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.

Course Material

Reflection

Many of my beliefs about how to make ethical decisions have been influenced by this Cybersecurity Ethics course. I say this because there were so many things l overlooked before learning the different material within this course. The first crucial subject to address was privacy before moving on to more complicated issues. The advancement of technology has surpassed our privacy protections. As a result, the government and businesses may now track our digital footprint in ways that were previously unimaginable. One of the biggest problems with cybersecurity is privacy because when businesses obtain sensitive data from users or customers, they fail to prioritize securing that data and instead put profit first. The implications of privacy concerns with regard to Google Street View were examined in Case Analysis 1. Of course, there were many privacy issues when Google Street View initially came out, and many people found themselves in awkward or uncomfortable situations. Google Street View did not obtain user’s permission before taking pictures of them or their property. I learned the value of privacy in this course for the reason that privacy protects us in all three contexts by giving us a measure of independence and freedom from prying eyes, discrimination, peer pressure, exploitation, and outside judgment.

In addition, I had no specific awareness of contractarianism’s moral theory before the course. I was able to comprehend the significance of observing the unspoken social contract between all members of society by investigating the moral of contractarianism. I learned how to look at situations from a different perspective thanks to this course. Whenever considering a situation, I am able to set aside my own desires and concentrate on what is required to fulfill the innate contract I have with other people in my society. Applying this to my future will be beneficial because, as an IT professional, I will occasionally have to decide whether to put myself or my clients first. I learned that it is frequently crucial to view your responsibilities from an outside viewpoint after learning about contractarianism. Personal views on a situation are irrelevant when the welfare of other parties is at stake.

In summary, this course greatly aided my comprehension on whistle blowing. Because it is one of the best strategies to identify and stop workplace corruption and other types of wrongdoing, whistle blowing in particular stood out to me in this course. Before taking this course, I knew very little about whistleblowing or the consequences of it. After learning more about Chelsea Manning’s position and the subject in general, I was able to improve my understanding of whistleblowing. Now that I am aware of what whistleblowing is and when it should or shouldn’t be done. As an IT professional, I may come across indications of illegal activity at work. It is my ethical responsibility to handle this and ensure that my organization is following the correct protocol to ensure that everyone is protected. The lesson I’ve learned regarding whistleblowing is that, should the necessity to act occur, the option needs to be taken into account from the proper standpoint in order to assess if it is ethical to do so or not. Overall, this course helped me better comprehend issues related to the topic of cybersecurity.