Prior to taking this course I had no real experience or idea of what ethics really was I thought it was simply right or wrong, when it is so much deeper than right or wrong and more so what justifies the rights and what determines something to be wrong? Throughout the progression of this course, I engaged with many different ethical perspectives which include Consequentialism, Ubuntu, and Deontology. I’ve learned the ins and outs of each perspective and have applied them to cyber security cases of privacy, user data, corporate social responsibility, whistleblowing, and cyber conflict. Each perspective has its own parameters for what defines our personal, business, and government actions and decisions as ethical or unethical.

The ethical perspective of utilitarian consequentialism centralizes on the consequences of our actions. An action is considered good when the consequences add to the amount of good in the word and actions are considered bad when they increase the amount of suffering in the world. Engaging with this perspective has taught me that everyone is equally important, no one is less than the other regardless of if they are the worst of the worst. The aim of utilitarian consequentialism is make choices that lead to the greatest outcome for the greatest amount of people. I’ve started becoming more aware of the decisions being made in my workplace and wonder if they consider the max amount of good for the max amount of people.

Currently working in insurance industry, we make many decisions that result in increased rates. As of late rates have been increased at levels we never seen before sometimes even 100% of the cost and show no signs of going down due to unprecedented driving habits, vehicle cost, and labor cost and shortages. The decisions we make to raise rates do benefit the customers to make sure we can payout claims for them, the employees are paid, as well as the competition gains perspective on their cost. However, in my day to day I am noticing people are having to go without coverage causing claims that are not being paid out for because they simply cannot afford these prices then go on to cause claims they cannot afford the damages and injuries for leaving people out of luck causing a cycle of high rates due to increased uninsured motorist accidents. I am starting to wonder if choice to raise rates is the right decision because the outcome of this decision is seemingly harming so many more people. After seeing the profit report and salaries for the top of management it is looking questionable. While yes, a business should be profitable, how profitable should one organization be at expense of a greater number of people.

While current me is questioning the ethics of the decision-making as an underwriter future me plans to transfer to the cyber security training team. Insurance companies store and collect so much of consumer’s personally identifiable information. The position I am aiming for focuses on training the agents, underwriters, and management on how to manage and protect sensitive information. In my future work the perspective of Ubuntu will be a great aid in creating trainings that truly consider humanity of the employees and policy data which is ultimately linked to another human within our community. A lot of time the trainers focus on numbers and efficiency but not understanding that a human has to digest and execute the information being presented. I believe if employees understood that while they are individuals they are part of a greater community of human beings that their actions affect would help make trainings and procedures that influence the decisions to click a phishing email, poor password management, and engage in poor cyber hygiene more effective at reducing the chances of information breaches. Employee decisions can either protect are harm the rights of other humans within the community. The perspective of Ubuntu will be a great perspective to have in my tool box as I transition into cybersecurity awareness training to achieve my goal of implementing human centric trainings empowering employees to make ethical decision surrounding how the collection and storage of consumer data to benefit the community of humanity.

Throughout Cyber Security Ethics the perspective that challenged me the most was Deontology. Deontology focusses on the idea that everyone is equally owed respect as moral agents regardless of who they are. This perspective is very black in white and leaves no room for nuance and makes it very difficult for one to make an exception for anyone. This perspective made me question is everyone truly equal regardless of who they are, are we really all owed the same thing even criminals?

My biggest take away was that yes everyone is owed respect the opportunity to do the right thing. I realized that living in the United States I am born with my freedom to choose between right and wrong and given the opportunity to make the right choice as an individual moral agent, which is a pretty Kantian way of life. However, in other countries such as North Korea if one commits a crime the next few generations of their family can also be jailed for life taking away the next generations autonomy as moral agents. While cyber security ethics has made me consider the justification of the decisions made in my profession this course has also helped me become more conscious of the decisions being made internationally.