User talk:Jeremy Stell

Information Technology - CyberEthics
As tremendous technological advancements continue to be registered in the field of InformationTechnology, legal and ethical issues have become a subject of major debate. This has led to the coinage of the word “Cyberethics.” Cyberethics is a sub-branch of the larger discipline of ethics, which examines the implications of IT on our social, legal, and moral structures. It also focuses on the social policies and regulations crafted in reaction to the issues occasioned by the development and use of cybertechnology (Tavani, 2011). Computer ethics, as the name suggests, describes the ethical issues that surround computing professionals and computing machines, cyberethics presents a wider description of the ethical and legal issues that accompany the world of IT. In addition, cyberethics is more inclusive as opposed to Internet ethics, which is restricted to networked devices. Since the advent of computing in the 1950s, legal and ethical concerns pertaining to IT have always attracted considerable interest. With the introduction of computers with processors that resembled the human brain, the first ethical and social question regarding the matter arose. There were also intense concerns with respect to privacy. When networking was later introduced, privacy concerns previously raised were further ignited because confidential information could easily be exchanged between networked devices. In addition, there were issues of intellectual property as it became quite easy to imitate and exchange proprietary software applications using personal computers. Moreover, computer crime was on the increase as hackers gained unauthorized access into information belonging to large organizations. With the emergence of the World Wide Web in the 1990s, Bott (2005) indicates that these issues became more and more evident as people elevated concerns related to anonymity, free speech, and jurisdiction. The situation has further worsened by the advent of Web 2.0 coupled with the increasing use of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. As the IT landscape continues to register unprecedented developments, it is feared that computers and mobile networked devices will become part and parcel of what we are as human beings. IT has already become an essential aspect of human life from home to school and work. Moreover, computers are becoming smaller and smaller as more complex automated machines, such as robots, continue to be invented. Similar to the requirement of people in any profession to exhibit values such as honesty and fairness, it is no different in the case of IT. Professionals in the IT industry find themselves facing circumstances in which the decisions they make could have significant social, legal, and ethical implications. As computer professionals, software engineers, software developers, network administrators, software analysts, technical writers and software managers are in a position to choose to do good, or inflict harm and influence others to do the same. We live in a world where nearly everything runs on automated processes developed and maintained by these professionals. According to Kizza (2010), some software systems such as air traffic control systems, medical treatment systems and nuclear reactor missile systems are very critical and can have an express life-threatening impact. It is in this that the legal and ethical issues surrounding the professional responsibility involved in the development and maintenance of IT systems come into question. Another ethical issue that has been of intense concern since the advent of computing is privacy. In this 21st century, the safety of information has presented IT professionals with many nightmares as the upsurge in computer crime continues to plague countless droves of people. While information security experts are crafting, designing, and deploying tighter measures to secure the safety of information across networks, cybercriminals are burning the midnight oil and developing more cunning ways of gaining access to private and confidential information. With the growing use of search engines, social networks and online information, privacy concerns continue to escalate. According to Reynolds (2012), these privacy issues affect everyone regardless of whether they have ever owned or used a networked computer. Information acquired or stolen from one’s online activities is open to third parties and hence results in dire consequences. In addition, business organizations have resorted to outsourcing IT services in a bid to reduce operational costs, enhance IT performance, and eliminate internal irritant, among other reasons. These outsourcing processes are governed by contractual agreements, which are intended to be adhered to by the parties involved. During implementation, such processes expose business enterprises to considerable legal implications which can lead to severe consequences for any of the parties. Moreover, intellectual property concerns have been a major issue in IT. As noted by Brennan and Johnson (2004), business organizations and even individuals use patents, copyrights, trademarks, as well as, trade secrets to protect their software inventions. Nevertheless, cases of intellectual property fraud with respect to IT have been witnessed. Since the advent of computing in the 1950s, the IT landscape has been faced with significant legal and ethical concerns relating to privacy, intellectual property, and the professional responsibility of computing professionals, among other issues. The scenario has even been more worrisome with the invention of complex web platforms and social media, which has increased internet usage to unprecedented levels. As intense technological advancements continue to be witnessed in the IT industry, these ethical and legal issues will continue to be on the rise.

References Bott, F. (2005). Professional issues in information technology. Swindon: The British Computer 	Society. Brennan, L. and Johnson, V. (2004). Social, ethical and policy implications of information 	technology. London: Idea Publishing. Kizza, J. (2010). Ethical and social issues in the information age. London: Springer. Reynolds, G. (2012). Ethics in information technology, 4th ed. Belmont: Cengage Learning. Tavani, H. (2011). Ethics and technology: Controversies, questions and strategies for ethical 	computing. Hoboken: Wiley Publishing.