Incident Command System - GCHQ Surveillance Agency - Case Study Example

Running Header: Incident Command System Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The report is on the yahoo images intercepted by GCHQ Surveillance agency and shared with NSA. Reports analyses the overall situation on the ethical framework taken by stakeholders in carrying out this process and determining whether each stakeholders is justified on the action regarding the situation at hand. Report also draws out my own take on the situation and the issues that are arising from increase in the use of internet. TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 1.0INTRODUCTION 1 2.0STAKEHOLDERS 1 2.0.1 Key stakeholders 1 2.0.2 Stakeholders perspective 2 2.0.3 Stakeholders conflict viewpoints 3 2.0.4 Relevant ethical view taken 4 3.0INTERNATIONAL CODE OF ETHICS 5 3.0.1 IT Associations code of ethics 5 3.0.2 Evaluation of code of ethics in case study 7 3.0.3 Ethical difference between three institution and case study 8 4.0SUBJECTIVE OPINION 10 4.0.1 Personal view on case study 10 4.0.2 Given responsibility in accessing sensitive and restricted data 10 4.0.3 Arising issues on internet ethical/legal issues 10 5.0CONCLUSION 11 6.0REFERENCE 11 1.0 INTRODUCTION The case study is on webcam images taken by GCHQ which is Britain based Surveillance Company. The webcam images were taken from yahoo chat users where optic nerve was intercepted in the system and it was taking images of the users without their knowledge or consent. Therefore, violating users’ privacy as term and condition of Yahoo Company with its esteemed users to keep user’s information and activity private and confidential thus such action when it is not in a well stipulated manner it can result to breach of contract between the users and the emailing service provider (Theguardian.com. 2013). The study is aimed to define key stakeholders that are affected optic nerve acquisition and storage of the webcam images obtained from yahoo users who are estimated to be over 1.8 million users with most of them having explicit content. The stakeholders will be analyzed where, will be able to determine whether each stakeholders has right to obtain or disseminated such content or it is violation of the user privacy. It will be arrived at determining various ethical frame work that regards user privacy and the right to infringe on other people private life according to international code of ethics. Lastly, I will be able to analyze the merits and demerits of the move by GCHQ to take images of yahoo user considering the interest of all parties involved and basing my opinion on international code of ethics. A good and ethical right situation will be able to take consideration of interest of all the parties involved without depriving another and more so universally accepted by the local and international code of ethics. 2.0 STAKEHOLDERS 2.0.1 Key stakeholders Stakeholders are people, state or organs that have interest on the webcam images taken and stored by GCHQ surveillance agencies. The interest arises from direct or indirect relationship of the party with the situation on hand. The first stakeholder on yahoo webcam images is Yahoo Company itself since GCHQ surveillance intercepted to their network and obtained images of its users without any criterion to filter explicit and private user content. In addition, the content was obtained includes innocent internet users with no criminal record and this could lead to breach of contract between the users and company. Therefore, this brings Yahoo Company on stake with action of GCHQ in intercepting on webcam videos and images of its users without proper filtering tool to select only relevant images and discard irrelevant images (Theguardian.com. 2013). GCHQ surveillance agency is the major stakeholder since it is the one involved with collecting and storing webcam images from intercepted optic nerve on yahoo network. The data is then used by analyst and security agency in order to gather evidence or carry a study depending on the situation (Theguardian.com. 2013). Third stakeholder to yahoo webcam images is US government in connection to National Security Agency (NSA). The NSA is concerned with investigation of criminal activities, locating criminals and gathering evidence to be used in investigation. Therefore, in our context the NSA accessed the data and used it to serve the purpose that they are required by state to carry thus making them part of the key stakeholders to yahoo webcam images taken from 1.8 million internet users (Theguardian.com. 2013). 