Lex’s Weblog

Name of the book: Cyber Ethics
Name of the Chapter: No,Papa,: Why incomplete Codes of Ethics Are Worse Than None at All”
Quote:
“Computer and information ethics”, in the broadest sense of this phrase, can be understood as that branch of applied ethics which studies and analyzes such social and ethical impacts”
Learning Expectation:
I Expect to learn about the history of the incomplete codes of ethic and why this is relevance to the information technology.
Review:
The more specific term “computer ethics” has been used to refer to applications by professional philosophers of traditional Western theories like utilitarianism, Kantianism, or virtue ethics, to ethical cases that significantly involve computers and computer networks. “Computer ethics” also has been used to refer to a kind of professional ethics in which computer professionals apply codes of ethics and standards of good practice within their profession. In addition, other more specific names, like “cyber ethics” and “Internet ethics”, have been used to refer to aspects of computer ethics associated with the Internet.

What I’ve learned:
The problem is that by focusing on these four areas of concern, attention may be taken away from other, potentially more important, moral issues. Not all important moral issues in information technology can be put under those headings. Yet focusing on four areas gives the erroneous impression that adherence to the moral requirements in those areas alone could ensure moral rectitude.
The same considerations are highly likely to apply to any moral code that is developed whether in computing or elsewhere. Authors of incomplete moral codes risk encouraging others to act in immoral ways with the author’s apparent sanction.
Related, broader, questions are considered, and it is advocated that there should always be acknowledgment of the existence of ‘external’, potentially more important, moral issues.
Integrative Questions:
• What is codes of ethics
• What are the worse than none at all in ethics
• What are the kinds of computer ethics?
• Define codes of ethics?
• How does codes of ethics existence?

Name of the Book: Cyber Ethics
Name of the Chapter: Software Engineering Code of Ethics: Approved!
Quote:
For Aristotle, on the other hand, the purpose of moral rules was to promote individual moral virtues and the development of a good will or moral character. Put in more general terms, the rights/obligations ethicist starts with rules stating obligations about how one should behave and rights about how I am to be treated, while the virtue ethicist starts with the human character and its ethical dispositions. Virtue ethics does not lie in following a set of well defined rules but it lies in one’s character; you have to see what is the right action and then choose to do it.
Learning Expectation:
How were these two approaches to ethics reflected in the initial development and responses to the Code? There are several purposes of a code of ethics. Several principles that were suggested for the code used imperative language.
Review:
In 1993, the IEEE Computer SocietyIEEE-CS and the Association of Computing MachineryACM formed a joint committee to help organize software developers and engineers into a profession. As part of this project, a sub-committee of professionals, academics, and members of ACM and IEEE-CS began work drafting a code of ethics for software engineers through electronic mail. After four years of online discussion and revision, version 5.2 of the Software Engineer’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice was adopted by IEEE-CS and ACM in 1998, and since then, the code has been adopted by software engineering and computer societies worldwide.
The IEEE-CS/ACM Software Engineering Code of Ethics Archive documents the drafting, debate, and final adoption of the joint IEEE Computer Society /ACMSoftware Engineering Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. Indirectly, the archive illustrates how software engineering developed from an occupation to a profession. The drafting and approval of the Software Engineering Code, carried out in substantial part by email, has produced a detailed record of the development of a professional code of ethics. This correspondence, as well as related documents, interviews, and publications, make up the contents of the IEEE-CS/ACM Software Engineer’s Code of Ethics Archive.

What I’ve learned:
Addressing computer ethics issues for the professional and in the classroom needs to include both of these approaches. The software engineer as a practicing professional acts from a higher level of care for the customervirtue ethics and conforms to the development standards of the professionright/obligations ethics. Both types of ethics are needed for the Professional engineer.
Integrative Questions:
• What does IEEE-CS stands for?
• What does ACM stands for?
• Why did they develop a joint force ethical approach for software engineering?
• Enumerate and explain the short version of the software engineering ethics.
• What is Virtue Ethics?

