CHAPTER 3

ETHICS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Chapter objectives
• Identify current and emerging ethical issues in information
technology.
• Detail which ethical principles are most relevant to information
technology.
• Describe organisational, personal and societal ethical issues in
information technology.
• Analyse contrasting positions that underpin ethical issues in, for
example, the Freedom of Information.
• Formulate views in relation to current ethical issues that may impact
on you personally.
• Review the common content of current Codes of Conduct for IT
professionals.
Introduction

The recency of developments in information technology leaves us

struggling to deal with emerging scenarios to which we have had little
prior exposure, whether they are in relation to cyberterrorism,
inappropriate use of computing resources, or sharing of information.
Defining ethics and technology
The lexicon is full of related terms that describe the increasing
importance of computerised information and communication
technologies.
For example:
• digital era
• information society
• knowledge network
• virtual world
• cyber-society.
Defining ethics and technology

Computer ethics is the set of moral

principles that regulates the use of
computers.

Information ethics is a convergence

between the internet, the media,
libraries, information science,
management information systems,
business and computer ethics.
Ethical principles in IT

• Honesty and accurate representation – e.g. web content and plagiarism.

• Respect for privacy – e.g. confidentiality and security of databases.

• Respect for intellectual property rights – e.g. cybersquatting and internet

domain name control.

• Avoiding harm – e.g. computer hacking, viruses, worms, denial of service

attacks.

• Respect for the environment – e.g. green computing.

Organisational ethical issues
• Cyber-security
• Hacking
• Use of malware
• Violation of intellectual property (IP)
• Expert/autonomous systems
Organisational ethical issues
• Cyber-security
The body of technologies, processes and practices designed to
protect networks, computers, programs and data from attack,
damage or unauthorised access is referred to as cyber-security.

Hacking
Can be both a criminal and an ethical issue; criminal in that
there are penalties attached to hacking, and ethical in that the
outcomes of hacking can have considerable ethical
implications, given the harm that they cause.
Organisational ethical issues
• Hacking

Types of hackers:
• Ethical hackers (white hats)
• Crackers
• Hacker gangs
• Hacktivists
• Criminal hackers (black hats)
• Cyberterrorist hackers
• Nation state hackers
Organisational ethical issues
• Use of malware
Entry is usually gained through infected emails or links, which then
proceed to install malicious programs on the target’s computer
resulting in a malware infection.
Organisational ethical issues
Use of malware

Types of malware
• Viruses – programs that make copies of themselves.
• Spyware – technology that aids in gathering information.
• Adware – a type of spyware that tracks a user’s personal information
and passes it on to third parties.
• Rootkit – a hidden file that, when opened, enables administrative
level (backdoor) access to a computer or network.
• Trojan horse – an infectious code within an embedded program.
• Worm – malicious software that replicates and distributes copies of
itself.
Organisational ethical issues
Types of malware (cont.)
• Denial of service (DoS) – business or government site is
overwhelmed by a large volume of requests it cannot meet, thus
crashing the website.
• Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDoS) – a site is swamped
with requests that result in the dominant activity becoming
automated responses. With DDoS, more attacks are made and
more computers are involved.
• Botnets (also called ‘zombies’) – allow the attacker to take control
of the affected computer.
Organisational ethical issues
Violation of intellectual property

• Copyright infringement – where a company inadvertently or

deliberately uses property, such as code, that has been developed by
another organisation.
• Reverse engineering – where software re-uses existing code that has
been developed and protected in another program.
• Internet piracy – where copyrighted material is illegally reproduced.
• Domain name usage/cybersquatting – using goodwill created by
another trademark.
Organisational ethical issues
Violation of intellectual property

• Cybersquatting
Examples:
Dell
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch
Kodak
Verizon
BBC news
http://www.computerweekly.com/photostory/2240107807/Photos-Top-ten-cybe
rsquatter-cases/1/Cybersquatting-cases-Number-10-Dell

• Use of hyperlinks without permission – web links have avoided and

circumvented exposure to the paid advertising.
• Data mining – gathering personal data through analysing implicit patterns in
data.
• Computer matching – searching for patterns using data from several databases.
Organisational ethical issues

Expert/autonomous systems
Expert systems (sometimes called autonomous systems) are systems
(often machines) designed to replicate the decision-making process
that would normally be used by humans.

• Example:
Therac-25
Organisational ethical issues
• Therac-25
• A devastating example of an expert systems computer failure is the much-
publicised Therac-25 disaster.

• The computerised radiation therapy machine was directly related to six known
incidents involving massive radiation overdoses that resulted in deaths and
serious injuries.

• The occurrences, between June 1985 and January 1987, have been described as
the worst series of radiation accidents in the 35-year history of medical
accelerators using autonomous systems.
Ethics at the movies
2001: A Space Odyssey

A classic science fiction film from 1968 produced by Stanley Kubrick.

A spaceship’s computer system, HAL, fulfils its requirements to

investigate Jupiter, but keeps the true purpose of the mission a secret
from the crew. This dilemma results in mutiny by HAL, as an
autonomous robot, in which he attempts to kill the crew.

‘HAL won’t open the pod bay door’,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkyUMmNl4hk
Organisational ethical issues

• Robots
As societies develop sophisticated machines, who develops and
monitors the robot intelligence?

