The Issues of Cyberethics - Term Paper Example

Cyber Ethics Name Number Course Tutor Date Abstract In the world where information technology defines how people live, work and integrate, ethical issues as well as social responsibility have emerged. Issues rising from the use of ICT are spread across the spectrum. The main component of ICT is information which is represented in form of data and knowledge. Though the changes of ICT are subtle and obvious, the benefits have been doubted to improve the quality of life for man but as well introduce some issues such as: unemployment, internet crime, loss of privacy, errors, and intellectual property, freedom of speech and press and digital divide. This paper explores the issues of cyber ethics and tries to answer the quest as to whether the cyber space is safe. Introduction Ethics can be understood from a normative and prescriptive perspective. It refers to the body of well-based standards of right and wrongs that prescribe what humans must do in terms of rights, obligations, fairness, virtues, and benefits. Ethical standards include the right to choose, the right to privacy, the right to freedom and expression among others that are founded and supported by well-founded reasons. The second definition is founded on a continuous effort to access the moral beliefs and conducts of society and can be defined as the study and development of personal standards, behavior, feelings, laws and regulations. Overview On the Internet, people can feel invisible and do things they normally would not do in person or in public – things they understand it is wrong to do. The Internet is becoming an indispensable tool in life, and it is becoming increasingly important to dust off the concept of cyberspace ethics. Common terms such as cyber citizenship, cyber ethics, and netiquette are becoming commonly used to refer to cyber social behavior. The terms refer to the things that people do online when no one is watching. Children are using Internet at an increased rate than before and cyber ethics as emerged as a common denominator to instilling good e-habits at an early age. The unfortunate thing is that children armed with computers can instill serious damages and harm irrespective of whether they are trying to be mischievous or intentionally commit cybercrimes. Cyber crime is not limited to young people who are getting to know technological offerings alone. Government agencies, businesses, consumers and the general public have become victims of cyber attacks. Attacks on US infrastructure in 2008 originating from Middle East and causing serious digital beachhead as well the case of Bradley Manning, the US Military specialist who leaked thousands of classified information to Whistle-blowing website Wikileak highlight just a few of the cyber crimes and their damaging effects. The recent attack on Target that saw 70 million customers encrypted PIN stolen is another wake-up call for policy makers and businesses demonstrating the magnitude of cyber war. Though these attacks can be thought as spanning a wide spectrum, they just highlight the difficulties of enforcing cyber etiquette (Sembok, 2013). There has been contention as to whether there is a difference between ethics in the real world and that in online platforms. While the answer to some might seem obvious, there is a greater disconnect between ethics in the real world and cyberspace. For instance, in a poll conducted on elementary and middle school kids, half of them reported that they don’t believe that hacking is a real crime. This assertion emanating from a tender age group just highlights the divide between the real world and online ethics and stress on the need for parents and educational groups to initiate intensive programs on ethical behavior especially in the cyber space. Governance Two defining characteristics of cyber space make it difficult for people to transfer ethical behavior to the online platform. The first characteristic is the feeling of total anonymity. A while ago, The New Yorker published a cartoon with a punch line “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a wolf” implying that it is easy to get the impression that they are totally invisible (Liebald B., 2012). Children as well as grown up have the impression that they can get away with more and that regular rules do not necessarily apply to the online frameworks. The second characteristic of Internet is the distance. However, actions over the internet have the same repercussions as actions in the real world, people still do things or say things to others that would not consider saying when face-to-face. Because they cannot see the direct consequence of their actions (especially children), they think that what they are doing would not harm anyone and hence not relevant. There is also the belief among children that their parents cannot possibly think that their actions are true (Sembok, 2013). The multiple factors at play in dealing with cyber ethics has prompted educationalists, businesses and the general public to ponder whether cyberspace is safe. The ethical system of society is penetrated by the emergence of a knowledgeable society prompted by information, communication, and technology. Hence, a need has arisen to develop ethical guidelines for the information age. Ethical issues and conflicts have naturally been connected to ecological and social sustainability in a knowledge society. Resultantly, information ethics and cyber ethics are directly correlated with the sustainable design system of the society, social and socio-technological systems. A number of institutions have risen up to the occasion in turn developing guidelines for use in the cyber world. Computer Ethics Institute for instance has come up with Ten Commandments to help fight cyber crime and reinforce acceptable online behavior. The latest development is the Canadian government anti-spam legislation. A law passed in 2010 and took effect from July 1st 2014 is meant to protect Canadian citizens against damaging and deceptive forms of spam and online threats such as phishing, spyware, spammers, and identity theft. The law was developed following extensive consultations between Canadian businesses and consumers. The legislation undertook various steps to protect Canadian businesses and at the same time protects the consumer who has been subjected to intensive cyber malpractices. According to the legislation, organizations will have three years to obtain express consent from their existing clients to continue receiving emails and marketing ads. The law is a key component of Digital Canada 150, Harpers government plan for Canadians to leverage the full opportunities in the digital age (Canada, 2014). Consumers have been subjected