Ethical Issues of Computer
Networks
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Computer Network Ethics
• Ethics
– The study of what it means to “do the right thing”
– Assume people are rational and make free choices
– Rules to follow in our interactions and our actions that
affect others
• Computer Network Ethics resulted from the
growth of the Internet
– A branch of professional ethics
– How computing professionals should make decisions
regarding professional and social conduct
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Rapid Pace of Change
• Computer and the Internet
• Cell Phones
• Social Networking
– Facebook, MySpace
• Collaboration
– Wikipedia
• E-commerce and Free Stuff
– Online books, games, online videos
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Issues Resulted From These rapid Changes
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Hacking and Crimes
Identity Theft and Credit-Card Fraud
Privacy and Anonymity
Intellectual Property and Copyright
Censorship
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Hacking and Crimes
• Network security issues resulted from the
growth of the Internet and of E-commerce
• The term “hacking” has changed over time
• Examples
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Defaced Web pages
Computer viruses and worms
Scam emails and phishing attacks
Hacktivism: the use of hacking to promote a
political cause
– Unauthorized access to sensitive information
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Hacking and Crimes (Con’t)
• Is it ethical to break into a system without
permission
– Security professionals inform the software
company responsible for the software to close
security holes before making a public
announcement
• Is “harmless hacking” harmless?
– It is difficult to distinguish a non-malicious hacker
from a thief or terrorist
– It takes efforts and costs to stop the intrusion
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Hacking and Crimes (Con’t)
• The law
– The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)
passed in 1986
• Covers government computers, financial and
medical systems, and activities that involve
computers in more than one state, including
computers connected to the Internet
– The USA PATROIT Act
• Expands the definition of loss to include the
cost of responding to an attack, assessing
damage and restoring systems
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Hacking and Crimes (Con’t)
• A variety of methods for catching hackers
– Law enforcement agents read hacker newsletters
and participate in chat rooms undercover
– They can often track a handle by looking through
newsgroup archives
– Security professionals set up ‘honey pots’ which
are Web sites that attract hackers, to record and
study
– Computer forensics is used to retrieve evidence
from computers
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Identity Theft and Credit-Card Fraud
• We do our banking and investing on the Web
– Risks: It is possible to steal our identity, e.g., credit
card numbers, SSN, account numbers, etc.
• Example
– Phishing emails to confirm information about your account
and password
– Pharming to lure people to fake Web sites
– Trojan horse may track keystrokes and send them over the
Internet
– Online resumes and job hunting sites may reveal SSN,
work history, birth dates, and other information that can be
used in identity theft
– E-commerce has made it easier to steal card numbers and
use without having the physical card
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Identity Theft and Credit-Card Fraud
(Con’t)
• Responses to Identity Theft:
– Authentication of e-mail and Web sites
– Use of encryption to securely store data, so it is
useless if stolen
– Authenticating customers to prevent use of stolen
numbers, may trade convenience for security
– In the event information is stolen, a fraud alert can
flag your credit report; some businesses will cover
the cost of a credit report if your information has
been stolen
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Privacy
• Consider one example:
– Computerized record systems for customers in a
community clinic – for routine Web access and email
communication
– The sensitivity of the information in the records
– The inappropriate release of the information can result
in embarrassment
• Key aspects of Privacy
– Freedom from intrusion
– Control of information about oneself
– Freedom from surveillance
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Example 1– Location Tracking
• GPS, cell phones, RFID, etc. enable the
development of many new applications
– Provide where a person is at a particular time
• These applications provide many benefits
• These applications also pose potential threats
to privacy
• Pros and cons
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Example 2 – Telephone
Communication Wiretapping
• 1934 Communications Act prohibited interception of
messages
• 1968 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act
allowed wiretapping and electronic surveillance by
law-enforcement (with court order)
• Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act of
2006 made it a federal crime to obtain someone’s
telephone records without the person’s permission
• Pros and cons
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Example 3 – Internet Bots and Privacy
• Internet bots
– Software applications running automated tasks
over the Internet
– Web spidering
• Many applications
• Internet bots may also be used for malicious
purposes
• Pros and cons
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Anonymity
• For people who advocate anonymity
– Protecting privacy
– Protecting against identity theft and consumer profiling
– Protecting against oppressive governments
• For people who against anonymity
– People should take responsibility for their opinions and
statements
– Potential to shield criminal activity and incompatible
with online netiquette
– U.S. and European countries working on laws that
require ISPs to maintain records of the true identity of
each user and maintain records of online activity for
potential use in criminal investigations
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Intellectual Property and Copyright
• Intellectual Property
– The intangible creative work, not its particular
physical form
– Protected by copyright and patent law
– Copyright holders have exclusive rights to
• To make copies
• To produce derivative works, such as translations into
other languages or movies based on books
• To distribute copies
• To perform the work in public (e.g. music, plays)
• To display the work in public (e.g. artwork, movies,
computer games, video on a Web site)
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Intellectual Property and Copyright (Con’t)
• Computer and communications technologies
raise challenge to intellectual-property
protection
– Storage of all sorts of information in standard formats (e.g.
graphics, video and audio files)
– High-volume, relatively inexpensive digital storage media
– Scanners
– Compression technologies
– The Web
– Broadband Internet connections
– Peer-to-Peer technology
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Intellectual Property and Copyright (Con’t)
• Putting the digital content on the Internet
– Unauthorized copying and sharing of computing
software, music, and video files continue at a huge
rate
– Search engines and online libraries
• Negotiate contracts with intellectual-property
owners to provide digital content
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Copyright Law and Significant Cases
• Sony v. Universal City Studios (1984)
– Supreme Court decided that the makers of a device
with legitimate uses should not be penalized
because some people may use it to infringe on
copyright
– Supreme Court decided copying movies for later
viewing was fair use
– Arguments against fair use
• People copied the entire work
• Movies are creative, not factual
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Copyright Law and Significant Cases
(cont.)
• Sony v. Universal City Studios (1984) (cont.)
– Arguments for fair use
• The copy was for private, noncommercial use and
generally was not kept after viewing
• The movie studios could not demonstrate that they
suffered any harm
• The studios had received a substantial fee for
broadcasting movies on TV, and the fee depends on
having a large audience who view for free
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Censorship of the Internet
• We need to make the Internet safe for the people
– E.g. Pornographic pictures shared among minors and
children – Cyberporn
• The Child Online Protection Act (COPA)
– Passed in 1998
– It is a federal crime for commercial Web sites to make
available to minors materials “harmful to minors” as
judged by community standards
– Found to be unconstitutional
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Censorship of the Internet
• Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000
(CIPA):
– Requires schools and libraries that participate in
certain federal programs to install filtering software
• Filters
– Blocks sites with specific words, phrases or images
– Parental control for sex and violence
– Updated frequently but may still screen out too much
or too little
– Not possible to eliminate all errors
– What should be blocked?
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Employee Monitoring
• Electronic monitoring capabilities
– Computer network, Telephone network, digital
camera, etc.
• For employer
– To evaluate individual employee and to measure
and increase productivity
• For employee
– Complain dignity, independence, privacy and
confidence
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Whose Law Rule the Web?
• Different countries have different law ruling
the Web
– Content control/censorship (including politics,
religion, pornography, criminal investigations and
trials, etc.)
– Intellectual property
– Gambling
– Hacking/Viruses
– Privacy
– Commerce (advertising and sales)
– Spam
• Some countries ban all or certain types of
access to the Internet
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Reference
• Sara Baase, “A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and
Ethical Issues for Computing and the Internet,”
Third Edition, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13601918-3, 2007.
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