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.

                         Course Material

There are a few things that definitely resonated with me throughout the course of this semester. This being my first philosophy class, while being tied in to my new major definitely made it more interesting than I expected it to be. I learned a lot and I feel more educated regarding the ethics that come into play in the ever-growing field of cybersecurity.

The first topic that I definitely learned a lot from and will definitely keep in the back of my mind is the topic of whistleblowing. Now the things we reviewed and learned from our modules are mostly based on whistleblowing within the workplace and specifically the case of Manning and the U.S. government. When it comes to whistleblowing, I always just assumed it was a last resort, something that could only be done when all other channels had been attempted and exhausted. However, through this class I learned the different types of whistleblowing. Internal and external. In my opinion from what I’ve learned internal whistleblowing is the way to best expose unsafe or unethical work practices, however it doesn’t come without some risks. I feel like personally if a situation was bad or unethical enough that I felt the need to blow the whistle, I may be considering my position in that company and begin to look elsewhere because you never know how far up that situation or situations far worse could go.

The second topic that resonates with me would be the cases of cyberwarfare. I am not someone who actively keeps up with the news, especially those that occur within other countries. So, this class was the first experience I’ve encountered with the knowledge of the Stuxnet situation among others. Personally, I had no idea that Israel and Iran were even involved in cyber-attacks or cyberwarfare against each other. In my case analysis I decided that ethically these two countries truly are at war instead of just engaging in cyberwarfare because of the impact these situations have caused to both sides. I also encountered my first experiences with the idea of just war and how that plays out. Before this class I just assumed war was war, black and white, no areas of grey. While I know that war is much more complicated than that, the idea I had beginning this class of what war actually was looked very different than what I’ve learned.

The third and final topic that I believe impacted me the most was data ethics. When I began this class the idea of data collection was purely voluntary, people who had knowingly submitted to have their data collected, like a research study. As I’ve learned the situation is much more complicated and has much more controversy than originally assumed. Knowing that our data, public or not that does not usually contain PPI is up for grabs at any moment for anyone to use is terrifying. We know in this world it is very hard to stray from electronic and social media usage, however knowing our data can be taken and used for profit makes me personally want to avoid it. I’ve always heard of the situations where you speak about a certain something around your phone; for example: “I need a new pair of boots” and the next thing you know ads are popping up out of nowhere suggesting boots. The idea that technology can not only be intuitive, but also be tracking and using data we did not authorize companies to use is something to consider ethically. The hope for me in this and all other situations regarding data and privacy would be that the U.S. finally consider adapting Europe’s privacy laws as suggested in my case analysis.

If I could take anything from this class, it is to think about things is a broader view. I’ve always been one to see a situation as right or wrong based on my limited view and opinion of that situation. But as I’ve learned it’s not always a clear choice. I know for me I will be considering the ethics of everything I do and as I grow in the cybersecurity field to think deeper than what is presented at the surface.