Concept of Virtual Space in Cyberethics - Literature review Example

SUMMARY This site highlights several issues concerning cyber ethics and cyber world. Cyber ethics entails public policy, laws, morality and how they influence the cyber world. The site explores the intellectual property rights, cyber crime and security, Privacy, cyber governance and history. The concept of virtual space will be discussed in detail especially on legal jurisdiction and law enforcement as far as cyber crime is concerned. The issues surrounding cyber ethics as highlighted by ethical theorists, legal experts, computer scientists and policy makers will be analyzed in detail. INTRODUCTION Cyber ethics refers to the adoption of appropriate behaviors and recognizing the moral obligations and responsibilities in an online setting and use of digital media. Cyber ethics just like any other kind of ethics endeavor to have ethical behavior, cyber participants must make moral decisions each and every time they conduct their activities in the cyber in order to maintain utmost respect for people and their property and also obey the law. (Schmitt, Michael N. 2012) It is good to note that the cyber activities should not interfere with others peoples’ work. The computers should not be used to harm others; this can be people, organizations or societies, neither should they be used to steal or to accomplish fraudulent activities or transactions. According to Pagallo (2013), as research in science and technology advances and internet gains popularity among web users, there is a great deal of development in cyber ethics and crime. According to Strawser, Bradley J. (2013), digital technology affects our day to day lives. This ranges from social interaction, political engagement, healthcare activity and economic decision-making. Digital connectivity now has high dependence and reliance on networked resource. Development in the telecommunication sector with rise of mobile technologies like tablets, laptops, iPads and netbooks which have recording and internet connectivity features brings in new challenges to cyber space security. (Libicki, 2012) The emergence of clouds computing and information storage in the Cloud brings flexibility and scalability. This makes information access and control complex. This is even complicated by increasing cybercrime sophistication and information ecology complexity. (Ruan, et al., 2011). There is acceptable cyber etiquette in the diverse digital space. Every cyberspace user need to acknowledge both positive and negative ethical and social behaviors including legal consequences while accessing the internet resources. The education sector is now adopting virtual learning and online tutoring, this has been exploited by unethical behaviors where people just payments and earn free degrees. This paper looks in to the role of a tutor or teacher in the virtual education setting. There is need for definition of the role of a tutor in cyber world in order to ensure education quality is not compromised. HISTORY 1943-1944 The first programmable digital machine called Colossus. It was a large-scale electronic computer. It was developed by the British during the World War II. It was developed to hack German codes. 1961-1962 Leonard Kleinrock published the first paper on packet switching. This marked the development of networking and internet connectivity. With this development, people could access data from anywhere. 1971 Intel Company developed the first integrated microprocessor computer using transistors and faster processing speed. 1982 United States National security launched the first cyber attacks. This was on the Soviet Union. 1986-1987 University of California physics researcher uncovered a global hack of United States academic, government and military this was the first online hack. 1988 Robert Tappan Morris a Cornell University student released the first worm attack in the Internet. This was a series of lines of codes programmed by the student. This worm stopper over 88,000 computers that were connected to the internet by the time. 1990 Over two million people were now on the internet. 1994 Air Force's Rome Laboratory in New York was attacked by Anonymous hackers causing threat to military systems. On investigation, it was discovered that an Israeli technician and a British teenager used networked phone systems in eight countries to attack the computer systems. 2003 United States government and military systems were attacked by hackers apparently supported by China. Hackers attack via Chinese Web sites. This affected terabytes of data. 2008 Devices connected to the Internet increase hence accelerated the Cyberspace expansion. The number was around 12.5 billion by 2010. 