Module 1
Introduction & Programming
Chapter 2 :- Information with
Systems And Ethics
ESP8266
Faculty of Management Studies
Content
What is Ethics?...................................................................................3
Moral Dimensions of Information Age……………………………………………… 4
Security and Ethical Challenges………………………………………………………….6
Privacy Issues…………………………………………………………………………………..7
Computer Crime [Virus, Hacking Tactics, Piracy, Cybertheft]...............9
Employment Challenges [Health Issues & Ergonomics]...................... 21
Cyber Terrorism………………………………………………………………………………..26
EX
IND
What is Ethics?
Ethics refers to the principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free
moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviors. Information systems
raise new ethical questions for both individuals and societies because they create
opportunities for intense social change, and thus threaten existing distributions
of power, money, rights, and obligations.
Ethical Issues in Information Systems
Ethical issues in information systems have been given new urgency by the rise of
the Internet and electronic commerce. Internet and digital firm technologies
make it easier than ever to assemble, integrate, and distribute information,
unleashing new concerns about the appropriate use of customer information,
the protection of personal privacy, and the protection of intellectual property.
Moral Dimensions of Information Age
The introduction of new information technology has a ripple effect,
raising new ethical, social, and political issues that must be dealt with
on the individual, social, and political levels. These issues have five
moral dimensions:
1. Information Rights and Obligations,
2. Property Rights and Obligations,
3. System Quality,
4. Quality of Life, and
5. Accountability and Control.
Information rights and obligations. What information rights do individuals and
organizations possess with respect to themselves? What can they protect?
Property rights and obligations. How will traditional intellectual property rights be
protected in a digital society in which tracing and accounting for ownership are
difficult and ignoring such property rights is so easy?
Accountability and control. Who can and will be held accountable and liable for the
harm done to individual and collective information and property rights?
System quality. What standards of data and system quality should we demand to
protect individual rights and the safety of society?
Quality of life. What values should be preserved in an information- and knowledge-
based society? Which institutions should we protect from violation? Which cultural
values and practices are supported by the new information technology?
Security & Ethical Challenges of Information Technology
Important aspects of the
security, ethical, and societal
dimensions of the use of
information technology in
business. Remember that
information technologies
6
can support both beneficial
and detrimental effects on
society in each of the areas
shown.
[Source: O’Brien, James]
Privacy Issues & The Internet Privacy
Privacy Issues: The power of information technology to store and
retrieve information can have a negative effect on the individuals’ right
to privacy.
Violation of Privacy: Accessing individuals’ private e-mail
conversations, and/or collecting and sharing information about
individuals without their knowledge or consent.
• Unauthorized Personal Files.
Collecting telephone numbers, credit card numbers, e-mail addresses, and
other personal information to build individual customer profiles.
• Computer Monitoring.
Using technology to monitor conversations, employee productivity or an
individual’s movement.
• Computer Matching.
Using customer information gained from multiple sources to create
customer profiles that can be sold to information brokers or other
companies and used to market business services.
Computer Crime
• Offences that are committed against individuals or groups of individuals
with a criminal motive to intentionally harm the reputation of the victim.
• Cause physical or mental harm, or loss, to the victim directly or indirectly,
using modern telecommunication networks such as Internet (networks
including but not limited to Chat rooms, emails, notice boards and groups)
and mobile phones (Bluetooth/SMS/MMS)
• Computer may be target of crime, e.g.:
Breaching confidentiality of protected computerized data
Accessing a computer system without authority
• Computer may be instrument of crime, e.g.:
Theft of trade secrets
Using e-mail for threats or harassment
Computer Crime is defined by the Association of Information
Technology Professionals (AITP) as including
(1) the unauthorized use, access, modification, and destruction
of hardware, software, data, or network resources;
(2) the unauthorized release of information;
(3) the unauthorized copying of software;
(4) denying an end user access to his or her own hardware, software,
data, or network resources; and
(5) using or conspiring to use computer or network resources to
obtain information or tangible property illegally.
Cyber
Hacking
Theft
Computer
Viruses
Unauthorized
Piracy
Use at work
Viruses
Are the software program that attaches itself to other software
programs or data files in order to be executed
Worms
Independent computer programs that copy themselves from
one computer to other computers over a network.
Common Hacking Tactics
Denial of Service War Dialing
Scans Logic Bombs
Sniffer Programs Buffer Overflow
Spoofing Password Crackers
Trojan Horse Social Engineering
Back Doors Dumpster Driving
Malicious Applets
•Denial of Service (DOS): Hammering a website’s equipment with too
many requests for information, an attacker can effectively clog the system,
slowing performance or even crashing the site.
