Cybersecurity Ethics
This course examines ethical issues relevant to ethics for cybersecurity professionals, including privacy, professional code of conduct, practical conflicts between engineering ethics and business practices, individual and corporate social responsibility, ethical hacking, information warfare, and cyberwarfare. Students will gain a broad understanding of central issues in cyberethics and the ways that fundamental ethical theories relate to these core issues.
Course Material
Over the course of the entire semester in the Cybersecurity Ethics course we have discussed various topics relating to ethics and morals with the use of Cybersecurity and technology. One topic we have explored was about user privacy and data on the cyberspace and if it is right for companies to take and use that data for whatever purposes. User data on the internet should and foremost be protected under ethical laws and not used for any reason. It’s been argued that the data from users are needed for advertising purposes or for general benefit such as the cookies that are on websites. Companies use and sell user data to get advertisements on their websites and apps that appeal to the user. My position has only deepened the more I learned about the laws and policies on user data. The takeaway from this topic is to be careful what information I put on the internet and what I do as it can be saved and used by companies without my knowledge.
We also discussed the topic of professional ethics and ethics being used in the workplace with companies and businesses. These topics were about whistleblowing and business ethics with their consumers and employees to stay morally in line. Whistleblowing is when an employee on the inside of a company releases information to the public that they feel is ethically immoral and that should be found out in order to tell the consumers. Professional ethics is also part of this, as the company has certain ethical requirements that the employees have to follow in relation to their own personal morals. The line that is drawn between whistleblowing and breaking company policy is that the information that is shared has to be ethically wrong, if its just information that is ethically correct that will only reprimand the employee and may result in legal action. My position has gained new found knowledge, as I did not know there was a difference with the morals between a company and whistleblowing. My takeaway for this topic is to make sure to know the ethical rules of my future company and to follow them and if a situation requires public knowledge then to follow the proper rules.
The final topic that we discussed in this course was over Information Warfare and Cyberconflict, which can work both together and as separate topics. Cyberconflict is essentially war on the internet, this can include the use of malware to inhibit other countries or attackers without there being any physical conflict. Information Warfare is the use of data from users in a way to gain some sort of benefit over an opponent. My position on these topics is if there is a way to morally and ethically control these methods than that is preferable to how they are used today. I think the position has gained much more knowledge as I did not know much about this topic of Cyberwarfare, but think it is just as bad as physical warfare since it can be just as deadly if not more with how much impact and reliance on technology. The takeaway for this topic is to be careful of cyberconflict in the future as well as information warfare as taking people’s data and using it just to get the upper hand is ethically wrong.