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.

A Reflection

 

Throughout this course, I have had many moments that has either deepened knowledge, gained new knowledge, made look more through a lens of  critical thinking, revealed some slight biases that I didn’t know I had, and increased my writing ability from thought to being able write my position more clearly. From Module 1 to 7, each ethical tool, and the constructive straight forward criticism of the areas I need to work on made me grow in such a positive way.

In Module 6 we were tasked with Cyber Conflict and I chose to use Care Ethics to argue my position. This module deepened my thoughts on care ethics by looking at another country’s conflict, trying to understand the origins of said conflict, realizing I knew some things about the country’s but not enough to write about. So, I went on a journey reading about the origins of the conflict while thinking about care ethics. For my career, this will help me when thinking of policy writing, defensive, and offensive tactics for securing our national security. Now on a personal level, care ethics has given me a deeper understanding for what my wife does in her job as a in home euthanasia and traditional Chinese medicine Veterinarian. I gained an understanding deeply how caring can extend past your immediate circle, even to complete strangers, but where both parties share one love, that is the pet that needs help and care.

Virtue ethics was the next topic that really allowed me to grow by the nuances, different types of virtue ethics, and really think about the people I look up to as moral exemplars. This module is going to help me the most in my career because now I associate Virtue ethics with a best friend/mentor who no longer is with us and then another person who is Jocko Willink who is an author and former Navy Seal. Virtue ethics has shown me as I reflect on these individuals what I need to work on to be a better human. To be in Cybersecurity, I feel that virtue ethics will keep me grounded and will ultimately make me a better leader in the field.

Module 7 really connected with me, for years now I have not been apart of Facebook, and it was the best decision to walk away. During that time, I did some SEO work for a company, Facebook ads, and other media related targeting. At the time I was still a chef and involved with technology but didn’t full connect what I was doing and the potential impact it could have. As years went on, I gained a better understanding of data, privacy, and manipulative ways sometimes the internet is used for profit. This module really put the pieces together and made me ask questions that expanded my thought process in terms of data, people, and the information warfare that is happening on such a large scale from clothing designers to baby food. In a lot ways I think the information warfare is about first to data, first to profit meaning who is going to be first to find the next big loophole in data collecting for profit.

I want my future self to know that it is ok not to know everything, hold your values high, never stop learning, and extend care in ways no one has thought of in the cybersecurity world. Most importantly stay true to yourself and what you stand for.