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

I have never been one to pay much attention to or even think about philosophy and ethics before going to college and majoring in Cybercrime, as well as, considering a career as an intelligence analyst. After working my way through this class I have realized just how important ethics are to cybersecurity and what can happen when ethics are not necessarily considered. Throughout this class I have learned new topics, perspectives, and even positions that have allowed me to open up my mind in ways I never thought possible. One topic that I never even realized had such an impact and perhaps had the biggest perspective change was Corporate Social Responsibility. This topic started off with us reading about high frequency trading . I never realized how potentially harmful high frequency trading was until we read about the potential risks.  Being that it is done completely through technology there are already a significant amount of risks with the process of HFT and the arguments involving market manipulation, unfairness, and cascading effects only helped me to see how unethical the process was. This module then led into the responsibility that businesses and companies have to their employees and their customers. We went further into this topic by completing a case analysis on Equifax and the breach that harmed company users. In this I learned that corporate executives are employees of business owners and they have a responsibility to their owners. Despite them being an agent for the owners, an executive would also have to act as his or her own person. This would mean that an executives responsibility in some way is social responsibility because the individual makes decisions for themselves rather than a business. This changed my perspective on the topic because I never considered the fact that corporate social responsibility is actually very important. I also never considered that when a breach like the one at Equifax occurs it also comes down to a point of something being ethical or unethical. Another topic that we learned in this class that allowed me to change my position was Cyberconflict. Specifically, determining if a cyber war can be considered just under any circumstances. Before completing the Module 6 case analysis I would have told anyone that there is no way that a cyber war could ever be justified. However, after working through the case I realized how much harm cyber wars have the potential to cause if they go far enough. Now I believe that as a last resort, a cyber war can certainly be justified. Another topic that really changed my thoughts were all of the ethical tools. I was never one to understand how someone could determine something to be morally right or wrong based on what type of ethics they believe. However, after looking at all of the different tools, readings to go along with them, and then applying them to specific cases involving cybersecurity I realize how applying different ethical tools to it could be beneficial especially when trying to determine the best way to go about things in the world of technology. By learning about all of these topics, theories, and positions have helped me to change and deepen my knowledge and thoughts about all of them. I am grateful I was able to be a part of a class that was able to open up my mind to things that can be helpful to me in the rest of my academic career and beyond that.