2.0.2 Stakeholders perspective On stakeholder perspective will concentrate on the situation the images puts each stakeholder in both on the positive and negative perspective. First stakeholder affected is Yahoo Company and according to company reaction is that GCHQ intrusion into its network is violation of its user privacy because it was not consulted before GCHQ spy on its user’s activities online through taking webcam images of online chats. According to court agreement between yahoo and NSA in 2007, it was never agreed that NSA can obtain and use images obtained from yahoo site network (Theguardian.com. 2013). Therefore, this infringes company objectives to maintain user information private and confidential as stated by company and user policy thus yahoo considers the whole situation unethical and unconstitutional in regard to US laws regarding privacy. Secondly, GCHQ Surveillance Agency on its side obtained images by intercepting optical nerve on yahoo network in order to obtain images of yahoo users and in this regard, brings conflicting issues on whether this move is ethical or unethical. According to GCHQ Surveillance Agency, they are ethical in obtaining information from the optical interception on yahoo network since it is based in UK and according to UK law, it is permissible to obtain information from any network by intelligence agency and any party concern, if it is to curb or minimize criminal activities and therefore, acquisition and storing yahoo users images through optical nerve by GCHQ is acceptable according to UK law. Therefore, law regarding ethicality of the content will only apply to NSA who used images obtained from yahoo network (Tom-watson.co.uk. 2013). US government in its perspective considers the information shared by GCHQ with National Security Agency to be ethically correct to obtain such information without consent of Yahoo Company. NSA argues out its perspective point of view with regard that it is mandated by the law to obtain information from any US person or individual in order to minimize criminal activities or help locate criminals and interrogate on some of their activities. Therefore, being a move to promote the good of all the citizens overrides the law concerning the privacy of individuals from any third party intruding to their private life since most of the images obtained were explicit and nude exchange between yahoo users communicating through the network. 2.0.3 Stakeholders conflict viewpoints There is conflicting point of view regarding Yahoo Company, NSA and GCHQ Surveillance Agency where each party claims that the images taken from 1.8 million online yahoo users by GCHQ is ethical or unethical. According to Guardian report (Theguardian.com. 2013), the images taken from yahoo network was taken without Yahoo consent regarding such interception brining one of the major conflict between NSA and Yahoo company, this is because according to US laws NSA is not mandated to intrude on private life of innocent citizens. The issues on the privacy intrusion has led government on its side to step in to prove its mandate in protecting individual privacy and preservation of individuals dignity by avoiding access to such private information such as nudity of US citizens and families therefore, three senators step in in order to question the reason on using GCHQ database images collected from US citizens. The other conflicting issue is on the difference on laws applicable to both NSA and GCHQ Surveillance Agency. According to GCHQ surveillance Agency the company collection of images from yahoo network is ethically correct since there is no law that restrict them from tapping or intercepting and storing information from any network for it to be used by the analyst or intelligence agencies that might require the information for the common good of countries citizens. The law doesn’t discriminate data obtained from US citizens therefore, bringing conflicting issues whether NSA was right in using data shared by GCHQ given that UK law allows collection of such images while US law doesn’t allow thus bringing the conflict between the two laws on whether NSA is on the wrong by obtaining images of innocent citizens or they are ethical right with regard to laws that the situation is based on (Theguardian.com. 2013). 2.0.4 Relevant ethical view taken There are internationally recognized ethical theories brought up by several schools on explaining the reason for the decision taken by different parties involved in a given dilemma. These ethical viewpoints includes Deontology where, the party just follow the process and accomplishing the duties without consideration of the outcomes of the whole process (Mooney. 2013). According to case study, GCHQ followed deontology since they collected the images and shared with NSA without considering the outcomes of sharing such information due to the difference in the laws governing the two agencies. Secondly, relativism is another ethical standard where it stipulates the culture of determining the issue if it is right or wrong (Mooney. 2013). According to the case study, the use of yahoo webcam images by NSA is wrong and unconstitutional according to US laws but on the hand ethically right for GCHQ since they are not limited by the UK framework on the ethics followed to infringe individual’s private life. Third ethical viewpoint taken is Consequentialism that considers the outcomes of the act not the act itself (Mooney. 