GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE 2

COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

Course Code: Course Title: Credit Hours:

CSI-411 Professional Practices 3(3-0)
Government College University, Faisalabad
MID Term Course
 What is Ethics?
o Importance of Ethics
o Ethics in Islam
o Professional Ethics
o Why professional ethics?
o Computer Ethics
o Categories of Computer Issues
o Moral and Ethical Problems
o Discuss Ethical Scenarios
 Ethical Principles
o Why People Act Unethically?
o Professional Ethics
o Ethics vs Feelings
o Ethics vs Religion
o Ethics vs Law
o Ethics vs “Whatever Society Accepts”
o Comparison Moral, Ethics, Law
o Commandments of Computer Ethics
o Discuss Different Scenarios
 Codes of Ethics
o IEEE - Code of Ethics
o ACM - Code of Ethics
o NSPE - Code of Ethics
 Problems with Professional Ethics
o Hacking, cracking and virus creation
o Awareness and Educational Issues regards Ethics
o Computing Ethics and Guidelines
 Philosophy of Ethics
o Foundation of Ethics  Metaphysics
o Epistemology  Axiology
o Philosophy-Idealism  Philosophy-
Naturalism

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GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE 2

COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

o Philosophy-Pragmatism  Philosophy-
Existentialism
o Philosophy-Logical Analysis
Final Term Course
 Ethical use of Internet
 Intellectual Copy Right
o Patents
o Trademarks
o Domain Names
o Registered Designs
o Alternatives to copyrights
 Social Application of Rules and Ethics
o Ethical scenarios to use social networks
o Computer-Related Waste & Mistakes
o Computer Criminals
 Ethical Decision Making
o Value Judgment
o Rights vs. Duties
 Accountability and Auditing
o Need for Accountability
o Data Security
o Security benefits of Accountability
 Auditing
o Auditing Principles
o Auditing Benefits
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Course Outline by GCUF
Objectives:
A Computing graduate as professional has some
responsibilities with respect to the society. This course develops
student understanding about historical, social, economic, ethical,
and professional issues related to the discipline of Computing. It
identifies key sources for information and opinion about
professionalism and ethics. Students analyze, evaluate, and
assess ethical and professional computing case studies.
Course Outline:

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GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE 2

COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

Introduction, Computing Ethics, Philosophy of

Ethics, Ethics and the Internet. Intellectual Copy Right,
Accountability and Auditing, Social Application of
Ethics.

Professional Practice
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“Goodness without Knowledge is weak.
Knowledge without Goodness is Dangerous”
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What are computer ethics?
COMPUTER ETHICS
Ethics is a set of moral principles that govern the behavior
of a group or individual. Therefore, computer ethics is set of
moral principles that regulate the use of computers. Some
common issues of computer ethics include intellectual
property rights (such as copyrighted electronic content),
privacy concerns, and how computers affect society.
For example, while it is easy to duplicate copyrighted
electronic (or digital) content, computer ethics would suggest
that it is wrong to do so without the author's approval. And
while it may be possible to access someone's personal
information on a computer system, computer ethics would
advise that such an action is unethical.
As technology advances, computers continue to have a
greater impact on society. Therefore, computer ethics
promotes the discussion of how much influence computers
should have in areas such as artificial intelligence and human
communication. As the world of computers evolves, computer
ethics continues to create ethical standards that address new
issues raised by new technologies.
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Explain the importance of computer ethics.
Importance of computer ethics

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GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE 2

COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

 To protect personal & commercial information such as

login & password information, credit card and account
information and government and commercial databases.  It
also controls unwanted internet mail and ads (Spam).
 To control plagiarism, student identity fraud, and the use of
copyrighted material, etc.
 To make ICT available and accessible to all
peoples, including the disabled and the
deprived. Accessibility needs to be kept in mind during
curriculum design (in educational contexts), in order to
maximize the capabilities of the technology.
 To suppress dishonest business practices and to protect
and encourage fair competition.
 To promote moral and social values in society.
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What are computer ethics in Islam?
Computer ethics in Islam?
Ethic in Islam includes many aspects; keeping the promise
is an original Islamic value, and honesty in speech and telling
the truth are also Islamic values. Returning a deposit to its
owner is also a beautiful behavior in Islam, a good advice for
everyone also has been regarded as a good behavior in
Islam, preferring others over your self is also a good behavior
in Islam. All those ethical values were exemplified by the
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his
companions in their true sense.