Name of the book: Cyber Ethics
Name of the Chapter: Ethical Considerations for the Information Professions
Quote:
‘A Physician’s Guide To Medical Writing’, an ideal medical write up framed along ethical considerations,”
Learning Expectation:
The efficiency flowing into this professional stream, promises a brighter and strategically stable future for this industry. But the emergence of certain negative trends in the practice of this profession poses a threat to its ability to deliver quality contents with reliable information.
Review:
Ethical issues are the concerns that address subjects like, content reliability, data collection techniques and presentation tactics, marketing strategy and the relevance of research and development. They play a vital role in relieving the writers of regulatory pressures involved in the process. Properly includes technical exposition on any subject related to medical science, such as biochemistry, pharmacologic studies, sanitation and psychoanalysis”. It is the responsibility of the writer to include necessary technical details under regulatory limitations to establish a level of understanding among the readers. Such ethical responsibilities have to be shared by the writer as well as the client. Some ethical considerations to be observed by a client are:- The client or the researcher should generate complete information on the academic background of the writer before allotting the assignment. This helps a client to understand the performance level that could be extracted from a writer. Regular communication with the writer is an essential condition for the correct formulation of the content. It is pivotal for a client to allow proper validation of the content written for him before mass circulation.

What I’ve learned:
Ethical and legal considerations enhance the quality and reliability of the content. It is true that the technical aspects in the profession of medical writing demand constant attention and need to be presented with clarity. In absence of such considerations it will be impossible for the clients to bridge the communication gaps between them and the target audience. It is widely accepted by many researchers that legal and ethical issues can play the role of obstacles in the progress of marketing a research as they impose certain limitations on the utilization of research products. But it is important to remember that appropriate observance of these issues can bring momentum in research activities along with assured standards of safety.
Integrative Questions:
• What is an ethical consideration?
• What is the information profession?
• What are the activities of ethical?
• Define ethical considerations?
• Find the legal and ethical issues?

Name of the Book: Cyber Ethics
Name of the Chapter: Written on the Body: Biometrics Identity
Quote:
“Biometrics will soon hold the key to your future, allowing you and only you to access your house, car, finances, medical records and workplaceBiever, Celeste 2005.”
Learning Expectation:
Signature verification is natural and intuitive. The technology is easy to explain and trust. The primary advantage that signature verification systems have over other types of biometric technologies is that signatures are already accepted as the common method of identity verification. This history of trust means that people are very willing to accept a signature based verification system.
Review:
Biometrics is a technology that verifies a person’s identity by measuring a unique-to-the-individual biological trait. Biometric technologies include dynamic signature verification, retinal/iris scanning, DNA identification, face-shape recognition, voice recognition and fingerprint identification. Biometric identification is superior to lower technology identification methods in common use today – namely passwords, PIN numbers, key-cards and smartcards.
Biometrics is the measuring of an attribute or behavior that is unique to an individual person. Biometrics includes measuring attributes of the human body – such as DNA, iris/retina patterns, face shape, and fingerprints – or measuring unique behavioral actions, such as voice patterns and dynamic signature verification.
Before biometrics only physical objects or behaviors based-on-memory were used to identify a computer user. Physical objects include smartcards or magnetic-stripe cards – behaviors based-on-memory includes the act of entering a PIN number or a secret password.
The primary use of a physical objects or behaviors based-on-memory has a clear set of problems and limitations. Objects are often lost or stolen and a behavior-based-on-memory is easily forgotten. Both types are often shared. The use of a valid password on a computer network does not mean that an identity is genuine. Identity cannot be guaranteed, privacy is not assumed and inappropriate use cannot be proven or denied. These limitations decrease trust and increase the possibility of fraud. These limitations are at the root of widespread distrust of the Internet, and these limitations are the biggest weakness in true network security.

What I’ve learned:
Some strengths of using biometrics come from the distinguishable rather than unique physiological and behavioral traits Chandra, Akhilesh 2005 that make up one’s body and the ease at which they can be used for identification and authentication. Unlike your passwords, you will not forget your fingerprints, irises, or DNA when you go to work.They are a part of you. They are also extremely distinguishable from another person’s biometrics. This means that they can be used with great confidence. Since they are a part of you they are difficult for another person to obtain or fake. They are also easy to use. All you may have to do is put your finger into a device and it gives you access if you are authorized or denies you if you aren’t.For these reasons and others, biometric systems are becoming more mainstream and commonplace. There are, however, some major weaknesses which need to be considered as biometric systems become more heavily relied upon.
Integrative Questions:
• What is the entry-point paradox as defined by Roger Clarke?
• In what ways are name, code, knowledge, and token-based identification schemes deficient?
• What factors have led to the emergence of a consortium-based specification for a global standard for biometric technologies?
• In the context of identity determination and verification, what are the distinctions between a ‘one to many’ and ‘one to one’ match?
• In what ways are verification and identification procedures inter-dependent?

