Applying Decision-Making Frameworks To IT Related Ethical Issues:
Computer-Based Crimes (Cyber-crime)
As technology in this day of age becomes more advance this opens up a new kind of criminal activity that has not been seen before and gives those criminal masterminds new ways to harm others. Computer-based crimes or cyber-crime has been increasing since the “internet” has gone “public” due to the abilities to perform illegal crimes, e.g. social engineering, phishing, indemnity theft, and unwanted software in a form of a virus or malware. Most devices that have a CPU can either be connected to the global information grid or remotely controlled by another device. Not only is devices becoming more connected but a lot of our daily activities can be done via internet, e.g. playing with friends, shopping, and school (Editor, 2013). With that how much of our actually lives are on the internet? How much information can be told by what we look at or do?
Cyber-crimes in essence comes down to what is ethical right or wrong. All humans innately have a duty to do what is right t and committing a crime either digitally or physical is clearly wrong. It is a basic duty that we treat others how we would want to be treated, no one wants someone to bully them physically or digitally, no one wants to get robbed digitally or physically, and no one wants someone to impersonate them either in person or digitally. But the ones that are committing these acts aren’t thinking about ethics or the harm that would be done to the other person, they are thinking about themselves. These crimes will never stop but they could be prevented to a degree top ensure that a criminal would think twice before attempting it.
STEP 1 – GET THE FACTS
The first step in the Reynold’s Seven-Step Ethical Decision-Making Approach would be is to gather the facts. “The National Nuclear Security Administration, an arm of the Energy Department records 10 million attempted hacks a day.” (9 Cyber Security Facts That Will Surprise You, 2013) As all things in life there are many risks when using the internet at home, school, or at work and the seriousness of the risk varies but all comes with an outcome that is mostly unpleasant to the recipient of the crime. Cyber-crimes could affect you be denying you service to the internet, by losing your identity due to a phishing attempt, or lose money because of a data breach at a local store that was hacked. The cost of cybercrime is worth around $400 billion USD annually. (Ellyatt, 2013)
Step 2 – IDENTIFY THE STAKEHOLDERS
The second step in the Reynold’s approach would be to identify who would be impacted by the situation. As long as a person has a device that has accessed to the internet is safe to say they could be affected by cyber-crime. The effects of cyber-crime is worldwide there is no demographic that eliminates anyone.
STEP 3 – CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES
The third step in Reynold’s approach is to look at the benefits or hard that could come from a decision to implement a solution. The best and probably only solution to consider in prevention would to inform the people, educate them on the ways to secure their information as well as their devices as best they could. They might not be able to stop 100% of the cyber-crimes that could be affecting them but a deterrence is enough to stop some criminals from continuing their activities. Informing people has always been the best approach in handling a situation since that one extra step that one was never done could be the deciding factor if a criminal thinks you are a worthy target or not.
STEP 4 – EVALUATE VARIOUS GUIDELINES, POLICIES, AND PRINCPLES
For the fourth step in Reynold’s approach one h as to look at any applicable laws, existing policies, or ethical codes. There are many unwritten rules that are common sense that is even taught at school, e.g. Keep your personal information personal, never share passwords, and use antivirus and antispyware programs. These rules are so