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What are professional ethics?
Professional Ethics
Professionally accepted standards of personal and
business behavior, values and guiding principles. Codes of
professional ethics are often established by professional
organizations to help guide members in performing their job
functions according to sound and consistent ethical

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GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE 2

COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

principles.
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What are moral and ethical problems?
Moral and ethical problems
The problems as ethical problems. ... Ethical dilemmas,
however, are defined rather more narrowly, as situations in
which, on moral grounds, persons ought both to do and not to
do something. Such a definition implies that issues of conflict
and choice are central to moral dilemmas.
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What are ethical problems?
Ethical principles
Whatever the ethical theory under consideration, there are
four basic principles informing of biomedical ethics. They are:

 autonomy  beneficence  non-maleficence 

justice
Let's look more closely at each principle.
Autonomy: The term autonomy is derived from the Greek
words autos or self and nomos or rule, governance or law. It
refers to the respect for human dignity and the right of
individuals to decide things for themselves. What does the
person want to have done? In epidemiological practice and
research, this principle is central to the concepts of informed
consent and confidentiality.
Beneficence: Beneficence refers to the obligation to do
good and to prevent or remove harm or injury. What can be
done for the good of the individual or community? What is
the balance between the benefits and the risks of the
intervention? Can you think of an application of the
beneficence principle in your own work?

Non-maleficence: The term non-maleficence refers to not

inflicting harm or injury – from Hippocrates' statement "above
all, do no harm". Some authors include non-maleficence with
the principle of beneficence, reasoning that beneficence
entails weighing the benefits and harms of health

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GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE 2

COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

interventions, maximizing the benefits and minimizing the

harm. Hebert considers it better to think of non-maleficence
as an ideal to strive for, since all actions by health
practitioners carry with them the possibility of harm.

Justice: The principle of justice is best described by the term

fairness or giving each person his/her due. This is related to
distributive justice or equity and impartiality. This principle is
critical when there is scarcity or competition for services or
resources. For example, will the health service be available to
those who need it most, without prejudice on the basis of
their ability to pay or geographical location?
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Why people act unethical?
Unethical Behavour
Unethical intentions and behaviour can be driven by
individual, issue-specific, and environmental factors: 

 Bad apples (individual factors):  Employees who obey

authority figures’ unethical directives or act merely to
avoid punishment. They manipulate others for their
own personal gain, fail to see the connection between
their actions and outcomes, and believe that ethical
choices are driven by circumstance.
 Bad cases (issue-specific factors): Issues can vary in
the degree of harm they impose on the victim, and on
the degree of agreement among peers.
 Bad barrels (environmental factors): Environments that
encourage individualistic behaviour as opposed to a
climate that emphasizes doing what is best for other
employees, customers, and the community .
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What are different views about ethics?
Ethics vs Feelings

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GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE 2

COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

Many times, there’s a conflict between what we naturally

feel and what is considered to be ethical. Our subconscious
reaction to a news event might be hatred, jealousy or other
negative feelings, but we might not be able to morally argue
why we feel that way.
My guess is that the human race developed those
subconscious reactions as an evolutionary mechanism to
survive. Our ancestors wouldn’t have been able to find &
obtain food if they hadn’t fought for it. Arguing about ethics
would’ve meant that you’ll have to stay hungry and die. The
problem is, most of our feelings in today’s world are
unethical, politically incorrect or even outright harmful. It
takes a great deal of effort to retrospect and self-analyze our
feelings to judge whether they are ethical or not.
Let us take a few common examples and see how to tackle
those feelings.
1. Groupism 2. Patriotism 3. Dunbar’s number
2. Negative feelings to content on Social Network
Groupism: Natural feeling: I am part of a group. I am
supposed to help this group become better. I am also
supposed to compete with other groups.
Reasoning: Being part of a herd made it easier for us
ancestors to survive in the wild. There were so many survival
benefits that belonging to a group brought. Naturally, our
ancestors started developing good feelings about belonging
to a group.
Ethical viewpoint: Help the group. Help other gr0ups too.
There is no compelling reason to compete in today’s times of
peace.
Patriotism: Natural feeling: I was born in a place. I am
supposed to help people in the geographical vicinity around
me. There are human-decided borders that define my
country. Those outside the border don’t deserve that much
attention as those inside the border do.
Reasoning: Patriotism is Groupism in a higher scale. Most
borders were drawn for political benefits by a small group of
individual running that country. There have been countless
stories of propaganda by governments to motivate people to
join their wars to fight people over borders. We humans tend
to justify these efforts as noble.

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GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE 2

COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

Ethical viewpoint: Wars are always bad. There is no

reason to be proud of your country just because you were
born in it. It is okay to be in your country and help your
country because you are used to it. But it is also okay to move
to other countries and help those countries.
Dunbar’s number: Natural feeling: I cannot maintain more
than 150 stable relationships.
Reasoning: Our brains have limited capacity and it
becomes mentally hard to maintain more relationships.
Ethical viewpoint: Acceding to the Dunbar’s number
promotes Groupism. Just as we push ourselves to become
better humans, we should also try to push the Dunbar
number limit further. Accepting that all life forms in this world
(and outside the world if life exists) are part of the same
group counters the negative effects of Groupism.
Negative feelings to content on Social Networks
Natural feeling: I hate what’s being posted on Facebook. They
are just stupid selfies, people gloating their achievements or
just distracting, unproductive content.
Reasoning:
1. Many of us have been taught to compete with others
since our childhood. We tend to compare ourselves with
others.

