ICT Ethical Issues

Question: Identify an ICT-related ethical issue from a media article or case study; apply classical ethical theory to the analysis of an ethically questionable situation to determine the rightness or wrongness of actions/decisions made therein. Answer: Introduction As per the Australia law, an individual who is associated with a hacking offence can face jail between two to ten years depending on the offence type. If an individual hires another person for hacking into any system without directly committing the crime, he can be in trouble (Schulz, 2006). The issue of ethics has been a key part of our daily lives especially when there are other social factors involved with Information technology as the medium. The spread and usage of information technology has undergone revolution and is supported by means of the development and emergence of computer related technologies (Reynolds, 2003). Computer crimes include illegal activities that use computers for theft, embezzlement, virus infection, financial fraud, sabotage and also online harassment. The Article ICT ethical issues identified in this article in here is that the website is launched by a US individual Hackerslist was engaged into peeking into the customers phone or website intruding the privacy. A website for hiring hackers have been used by people in Australia for varied purposes such as finding out if ones husband is cheating, changing of grades for students or business men who hack to get into the customer data base of rivals. Hackers List when used for contracting a hack job takes the address, name and reasons of the individual who seeks a hacker which potentially exposes the individual to legal action (smh.com.au, 2016). Just Consequentialism Theory As put forth by J. H. Moors, consequences evaluate the harms and benefits. The values of humans are similar in nature and generally the core goods comprise of autonomy, happiness and life while the core evils comprise of unhappiness, absence of autonomy and death. Irrespective of the sought goals of the humans, they require security, ability, freedom, knowledge, resources and opportunity for project accomplishment (Rose, 2003). Generally people are more concerned of their own core goods and not of others. Ethically, people seek policies related to computing and regard the core goods to be marking the human rights fundamental aspect (De George, 2003). The principle related to justice and the fundamental human rights protection guide in shaping of the ethical policies in the usage of computer technology. While policy evaluation related to computing it is required to evaluate the related consequences of the policies proposed (Tigerman, 2008). People are aware of the core evils and goods and the intention id the protection of human rights. Computing policies should be such developed that they are just in nature. In the undertaken article, the website was violating the fundamental rights of people with the leakage of information that was associated with the name and address of the buyers, their job descriptions and their motive for seeking the aid of a hacker. Also the hacker was obtaining details pertaining to the target which was also unethical. Teleological Theory of Ethics As per utilitarianism, good provides greatest happiness for greatest number (Anderson Goodman, 2002). The theory advocates the fact that the act of one should maximise the amount of happiness and good for all those who are affected by the actions. The decision an individual takes is required to be based on the consequences that are deduced prior to the action taking place (Tavani, 2004). The stress of utilitarianism is that everybody needs to be considered and not only the individual who is taking the decision. In the undertaken article, if a woman is hiring the services of a hacker to evaluate if her husband is cheating on her, the ripple effect affects her relation, her family and even her social surrounding. In the case of a student hiring the hacker to alter his grades, the ripple effect affects the entire education system, the official website of the institution and the other students too. In the case of a businessman hiring the services of a hacker for getting details of the customer database of his rivals, the entire industry, his own business and the business of the rival gets affected. Hence it is significant to gauge the bigger picture and not be restricted to only the individual hiring the services of a hacker. Recommendations While opting for the services of a hacker, it needs to be comprehended that a lot of private and unwarranted information of both parties would be accessed by a third party which might not always be favourable. Though hacking under certain specific exceptions is considered to be ethical, the legal aspect related to hacking needs to be essentially understood before hiring the services of a hacker if at all. The websites that provide services of hackers need to maintain confidentiality and anonymity of the buyers. It was observed that the information provided on the hacker website leaked information including name, address, job description and so on that could potentially prove to be adverse for both the parties involved. Hacking websites too need ethical considerations and need not accept assignments without proper evaluation. While checking the fidelity level of ones spouse might be excusable, hacking into an educational institutions official website to change the grades of a student has an adverse effect on the entire education system of the nation. This also demoralises those students who toil the year round to get deserving grades. Hence the legal consequences need to be strict for such assignments that do not match the requisite of ethical hacking. Conclusion Hacking itself is not very legal. However there may be situations where it is unavoidable and supported by the law. As per the recommendations provided above, the assignments need to be judged on individual basis before the hacker services can be provided to the buyers of such websites. The legal consequences pertaining to unethical hacking need to be strict to abstain people from considering it in the first place. It is essential that the law of every nation provides clarity as to what can be ethical and what is punishable in terms of hacking and people are updated on the same to avoid the adverse consequences that arise. References Anderson, J. Goodman, K. (2002). Ethics and information technology. New York: Springer. Smh.com.au (2016). Retrieved 27 May 2016, De George, R. (2003). The ethics of information technology and business. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. Reynolds, G. (2003). Ethics in information technology. Boston, Mass.: Course Technology. Rose, H. (2003). An ethical dilemma. Nature, 425(6954), 123-124. Schultz, R. (2006). Contemporary issues in ethics and information technology. Hershey, PA: IRM Press. Tavani, H. (2004). Ethics and technology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Tigerman, M. (2008). Ethical Dilemma. Professional Case Management, 13(2), 115.