CYSE 200T

Ethics

The tremendous advancement of technology has created a slew of legal and ethical challenges that are unique to the twenty-first century. The legal and ethical challenges in technology are varied and complicated, ranging from personal privacy online to the acceptable use of new technology to copyright and intellectual property on the Internet. Because of the ever-changing nature of technology, new ethical and legal problems emerge regularly, posing challenges to both ethicists and legal practitioners.

The right use of technology is one of the most serious ethical dilemmas, which frequently becomes a legal issue. As technology progresses in its capacities, age-old ethical issues are highlighted and brought into the public eye. The progress of stem cell research, for example, has resulted in a slew of ethical and legal ramifications for scientists and governments that support it. Earlier advances in cloning technology sparked similar discussions over the meaning of “human” and the ethical responsibilities of the biological sciences. In the sphere of non-scientific technology, the creation of technology for military use has prompted concerns about the responsibilities that come with developing technology that might aid in the encouragement or escalation of war and genocide.

Given the pervasiveness of the Internet in people’s daily lives, privacy is a particularly contentious subject in technology. Many websites gather user data, ranging from usernames and passwords to personal information like addresses and phone numbers, without the users’ explicit consent. Selling this information should be seen as immoral, yet it frequently falls into a murky legal area because the data is provided by the user in the first place. Similarly, the use of Internet monitoring equipment in the classroom and workplace has created concerns about where the boundary should be drawn between personal Internet usage and public resource use. On a broader scale, the use of technology by certain governments to violate our privacy rights is a problematic legal and ethical issue that is being addressed in the legal systems of many nations.

Copyright and intellectual property rights are two other key concerns that have come to the fore with the advancement of technology. The emergence of the Internet as a publishing medium provided an arena in which copyright infringement became exceedingly easy, and for many artists, practically inescapable. Software piracy and the struggle of copyright holders to regain control of their intellectual property is a conflict that is waged on a daily basis both online and in court.

Small Businesses

As the National Institute of Standards and Technology (2016) stated, small businesses play a critical role in the economic and cyber infrastructure of the United States. There are approximately 28.2 million small businesses in the United States, according to the Small Business Administration. These enterprises account for over 46% of our nation’s private-sector output and 63 percent of all new jobs [SBA FAQ]. The Small Business Administration is in charge of defining small enterprises, which changes depending on the industry sector [SBA SBSStds]. 

Small business owners continue to underestimate their risk and overestimate their capacity to cope with cyberattacks, yet just one cyber attack can destroy a small business. According to a CNBC and Momentive survey, most small business owners greatly underestimate their chances of being hacked while grossly overestimating their capacity to respond to a cyberattack. Even though the majority of those business owners claim to have no cybersecurity or disaster recovery plan in place. The misleading perception that cybercriminals choose large business or government targets has contributed to this overconfidence. In reality, hackers are simply seeking insecure networks that may be readily penetrated, and small businesses are frequently targeted. 

Moreover, even though cybersecurity is critical for organizations of all sizes, I believe many small businesses believe they are not at risk of cyberattacks because of their size. Consequently, they do not create or possess a security plan, nor do they invest in their security. Ways I would spend (invest) the limited funds:

• Improve Security System: Turning off superfluous services, for instance, can significantly improve security. Repairing one’s current security system can also keep hackers out of even the tiniest security flaws.
• Training and Awareness: Making employees aware of the potential for a cyber attack, as well as the potential consequences for the organization, as well as training them on how to prevent attacks, can help to minimize the threat level in the workplace. Set up time to thoroughly teach your personnel so that they know what to look for and how to respond in the event of an attack.
• Develop a Security Policy: It is critical to develop security standards for every element of one’s organization in order to defend one’s company against cyber attacks. These procedures should be part of your company’s overall strategy. As more and more sensitive data is held digitally, it’s critical that your policy addresses not only basic procedures like routine security audits and data backup but also newer concerns such as:

  Social media security

  Cloud computing

  Internet of Things (IoT)

• Educate Employees: Employees are frequently uninformed of how hazardous their online behavior is. Train employees on best cybersecurity practices, as well as warning indications of a cyberattack and what to do if one occurs.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the internet has brought the globe smaller in many ways, but it has also exposed us to a plethora of malevolent influences that have never been so diverse and complex. The hacking world has developed at the same rate as cybersecurity solutions. Cybersecurity is critical in a world where fraudsters’ expertise and unrelenting attacks are unrivaled. There is a mountain of data that suggests digital technology may have a negative influence on human behavior, ethics, and small enterprises. Unfortunately, research into the impacts of cybersecurity has been both comprehensive and scarce, ranging from affecting human behavior, and small businesses to creating ethical issues. Reflecting on cybersecurity challenges in society, the analysis reviewed in this paper outlines problems and proposes some solutions. However, further research is needed to categorize the impacts cybersecurity has on society and develop effective solutions to address these challenges.