2. We don’t like selfies because they are attention-seeking

and we look down upon those who seek attention.

3. Distracting, unproductive content is noise to us and we

cannot handle too much noise in our daily life.
Ethical viewpoint:
4. We don’t have to compete with our friends. We can
applaud their life achievements without comparing our
lives with theirs.

5. We don’t have to look down upon those who seek

attention. Comedians, actors and other entertainers are
attention-seeking. But we don’t look down upon them.

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COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

6. It is upto us to filter out noise in our lives. Social

networks aren’t thrusted into our face. We can choose to
stay away from them if they are noisy. Or even better,
adjust the content shown in our feed and tailor it our
comfort.
Conclusion: It is easy to give in to our feelings. An analogy
would be with unhealthy foods. It is easy to choose unhealthy
foods because they are tasty and easy to prepare. But we hit
the gym, avoid those foods and exercise because we want to
become better individuals. Similarly, we can take the ethical
route, avoid negative feelings and exercise those reactions
because want to become better individuals.
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What is the difference between Ethics and Religion?
The Difference Between Ethics and Religion
When academics talk about ethics, they are typically
referring to decisions about right and wrong. As noted above,
the study of ethical behavior goes back thousands of years to
ancient Greece. Ethics are a branch of philosophy that
investigates questions such as “What is good and what is
bad?” “Is it just to reward one group with more benefits than
another?” “What action should an individual or organization
take if a client mistreats him/her/it?” In practice, ethics are
decision-making tools that try to guide questions of human
morality, by defining concepts such as good and bad, right
and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.

Often, religion and ethics are treated as the same thing,

with various religions making claims about their belief
systems being the best way for people to live, actively
proselytizing and trying to convert unbelievers, trying to
legislate public behaviors based around isolated religious
passages, etc. Of course, not all religions are the same, some
are more liberal than others and some more conservative, but
in general, all religious traditions believe that their faith
represents a path to enlightenment and salvation.

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GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE 2

COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

By contrast, ethics are universal decision-making tools

that may be used by a person of any religious persuasion,
including atheists. While religion makes claims about
cosmology, social behavior, and the “proper” treatment of
others, etc. Ethics are based on logic and reason rather than
tradition or injunction. As Burke suggests of the “hortatory
Negative” of the “Thou Shalt Not”s found in many religious
traditions that tell people how to behave by “moralizing,"
ethics include no such moralizing. If something is bad, ethics
tells us we should not do it, if something is good, obviously
there is no harm in doing it. The tricky part of life, and the
reason that we need ethics, is that what is good and bad in
life are often complicated by our personal circumstances,
culture, finances, ethnicity, gender, age, time, experience,
personal beliefs, and other variables. Often the path that
looks most desirable will have negative consequences, while
the path that looks the most perilous for an individual or
organization will often result in doing the most good for
others. Doing what is “right” is a lot harder than doing what is
expedient.
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What is the difference between Law and Ethics?
Difference Between Law and Ethics
In simple terms, the law may be understood as the
systematic set of universally accepted rules and regulation
created by an appropriate authority such as government,
which may be regional, national, international, etc. It is used
to govern the action and behavior of the members and can
be enforced, by imposing penalties.

Many times the term law is juxtaposed with the term

ethics, but there is a difference, as ethics are the principles
that guide a person or society, created to decide what is good
or bad, right or wrong, in a given situation. It regulates a
person’s behavior or conduct and helps an individual in living
a good life, by applying the moral rules and guidelines.

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GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE 2

COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

For a layman, these two terms are same, but the fact is
that there is a difference between law and ethics. Read the
article carefully, to overcome your ambiguities.
Definition of Law
The law is described as the set of rules and regulation,
created by the government to govern the whole society. The
law is universally accepted, recognized and enforced. It is
created with the purpose of maintaining social order, peace,
justice in the society and to provide protection to the general
public and safeguard their interest. It is made after
considering ethical principles and moral values. The law is
made by the judicial system of the country. Every person in
the country is bound to follow the law. It clearly defines what
a person must or must not do. So, in the case of the breach of
law may result in the punishment or penalty or sometimes
both.
Definition of Ethics
By ethics, we mean that branch of moral philosophy
that guides people about what is good or bad. It is a
collection of fundamental concepts and principles of an ideal
human character. The principles help us in making decisions
regarding, what is right or wrong. It informs us about how to
act in a particular situation and make a judgment to make
better choices for ourselves. Ethics are the code of conduct
agreed and adopted by the people. It sets a standard of how
a person should live and interact with other people.

