Course description: This course examines ethical issues relevant to computing and information technology, including: privacy; freedom of speech and content control on the Internet; individual and social responsibility; cybersecurity; cybercrimes; social impact of computers and other digital technologies; and ethical obligations of IT professionals. Students will gain a broad understanding of central issues in cyberethics and the ways that fundamental ethical theories relate to these core issues.

Reflective Writing Assignment:

I will use what I’ve learned here to make smarter, more responsible choices when dealing with private data as I move forward in my cybersecurity job. Thought on PHIL 355E: Cybersecurity Ethics

This semester in PHIL 355E, I have been challenged to slow down and consider cybersecurity as an ethical and human rather than only a technical or legal one. This course required me to understand the readings and apply my knowledge to multiple-page papers, which equipped me with valuable skills. The course gave a unique chance to sit with challenging questions about privacy, responsibility, and power questions not always with a black and white answer. Three main ideas that influenced my perspective were Digital privacy is a moral right, the ethical responsibilities in data processing and monitoring, and the compromises between security and liberty.

Entering this course, I considered privacy mostly in technological terms: encryption systems, firewalls, and access control. For me, however, the philosophical debates on privacy as linked to human decency refocused everything. We examined debates between intellectuals such as Helen Nissenbaum and Debra Satz, who stated that privacy is about autonomy and justice rather than only about secrecy.

From being only technical, my perspective of privacy has evolved to be personal and political. I now see how digital exploitation through either intrusive data mining or lack of informed permission can copy the same systems of inequity we observe outside. Investigating the ethical terrain of data scraping on sites like LinkedIn helped to clarify that link even more. Although public information data scraping is not illegal per say, doing it without permission or when it violates personal privacy creates ethical questions.

One of the case studies that stayed with me had a cybersecurity contractor who found a customer using biased algorithms. “Well, it’s the client’s data, not theirs,” I first thought. But the more we spoke about it, the more I came to see how perilous that kind of ethical disengagement might be.
With hands-on experience in GRC (governance, risk, and compliance), I will be able to counsel businesses on best practices as well as rules. This course forced me to consider how people like me might influence ethical standards not just follow them. One finds great ethical compromise in silence or inaction. This came to me as I was researching LinkedIn’s legal fight with HiQ Labs. HiQ’s creation of bogus accounts and persistent scraping following a cease-and-desist exposed how ethical limits can still be broken even in legally murky areas, notwithstanding the legality of scraping public data. A takeaway is neutrality can be viewed as complying and one may be held responsible for their involvement.

This was maybe the most politically controversial and philosophically tricky subject we looked at. From headlines and legislation, the post-9/11 systems that justify widespread surveillance were familiar to me; yet, I had never really thought about them. Side by side reading John Stuart Mill and Michel Foucault helped me to see how readily “security” may be weaponized to support overreach, particularly against underprivileged groups.

Examining the consequences of large-scale scraping and prediction algorithms brought back the ethical questions raised in surveillance technology. Though tools like Dux-Soup and Phantombuster operate in a legal gray area, they raise more general questions about how readily automated systems may be used to watch, classify, or even control people all in the name of insight or efficiency.

Every day previous internships in cybersecurity, I handled personal data and life for actual people. Ethical consciousness is fundamental rather than discretionary and opinions. Looking forward, I want my future self to know that having skills is insufficient. You also have to be self-reflective, morally grounded, and trustworthy.

Whether I’m drafting a policy, protecting a network, or evaluating how a product manages user information, I want to lead with intent and a strong ethical compass. Though it runs on code, the digital world is controlled by decisions, and I will sleep good at night knowing mine are driven by integrity.

Overall, this course allowed me to view different beliefs and opinions from different philosophies and perspectives. Allowed me to reflect on my thought processes and my care towards the privacy of my own data as well as others that I’ll handle in the future in the IT industry. It also made me think deeply about the moral issues that come up with collecting data and spying in this digital age. I will use what I’ve learned here to make smarter, more responsible choices when dealing with private data as I move forward in my cybersecurity career.