Ethical Use of Computers Presented by Mr. Wilhelmi

Crimes Using Computers Computer Crime Theft of Services Theft of Property Financial Crimes Software

Computer Crime A criminal act that is accomplished through the use of a computer A criminal act that poses a greater threat to a computer user than it would to a non- computer user Kinds of activity: Perpetrate acts of deceit, theft, or concealment to provide financial, business-related, property, or service advantages Threats to computer itself – sabotage, theft

Theft of Services Using a company’s computer after working hours Obtaining inside information on a business/corporation Making unauthorized changes to data (grades) Theft of valuable computer time and the data stored on the system

Theft of Property Computer itself Computer parts for assembly later Stealing merchandise from a company whose orders are processed by computers Software Illegally copying software, music, etc.

Financial Crimes Creating illegal checks by an employee “Round-off fraud” – an employee collects the fractions of cents in customers’ accounts due to applicable interest rate allocations

Software Software piracy – stealing commercial software either outright or illegally copying it for personal use or for resale Commercial software – software ordinarily purchased at a store, via Internet or mail Copyrighted – we purchase right to use software Constitution in 1790 – protects rights of authors US Copyright Office & courts in 1964 – established that computer programs are the “writing of an author”

Laws Copyright Act of 1976 “It is illegal to make unauthorized copies of a copyrighted computer program.” Software Piracy and Counterfeiting Amendment of 1983 Added to the Copyright Act of 1976 Commercially copying and selling pirated software is a felony

Ethics A set of moral principles or values that are designed to guide human conduct Dealing with what is good and bad, ethics represents a pattern of personal conduct that is acceptable to society Computer ethics The standard of moral conduct in computer use A way in which the “spirit” of laws can be carried to other computer-related activities Individual license - use only one program on one computer at a time

Privacy and Confidentiality of Information Privacy – keeping personal information personal; protecting it from improper use Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (1986) Obtaining records from financial institutions Electronic Communication Privacy Act (1986) Prohibits the interception of data communications Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act (1988) Regulates use of data for eligibility of federal benefits

Ethics A set of moral principles or values that are designed to guide human conduct