Key Differences Between Law and Ethics

The major differences between law and ethics are mentioned
below:

1. The law is defined as the systematic body of rules that

governs the whole society and the actions of its individual

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COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

members. Ethics means the science of a standard human

conduct.
2. The law consists of a set of rules and regulations, whereas
Ethics comprises of guidelines and principles that inform
people about how to live or how to behave in a particular
situation.
3. The law is created by the Government, which may be local,
regional, national or international. On the other hand,
ethics are governed by an individual, legal or professional
norms, i.e. workplace ethics, environmental ethics and so
on.
4. The law is expressed in the constitution in a written form.
As opposed to ethics, it cannot be found in writing form.
5. The breach of law may result in punishment or penalty, or
both which is not in the case of breach of ethics.
6. The objective of the law is to maintain social order and
peace within the nation and protection to all the citizens.
Unlike, ethics that are the code of conduct that helps a
person to decide what is right or wrong and how to act.
7. The law creates a legal binding, but ethics has no such
binding on the people.
Conclusion
Law and ethics are different in a manner that what a
person must do and what a person should do. The former is
universally accepted while the latter is ideal human conduct,
agreed upon by most of the people. Although, both the law
and ethics are made in alignment so that they do not
contradict each other. Both go side by side, as they provide
how to act in a particular manner. Every person is equal in
the eyes of law and ethics, i.e. nobody is superior or inferior.
Further, these two allow a person to think freely and choose.
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What is the difference between Moral, Ethics and Law?
compare between Moral, ethics and law
Law is intended to, at a fundamental level, reflect and
enforce the moral and ethical standards of a civilized society.

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GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE 2

COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

The first thing that should be understood is the slight

difference between morals and ethics.
Morality: Morality deals with that which is regarded as right
or wrong. Morality stems from an individual's conscience and
from the values of a given society, which might be based on
religious tradition or on political principles such as democracy
or socialism. Moral conduct would be that which is considered
'right' based on people's consciences and society's shared
values. Morality is one way for a community to define
appropriate activity.

  Ethics: Ethics (from the Ancient Greek word ethikos meaning

'theory of living'), is a type of philosophy which attempts to
figure out that right versus wrong in any given situation or
scenario. In general terms, ethics are practical moral
standards that distinguish right from wrong, and give us a
guide to living 'moral' lives. These standards might include
duties that we should follow, such as fidelity in marriage, or
the consequences of our behaviour on others. The act of
embezzling money from a company, for example, is not only
a legal wrongdoing against the company but also an action
that could result in people losing their jobs. In more specific
terms, some of the more difficult ethical questions on which a
government might legislate could include issues relating to
abortion, euthanasia and animal rights.

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Hackers vs Crackers Infographics
What is your view about hackers?
The original use of the term hacker dates back to
1950s when at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
some students had a strong desire of experimenting and
learning about technology. A hack back then meant
something very original and ingenious and solely meant to
explore the arena of computers and technology. Currently the
terms is used in a rather negative sense. And this is because

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GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE 2

COLLEGE
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

most of the times people confuse the term hacking with

cracking. But it is totally not to be confused with crackers. We
will deal with the crackers in detail later.
White Hats, as they are sometimes called are mostly
the programmers. They acquire an advanced knowledge of
programming, computer languages and codes. They are the
ethical hackers who stay within the limits of the law. They do
not access any system or network illegally. They are
constantly looking for the flaws in the computer and internet
security and their sole aim is to rectify these flaws and
improve the security of the content. The companies hire
these white hats in order to audit and check their network
security. These hackers work as professionals and correct the
flaws with their advanced knowledge of the area and reduce
the risk that might put the security of the company at stake.
They discover the weak points in the network securities and
work tirelessly and put in their best efforts to seek solutions
to these network issues. They establish the reason behind
these loopholes and work for fixing them.
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Explain different interests of hackers
The hackers are interested in knowing how things work.
They like to explore and discover the computer systems,
programming and the networks. While some hackers may
only be interested in learning the things others turn their
passion into their profession thus making them professional
hackers. They are essentially very well acquainted with all
sorts of software tools, techniques and codes that the
crackers know. They know how a cracker would attempt to
attack any content which is meant to be secure on the
websites and across computer systems. They design exactly
such software and tools that a cracker would use and then
they work on improving the system with more secure tools

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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

and techniques. This ensure that the computer systems and

the network systems become secure enough to not be
thwarted by the crackers.  The white hats also break in the
security but their purpose of breaking in is entirely non-
malicious. They do this only to test their own systems for
security purposes and they do it legally with the permission
of various companies and firms that hire them for this job.
White hats come under the banner of ethical hacking which
doesn’t involve any illegal practice of hacking. The
professional hackers mean no harm to any company or
individual.
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What is your view about crackers?
We have learnt about the hackers, how they work, what
their interests are and what they do. Now when we talk of
crackers, we must know that crackers are also hackers. But
their ways of works differ a lot. While a hacker works totally
in the interest of a company or an individual, the cracker
works totally in an opposite manner. The purpose of a cracker
is to break the security of computers and networks. It is an
illegal activity. They make use of their knowledge to make
personal gains and breach the security across networks. They
acquire extensive knowledge and learning about computers,
their programming, software, codes and languages and use
them to break into computers for criminal gains.

