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
Reflecting Writing Assignment
Cybersecurity Ethics was actually a class I was really excited to take. Mostly because I
do tend to really like looking at different points of views for different issues and having debates
about them. So when I first signed up for the class I was a little sad it was an online class. Of the
topics that we did talk about, my favorites were the privacy case analysis, the story behind
contractarianism, and the whistleblowing case analysis.
The privacy topic was the first one we really went over for the case analysis we had to
do. It mainly followed a story covering how people around the world feel about Google’s street
view. Many people felt it invaded their privacy and others were grateful because they can use it
for work and personal uses. So the paper was essentially asking what Google should do
according to whatever ethical reason you used and in this case I used utilitarianism. This is
essentially judging an action based on consequences and that it is a good action is what helps the
most people whether that is lessening something bad or making something better. When I was
looking over the issue I knew I didn’t mind Google street view but I can understand how some
people would, given that when it first started sometimes people would be caught in the views and
license plates and it might be easy to identify where someone lives based on that information. So
when it came to writing the case analysis, I tried to be as unbiased as I could. Overall, when it
came to this topic my stance was pretty clear. Privacy is very important, but there are still ways
that Google street view can still be present and maintain people’s privacy, mainly by asking them
if they’re okay with any of their property being included and then catering to what they do or do
not allow. However, while reading it I did realize that with the growing amount of cybercrime
the government is trying to get more access to people’s information, and that made me realize
I’m definitely not okay with that because everyone should be able to be guaranteed privacy until
a warrant is provided.
not allow. However, while reading it I did realize that with the growing amount of cybercrime
the government is trying to get more access to people’s information, and that made me realize
I’m definitely not okay with that because everyone should be able to be guaranteed privacy until
a warrant is provided.
The next part of the class that I actually liked was one that involved reading a story. I
happen to love reading so I actually really loved this part. The story was part of an assignment
that was supposed to explain one of the ethical tools for us, this one specifically being for
contractarianism. The story was written about a disease the author created by mashing the
symptoms of three already scary diseases together. This disease was a side effect of anyone who
had taken a treatment that gets rid of cancer and is typically passed on by their children. The
point of the story was to then see, under a veil of ignorance, if a society with the choice to get rid
of cancer but with those side effects would be better than one without it. In my opinion I think it
would be a good option to get rid of cancer but obviously given the outcomes I don’t know if
everyone would take that option. Outside of the veil of ignorance I think if someone did decide
to take the medicine that they would also have to agree to get a surgery to keep them from
having kids to pass the disease on to. Mainly because in the book the people with the disease,
whether they were born that way or not, were segregated and diminished just for having it. I
know it sounds like a crazy agreement but even after writing the paper about it my opinion didn’t
change.
The last part of the class that was interesting to me was the whistleblowing case analysis.
The story it was based around was about a woman who released a video of the U.S military
wrongfully killing innocents in an attempt to get rid of a gunman in a different country when the
government at first made it seem like everything went smoothly. Once the video was released it
was shown how the rules of engagement were used, the attitudes of the soldiers/gunman, and the
innocent people (including children and news reporters) were injured or killed. The paper was
essentially to explain if Manning (the woman) was moral or immoral for her whistleblowing.
Many of the authors of the pieces used for that piece talked about loyalty and while loyalty could
be a big part of the loyalty my opinion actually changed a bit when I first turned in the essay.
When I first turned it in I was aiming more that Manning had no loyalty to the U.S, but after I
turned it in the T.A mentioned that maybe her loyalty was elsewhere like with the U.S people
and wanting to open their eyes to what the government was doing behind their backs or without
their knowledge, shooting kids and killing innocents.
was shown how the rules of engagement were used, the attitudes of the soldiers/gunman, and the
innocent people (including children and news reporters) were injured or killed. The paper was
essentially to explain if Manning (the woman) was moral or immoral for her whistleblowing.
Many of the authors of the pieces used for that piece talked about loyalty and while loyalty could
be a big part of the loyalty my opinion actually changed a bit when I first turned in the essay.
When I first turned it in I was aiming more that Manning had no loyalty to the U.S, but after I
turned it in the T.A mentioned that maybe her loyalty was elsewhere like with the U.S people
and wanting to open their eyes to what the government was doing behind their backs or without
their knowledge, shooting kids and killing innocents.
Overall, I would say I did really enjoy writing all the papers. As stressful as they often
were, reading the information, and learning more about the different ethical tools really opened
my eyes to the different points of views people can think from for every issue.