to misleading online representations, spamming malware attacks and collection of their personal information without consent. The law is a positive move towards maintaining the privacy in the online media while also according business a controlled marketing strategy. Privacy On this internet age, much-personal information is shared between friends, family member, comrades, or co-workers over social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flicker. It has introduced privacy issues, and people are increasingly arguing that privacy is becoming a myth. After the 9/11 world trade centre bombing in the US, Congress enacted laws that make it easier for the government to intrude and use such information while investigating terrorist activities (Monk, 2013). Privacy is a controversial phenomenon which affects both side of the spectrum. While the government is preserving it on one side by instituting laws that protect consumers, it is attempting to take it away on the other. The case of mobile tapping and surveillance in the US is a case in point. According to media reports, phone companies like AT&T and Verizon have agreed to make copies of all communication records and providing these to the NSA. “All of these surveillance activities are in violation of the privacy safeguards established by Congress and the US Constitution.” ("NSA Spying | Electronic Frontier Foundation", n.d.) These practices are being performed illegally, without probable cause. In 2005, the population first became aware of the fact the NSA had been intercepting phone calls and it wasn’t till 2013 that documents revealed by Edward Snowden confirmed it. These recompilation of information was being performed without due consent on the part of the citizens. Electronic Frontier Foundation took upon themselves to represent the victims of these illegal activities in court through filed lawsuits like “Jewel v. NSA” and “Shubert v. Obama”. In this aspect, the phone companies have been turning “overall customer phone records including who is talking to whom, when and for how long to the NSA.” ("NSA Spying | Electronic Frontier Foundation", n.d.). The point of contention is that the US government is going too far by conducting secret, unchecked surveillance because first, it is unethical and second, it contravenes the very fundamental responsibility to defend citizen’s civil liberties. Privacy is important for democracy and free expression. Still, transparency is essentials if citizens and organizations have to make informed decisions about their personal information. Verizon and AT&T have violated privacy rights it signed with its customers to guard their information against uninformed and unwarranted access. Unlike other companies such as Google and Microsoft, who have come forward to issue transparency reports in a bid to establish trust with its customers, they have not. In addition, they have not filed for any authorization in a court of law seeking to disclose customer information (ACLU, 2014). To be safe in the online space, a number of strategies have been developed to bar illegal online activity. Cybercrime legislation is an integral part of the cybercrime strategy that seeks to make the internet safer as well as protect the users. An anti-cybercrime strategy includes the development of technical protection systems and cybercrime awareness to increase knowledge on how to be safe online. ITU Global Cybercrime Agenda is a global framework of international dialogue and cooperation that seeks to enhance confidence and security in the information society. Cybercrime awareness is a prevention strategy that constitutes a barrier between unethical online behavior and the user. Nevertheless, when the barrier is broken, law enforcement authorities and justice systems deliberate to provide the best course of action. The following has been identified as essential in maintaining cyber ethics. Email communication should be treated as face-to-face communication. Just as threatening, harassing and stalking is illegal, so is it when it comes to online frameworks. Proper use of email should be advocated especially for children because they are obvious targets for criminals who seek to advance their illegal activities such as hacking, distributing counterfeit products and others. Hacking is a criminal activity that involves intentional manipulation of another’s computers. Illegal entry can cause an avalanche of destruction to all the sectors of the economy (ITU, September 2013). Internet has been a favorable platform for finding just anything that a user wants. The concept of intellectual property is one that is challenging to understand especially for adults and children alike. Downloading copyrighted material such as software, movies, music and other goods is an offense and should be discouraged through use of legislation and education. Identity theft is a serious crime that should lead to dire consequences. Identity theft spans from using another person’s identity to extract information in social networks, to ATM cloning for financial frauds, to plagiarism. Good cyber ethics should be inculcated in the citizen’s minds to deter such activities. Finally, blocking of computer resources through denial of service prevents access to critical resources. It is witnessed every day as sites for Yahoo, Google, CNN and eBay have all suffered DoS attacks. A combination of technical parameters and awareness programs are essential to preventing such attacks in organizational and global contexts (Sembok, 2013). Conclusion This paper has analyzed cyber ethics in depth and breath. First, it introduced the topic and discussed what cyber ethics contains. Cyber ethics is defined from normative and prescriptive approach. While normative approaches concerns with the dos and donuts, prescriptive approaches deal with continuous development of personal standards, behaviors, and feelings. Issues of privacy have been analyzed and found to be a contentious issue that shifts grounds continuously. Finally, ethical concerns in the cyber space can be handled by instituting collaborative approaches that encompass education, awareness, legislations, and technical safeguards. References Canada, G. o. (2014). Harper Government Delivers on Commitment to Protect Canadian Consumers from Spam and Online Threats. http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=864329. ITU. (September 2013). UNDERSTANDING CYBERCRIME: Phenomena, challenges and legal responses. ITU. Liebald B., D. R. (2012). Proactive Detection Of cyber attacks. Monk, L. R. (2013). The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide To The Constitution. Hyperion. Sembok, T. M. (2013). ETHICS OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY. Read More