The crackers are also known as Black Hats. They gain

access to the accounts of people maliciously and they can
misuse the secured information across networks. They can
steal credit card information, they can destroy important
files, disclose crucial data and information or personal details
and sell them for personal gains. Their purpose can range
from little personal gains to bigger criminal interests. They
can make employees of a company divulge highly secure

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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

information. They violate computer security. Once they have

gained the control over a system, they can do anything like
steel data, destroy it, use it to their advantage etc.
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Explain different interests of crackers.

While some crackers are driven by sheer publicity of their
abilities in the field of hacking, some do it for criminal and
malicious purposes. They intentionally breach the computer
and network security merely for profit or maybe there is
challenge in it. They are interested in gaining access to
various programs and softwares without paying royalties. The
only purpose they have is illegal hacking leading to security
problems. There may be a theft from the accounts of credit
card holders, important data may be lost and secure
information may be divulged. Some crackers are interested in
modifying the softwares by reverse engineering. And they do
this merely for amusement or to showcase their knowledge
and abilities.
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Explain difference between hackers and crackers.
Hackers vs Crackers
There is a common view that the hackers build things
and the crackers break the things. These are basically two
entirely different terms. They may seem similar but there are
differences between how the two actually work. While
hackers have an advanced knowledge of the computer
related security crackers usually are not as skillful as hackers.
Very few of them are skilled enough to create their new
software and tools. So they generally rely on certain not so
reputed, in fact the disrepute websites to download several
automated programs to execute their deed. Hackers try to

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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

counter the potential threats that the crackers pose to the

computer and internet security across varied networks.
Crackers always know that their activities are illegal and they
are breaking the law so they tend to cover up their tracks.
However the professional hackers being competent
enough and quite skillful with their work, potentially restore
the security set ups across the corrupted networks and they
help in catching the specific crackers. Although most of the
crackers are less skilled yet many of them are able enough.
They possess advanced skills and extensive knowledge just
like the professional hackers. They have the ability to create
tools and software that help them exploit all sorts of weak
points that they discover in the highly secured programs. This
makes it even difficult to catch these crackers. Because they
do not leave a trail behind. The number of skilled crackers is
very low yet we should not ignore them. They certainly pose
serious threat to the internet security.
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What is the philosophy of ethics?
The philosophy of ethics is the study of the nature of the
cosmos and the proper response of humanity to that nature.
Philosophers analyze metaphysical theory, such as the
existence of God, the responsibility of people to others, and
the influence of biological impulses, and they try to
determine what gives authority to morality and what ethical
behavior looks like. "Ethics" usually refers to the actions of a
group, and "morality" of an individual, but the two words are
often used interchangeably.

In its investigation of ethical actions, the philosophy of

ethics is divided into three main branches. Meta-
ethics discusses the nature and origin of ethics. Normative
ethics tries to develop frameworks by which actions can be
judged. And applied ethics sets standards of behavior for
different applications.

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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

META-ETHICS: Meta-ethics is the most esoteric and least

practical branch of the philosophy of ethics. It is the study of
ethics itself. What’s important in meta-ethics is not “what is
ethical?” but “what is ethics?” It debates the use of language
in ethics, what gives ethics authority, and whether ethics
actually exist.

NORMATIVE ETHICS: Normative ethics is more practical than

meta-ethics. It seeks to use truth and reality to develop a
framework by which an act can be analyzed and judged as
either ethical or unethical. Normative ethics is not usually
used as a personal pre-determinant for action. It's a tool to
identify the morality of actions.

APPLIED ETHICS:Applied ethics is the most practical of the

branches of ethics. It is ethical theory applied to different
fields of human interest. Careful consideration is given to the
work people do and the situations in which they find
themselves.
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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

ETHICAL DECISION MAKING:

Ethical decision-making refers to the process of
evaluating and choosing among alternatives in a manner
consistent with ethical principles. In making ethical decisions,
it is necessary to perceive and eliminate unethical options
and select the best ethical alternative.

If you’re facing a difficult choice and asking yourself

what you should do, you’re making a decision that has to do
with ethics. Ethics is about how people treat each other, how
they build trustworthy organizations, how they create just
societies.

Almost any issue you can think of, has an ethical

dimension. On a personal level, you may need to decide the
right thing to do for an aging parent. At work, you may be
faced with conflicts where you are tempted to put your own
interests ahead of your clients’. As a citizen, you often have
to vote on initiatives that impact the rights of others.

STEPS OF THE ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING PROCESS:

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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

1. Gather the facts

2. Define the ethical issues
3. Identify the affected parties (stakeholders)
4. Identify the consequences
5. Identify the obligations (principles, rights, justice)
6. Consider your character and integrity
7. Think creatively about potential actions
8. Check your gut
9. Decide on the proper ethical action and be prepared to deal
with opposing arguments.
For Example;

In many ways, ethics may feel like a soft subject, a

conversation that can wait when compared to other more
seemingly pressing issues (a process for operations, hiring the
right workers, and meeting company goals). However, putting
ethics on the backburner can spell trouble for any
organization. Much like the process of businesses creating
the company mission, vision, and principles; the topic of
ethics has to enter the conversation. Ethics is far more than
someone doing the right thing; it is many times tied to legal
procedures and policies that if breached can put an
organization in the midst of trouble.

