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.

Reflective Paper

I believe that I have gained a lot of new information questions that I did not know I had until I had read some of the articles. There were many things that I learned throughout the semester, many things that I would never have known if not for this class.

In case 2 I learned a lot about data ethics that I had previously not known. Before reading and learning what it was I had no idea what it was about. Data ethics is the study of moral and ethical issues that occur in the collection, analysis, use, and dissemination of data. It involves examining how data is collected, processed, and used, as well as the potential impacts on individuals, society, and the environment. Data ethics has principles and guidelines for the responsible use of data, particularly in situations where the data may have significant implications for privacy, autonomy, and social justice. Some problems that data ethics have solved are privacy issues, Bias, discrimination, transparency and accountability. I had also learned about what facebook does with our information and just how little they care for us and just how much we as a society need to push for more protection of our data because currently I do not believe our data to be in the safest of hands. Data ethics allowed me to understand that. Bigger companies tend to get away with what they do because the majority of the masses do not know exactly what happens to their data when they input it somewhere. I was also one of those people until I learned and now I am more careful about where I store or give my data to. In order for people to feel safe, I believe everyone needs to be informed because together we can make changes to the way our information is just tossed around without our consent. Until then companies like facebook will aways get away with things they do without ever having to face the consequences.

In Module 4 we talked about the code of ethics. The code of ethics in cybersecurity is a set of principles and guidelines that govern the behavior of professionals in the field of cybersecurity. These principles make sure cybersecurity professionals act with integrity, responsibility, and respect for the law and the rights of individuals and organizations. Some of its key principles are

Professionalism, responsibility, respect for the law, respect for individuals and accountability: When I first heard of the code of ethics I had thought of it being the guidelines that we as cybersecurity experts should follow. In that part I was right but the depth of the ethics was where I was surprised. The fact that we as individuals have so many responsibilities and choices that can lead to either good or bad outcomes depending on what we do in the situation. Such as with Sourour I learned that I can personally make a major mistake by not speaking up in situations that I may see as wrong. Sourour taught me that I should always uphold the code of ethics as if I do not I may later regret it just like how Sourour did. I do not want to feel responsible for something as major as death just because I decided to follow my boss rather than speak up on how immoral the thing he was asking me to do was. I understand as a cybersecurity major it is my job to understand when something is moral and immoral and to speak up when I find something that is unjust.

In Module 6 I learned about cyber conflicts and cyberwar.. I learned how to differentiate what a just war is from a war which I found interesting because previously I would have just said a war is war no matter what. I had no idea about just war and just how major cyberwar was in the world. Instead I now understand the difference in just how much the two are. A just war usually involves morals and ethics when they attack other countries and usually are supposed to avoid the citizens as they have nothing to do with it. I believe just war is less harmful in a way being that usually in wars people and innocents are usually harmed just like in a real war. What I find interesting is the fact that there are morals towards cyberwar compared to that of real world war. In a cyberwar there is usually a clear goal in mind and in order to achieve then there are usually certain standards and lines that people do not cross unlike in war where any line would be crossed as long as it leads to success. This module in itself taught me that there is more to war than what I thought of at first. That being bloodshed and harm all round. Rather I have learned now that there are wars that involve no bloodshed rather it involves the skills of the hackers who attack each other and even further they have boundaries that they usually do not cross. I found this module to be a very good learning experience for me because it allowed me to expand myself on just how important cybersecurity is in the world being that there are nations out there who would harm the infrastructure in order to achieve their goals and that it is up to people like me who are cybersecurity majors to prevent world problems from happening.

I believe that after reading and learning all that I have from this class that I believe I have changed a lot about myself on how I act on the internet and my thought process on what is right and what is wrong online have also taken a major change for the better. I believe this class and these articles to have been very beneficial in improving myself on what it means to be a cybersecurity expert and what to look out for in the future.