Name of the book: Cyber Ethics
Name of the Chapter: Double Encryption of Anonymized Electronic Data Interchange
Quote:
“Collecting medical data electronically requires, according to our moral belief, also some kind of encryption.”
Learning Expectation:
Both the patient identification in the data and the doctor identification in the data must be anonymized. We skip the name and address; only the sex and the month-year of birth will be sent from the doctor to the central database. Even the number of the patient in the doctors database will be replaced, because once the doctor may be a researcher using the central database who recognizes one of the patients based on the number.
Review:
To be sure that the data are really sent by the sender of the electronic message, the double encryption of PGP is a suitable and widely used protocol. The sender encrypts his message with his secret key firstly and with the public key of the receiver secondly and afterwards he sends the message. The receiver must decrypt that message first with his own secret key and second with the public key of the sender according to the header. When the message is readable after this double decryption, one can be sure that the message was meant to be received by the decrypting receiver and the message was really sent by the sender named in the header of the message. Thus: double encryption needs the sender identification in order to decrypt the message with the senders’ public key. The problem with an anonymized electronic message is that the senders identification was anonymized by the virtual postbox.

What I’ve learned:
To use double encryption for anonymized electronic communication, new requirements must be specified. In this paper we suggest additional features that network providers must incorporate in the functionality of electronic message handlers. In fact we propose to add some ‘intelligence’ to the virtual postbox: instead of automatically forwarding, the postbox must now be able to read the sender from the header, select the appropriate public key from that sender, decrypt the message with that public key, replace the senders identification and encrypt the message with its own public key. On the receiver sidethe central database we have to decrypt the message with the secret key of the virtual postbox and after that with the secret key of the central database receiver. This procedure requires the availability of a list with only public keys at the virtual postbox, as well as a program to intervene the electronic communication. Unfortunately, so far none of the network providers is willing or has been able to implement it. We are building it ourselves first, to convince the technical feasibility. Meanwhile it is a nice example of ethical constraints demanding new technology, instead of the opposite
Integrative Questions:
• What is Double Encryption of Anonymized Electronic Data Interchange?
• What do the authors mean by “double encryption used twice”?
• Is it a robust setup?
• What is the problem the authors are trying to solve?
• Why is double encryption necessary in this case?

Name of the Book: Cyber Ethics
Name of the Chapter: Toward a Hacktivist Ethic
Quote:
It is probably tempting to immediately infer from the above analysis of the concept of civil disobedience, together with the claim that people have a moral right to free speech, that acts of civil disobedience, as political expression, are morally justified as an exercise of the moral right to free speech. On this line of analysis, the right to free speech entails a right to express one’s political views about the legitimacy of the law. Since the very point of civil disobedience is to call attention to the illegitimacy of the law, it is a morally justified exercise of the right to free expression.

Learning Expectation:
Hackers believe that non-malicious intrusions are morally permissible and have offered a number of arguments purporting to justify such intrusions. Some hackers believe, for example, these intrusions are justified because they result in an increase in humanity’s stock of knowledge about the relevant technologies and thereby promote the development of technologies that will ultimately make the Internet more secure. Some believe that any barriers to information are morally illegitimate and hence deserve no respect – including barriers that separate the information on one person’s computer from another person’s computer.

Review:
As it turns out, acts of hacktivism typically lack several of the characteristics that would excuse or justify those acts. First, and most conspicuously, persons committing acts of hacktivism typically attempt to conceal their identities to avoid detection and exposure to prosecution. It is comparatively rarethough presumably not unheard of for hacktivists to claim responsibility for any particular intrusion – except as members of some group whose membership is concealed. This has a couple of related consequences to social well-being. First, it contributes to an increasing sense of anxiety among the population about the security of the internet, which has become increasingly vital to economic and other important interests. Second, it requires an expenditure of valuable resources, which could be allocated in more productive ways, to protecting computers against intrusions – costs that are passed on to consumers.