2013). From the case study, the act is infringing on private and confidential images of innocent US citizens and families while the outcome is the detection and reduction of the criminal activities across the country thus improving on security of the citizens. The issue on infringement is not addressed or any question regaling the same has yielded no explanation thus proving the consequentialism ethical view taken by NSA. 3.0 INTERNATIONAL CODE OF ETHICS 3.0.1 IT Associations code of ethics International code of ethic is institutionalized in order to merge ethical code of conduct on Information Technology put in place by different countries. The international code of ethic is aimed at helping solve controversial issues such as the one on the case study regarding Webcam images taken from yahoo network by GCHQ and ensuring there is a sound and uniform code of ethics taking into consideration the effect of technology or data on member countries to such institution. Examples of internationally recognized bodies dealing with international code of ethics on Information Technology sector includes Australia Computer Society, Canada’s Association of Information Technology (IT) Professionals and Institute of Information Technology Professionals etc. These institutions are put in place to make grounds of bringing up sound ethical framework in issues concerning information technology such as hacking, virus coding or spying on internet or network users activities. Most of this institutions stipulates code of ethic required before and after obtaining confidential information or the effect of a given software to other stakeholders in the information technology industry therefore, enabling staff to audit every company project before unveiling it to the public for use. For example according to NSA software, it was supposed to detect and filter explicit images and only allow access of images that are required by the agency for use in interrogation. According to Australia Computer Society, based in Australia aimed at bringing together Information Technology Industry professionals in order to share and provide framework to deal with standards and ethical issues arising from the industry with a goal of achieving milestone in Australian Information Technology both locally and internationally. The ethical framework stipulated by Australia Computer Society is tabulated on table below. ACS ethical Values Explanation Public Interest It is a requirement that the members of the society to place public interest at stake and avoid interference of their personal interest in IT industry. Quality of Life The members are required to ensure that the product and services unveiled doesn’t hinder quality of life of the stakeholders negatively. Honesty The members should provide all the information regarding their products and services in order to avoid misleading stakeholders affected by members’ products. Competence Members should work with sufficient knowledge and diligence in delivering exact products required by IT stakeholders. Professional Development Members are required to keep on polishing there prowess on IT industry in order to enhance innovation and invention in Australian IT industry. Professionalism It is a requirement that every member should respect the integrity, respect and protect the interest of others in the industry. Source: ACS website Institute of Information Technology Professionals is New Zealand based information technology association, which its core purpose is to streamline IT industry in New Zealand. The ethical guidelines stipulated by the association is given below. IITP Guidelines Explanation Non-Discriminatory Members are required to treat all the members of IT industry equally despite of racial or any other basis. Zeal Members are required with due knowledge and dignity with the trust of users and professionalism. Community It is a requirement for the members to ensure that the interest of the community come first before personal interest. Skills It is requirement of the association for the members to use their knowledge in delivering quality service and products to esteemed users. Continuous development Members should develop expertise in IT industry in order enhance innovation and invention. Outcomes and consequences Members are required to inform all the stakeholders the effects of various technologies both positive and negative regarding environmental and moral issues. Potential conflicts of Interest Members are required to ensure the interest of the stakeholders comes first and any conflicting interest should be made know to parties involved. Competence Members are required to use due diligence and knowledge in development and advising the users of information technology. Source: IITP website The third association is Canada’s Association of Information Technology (IT) Professionals which is Canada based association. Its purpose is to institute ethical values Canada’s Information Technology industry. The association is built within five guidelines as shown in the table below guidelines below, CAITP Guidelines Explanation Protection of public interest and maintenance of integrity Members are supposed to be honest and bring the interest of public first before their personal interest. Competence and Quality of Service Members are required to exercise due knowledge and provide quality service to members. Maintenance of Confidential Information and Privacy Members are required to maintain users’ information confidential. Avoiding Conflict of Interest It is requirement of the association for its members to spell out their interest and avoid any interest that interfere with public interest. Upholding Responsibility to the IT Profession Members of the association are required to promote the industry by taking the interest of the IT industry seriously for the good of association as a whole. Source: Canada’s Association of Information Technology (IT) Professionals website 3.0.2 Evaluation of code of ethics in case study The three association uphold almost the same code of ethics among its