•Scans: Widespread probes of the Internet to determine types of
computers, services, and connections. That way the bad guys can take
advantage of weaknesses in a particular make of computer or software
program.
•Sniffer Programs: Programs that covertly search individual packets of
data as they pass through the Internet, capturing passwords or the entire
contents.
Common Hacking Tactics
•Spoofing: Faking an e-mail
address or Web page to trick
users into passing along critical
information like passwords or
credit card numbers.
•Trojan Horse: A program that,
unknown to the user, contains
instructions that exploit a
known vulnerability in some
software.
Common Hacking Tactics
•Back Doors: In case the original
entry point has been detected, having
a few hidden ways back makes
reentry easy - and difficult to detect.
•Malicious Applets: Tiny programs,
sometimes written in the popular
Java computer language, that misuse
your computer’s resources, modify
files on the hard disk, send fake e-
mail, or steal passwords.
•War dialling is a technique to automatically scan a list of telephone
numbers, usually dialing every number in a local area code to search for
modems, computers, bulletin board systems (computer servers) and fax
machines.
•Logic Bombs: An instruction in a computer program that triggers a
malicious act.
•Password Crackers: Software that can guess passwords.
•Social Engineering: A tactic used to gain access to computer systems by
talking unsuspecting company employees out of valuable information such
PIRACY: the unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work or
Intellectual property
• Intellectual property: Intangible property of any kind created by
individuals or corporations
Three ways that intellectual property is protected
I. Trade Secret: Intellectual work or product belonging to business, not in
the public domain. A formula, device, pattern or compilation of data
II. Copyright: Statutory grant protecting intellectual property
from being copied for the life of the author, plus 70 years
III. Patents: Grants creator of invention an exclusive
monopoly on ideas behind invention for 20 years.
Cyber-Theft:
• Refers to the act of using an internet to steal someone's property or to interfere
with someone's use and enjoyment of property.
• Many computer crimes involve the theft of money. In the majority of cases, they
are inside jobs that involve unauthorized network entry and fraudulent
alteration of computer databases to cover the tracks of the employees involved.
Of course, many computer crimes involve the use of the Internet.
Employment Challenges
Lost Job Lost
Opportunities Individuality
Working
Conditions
Computer Health
Monitoring Issues
Lost Job Opportunities: Information technology has created new jobs and increased
productivity, while also causing a significant reduction in some types of job
opportunities.
Individuality: A frequent criticism of e-business systems concerns their negative effect
on the individuality of people. Computerized systems can depersonalize human
transactions, forcing people to confront and respond to impersonal programmed logic.
• Information systems also often require strict adherence to detailed
procedures. Such regimentation is incompatible with human ideals of
flexibility and empathy.
• However, widespread use of personal computers and the Internet has
dramatically improved the development of people-oriented and personalized
systems.
Working Conditions: Many others suggest that while computers have
eliminated monotonous tasks in the office place, thereby improving the
quality of work, they have also made some jobs both repetitive and routine.
Computer Monitoring: Computer monitoring is used by many employers to
collect productivity data about their employees.
• However, many argue that such technology can be used to monitor
individuals, not just their work, thus, violating their privacy.
• Moreover, such ‘Big Brotherism’ increases stress in the workplace.
Political pressure is building to outlaw or regulate computer
monitoring in the workplace.
Stress is not the only health-related issue raised by the use of information technology.
Heavy use of computers is linked to eyestrain, damaged arm and neck muscles, and
radiation exposure.
Solutions to some of these health problems are based on the science of ergonomics.
The goal of ergonomics is to design healthy work environments that are safe,
comfortable, and pleasant for people to work in, thus increasing employee morale and
productivity.
Ergonomics examines three major factors in the workplace:
∙The tools used by the worker; e.g. computer screens, computer human interfaces,
etc.;
∙The work environment, e.g. lighting, work surfaces, climate etc.; and
•The job content and context, e.g. characteristics of the task, shift work, rest breaks
Ergonomic factors in the
workplace. Note that
good ergonomic design
considers
tools, tasks, the
Source: O’Brien, James workstation, and the
environment.
CYBER TERRORISM
Cyberterrorism is the leveraging of an organization’s or government’s
computers and information, particularly via the Internet, to cause physical,
real-world harm or severe disruption of infrastructure.
Cyberterrorism can have a serious large-scale influence on significant numbers
of people. It can significantly weaken a country’s economy, thereby denying it
access to vital resources and making it more vulnerable to military attack.
Politically motivated use of computers and information technology to cause
severe disruption or widespread fear.