<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reflective Writing
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I first signed up for this cybersecurity ethics class, I didn\u2019t expect it to make me rethink so
much. I figured we\u2019d just go over a few rules, maybe talk about data breaches or legal stuff, and
that\u2019d be it. But as the weeks went on, the class pushed me to think way deeper about people,
choices, power, and responsibility in tech. There were a few topics that really stuck with me
and changed how I think, not just about cybersecurity, but about what kind of person I want to
be in this field.
One of the biggest ones was whistleblowing. I used to think whistleblowers were kind of
disloyal. Like yeah, maybe they were trying to do the right thing, but wasn\u2019t there a better way
than leaking information? But then we read Vandekerckhove and Commers, and that made me
slow down and look at it differently. They talk about the idea of rational loyalty that sometimes
being loyal actually means speaking up when something\u2019s wrong, not just staying quiet and
following orders. That really made sense to me. If a company or government is doing something
harmful, and no one\u2019s listening internally, what else is a person supposed to do? I hadn\u2019t
thought about how hard that decision must be, or how much risk is involved. Now I see
whistleblowers less like traitors and more like people stuck in impossible situations who are
trying to act on their values.
Another topic that changed the way I think was cyberconflict. I never really considered
cyberattacks as something that could be part of war. I thought of war as soldiers, tanks, bombs
stuff you can see. Cyber stuff just felt like hacking or stealing info, not anything with real world
consequences. But Michael Boylan\u2019s piece on just war theory and cyberattacks hit me hard. He
showed how digital attacks can take out hospitals, shut down power, or even kill people
indirectly. That opened my eyes. Cyberwar isn\u2019t some sci-fi idea or just political drama it\u2019s
already happening, and it can hurt people in very real ways. The fact that there aren\u2019t many
clear ethical rules for cyberwar makes it even scarier. Boylan made me realize we need to take
digital warfare just as seriously as physical warfare. And that made me think more carefully
about how I\u2019d act if I ever work in a job that\u2019s even remotely connected to offensive cyber stuff.
Then there\u2019s privacy, which was honestly the biggest shift for me. I used to have the \u201cI\u2019ve got
nothing to hide\u201d mindset. I figured if people cared about privacy, they just shouldn\u2019t post so
much or use sketchy apps. But James Grimmelmann\u2019s article changed that. He compared
privacy to product safety, which honestly blew my mind. Like, we expect cars to come with
working brakes and toasters not to start fires why shouldn\u2019t we expect websites and apps to protect our data in the same way? The more I thought about it, the more I realized how unfair
it is to blame users when systems are designed to trick them into giving up their info. The
burden shouldn\u2019t be on the person using the tech it should be on the people building it.
Grimmelmann made me see that privacy isn\u2019t about hiding bad stuff. It\u2019s about protecting your
freedom, your dignity, and your safety. Especially when some people activists, minorities,
victims can face serious consequences when their data is exposed.
All of these topics really made me think more about what kind of cybersecurity professional I
want to be. I don\u2019t want to be someone who just does what I\u2019m told, or who only cares about
what\u2019s legal or what\u2019s profitable. I want to be the kind of person who asks questions, who
speaks up when something\u2019s wrong, who puts people first. This field isn\u2019t just about locking
down systems or writing secure code. It\u2019s about protecting real people in a digital world that\u2019s
full of risk, power, and sometimes injustice.
If there\u2019s one big takeaway I want my future self to remember, is ethics isn\u2019t extra it\u2019s essential.
The choices we make in cybersecurity, even if they seem small, can affect people\u2019s lives in huge
ways. So whenever I\u2019m not sure what to do, I want to slow down, think about who\u2019s being
helped or hurt, and make decisions that I can live with not just as a tech worker, but as a human
being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reflective Writing When I first signed up for this cybersecurity ethics class, I didn\u2019t expect it to make me rethink somuch. I figured we\u2019d just go over a few rules, maybe talk about data breaches or legal stuff, andthat\u2019d be it. But as the weeks went on, the class pushed me to think way deeper … Continue reading \u00a0Law and Ethics\/PHIL 355E<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30373,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/cyse-200t-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/cyse-200t-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/cyse-200t-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/cyse-200t-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/cyse-200t-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/cyse-200t-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/cyse-200t-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/216\/revisions\/222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/cyse-200t-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}