2012 Gen. Keith Alexander, the U.S Cyber Command commander blamed China for intellectual properly violation and hack. CYBER GOVERNANCE Cyber ethics surrounds privacy, appropriate use of information resources and property issues. Cyber space need to be shared hence there is need to define the roles and responsibilities of each participant to avoid conflict and systemic risks. The share cyber space is now a cyber ecosystem. The participants should understand the governance policy and privacy norms. There is need for formulation of policies and legislations on cyber crime and cyber ethics. (Schmitt, M., (2013) Most government’s organizations and societies are now relying more on the cyber systems to accomplish various activities. As dependence and reliance on the cyber systems increases, vulnerability also increases. This happens if the cyber systems are attacked. Cyber reliance and attacks is now a great concern for cyber space security team. According to Cubby & McNeilage (2012), there are web offenders that use the cyber space for their own dubious schemes especially targeting unsuspecting individuals, banks, companies or even government and military agencies. Examples are cyber terrorism, web site hacking and cracking; some use mobile telecommunication devises to coordinate public disorder, terror or gang activities. Cyberspace security team strives to protect the cyber infrastructure against external attack and aggression. The threats not only target the cyber infrastructure but also people and their resources. (Kitiyadisai, 2005). The Indian government for example enacted the Information Technology Act 2000 as a major legislation in the field of ICT. The judges handling these cases need to be cyber savvy judges to ensure the Judiciary plays its role in enforcing, enacting and accurately interpreting cases pertaining cyber world. As computer programmers continue to develop computer software, the programs written should be analyzed to understand its social consequences. The programs written or systems design should be socially accepted. Kitiyadisai (2005) pointed out that cyber threats and attacks may target resources such as the information and communication technology equipment, data banks and even government classified information. There are also threats like denial of service where major websites are attacked and users denied or prevent web normal performance or ability of people to connect. There are cases where cyber attacks disrupt the physical computer devices either by a virus or worms. Floridi, L. (2013) in his document on the ethics of Information highlighted that there are cases where individuals are engaged in harassing other via e-mails. This is unethical and should be discouraged. Exposure of children to the cyber space can be detrimental especially when the participants in the cyber ecosystem are not considerate to the prevailing cyber ethics, governance and rules. Risks are high when these kids are confident and sophisticated. According to Broadhurst, et. al. (2014), the dynamic nature of attacks and threats needs a wide and complex approach to combat the menace. The governments should find way of defining the legal jurisdiction in order to ensure its people are not adverse affected by cyber attacks Governance should be balance with individual privacy so that as governance look into the ways to combat cyber threats, fundamental individual privacy rights are not compromised. Where national security and individual privacy contend, national security takes precedence. There is need for cyberspace risk management to do trade-offs where a balance is drawn from individual rights, security and privacy. PRIVACY Warren and Brandeis (1890) viewed privacy from both ethical and moral point of view. According to them privacy is central to individuality, dignity and personhood. Some countries have adopted means to combat cyber crimes. This has been faced by challenges since it has spurred ethical issues and violations of individual privacy. Taddeo, M. (2012) pointed out that privacy in the cyber world is under threat. Online spamming misuse individual information hence compromising personal privacy. Where individuals submit their private information to register online for a given service, they are faced with challenges of malicious activities that arise from abuse of private data. These include unethical acts such as cyber fraud and impersonation. Information needs to be protected as private and confidential resource. Violation leads to intruding in to the individual privacy and which is unethical. Businesses too need to protect the customer information and privacy. This is ensured by enforcing information security. Such will ensure there is no loss to privacy and secrecy. Such data include credit card information, social security numbers, phone numbers and even identity card numbers. Computer resources that belong to others should only be accessed without permission. (Lü, Y. H., 2005). Large Data warehouses and integrated EPR systems used by organizations to store customer transactions and personal information are also under threat of attack. Unethical behavior has lead to leaking of this kind of information to the public domain and internet. this has a great impact on individual privacy. PLACING BARRIERS The use of computers for interfering with intellectual rights is prohibited. The role of cyber ethics is therefore to guide the web user on the good way of behaving while using the cyber space. There is actually the need for responsible and acceptable behavior on the Internet. The cyber users must not snoop around the files of other people, organizations or societies. According to Tallinn (2014), the inhibitor of cyber space need to be well defined to ensure information is disseminated to the right group. Communication and file sharing across the network in advancing as unethical behaviors like cyber spoofing and hacking continues to be complex and dynamic. Lourdu Vesna.J (2012) observed that the increase in compression technology and internet connection speed has facilitated faster file sharing and anonymous file transfer through communications protocol; this has encouraged unethical and illegal sharing of copyrighted music and software. The practice denies artist and programmers their rights to earn from their intellectual property. McGuire’s (2012) observed that most of the cyber crimes are executed by some form of organized activities. Students now not only hack site to access unauthorized information; they also download unauthorized software, games and music. The downloads can come along with virus that will interfere with other students work. The virus can also destroy the entire system causing tremendous financial loss. Cyber space is a community where everybody can accessed irrespective of time, place or distance. The cyber world is now part and parcel of the day to day life; however it has both negative and positive consequence. CONCLUSION The current situation in history is an exciting one. The availability of computers and other complex ICT resources widespread with faster Internet connections has brought forward more opportunities for both effective communication and education. However as many people make use of the internet as a tool for beneficial use some cyber offenders exploit the same for terrorist or criminal purposes. This has brought in threats in the cyber world. This act cannot be fully controlled by laws due to challenges or jurisdiction; however they can be minimized by teaching the importance of cyber ethics in order to make the cyber space safe and useful. Unlike laws which are formal written directives enforced by the police and interpreted by the judicial system and applying to everyone; Ethics looks in to the good life and thus goes beyond mare right and wrong. It is a broad philosophical concept. People should always be doing the right thing irrespective of who is watching or not watching them. The web users also need to understand the threats in the cyber world and how to protect themselves from such attacks. The ethical code of conduct in the cyber world is a very important topic for any Internet user. REFERENCE Tallinn (2014) 1st Workshop on Ethics of Cyber Conflict Proceedings, Retrieved from https://www.ccdcoe.org/publications/ethics-workshop-proceedings.pdf Broadhurst, et. al.( 2014 ) Organizations and Cyber crime: An An alysis of the Nature of Groups engaged in Cyber Crime; International Journal of Cyber Criminology, Australian National University, Australia. Retrieved from http://www.cybercrimejournal.com/broadhurstetalijcc2014vol8issue1.pdf Broadhurst, R., & Chang, Y. C. (2013). Cybercrime in Asia: Trends and Challenges. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 2 Dipert, R.R. (2013) Other-than-Internet (OTI) Warfare: Challenges for Ethics, Law, and Policy. Journal of Military Ethics 12(1): 34-53. New York. Floridi, L. (2013), The Ethics of Information, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Retrieved from http://wn.com/internet_governance__cyber_crime Kitiyadisai, K. (2005). Privacy rights and protection: Foreign values in modern Thai context. Ethics and Information Technology, 7(1), 27-36. Libicki, M. (2012) Panel on Response to Cyberattacks: The Attribution Problem. The McCain Conference,. U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI7TLqTt0H0 Liu, B. H. & S. Jou. (Eds.), Asian Handbook of Criminology (pp. 49–64). New York: Springer. Lourdu Vesna.J (2012) Mass Communication, Pondicherry University Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu/India. Retrieved from http://www.ijsrp.org/research_paper_may2012/ijsrp-may-2012-83.pdf Lü, Y. H. (2005). Privacy and data privacy issues in contemporary China. Ethics and Information Technology, 7(1), 7-15. Lucas, George. (2012). ‘Can there be an ‘Ethical’ Cyber War?’ Retrieved from http://www.usna.edu/...%20and%20Cyber%20War%20GR%20Lucas.pdf Michael Schmitt (2012), International Law in Cyberspace: The Koh Speech and the Tallinn Manual Juxtaposed, Harvard International law Journal Vol. 54 pp. 26-27. Pagallo, U. (2013), The Laws of Robots: Crimes, Contracts, and Torts, Springer, Dordrecht. World Economic Forum (2013) Partnering for Cyber Resilience; Davos-Klosters, Switzerland Retrieved From http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_RRHW_PartneringCyberResilience_NewsletterJanuary_2013.pdf Rid, Thomas. 2013. Cyber War Will Not Take Place. Oxford University Press: NY. Schmitt, M. (2013) Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare. Cambridge University Press: NY. Schmitt, Michael N. (2012). International law in cyberspace: The Koh speech and the Tallinn Manual juxtaposed, Harvard International Law Journal, 54, 13-37. Strawser, Bradley J. (2013) Issue on Cyberwar and Ethics. Journal of Military Ethics 2013:1. NATO CCD COE Publications: Talinn Estonia. Taddeo, M. (2012). Information Warfare: a Philosophical Perspective. Philosophy and Technology, 25(1), 105-120. NATO CCD COE Publications: Talinn Estonia. Taddeo, Mariarosario. (2012) An Analysis for a Just Cyber Warfare. 4th International Conference on Cyber Conflict. NATO CCD COE Publications: Talinn Estonia. Retrieved From http://www.ccdcoe.org/publications/2012proceedings/3_5_Taddeo_AnAnalysisForAJustCyberWarfare.pdf Accessed 15 Nov 2013. Read More