 A general definition of business ethics is that it is a tool

an organization uses to make sure that managers, employees,
and senior leadership always act responsibly in the workplace
with internal and external stakeholders.

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Department of Computer Science

 An ethical decision-making model is a framework that

leaders use to bring these principles to the company and
ensure they are followed.

If you’re facing a difficult choice and asking yourself what you

should do, you’re making a decision that has to do with ethics.
Ethics is about how people treat each other, how they build
trustworthy organizations, how they create just societies.
Almost any issue you can think of, has an ethical dimension. On
a personal level, you may need to decide the right thing to do
for an aging parent. At work, you may be faced with conflicts
where you are tempted to put your own interests ahead of
your clients’. As a citizen, you often have to vote on initiatives
that impact the rights of others.

How to Make Ethical Decision:

Ethical decision-making refers to the process of evaluating
and choosing among alternatives in a manner consistent with
ethical principles. In making ethical decisions, it is necessary
to perceive and eliminate unethical options and select the
best ethical alternative.

The process of making ethical decisions requires:

Commitment: The desire to do the right thing regardless of
the cost

Consciousness: The awareness to act consistently and apply

moral convictions to daily behavior

Competency: The ability to collect and evaluate information,

develop alternatives, and foresee potential consequences

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and risks

Good decisions are both ethical and effective:

Ethical decisions generate and sustain trust; demonstrate
respect, responsibility, fairness and caring; and are
consistent with good citizenship. These behaviors provide a
foundation for making better decisions by setting the ground
rules for our behavior.

Effective decisions are effective if they accomplish what we

want accomplished and if they advance our purposes. A
choice that produces unintended and undesirable results is
ineffective. The key to making effective decisions is to think
about choices in terms of their ability to accomplish our most
important goals. This means we have to understand the
difference between immediate and short-term goals and
longer-range goals.

Value Judgement:
Def: A value judgment (or value judgement) is a judgment of
the rightness or wrongness of something or someone, or of
the usefulness of something or someone, based on a
comparison or other relativity. As a generalization, a value
judgment can refer to a judgment based upon a particular set
of values or on a particular value system. A related meaning
of value judgment is an expedient evaluation based upon
limited information at hand, an evaluation undertaken
because a decision must be made on short notice.

Explanation: The term value judgment can be used

objectively to refer to any injunction that implies an
obligation to carry out an act, implicitly involving the terms
"ought" or "should". It can be used either in a positive sense,
signifying that a judgment must be made taking a value
system into account, or in a disparaging sense, signifying a
judgment made by personal whim rather than objective

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thought or evidence.

In its positive sense, a recommendation to make a value

judgment is an admonition to consider carefully, to avoid
whim and impetuousness, and search for consonance with
one's deeper convictions, and to search for an objective,
verifiable, public, and consensual set of evidence for the
opinion.

In its disparaging sense the term value judgment implies a

conclusion is insular, one-sided, and not objective contrasting
with judgments based upon deliberation, balance and public
evidence.

Value judgment also can refer to a tentative judgment based

on a considered appraisal of the information at hand, taken
to be incomplete and evolving—for example, a value
judgment on whether to launch a military attack, or as to
procedure in a medical emergency. In this case the quality of
judgment suffers because the information available is
incomplete as a result of exigency, rather than as a result of
cultural or personal limitations.

Most commonly the term value judgment refers to an

individual's opinion. Of course, the individual's opinion is
formed to a degree by their belief system, and the culture to
which they belong. So a natural extension of the term value
judgment is to include declarations seen one way from one
value system, but may be seen differently from another.
Conceptually this extension of definition is related both to the
anthropological axiom "cultural relativism" (that is, that
cultural meaning derives from a context) and to the term
"moral relativism" (that is, that moral and ethical propositions
are not universal truths, but stem from cultural context). A
value judgment formed within a specific value system may be
parochial, and may be subject to dispute in a wider audience.

Rights Vs Duties:

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Department of Computer Science

Ethics determines the difference between right and wrong.

Laws are rules that must be obeyed, both voluntarily and
involuntarily, whereas ethics are voluntary. Behaving
ethically is more than obeying the law -- it is expecting your
rights to be upheld and upholding the rights of others
through ethical duties.

Rights:
A right is an expectation about something you deserve or a
way to act that is justified through a legal or moral
foundation. Humans have all types of rights, including legal,
moral, spiritual, natural and fundamental rights. Examples of
rights include the right to education provided by society or
the right to bear arms. Ethical behavior must recognize and
respect a series of rights that belong to each person, animal
or society.

