This document discusses security and ethical challenges related to information technology. It covers topics like corporate social responsibility theories, principles of technology ethics, privacy issues, computer crimes like hacking and cybertheft, and measures to protect security such as encryption, firewalls, and auditing. Business professionals have an ethical responsibility to promote proper IT use and ensure security, privacy, and informed consent regarding technology risks.

1. Chapter - 13
Security & Ethical
Challenges

2. Introduction
• Use of IT in business can
– Present major security
challenges
– Poses serious ethical questions
– Affect society in significant ways
• IT has both beneficial &
detrimental effects on society
and people
– Manage work activities to
minimize the detrimental effects
of IT
– Optimize the beneficial effects

3. Ethical responsibility
of business professionals
• Business professionals have responsibility to
promote ethical uses of information technology
in the workplace
• Should you electronically access your
employees’ personnel records or workstation
files?
• Should you sell customer information extracted
from transaction processing systems to other
companies?

4. Categories of Ethical Business Issues

5. Corporate Social Responsibility Theories
• Stockholder Theory
– Managers are agents of the stockholders
– Their only ethical responsibility is to increase the profits of the
business without violating the law or engaging in fraudulent
practices
• Social Contract Theory
– Companies have ethical responsibilities to all members of
society, who allow corporations to exist
• Stakeholder Theory
– Managers have an ethical responsibility to manage a firm for the
benefit of all its stakeholders
– Stakeholders are all individuals and groups that have a stake in,
or claim on, a company

6. Principles of Technology Ethics
• Proportionality - The good achieved by the technology must
outweigh the harm or risk; there must be no alternative that
achieves the same or comparable benefits with less harm or risk
• Informed Consent - Those affected by the technology should
understand and accept the risks
• Justice
– Fair and equal distribution of benefits and burdens of the
technology
– Those who benefit should bear their fair share of the risks, and
those who do not benefit should not suffer a significant increase
in risk
• Minimized Risk - Even if judged acceptable by the other three
guidelines, the technology must be implemented so as to avoid all
unnecessary risk

7. Ethical Guidelines
• Most policies specify that company computer
workstations and networks are company resources
that must be used only for work-related uses
• A responsible professional
– Acts with integrity
– Increases personal competence
– Sets high standards of personal performance
– Accepts responsibility for his/her work
– Advances the health, privacy, and general
welfare of the public

8. Computer Crime
• Unauthorized use, access, modification, or
destruction of hardware, software, data, or
network resources
• The unauthorized release of information
• The unauthorized copying of software
• Denying an end user access to his/her own
hardware, software, data, or network resources
• Using or conspiring to use computer or network
resources illegally to obtain information or tangible
property

9. Cybercrime Protection Measures

10. Hacking
• Hacking is
– The obsessive use of computers
– The unauthorized access and use of networked
computer systems
• Electronic Breaking and Entering
– Hacking into a computer system and reading files,
but neither stealing nor damaging anything
• Cracker
– A malicious or criminal hacker who maintains
knowledge of the vulnerabilities found for
private advantage

11. Common Hacking Tactics
• Denial of Service
– Hammering a website’s equipment with too many requests for
information
– Clogging the system, slowing performance, or crashing the site
• Scans
– Widespread probes of the Internet to determine types of computers,
services, and connections
– Looking for weaknesses
• Sniffer
– Programs that search individual packets of data as they pass through
the Internet
– Capturing passwords or entire contents
• Spoofing
– Faking an e-mail address or Web page to trick users into passing along
critical information like passwords or credit card numbers

12. Common Hacking Tactics
• Trojan House
– A program that, unknown to the user, contains instructions that
exploit a known vulnerability in some software
• Back Doors
– A hidden point of entry to be used in case the original entry point is
detected or blocked
• Malicious Applets
– Tiny Java programs that misuse your computer’s resources, modify
files on the hard disk, send fake email, or steal passwords
• War Dialing
– Programs that automatically dial thousands of telephone numbers in
search of a way in through a modem connection
• Logic Bombs
– An instruction in a computer program that triggers a malicious act

13. Common Hacking Tactics
• Buffer Overflow
– Crashing or gaining control of a computer by sending too much data to
buffer memory
• Password Crackers
– Software that can guess passwords
• Social Engineering
– Gaining access to computer systems by talking unsuspecting company
employees out of valuable information, such as passwords
• Dumpster Diving
– Sifting through a company’s garbage to find information to help break
into their computers

14. Cyber Theft
• Many computer crimes involve the theft of
money
• The majority are “inside jobs” that involve
unauthorized network entry and alternation
of computer databases to cover the tracks of
the employees involved
• Many attacks occur through the Internet
• Most companies don’t reveal that they have
been targets or victims of cybercrime

15. Unauthorized Use at Work
• Unauthorized use of computer systems and
networks is time and resource theft
– Doing private consulting
– Doing personal finances
– Playing video games
– Unauthorized use of the Internet or company
networks
• Sniffers
– Used to monitor network traffic or capacity
– Find evidence of improper use

