Unethical Behavior in Information Technology and Information Systems - Research Paper Example

Ethics issues in Information Technology (I.T) and Information System (I.S) 1. Abstract Unethical behavior in information technology and information system is estimated to cost billions of dollars of losses for business. This includes ethical issues connected with information technology and information system. As an example, software is extremely large costs for IT (information technology) firms when someone downloads it for free. So, this article discusses the current state of IT and IS privacy by a series of eight current computer related ethical issues. 2. Introduction Information technology and the system are of curse playing a vital role in our everyday life today. considered being extremelyThey provide in individual and organization with a myriad of various potential advantages like; providing a platform for several ethical problems which may differ in accordance with the subject and purposes of IS and IT use. However, there are several ethical issues that need to be considered and developed in I.T (Rikowsk, 2006). In general ethics refer to the study of value concepts that define behavior as respectable, bad, right, wrong and proper. Such principles do not always dictate a single “moral” course of action, but deals with many issues fundamental to practical decision making (Veatch, 1997). Most of the experts admit that there is no specific category of computer (IT) ethics; rather, there are ethical circumstances in which computers are involved (Kaallman and Grillo, 1996). It means ethics might be interpreted differently in different situations. However, before defining ethics in IT, it must be noted that there are several ethical issues that need to be considered in I.T and IS such as plagiarism, ergonomics, digital divide, etiquette and nanotechnology (Rikowsk, 2006). 3. Various ethical issues in I.T Ethical issues in I.T and IS being not like general ethical issues. Parker, Baker and Swope (1990) agree that ethical issues in IT involving a significant challenge for a number of different reasons. They pointed out that personal contact or face to face contacts are missing in IT systems, however various ethical codes have been developed for email, downloading and uploading etc. In addition, computer speed, unauthorized access to data bases, information integrity and information confidentiality not considered adequately means that information technology and information system can be exposed to unethical practices. There is a wide variety of ethical issues associated with information technology that need to be considered (Johnson, 1997), and some of the different types will be discuss later. 3.1 Ethical dilemmas An ethical dilemma is a situation that will often involves the need to choose from among two or more courses of action where both or all could be considered ethical but the goodness of one out the other or others (Hamric, Spross, and Hanson, 2000). There are various ethical dilemmas associated with I.T that need to be addressed. What are ethical or unethical in information technology? For example, the act of hackers is unethical because they perform or test the system without permission, generic engineer may or may not improve the quality of people lives. There are many grey ethical areas, but one should know how to deal with. 3.2 Plagiarism Plagiarism refers to the stealing, close imitation, wrongful appropriation or publication and coping of another authors work (Stepchyshyn, Vera, Nelson, 2007). This is highly immoral and unethical practice but it happens consistently due to the easy availability of information on the Internet. In legality/or ethically an author cannot reuses his/her own ideas or words from a previous publication without proper referencing the older publication (Bawyer, 2001). Plagiarisms are happening quite frequently and are becoming uncontrollable due the rapid changes in information technology. It is the Internet technology that helps in the learning process and educational improvement but also provides problems such as hacking, and copyrights issues etc. 3.3 Piracy Piracy in information technology or computer means reproduction, distribution or copying of software without permission of the owner of the copyright. It is considered an illegal act and become a very serious problem. The software industry is loss annual revenue up-to $40 billion due to sustained problem of piracy. However this industry has implemented a number of technical, economical and legal policies to control piracy and stem the resulting of annual revenue losses (Ram and Guptan, 2010). However, this is still a very serious immoral issue that can significantly damage profit margins. 3.4 Hacking Computer hacking is the practice of modifying computer hardware or software in a way that alters the creator’s original intent. People, who engage in computer hacking is knowing as hackers. Since the word “Hacker” has long been used to describe someone who employs specialized knowledge of computer system to abstain illegal access to them (Langford, 1995). Specifically, hacker breaks into a computer system. It can be carry out for a variety of reasons, such as the wish to damage a system, to understand a system how it works and alert people to the fact that a system is insecure and needs improving. 