Duties:
Duties are a direct result of the acceptance of rights. Each
person has a duty to uphold or respect another person’s
rights, just as he has the duty to uphold your rights. Once a
person accepts a right, or is told as in legal rights, he must
uphold that right for himself and others. For instance, you
have the right to free speech, but so does everyone around
you. Even if someone is saying something you do not agree
with, you have a duty to respect his right to say it. You have
a duty to respect, and sometimes defend, the rights of
others.

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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

ACCOUNTABILITY & AUDITING

What Is Accountability?

Accountability is when an individual or department is held responsible for the

performance of a specific function. Essentially, they are liable for the correct
execution of a particular task, even if they may not be the one performing the task.
Other parties rely on the task to be completed, and the accountable party is the
party whose head will roll if the action is not carried out. Accountability is
common in the financial arena and in the business world as a whole.

There are several examples of accountability in action. Relating to accounting jobs,

an auditor reviewing a company's financial statement is responsible and legally
liable for any misstatements or instances of fraud. Accountability forces an
accountant to be careful and knowledgeable in their professional practices, as even
negligence can cause them to be legally responsible.

Understanding Accountability

Accountability is essential in the financial industry. Without checks, balances, and

accountability doled out in the form of consequences, the integrity of the capital
markets would not be able to be maintained. There are compliance departments,
accountants, and an entire concert of other professionals working to make sure that
companies report their earnings correctly, trades are executed in a timely fashion,
and information provided to investors is timely, informative, and fair. If any of
these things fail to happen, ideally, there will be fault assigned and penalties paid.
Some things cannot go wrong. If they do, a responsible party pays for it. This is the
definition of accountability.

Examples of Accountability

As an example, an accountant is accountable for the integrity and accuracy of the

financial statements, even if errors were not made by them. Managers of a
company may try to manipulate their company's financial statements without the
accountant knowing. There are clear incentives for the managers to do this, as their
pay is usually tied to company performance. This is why independent outside
accountants must audit the financial statements, and accountability forces them to
be careful and knowledgeable in their review. Public companies are also required
to have an audit committee as a part of their board of directors who are outside
individuals with accounting knowledge. Their job is to oversee the audit.

Needs of Accountability
Security in computer systems has been a major concern since the very beginning. Although
security has been addressed in various aspects, accountability is one of the main facets of

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security that is lacking in today's computer systems. The ability not only to detect errors but
also to find the responsible entity/entities for the failure is crucial. In this paper, we intend to
provide a comprehensive investigation of the state‐of‐the‐art accountability research issues in
current information systems. Also, we study the various accountability tactics that are available
and how each one of them contributes to providing strong accountability of different aspects.
Finally, we examine the various merits and tradeoffs.

Assumptions of Distributed Recognition and Accountability algorithm In solving the different

types of network attacks made by the intruders, the DRA needs to make some assumptions. It
considers that all the hosts within the network are properly and continuously monitored and
synchronized, and there should be no loss in data [70]. If a single user does multiple jobs, then
the system should maintain accountability for all the jobs and consider all these jobs as a single
job of that particular user [70].

What is Data Security?

Data security refers to the process of protecting data from unauthorized access and
data corruption throughout its lifecycle. Data security includes data encryption,
tokenization, and key management practices that protect data across all
applications and platforms.

Why Data Security?

Organizations around the globe are investing heavily in information technology

(IT) cyber defense capabilities to protect their critical assets. Whether an enterprise
needs to protect a brand, intellectual capital, and customer information or provide
controls for critical infrastructure, the means for incident detection and response to
protecting organizational interests have three common elements: people, processes,
and technology.

Data Security Solutions

Micro Focus drives leadership in data security solutions with over 80 patents and
51 years of expertise. With advanced data encryption, tokenization, and key
management to protect data across applications, transactions, storage, and big data
platforms, Micro Focus simplifies the protection of sensitive data in even the most
complex use cases.

 Cloud access security – Protection platform that allows you to move to the
cloud securely while protecting data in cloud applications.
 Data encryption – Data-centric and tokenization security solutions that
protect data across enterprise, cloud, mobile and big data environments.
 Hardware security module -- Hardware security module that guards financial
data and meets industry security and compliance requirements.

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Department of Computer Science

 Key management -- Solution that protects data and enables industry

regulation compliance.
 Enterprise Data Protection – Solution that provides an end-to-end data-
centric approach to enterprise data protection.
 Payments Security – Solution provides complete point-to-point encryption
and tokenization for retail payment transactions, enabling PCI scope
reduction.
 Big Data, Hadoop and IofT data protection – Solution that protects sensitive
data in the Data Lake – including Hadoop, Teradata, Micro Focus Vertica,
and other Big Data platforms.
 Mobile App Security - Protecting sensitive data in native mobile apps while
safeguarding the data end-to-end.
 Web Browser Security - Protects sensitive data captured at the browser,
from the point the customer enters cardholder or personal data, and keeps it
protected through the ecosystem to the trusted host destination.
 eMail Security – Solution that provides end-to-end encryption for email and
mobile messaging, keeping Personally Identifiable Information and Personal
Health Information secure and private.

