College of Information Technology, UNITEN
CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
The law divides emails sent by business into three categories
1. Transactional email messages related to a commercial transaction or
ongoing business that have already been established
2. Commercial email messages to which recipients have presumably
consented (by explicitly request or by not opting out)
3. Unsolicited commercial email messages

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
Emails Categories: Transactional email messages related to a
commercial transaction or ongoing business that have already been
established
Must meet these requirements
1. message header, sender, organization and information must be correct
2. Must not disguise the identity of the computer from which the message
was sent

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
Emails Categories: Commercial email messages to which recipients have
presumably consented (by explicitly request or by not opting out)
Must meet these requirements
Must meet all the above requirement (number 1 & 2), and,
3. Must inform recipient can opt out from the mailing list
4. Must provide internet based mechanism to opt out
5. Must contain postal address of the sender

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
Emails Categories: Unsolicited
commercial email messages
Must meet these requirements
Must meet all the above
requirement (number 1 - 5), and,
6. must include clear notice
that it is an advertisement
7. if it contains explicit
materialism must include in the
subject line

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Criminal Offenses
Although according to the law, legitimate businesses and marketers should
be careful regarding the aspects mentioned above, there are
misinterpretations and fraudulent practices that are viewed as criminal
offenses:
• Sending multiple spam emails with the use of a hijacked computer
• Sending multiple emails through Internet Protocol addresses that the sender
represents falsely as being his/her property
• Trying to disguise the source of the email and to deceive recipients regarding the
origins of the emails, by routing them through other computers
• Sending multiple spam emails via multiple mailings with falsified information in
the header
• Using various email accounts obtained by falsifying account registration
information, in order to send multiple spam emails
College of Information Technology, UNITEN
CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
Critics call it “You CAN Spam Act”
• Spam still legal, as long as regulations followed
• Opting out can have harmful consequences – it confirms your email is valid
• Spammers can avoid prosecution by locating outside United States

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

World Wide Web
How we use it?
• Shopping
• Promoting business
• Learning
• Exploring our roots
• Playing games
• Entering virtual worlds
• Paying taxes
• Gambling
• Blogging
• Lots more!
College of Information Technology, UNITEN
Apparent issues with WWW
• Pornography: Printed or visual material containing explicit
description or display of sexual organs or activity.
• Different opinions
• Pornography is immoral (How do you explain that from Kantianism viewpoints?)
• Adult pornography is moral (How do you explain that from Utilitarianism viewpoints?)
• What about our own societal and religious opinion?
• The first constitution in Malaysia is “Belief in God”

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Censorship

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Forms of Direct Censorship
• Government monopolization
• Prepublication review
• Licensing and registration

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Self-censorship
• Most common form of censorship
• Group decides for itself not to publish
• Reasons
• Avoid subsequent harassment
• Maintain good relations with government officials (sources of information)
• Ratings systems created to advise potential audience
• Movies, TVs, CDs, video games

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Challenges Posed by the Internet
• Many-to-many communications
• Dynamic connections
• Huge numbers of Web sites
• Extends beyond national borders, laws
• Hard to distinguish between minors and adults

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Ethical Perspectives on Censorship
• Kant opposed censorship
• Kant thinks it is easy for people to set themselves up as their guardians. He believes that we
are living in a time in which the obstacles are preventing people from exercising  their own
reason were being removed.

• Mill opposed censorship

• When we prevent someone from voicing their opinion, we may actually silence the voice of
truth. The purpose of Internet is to make people people freely exchange ideas and good
ideas would prevail over bad ones.

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Children and Inappropriate
Content

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Web Filters
• Web filter: Software that prevents display of certain Web pages
• May be installed on an individual PC
• ISP may provide service for customers
• Methodologies
• Maintain “black list” of objectionable sites
• Examine content for objectionable words/phrases

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Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA)
• Libraries receiving federal networking funds must filter pages
containing obscenity or child pornography
• U.S. Supreme Court ruled CIPA did not violate 1st Amendment
guarantees
(6-3 decision in June 2003)

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Ethical Evaluations of CIPA
• Kantian evaluation: CIPA is wrong
• Act utilitarian evaluation: depends on how benefits and harms are
weighed
• Social contract theory: freedom of conscience should be given
precedence

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 Sexting

• Definition: sexually suggestive text messages or emails with nude or

nearly nude photographs
• In a 2009 survey, 9% of U.S. teenagers admitted to sending a sext,
17% admitted to receiving a sext

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Trust Issues

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Identity Theft (1/2)
• Identity theft: When a person uses another person’s electronic identity
• Leading form of identity theft is credit card fraud
• Financial institutions contribute to problem by making it easy to open new
accounts
• About 10 million cases of identity theft in U.S. in 2010
• Consumer’s liability for credit card losses limited to $50

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Identity Theft (2/2)
• Nearly half of cases from lost credit card, checkbook, etc.
• In 20% of cases, credit card number stolen at time of making purchase
(skimmers)
• About 1 million cases of identity theft annually in United States from online
activities
• Phishing: Use of email to attempt to deceive people into revealing personal
information
• Identity theft a federal crime, but only 1 in 700 cases results in an arrest

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

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Chat-Room Predators
• Chat room: Supports real-time discussions among many people
connected to network
• Instant messaging and chat rooms replacing telephone for many
people
• Some pedophiles meeting children through chat rooms
• Police countering with “sting” operations

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

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False Information
• Quality of Web-based information varies widely
• Other media also have information of varying quality
• The New York Times v. The National Enquirer
• 60 Minutes v. Conspiracy Theory
• Google attempts to reward quality
• Ranking uses “voting” algorithm
• If many links point to a page, Google search engine ranks that page higher

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Cyberbullying
• Cyberbullying: Use of the Internet or phone system to
inflict psychological harm
• In a 2009 survey, 10% admitted to cyberbullying, and
19% said they had been cyberbullied

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Internet Addiction

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Is Internet Addiction Real?
• Traditional definition of addiction:
• Compulsive use of harmful substance or drug
• Knowledge of its long-term harm
• Some people spend 40-80 hours/week on the Internet, with individual
sessions lasting up to 20 hours

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Is Internet Addiction Real?
• Kimberly Young created test for Internet addiction
• Sample question: “Have you repeatedly made unsuccessful
efforts to control, cut back, or stop Internet use?”
• Patients who answer “yes” to at least 5 of 8 questions may
be addicted
• Others disagree, noting
• Computer use is generally considered a positive activity
• Excessive use does not lead to criminal activity
• More accurate to call excessive use a compulsion

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Contributing Factors
• Social factors
• Peer groups
• Situational factors
• Stress
• Lack of social support and intimacy
• Limited opportunities for productive activity
• Individual factors
• Tendency to pursue activities to excess
• Lack of achievement
• Fear of failure

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Take this test
Internet Addiction Test (IAT) by Dr. Kimberly
Young.
Internet Addiction Test (IAT) is a reliable and valid measure of addictive
use of Internet, developed by Dr. Kimberly Young. It consists of 20
items that measures mild, moderate and severe level of Internet
Addiction.
To begin, answer the following questions by using this scale:-
0 Does not apply
1 Rarely
2 Occasionally
3 Frequently http://
4 Often www.globaladdiction.org/dldocs/GLOBALADDICTION-Scales-InternetAd
5 Always dictionTest.pdf

College of Information Technology, UNITEN