3.5 Computer crime A computer crime or cybercrime refers to any illegal action where data on the computer is accessed without permission. These crimes are the major concern in the new digital age. A huge amount of information stored on computers are traded daily. So, it is not hard to understand that the growing industry for computer crime. Many different computer crimes are recorded daily, which clearly poses ethical questions for the society. There are various moral dilemmas, such as whether copying such files published and unpublished materials is as bad as stealing something. The international legal bodies are attempting to control these crimes, with the help of international criminal court (Ophardt and Jonathan, 2010). 3.6 Viruses Computer virus is a computer program that negatively affects the working of a computer system by changing and altering computer’s data without the knowledge or permission of its actual users. The major example of viruses is polymorphic virus, stealth virus, boot sector virus, file virus, worm, Trojan etc. These virus programs are considered unethical acts which cause systems to crash and cease its operations (Rikowsk, 2006). These programs (viruses) not only affecting operating process of a system but also interrupt the smooth functioning of an organization. 3.7 Ergonomics Ergonomics refers to a science that study workers (human operator) and their workplace. It is deals with the physical work environment. It designs job, equipment and workplace to fit workers and examine the requirement of user (e.g. data entry operator) with a healthful area, minimal eyestrain, guards against back problems motion syndrome (kallman and Grillo, 1996). So, without awareness about ergonomics many workers will suffer health problems directly from information technology, such as eyesight infections, backbone problems, eyestrain and repetitive strain injury. Hence, a proper ergonomic design is necessary to prevent and avoid these problems, which can develop over time and can lead to long term disability. 3.8 Intellectual property rights An intellectual property right refers to a number of different types of creations of mind for which property rights are legally recognized (Edward and Pisacreta.., 1999-2008). Under intellectual property rights, people are granted certain exclusive rights to prevent the unauthorized use or sale of their creations. There are two main objectives of the IPR. Firstly, these rights are necessary to promote respect for intellectual property such as industrial property and copyrights. Secondly, it is necessary to promote its protection around the world through international legal bodies and cooperation by amending national and international laws. 4 Conclusions There is a wide range of ethical issues which associate with the information technology and computer. Some of these have been discussed in this article. These various issues can be broken down into a number of sub-categories, such as ethical dilemma, plagiarism, piracy, hacking, computer crime, virus, agronomics, intellectual property rights etc. Some of these issues can be solved quite easily while others seem to be typically difficult or impossible to solve. Practitioners of information technology suggest that there must be establish some rules, codes, policies in order to create an ethical computing environment. Although the uses of a computer system and information technology have been sources of efficiency and wealth, unfortunately they have some negative impacts. Some unethical issues occurred in large computer systems are typically difficult and impossible to eradicate totally. These issues cause serious effect on individuals and organizational operations and performance. Existing laws and practices cannot establish a liability and accountability for these issues (errors) because all these laws are traditional or old and the issues are modern or relate to the latest era. So, these issues must be considered and a lot of work needs to be done to avoid or solve these issues. For example, if we want to live in the age of information technology, we should protect our I.T system from viruses. References: Edward A. Pisacreta and Kenneth A. Adler (1999-2008). Intellectual Property Licensing: Forms and Analysis, Law Journal Press, ISBN 973-58852-086-9. Hamric A. (2000). A definition of advanced nursing practice. In Advanced Nursing Practice: An Integrative Approach (Hamric A.B., Spross J.A & Hanson C.M., eds), W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia, pp. 53–73. Johnson, Deborah G. 1997. “Ethics online” Commun. ACM 40(1):60–65. Kallman, Ernest A. and Grillo, John P. (1996) Ethical decision making and information technology.(2nd ed.) Boston, Massachusetts: Irwin/McGraw-Hill. Lynch, Margaret (2000) Ethical issues in electronic information systems. Available at: http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/ethics/ethics.html (Accessed October 2003). Moore, R. (2005) "Cybercrime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing. Mann and Sutton (1998). Net crime: More change in the Organization of Thieving. British Journal of Criminology; 38: 201-229. Parker, Donn B., Susan Swope and Bruce Baker. 1990. Ethical Conflicts in Information and Computer Science, Technology and Business. Wellesley, MA: QED Information Sciences. 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