Data Security Resources

 Blog: Cheat Sheet: How to Pitch Security to Your Executives

 Web Page: Data Security Trends
 Web Page: SANS Information Security Resources
 Article: Computer Weekly IT Security Resources
 Web Page: Dark Reading Security Resources
 Web Page: CyberRisk Report
 Data Sheet: Data Security Offerings
 White Paper: Rethinking email encryption: Eight best practices for success
 Blog: Is your key management appliance actually FIPS validated?
 Blog: Doubling down on data-centric security for governments and global
enterprises
 White Paper: Micro Focus ESKM – Key Protection Best Practices

Security benefits of Accountability

Accountability is an essential part of an information security plan. The phrase
means that every individual who works with an information system should have
specific responsibilities for information assurance. The tasks for which a individual
is responsible are part of the overall information security plan and can be readily
measurable by a person who has managerial responsibility for information
assurance. One example would be a policy statement that all employees must avoid
installing outside software on a company-owned information infrastructure. The
person in charge of information security should perform periodic checks to be

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certain that the policy is being followed.  Individuals must be aware of what is
expected of them and guide continual improvement. Every information asset
should be "owned" by an individual in the organization who is primarily
responsible each one.

The duties and responsibilities of all employees, as they relate to information

assurance, need to be specified in detail. Otherwise, the attempt of establishing and
maintaining information security is haphazard and virtually absent. Users should
remember that the biggest threat category against an information system comes
from insiders.

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Ethical uses of internet:

Ethical principles

The basis of ethics as cooperative principles is the realization that rules

limiting individual self-interest can often produce greater cooperative
benefits. 2 Making and keeping agreements are a major part of ethics so
conceived. But ethical principles allowing us cooperative benefits
involve more than keeping agreements. The principle of benevolence—
to give aid to others in need—holds without any agreement. We simply
assume that human beings recognize each other as fellow human beings
and give aid because in so doing they expect that they will receive aid
when they are in trouble.

By contrast, morality has a large arbitrary element because of its basis in

beliefs that are explicitly not shared by all, such as religious beliefs. The
principle that one ought to kill one’s daughter if she marries an infidel
can hardly be based on anticipated cooperative benefits. It is a
membership rule for a religious sect. Failure to appreciate the distinction
between ethical principles that insure cooperative benefits and moral
principles that reflect mainly arbitrary religious or cultural beliefs may
be responsible for the attractiveness of relativism, the belief that ethical
beliefs are true only for specific groups. 3

Three levels of ethical principles are: individual, social, and global.

Social principles apply within a society, a group whose members share
cooperative benefits and burdens with each other. Global or
transnational principles apply to concerns which cannot be handled by
dividing them up between societies. Internet ethical issues involve
principles at all three levels. In my discussion of Internet ethical cases, I
will be applying definite ethical standards at all three levels.

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Department of Computer Science

Some plausible candidates for standards for individual ethical behavior

are these:

 Intuitionism: there are no overall standards, just a variety of

principles we feel are correct by intuition.
 Utilitarianism: the right thing to do is what produces the greatest
good for the greatest number.
 Universal principle: act on principles that could be willed to be
universal law.

Intuitionism is actually not a standard. It says that there is no good

explanation of right and wrong, but we nevertheless have strong intuitive
feelings about what is right and wrong. For the intuitionist, these
feelings need no justification. The Ten Commandments, taken by
themselves, are an intuitionist theory. The major difficulty with
intuitionism is that when different principles of right action conflict, we
have no principled way of resolving the conflict.

Utilitarianism can be stated: act so as to produce the greatest amount of

good for the greatest number. Utilitarianism has much plausibility. For
how could it possibly be wrong to do the action that produces the
greatest good? How could it possibly be right to do an action which
produces less good when you could have done better? Although a
plausible idea, utilitarianism suffers from two major difficulties. One is
that if we consider actions in isolation from one another, it is easy for a
utilitarian to break promises or fail to fulfill contracts when more good
would be produced in that case. The trouble then is that institutions
which allow cooperative benefits, to live and work together, would
disintegrate. Important goods are not available unless we consider
ourselves bound to follow certain non-utilitarian rules.

Internet ethical issues involve principles

at all three levels: individual, social, and
global.
From the point of view of the social contract, another serious objection
to utilitarianism is that it does not care directly about freedom. Parties to
a social contract would instead insist that each individual has basic
liberties which are not to be compromised or traded off for other

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benefits. This is Rawls’s social contract’s first principle of justice,

Greatest Equal Liberty:

Society is to be arranged so that all members have the greatest equal

liberty possible for all, including fair equality of opportunity.

The social contract basis for the Difference Principle is straightforward:

if you are entering a society with no knowledge of your specific place in
that society, the Difference Principle guarantees that you will be no
worse off than you need be.

At the level of society, Rawls’s two principles of justice are a plausible

alternative to utilitarianism. They are the ethical principles I will employ
at this level.