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 cyber ethics and the ways that fundamental ethical theories relate to these core issues.

End of Course Reflection

When I first reviewed the Cybersecurity ethics course content, I didn’t know what to expect. I liked the topics that I saw we were going to cover and was even intrigued when I saw an email soliciting adding a minor in ethics to my program. The cybersecurity program requires I take Cybersecurity ethics. Having just transferred from TCC in May, this course seemed best suited as one of my introduction courses to Old Dominion University. The greater understanding, I have gained from Cybersecurity Ethics this semester has helped to prepare me for a career in Cybersecurity, particularly in user data, whistle blowing, and cyberconflict.

Before taking classes at community college, I would have said I had a decent understanding of what user data was and more importantly, how it could be used. I would quickly begin to see how far from the truth that was. In November 2020, I uninstalled Facebook and Instagram, the two primary applications I would use on my phone. I had concerns about the information I was viewing and how much big tech companies were making from data collected on me. After successfully completing the module on user data I understood just how deep the unregulated use of user data goes.

Everyday users of social media, web browsing, anything to do with the digital age now consumers are targeted during every bit of it. This was a huge eye opener for me because consumers are sold short when it comes to the profits big tech makes from our browsing history, trends and how they can manipulate us into purchasing their products or the products of those who pay them to influence us. My biggest take away from this module is that Facebook isn’t free and always will be, it has a cost and it’s not immediately known to many.

It did catch me by surprise also how misunderstood, even I had been about the privacy settings on Facebook, for example. The full implications of those settings and how they can easily be circumvented by someone who may be friends with me on Facebook conducting a study using his own profile to pull data from.

I came to a new realization for whistle blowers in completing the whistle blower module in this course. The realization I had thanks to this course is that whistle blowing can show loyalty to the organization by helping to keep them on the straight and narrow. I also came to realize that an organization’s mission statement, code of ethics, credo and other similar statements are a good compass on what is and is not moral for an organization. I tend to see these statements either posted at an entrance or painted across websites but never really read them and appreciated them. I think I will pay more attention to them, and perhaps read them also for the organizations I am associated with at a minimum.

I think cyberconflict is an appropriate label for what have been prominent cybersecurity incidents over the past couple of months. Personally, I was considering these thefts of U.S. business intellectual property by foreign actors overseas as attacks on the U.S. in need of drastic measures. However, the module on cyberconflict has opened my eyes to the importance of identifying whether an act qualifies as an attack. The module goes further to highlight the lack of a clear definition adopted by global entities to have a shared understanding on what cyber conflict is and how to address it on the global stage equally. I also learned the importance of proportionality, which I did not consider, but now that I hear it, it makes sense. I already had a good perspective on how hard it is to identify who specifically is behind these breaches. I know that a geographical location can be determined with some certainty and the methods can aid in fingerprinting whether an incident is a lone wolf, organized crime syndicate or a nation state, but cannot say with absolute certainty who conducts the intrusions.

In every module, the course introduced me to and increased my understanding of several thoughts on ethics and how they apply to the cyber domain. They highlight the differences in thought about ethical and unethical, moral, and immoral behavior as hurdles that must be reconciled by law makers. Until the terms are defined, and regulations are implemented, bad actors will continue to take advantage of the wild west that is cybersecurity. Taking this knowledge gained forward will help me to do my part in securing the cybersecurity domain.

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