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 cyber ethics and the ways that fundamental ethical theories relate to these core issues.

Course Material

The first topic I chose to talk about is privacy. Privacy is the state of being free from public attention or people watching what one is doing. Privacy has changed depending on the different situations. I believe people deserve privacy because of various reasons. Privacy ensures people can shop online worry-free that their information is safe. Privacy also means people can have physical security, bank account security, among other things. Privacy helps people maintain their public status. Some people are very influential people in society or people with social status, and they would not want to lose all that because of what they browse on the internet in their private time. At the same time, I also think some people do not deserve privacy. Some take advantage of the privacy to engage in illegal operations and use privacy as a skate boat from what they do. My opinion, therefore, has gone both ways after reading the story of “Even cheating dirt bags deserve privacy” yes, people do deserve privacy, and no, if they are breaking the law, then they do not deserve privacy.
My second topic is data ethics, which involves having morals in collecting and protecting personal data this course. As a cybersecurity professional, I have to ensure that personal data is protected. I have also learned that the protection of data comes from both ways. It is our responsibility to read the privacy statement before consenting to it, but also, companies are responsible for ensuring that data is protected. Plus, when sending the privacy statement, it is especially highlighted in the places it gives details on personal data. I have also learned we should not expect privacy, especially when posting stuff on social media platforms, because it equates to the public. Data ethics is tied to privacy in the cyber world, and this is going to be a great tool in my career as they go hand in hand. Through the semester, I have learned that we all play a role in data ethics, and before we consent to anything, we should read the prints out to understand the implications of agreeing. I have also learned that most companies do not care about data ethics if they consent to whatever they send you.
The last topic that I chose is cyber conflict. Cyber conflict is a conflict that arises after the use of cyber warfare. Through this class, I have learned that cyber conflict can be viewed as ethical and unethical. An example is the Stuxnet attack, a moral worm because it was used to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons production. On the other hand, it is unethical because it brings about conflict and cyber warfare that affect innocent citizens. Understanding cyber warfare is going to be an essential aspect of my career. I need to learn how to respond to cyber-warfare incidents and how to prevent them. The one thing that I felt like I do not understand is how we determine if cyber warfare is necessary. Cyberwarfare is something that I will deal with a lot of time because we live in an evolving world of technology that requires us to evolve with it.