ETHICAL ASPECTS OF INFORMATION SECURITY

ETHICAL ASPECTS OF INFORMATION SECURITY

This unit will review ethical aspects of computer and information security and privacy. Ethics is a field of study that is concerned with distinguishing right from wrong, and good from bad. It analyzes the morality of human behaviors, policies, laws and social structures. Ethicists attempt to justify their moral judgments by reference to ethical principles of theories that attempt to capture our moral intuitions about what is right and wrong.  The two theoretical approaches that are most common in ethics are consequentialism and deontology. Consequentialist approaches assume that actions are wrong to the extent that they have bad consequences, whereas deontological approaches assume that people have moral duties that exist independently of any good or bad consequences that their actions may have. Ethical principles often inform legislation, but it is recognized in ethics that legislation cannot function as a substitute for morality. It is for this reason that individuals and corporations are always required to consider not only the legality but also the morality of their actions. Ethical analysis of security and privacy issues in information technology primarily takes place in computer ethics which emerged in the 1980s as afield. Computer ethics analyzes moral responsibilities of computer professionals and computer users and ethical issues in public policy for information technology development and use. It asks such questions as: 

• Is it wrong for corporations to read their employee’s e-mail? 
• Is it morally permissible for computer users to copy copyrighted software? 
• Should people be free to put controversial or pornographic content online without censorship?

 Ethical issues and questions like these require moral or ethical analysis: analysis in which the moral dilemmas contained in these issues are clarified and solutions are proposed for them. Moral analysis aims to get clear on the facts and values in such cases, and to find a balance between the various values, rights and interests that are at stake and to propose or evaluate policies and courses of action