• This Economist interview discusses the moral issues surrounding the

use of robots:
http://bcove.me/4t0cvpyq.
Personal ethical issues

• Privacy
• Personal profiling
• Personal security
• Fraud
• Plagiarism
Personal ethical issues
Privacy
• Identity theft
• Company and public surveillance
• Security of personal information
• Consumer data and profiling
• Sharing sensitive information
• Tracking technologies
Ethics in the media: Privacy
Data lockers are firms that help privacy-conscious consumers gather
information on themselves, including their consumption patterns.
The intention is that consumers will have more control over
information organisations’ hold on them, and also that, with this
knowledge, consumers are better able to use price comparison
engines to find better deals to match their spending patterns
(‘Know thyself’ 2012).
Personal ethical issues
Personal profiling
As the saying goes, no App is free, you pay for them with your privacy.

• Metadata are the collective records of people’s calls and emails

which, when collated by software, extract a detailed analysis of a
person and their habits.
Personal ethical issues
Personal security

Concerns are:
• Flaming – giving someone a verbal lashing via an electronic medium.
• Sexting – the sending of salacious texts or images via SMS.
Example:
Between January and March 2012, 500 people contacted the
Australian Kids Helpline concerning sexting incidences. 75% of the
callers were women under 19 years old (Squires 2013).
• Trolling – hiding behind the anonymity cyberspace provides and using
open platforms to deliver vitriolic abuse.
• Cyber-bullying – communicating electronically in a repeated, hostile
way with the intention of causing emotional distress to another.
Ethics in the media: Cyber-bullying
A new bill was introduced into the
New Zealand parliament that would
make cyber bullies face up to 3 years’
jail. The Harmful Digital
Communications bill is targeting
bullying by social networking, email,
mobile phones and websites. It also
creates a new offence of incitement to
commit suicide, even when a person
does not attempt to take their own
life (‘Cyber bullies face time in prison’
2013).
Personal ethical issues
Personal security

Concerns are (cont.):

• Cyber-stalking – using electronic mediums to pursue, harass or contact
another in an unsolicited fashion.
• Internet vigilantes – people who actively crusade against an
individual, groups or a cause.
• Exploitation of children – how adequate protection can be given to
children under 13 from other internet users.
Personal ethical issues
Fraud (also known as cyber-crime)
Illicitly gaining another person’s assets,
usually by deception.

Common methods of fraud:

• Social engineering – posing as an insider or
technician on the telephone to gather
passwords or other sensitive information.
• Phishing – sending of fraudulent emails that
result in recipients being conned into
providing personal information.
• Password sniffing – harvesting passwords by
monitoring network traffic.
• Identity theft – pretending to be someone else
in order to either steal or gain benefit.
Personal ethical issues
Plagiarism

• Exercise:
Where would you find the rules on plagiarism at your university?
Have you read them?
What are the common consequences for plagiarism at your
university?
Societal ethical issues

• Freedom of information
• Public surveillance
• Vigilantism
• Societal cyber-security
• The digital divide
• Green computing
Societal ethical issues

Freedom of information
Inherent in the principle of freedom of information is the ability to
access and distribute information without impediment, that is, to have
freedom of speech.
Societal ethical issues
Freedom of speech avenues:
• Grunge sites – where the commentary has become defamatory.
• Mobile activism – the use of mobile technology, usually text
messages, to advocate social and political change.
• Collective activism – where key organisations group together for a
cause.
• Matthew effect – algorithms that search engines use, which tend to
privilege Western content.
Societal ethical issues

Public surveillance
Technology is now facilitating even greater surveillance of citizens than
has been possible in the past.

Activities include:
• government requests to yield information
• capturing online data
• use of face recognition software
• street surveillance cameras.
Societal ethical issues
Vigilantism
An individual subverts legal practice and process and takes the law into
his or her own hands in order to seek redress. Previously, public
citizens relied on the skills of the police to investigate and correct
wrong-doing but, now, with a wealth of data available, citizens can
become vigilantes and take the law into their own hands.

After a man’s iPad was stolen from a suburb in the ACT, Australia, he
used the Find My iPad App and a GPS to locate his device.
Once his suspicions were confirmed, he notified the police who
searched the property and located the iPad.
(‘Tracking of iPad illegal’ 2012).
Societal ethical issues
Societal cyber-security
Cyberterrorism is undoubtedly a concern for society, not least because of
the potential financial burden of the economic damage an attack can cause.

The digital divide

Sometimes called the ‘digital split’, it has been described as the gap
between those who have and those who do not have access to information
technologies.

Green computing
Sometimes called ‘sustainable computing’, it is concerned with the
environmental problems associated with the use and disposal of computers
and computer-related products at a personal and business level.
Ethics at the movies
* I, Robot

Starring Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan and Bruce Greenwood.

Will Smith, a techno-phobic cop, investigates a rogue robot that

commits a crime, with ethical implications for humanity through
technological advancements.

I, Robot (Trailer) 2004, motion picture trailer, myxmovie, <http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0f3JeDVeEo>.

*Author’s pick
Image credits
• Shutterstock.com / Cartoonresource; Benoit Daoust; gcpics; Monkik