members and therefore, it is evident that the above code of ethic is applicable to the case study. The code of ethics evaluated includes competence, Upholding Responsibility to the IT Profession, Maintenance of Confidential Information and Privacy and Professional Development. According to competence, it states that members should exercise due knowledge and provide quality service to members. On the case study of yahoo webcam images, the software developer for NSA should due knowledge in order to develop a software that will have few loop holes and suite clients requirement to detect the face of the users from that present in their criminal file. On Upholding Responsibility to the IT Profession, which requires Members to promote the industry by taking the interest of the IT industry seriously for the good of all the stakeholders involved. The case study those involved with development and use of the software have a duty to ensure that the integrity in IT industry is taken care of in order to increase accountability in the face of public. Maintenance of Confidential Information and Privacy is also applicable in the case study since the software deals with obtaining private and confidential images which include pornographic materials exchanged by yahoo users. Therefore, it is important for GCHQ to only share this data with the agencies that are mandated by law for the interest of public. According to Professional Development, it is important for the parties to ensure in the case study that is NSA and GCHQ Surveillance Agency are required to keep improving their surveillance in order to improve the quality of service delivered and therefore, reducing conflict between the conflicting stakeholders. 3.0.3 Ethical difference between three institution and case study The case study on yahoo webcam shows a lot of conflicting issues in comparison to the ethical code of the three institutions which are almost similar to each other. Code of ethic on competence is common for the three institution where members are required to demonstrate knowledge on what they are doing and deliver quality service to the clients. NSA did not exercise competence in obtaining data from yahoo users in two ways. First, NSA did not practice competence in obtaining data from GCHQ Surveillance Agency since they did not make any effort to develop a software that would sort the images by filtering explicit images and only retaining relevant images to be used for intelligence purpose. GCHQ on their part also shows the same weakness on implementing competence in their work since they did not make any attempts either. Secondly, NSA did not comply with competency since they failed to analyze the effects of obtaining the information from GCHQ with the law of the US. The images obtained by NSA is prohibited by the law governing individuals privacy and confidential information since the images obtained were explicit and therefore, interfering with privacy of many US families. NSA failed to uphold responsibility to the IT Profession in many ways that includes the reason that it failed to take into account the procedures required in order to obtain information from yahoo network. NSA would have been responsible if it had an agreement with yahoo to obtain and use information from their network but instead of following the required process, they went ahead and obtained webcam images from GCHQ Surveillance Agency and used it without yahoo knowledge and therefore, failing to comply with upholding responsibility in IT profession by infringing on yahoo users confidential images. GCHQ and yahoo also failed to Maintain Confidential Information and Privacy. On GCHQ scenario it failed to maintain confidential information and privacy since it shared information with National Security Agency without taking into consideration if the US laws mandate it to use such information thus showing failure on their part to share information with strictly relevant agencies required by law. It is their responsibility to ensure that any agency they share data with comply with all the laws both internationally and domestic laws concerning privacy. Yahoo on their part failed to secure users information confidential and private since they were unaware of any leaked information of their users to GCHQ and NSA though they are promising to tighten the security of users browsing but the mistake is already done therefore, on yahoo side they failed to keep the user information private and confidential according to their policy though in their terms of agreement yahoo can give any intelligence agency this information for interrogation purposes but in our case NSA did not seek consent from Yahoo thus bringing in the failure on yahoo side (Reidenberg, J. R. 2002). 4.0 SUBJECTIVE OPINION 4.0.1 Personal view on case study According to my perspective on the case study, yahoo need to provide more security on its user’s information in order to avoid leak of this information. On the side of NSA it was unethical to obtain naked images of innocent citizens of US and further, unconstitutional to obtain information from yahoo network from without their knowledge therefore, being incompetent in their mandated agency responsibility. GCHQ is ethically right to obtain images from yahoo website but I differ on their ethical standards when it comes to sharing this information with NSA without taking into consideration if they qualify to use such data since they prove to be incompetent and irresponsible. 