16. Internet Abuses in the Workplace
– General email abuses
– Unauthorized usage and access
– Copyright infringement/plagiarism
– Newsgroup postings
– Transmission of confidential data
– Pornography
– Hacking
– Non-work-related download/upload
– Leisure use of the Internet
– Use of external ISPs
– Moonlighting

17. Software Piracy
• Software Piracy
– Unauthorized copying of computer programs
– Software is an intellectual property
• Licensing
– Purchasing software is really a payment
for a license for fair use
– Site license allows a certain number of copies
A third of the software
industry’s revenues are
lost to piracy

18. Theft of Intellectual Property
• Intellectual Property
– Copyrighted material
– Includes such things as music, videos, images,
articles, books, and software
• Copyright Infringement is Illegal
– Peer-to-peer networking techniques have made it
easy to trade pirated intellectual property
• Publishers Offer Inexpensive Online Music
– Illegal downloading of music and video is
down and continues to drop

19. Viruses and Worms
• A virus is a program that cannot work without
being inserted into another program
– A worm can run unaided
• These programs copy annoying or destructive
routines into networked computers
• Commonly transmitted through
– The Internet and online services
– Email and file attachments
– Disks from contaminated computers
– Shareware

20. Adware and Spyware
• Adware
– Software that purports to serve a useful purpose,
and often does
– Allows advertisers to display pop-up and banner
ads without the consent of the computer users
• Spyware
– Adware that uses an Internet connection in the
background, without the user’s permission
or knowledge
– Captures information about the user and sends it
over the Internet

21. Spyware Problems
• Spyware can steal private information and also
– Add advertising links to Web pages
– Redirect affiliate payments
– Change a users home page and search settings
– Make a modem randomly call premium-rate phone
numbers
– Leave security holes that let Trojans in
– Degrade system performance
• Removal programs are often not completely
successful in eliminating spyware

22. Privacy Issues
• The power of information technology to store
and retrieve information can have a negative
effect on every individual’s right to privacy
– Personal information is collected with every
visit to a Web site
– Confidential information stored by credit
bureaus, credit card companies, and the
government has been stolen or misused

23. Opt-in Versus Opt-out
• Opt-In
– You explicitly consent to allow data to be compiled
about you
– This is the default in Europe
• Opt-Out
– Data can be compiled about you unless you
specifically request it not be
– This is the default in the U.S.

24. Privacy Issues
• Violation of Privacy
– Accessing individuals’ private email conversations and computer
records
– Collecting and sharing information about individuals gained from
their visits to Internet websites
• Computer Monitoring
– Always knowing where a person is
– Mobile and paging services are becoming more closely associated
with people than with places
• Computer Matching
– Using customer information gained from many sources to market
additional business services
• Unauthorized Access of Personal Files
– Collecting telephone numbers, email addresses, credit card
numbers, and other information to build customer profiles

25. Protecting Your Privacy on the
Internet
• There are multiple ways to protect your privacy
– Encrypt email
– Send newsgroup postings through anonymous
remailers
– Ask your ISP not to sell your name and information to
mailing list providers and
other marketers
– Don’t reveal personal data and interests on
online service and website user profiles

26. Privacy Laws
• Electronic Communications Privacy Act
and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
– Prohibit intercepting data communications messages, stealing or
destroying data, or trespassing in federal-related computer systems
• U.S. Computer Matching and Privacy Act
– Regulates the matching of data held in federal agency files to verify
eligibility for federal programs
• Other laws impacting privacy and how
much a company spends on compliance
– Sarbanes-Oxley
– Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
– Gramm-Leach-Bliley
– USA Patriot Act
– California Security Breach Law
– Securities and Exchange Commission rule 17a-4

27. Computer Libel and Censorship
• The opposite side of the privacy debate…
– Freedom of information, speech, and press
• Biggest battlegrounds - bulletin boards, email boxes, and online
files of Internet and public networks
• Weapons used in this battle – spamming, flame mail, libel laws, and
censorship
• Spamming - Indiscriminate sending of unsolicited email messages
to many Internet users
• Flaming
– Sending extremely critical, derogatory, and often vulgar email
messages or newsgroup posting to other users on the Internet
or online services
– Especially prevalent on special-interest newsgroups

28. Cyberlaw
• Laws intended to regulate activities over the Internet or via
electronic communication devices
– Encompasses a wide variety of legal and political issues
– Includes intellectual property, privacy, freedom of expression,
and jurisdiction
• The intersection of technology and the law is controversial
– Some feel the Internet should not be regulated
– Encryption and cryptography make traditional form of
regulation difficult
– The Internet treats censorship as damage and simply routes
around it
• Cyberlaw only began to emerge in 1996
– Debate continues regarding the applicability of legal principles
derived from issues that had nothing to do with cyberspace

