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.

End-of-Course Reflection assignment

Three concepts or perspectives I learned over this course are the tools for ethical reasoning, privacy, and user data. The tools for moral reason that I learned were Deontology//Kantianism, Consequentialism/Utilitarianism, Contractarianism, Ethics of care, Virtue Ethics, Confucianism, and Ubuntu. I think the three best tools for ethical reasoning that I used to support my arguments were Deontology, Confucianism, and Consequentialism. Deontology focuses on people’s reasons for acting in considering whether a particular action is wrong or right. It also explains that one should take action based on the best reasons. Deontology was my favorite one because before, I didn’t know anything about it, but I learned that by using the Deotology tool, a person could be doing a good thing. Still, their reasons would be wrong and do something immoral. Confucianism explains to people how best to live our lives not based on individual choices but on the overall path we walk. I didn’t know anything about this tool until I read about it. I learned to use Confucianism in situations where it is not always the same, but it will depend on who is involved in the relationships I created. The last tool for ethical reasoning is Consequentialism. The consequentialism tool focuses on the consequences of the actions people take. I didn’t know what it meant, but the activities were suitable when the action was correct. If the move is wrong, then the consequences of that action are terrible. Another word for Consequentialism is Utilitarianism. In this course, I have learned a lot about privacy and why we deserve the right to have one. Before, I didn’t know why people NEED a privacy, but now I do. In the future, I will remember why we NEED confidentiality and how to protect it. I believe people deserve privacy because if many don’t have privacy, who can say that your private information is safe? Hackers would have it easy. Privacy is good for us because we would have the ability to control confidential information about our activities and personal life. It is essential because it gives us the power to choose our thoughts and who we share them with. People that use privacy to act immorally (but not illegally) still deserve their privacy because people can not control what people post or do on the internet. There’s a perfect example in the article. the article states, “Too bad for those men, and they’re cheating dirtbags and deserve no such discretion.” But yeah, I think cheating dirtbags do. I think that just because you make a lot more money than I do doesn’t mean you deserve to be outed. I think just because you had sex with someone who’s not your wife on your last business trip, and you are not accountable to anyone but your wife.” When the Ashely Madison hackers said that, I wondered how their privacy wouldn’t be private if everyone knew that the man was a cheat. I do also believe that information should be only for men and wives. I knew little about user data like saved passwords and other personal data. In the future, I will have more knowledge about user data and how to protect my data. User data is confidential and sensitive data that includes personal information such as financial and payment information, authentication information, contacts, device location, or any other sensitive data on their smart device. Protecting user data is crucial because any private information can get out in the open and get into the wrong hands. For example, if a person A has dropped their phone on the ground and does not know. Person B would pick it up, and nine times out of ten, person B would go through it. Their social security number and credit cards were saved on their phone because person A didn’t have a password. According to the article, Facebook has been denying issues or promising to tweak its algorithm and rolling out new terms of service in the past.