4.0.2 Given responsibility in accessing sensitive and restricted data Given responsibility on task that involves access of sensitive and restricted data, I would first analyze the public interest regarding the data which involves analysis of the effects on the stakeholders and therefore, developing a program that suite all the parties for example on case study I would improve software to filter only images of the suspects and eliminate nude images. I would take in consideration professionalism, competence and responsibility by seeking consent from relevant authorities and laws concerning the obtaining information and stick by the framework set by the stakeholders involved in order to avoid any conflict that might arise in case the information leak to public. 4.0.3 Arising issues on internet ethical/legal issues There is increasing use of internet service worldwide thus bringing in ethical and legal concern due to development and identification of various loopholes that are required to be regulated in order to ensure healthy growth in internet use and security enhancement. Intellectual right one of the major ethical issue that has come due to the use of internet, this arises due to increased sharing of copyrighted or patent content on internet by bloggers and websites thus interfering with ownership of intellectual rights of such content (Hayes, D.L. 1998). One practical example is sharing of cracking software to remove owner license restriction from their software thus reducing sales. Books also face major challenge on exposure of intellectual right by internet. According to David (2004), violation of intellectual right has constantly increased due to increase in the use of internet. Cyber harassment is another ethical and legal issue that arise due to increased use of internet and it is common among the youths on social networks and blogs. The harassments includes insults and sharing of disturbing photos. The cyber harassment has raised concern of several stakeholders and therefore, several government agencies have to breach this gap by enforcing laws to catch up with those harassing others over internet (StopCyberBullying. 2013). The third issue on increased internet use is privacy of users’ information, most of the users of the internet do not have enough information on internet use and therefore, fall in to trap of internet users who want to obtain private and confidential information such internet banking information. Hackers also are major players who interfere with the privacy of user information since they hack into network thus interfering with the privacy of user’s information. The worst and unethical hackers are ‘black hart’ who seeks to intrude a network and destroy user information. Therefore, there has been great effort to educate and develop laws concerning the same issue (Chung and Paynter. 2002). 5.0 CONCLUSION In conclusion, we are able to note that before implementing any project we need to take into consideration ethical framework in order to prevent conflict with relevant authorities and public interest like in the case study of yahoo webcam images intercepted by GCHQ. The other issue that is addressed in the report is that we are able to note that laws of a given country prevails and override the laws of the country in which the data is obtained from therefore, it is mandatory that we get versed with the laws of the country before implementation of any project to avoid legal action taken against the company or association. Lastly, we are able to note that internet users are required to be versed with the relevant information regarding internet in order to reduce effects caused by internet use e.g. hacking. 6.0 REFERENCE Canada’s Association of Information Technology (IT) Professionals. n.p. [online] Available at: http://www.cips.ca/?q=system/files/coe-frame.pdf [Accessed: 1 Apr 2014]. Chung, W. & Paynter, J. 2002, 'Privacy Issues on the Internet', Proceeding of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Science HICSS on IEEE, pp. 1-9. [online] Available at: [Accessed: 1 Apr 2014]. David L. Hayes. 2004, 'ADVANCED COPYRIGHT ISSUES ON THE INTERNE', Chairman of Intellectual Property Practice Group. Reidenberg, J. R. 2002. Yahoo and Democracy on the Internet. Jurimetrics, pp. 261--280. Take action against cyber bullying 2013, Stop Cyber Bullying [online] Available at: http://stopcyberbullying.org/index2.html [Accessed: 1 Apr 2014]. Mooney, G. 2013, 'Ethical Foundations'. [online] Available at: UTS Online Subject 31272, lecture notes, UTS, Sydney, [Accessed: 1 Apr 2014]. Australian Computer Society, 2013, ACS code of ethics [online] Available at: http://www.acs.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/7835/Code-of-Ethics.pdf [Accessed: 1 Apr 2014]. Aldrich, R. J. 2010. GCHQ: the uncensored story of Britain's most secret intelligence agency. HarperPress. Theguardian.com. 2013. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-imagesinternet- yahoo.com [Accessed: 1 Apr 2014]. Tom-watson.co.uk. 2013. [online] Available at: http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/APPG-Final.pdf [Accessed: 1 Apr 2014]. Hayes, D.L. 1998. Advanced copyright issues on the internet, Tex. Intell. Pro LJ. [online] Available at: [Accessed: 1 Apr 2014]. Read More