In many instances, it is just not clear that an intrusion is intended to express or protest some particular view. Whereas those people who shut down the Washington state highway carried signs and alerted the press they were protesting a specific measure, the point of many putative acts of hacktivism is not clear. A distributed denial of serviceDDoS attack, for example, directed against Amazon.com could mean any number of things – some of which have nothing to do with expressing a political viewe.g., a recently discharged employee might be taking revenge for her dismissal. The absence of any clear message is surely problematic from a moral standpoint.

Second, and most importantly, acts of hacktivism frequently result in morally significant effects on third parties. A sustained DDoS attack against a large commercial website, unlike a sit-in at a local lunch counter, can result in millions of dollars of losses. These economic losses can translate into layoffs something that is particularly problematic when the persons losing their jobs are innocent of any relevant wrongdoing or injustice.

What I’ve learned:
The foregoing argument should not, of course, be construed to condemn all acts of hacktivism. Nothing in the foregoing argument would justify a condemnation of narrowly targeted acts of electronic civil disobedience properly motivated by a well-articulated plausible position backed with the right kind of justification and that do not result in significant harm to innocent third-parties. Acts of hacktivism that have these properties might very well be justified by the right to free speech – though, again, it bears emphasizing her that such acts will be much harder to justify in societies with morally legitimate legal systems.

Integrative Question:
• Describe Manion and Goodrum’s for now on called M&G definition of a “hacktivist” or electronic political activist. How is this form of civil disobedience?
• According to M&G what to hacktivist aim to confront?
• What, according to M&G, is the difference between symbolic and direct acts of civil disobedience?
• Describe how hacktivism can be described as a legitimate form of civil disobedience.
• Why might hacktivism, if a legitimate form of civil disobedience, hold harsh penalties as opposed to non-electronic forms of civil disobedience?

Name of the book: Cyber Ethics
Name of the Chapter: Defining the boundaries of Computer Crime
Quote:
Internationally, legislative bodies define criminal offenses in penal codes. Crimes, such as murder, rape, and aggravated assault, all suggest similar meanings to law enforcement professionals around the world. But what constitutes a computer crime? The term covers a wide range of offenses.
Learning Expectation:
Does computer crime pose a serious threat to America’s national security? Recent highly publicized computer virus attacks have shown that computer crime has become an increasing problem. Unfortunately, the absence of a standard definition for computer crime, a lack of reliable criminal statistics on the problem, and significant underreporting of the threat pose vexing challenges for police agencies.
Review:
The United States Department of JusticeDOJ has defined computer crime as “any violation of criminal law that involved the knowledge of computer technology for its perpetration, investigation, or prosecution.” Some experts have suggested that DOJ’s definition could encompass a series of crimes that have nothing to do with computers. For example, if an auto theft investigation required a detective to use “knowledge of computer technology” to investigate a vehicle’s identification numberVIN in a states’s department of motor vehicle database, under DOJ guidelines, auto theft could be classified as a computer crime. While the example may stretch the boundaries of logic, it demonstrates the difficulties inherent in attempting to describe and classify computer criminality.
Over the past 15 years, several international organizations, such as the United Nations, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentOECD, the Council of Europe, the G-8, and Interpol, all have worked to combat the problem of computer crime. These organizations have provided guidance in understanding this problem. Yet, despite their efforts, no single definition of computer crime has emerged that the majority of criminal justice professionals use. Although many state and federal laws define terms, such as “unauthorized access to a computer system” and “computer sabotage,” neither Title 18 nor any of the state penal codes provide a definition for the term computer crime.
What I’ve learned:
Defining criminal phenomena is important because it allows police officers, detectives, prosecutors, and judges to speak intelligently about a given criminal offense. Furthermore, generally accepted definitions facilitate the aggregation of statistics, which law enforcement can analyze to reveal previously undiscovered criminal threats and patterns. Crime statistics serve an important role in law enforcement. First, they allow for the appropriate allocation of very limited resources. Second, accurate statistics on computer crime are important for public safety reasons. Computer crimes not only affect corporations but hospitals, airports, and emergency dispatch systems as well. Furthermore, surveys have indicated that many individuals fear for their safety in the on-line world and worry about criminal victimization.
Integrative Question:
What is computer?
Define crime?
Does computer crime pose a serious threat to America’s national security?
What is penal code?
Define the boundaries of computer crime.