29. Other Challenges
• Employment
– IT creates new jobs and increases productivity
– Cause significant reductions in some job opportunities
– Jobs created by IT require new job skills
• Internet Web masters, e-commerce directors, system analysts, user
consultants
• Computer Monitoring
– Using computers to monitor the productivity and
behavior of employees as they work
– Criticized as unethical because it monitors individuals, not
just work, and is done constantly
– Criticized as invasion of privacy because many employees
do not know they are being monitored

30. Other Challenges
• Working Conditions
– IT has eliminated monotonous or obnoxious tasks
– Shift allows people to concentrate on more challenging
and interesting assignments
– Sadly data entry jobs are quite repetitive and routine
– But some skilled craftsperson jobs have been replaced by
jobs requiring routine, repetitive tasks or standby roles
• Individuality
– Dehumanizes and depersonalizes activities because
computers eliminate human relationships
– Inflexible systems due to strict adherence to standards
– But it’s changing due to personalization in e-commerce

31. Health Issues
• Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs)
– Disorders suffered by people who sit at a
PC or terminal and do fast-paced repetitive
keystroke jobs
– Strained muscles, back pain, nerve damage
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
– Painful, crippling ailment of the hand
and wrist
– Typically requires surgery to cure

32. Ergonomics
• Designing healthy
work environments
– Safe, comfortable,
and pleasant for
people to work in
– GUI, hardware, job
design ergonomics
– Increases employee
morale and
productivity
– Also called human
factors engineering
Ergonomics Factors

33. Societal Solutions
• Using information technologies to solve human
and social problems
– Medical diagnosis
– Computer-assisted instruction
– Governmental program planning
– Environmental quality control
– Law enforcement
– Job placement
• The detrimental effects of IT
– Often caused by individuals or organizations not
accepting ethical responsibility for their actions

34. Security Management of IT
• The Internet was developed for inter-
operability, not impenetrability
– Business managers and professionals alike
are responsible for the security, quality, and
performance of business information systems
– Hardware, software, networks, and data
resources must be protected by a variety
of security measures

35. Security Management
• The goal of security
management is the
accuracy, integrity,
and safety of all
information system
processes and
resources

36. Internetworked Security Defenses
• Encryption
– Data is transmitted in scrambled form
– It is unscrambled by computer systems for
authorized users only
– The most widely used method uses a pair of
public and private keys unique to each individual

37. Internetworked Security Defenses
• Firewalls
– A gatekeeper system that protects a company’s
intranets and other computer networks from
intrusion
– Provides a filter and safe transfer point for
access to/from the Internet and other networks
– Important for individuals who connect to the
Internet with DSL or cable modems
– Can deter hacking, but cannot prevent it

38. Internet and Intranet Firewalls
38
Chapter 13 Security and
Ethical Challenges

39. Denial of Service Attacks
• Denial of service attacks depend on three
layers of networked computer systems
– The victim’s website
– The victim’s Internet service provider
– Zombie or slave computers that have been
commandeered by the cybercriminals

40. Defending Against Denial of Service
• At Zombie Machines
– Set and enforce security policies
– Scan for vulnerabilities
• At the ISP
– Monitor and block traffic spikes
• At the Victim’s Website
– Create backup servers and network connections

41. Internetworked Security Defenses
• Email Monitoring
– Use of content monitoring software that scans
for troublesome words that might compromise
corporate security
• Virus Defenses
– Centralize the updating and distribution of
antivirus software
– Use a security suite that integrates virus
protection with firewalls, Web security,
and content blocking features

42. Other Security Measures
• Security Codes
– Multilevel password system
– Encrypted passwords
– Smart cards with microprocessors
• Backup Files
– Duplicate files of data or programs
• Security Monitors
– Monitor the use of computers and networks
– Protects them from unauthorized use, fraud, and destruction
• Biometrics
– Computer devices measure physical traits that make each individual
unique
• Voice recognition, fingerprints, retina scan
• Computer Failure Controls
– Prevents computer failures or minimizes its effects
– Preventive maintenance
– Arrange backups with a disaster recovery organization

43. Other Security Measures
• In the event of a system failure, fault-tolerant systems have redundant
processors, peripherals, and software that provide
– Fail-over capability: shifts to back up components
– Fail-save capability: the system continues to operate at the same level
– Fail-soft capability: the system continues to operate at a reduced but
acceptable level
• A disaster recovery plan contains formalized procedures to follow in the
event of a disaster
– Which employees will participate
– What their duties will be
– What hardware, software, and facilities will be used
– Priority of applications that will be processed
– Use of alternative facilities
– Offsite storage of databases

44. Information System Controls
• Methods and
devices that
attempt to
ensure the
accuracy,
validity, and
propriety of
information
system
activities

45. Auditing IT Security
• IT Security Audits
– Performed by internal or external auditors
– Review and evaluation of security measures
and management policies
– Goal is to ensure that that proper and adequate
measures and policies are in place

46. Protecting Yourself from Cybercrime