What is Ethics? Ethics Ethical behavior Set of beliefs about right and wrong behavior Ethical behavior Conforms to generally accepted social norms Doing what is ethical can be difficult Information Technology for Managers

Improving Corporate Ethics Unethical behavior has led to serious negative consequences that have had a global impact Failure of major corporations like Enron and WorldCom due to accounting scandals Collapse of many financial institutions due to unwise and unethical decision making Organizations today recognize the need to take action to ensure that their employees operate in an ethical manner when using technology Information Technology for Managers

Appointing a Corporate Ethics Officer Includes ethical conduct, legal compliance, and corporate social responsibility Corporate ethics officer Senior-level manager Provides vision and direction in the area of business conduct Corporation will place a higher emphasis on ethics policies following a major scandal within the organization Information Technology for Managers

Ethical Standards Set by Board of Directors Responsible for supervising the management team Expected to conduct themselves according to the highest standards of personal and professional integrity Set the standard for company-wide ethical conduct and ensure compliance with laws and regulations Information Technology for Managers

Establishing a Corporate Code of Ethics Highlights an organization’s key ethical issues Identifies the overarching values and principles that are important to the organization Formal, written statements about: Purpose of the organization Values Principles that guide its employees’ actions Develop with employee participation Fully endorsed by the organization’s leadership Information Technology for Managers

Establishing a Corporate Code of Ethics (continued) Information Technology for Managers

Requiring Employees to Take Ethics Training Company’s code of ethics must be promoted and continually communicated within the organization From top to bottom Comprehensive ethics education program Small workshop formats Existence of formal training programs Can reduce a company’s liability in the event of legal action Information Technology for Managers

Including Ethical Criteria in Employee Appraisals Employees evaluated on their demonstration of qualities and characteristics highlighted in the corporate code of ethics Considered along with more traditional criteria used in performance appraisals Information Technology for Managers

Privacy Balance the needs of those who use the information against the rights and desires of the people whose information may be used Various states have passed laws that require disclosure of any breach of security to any resident whose data is believed to have been compromised Information Technology for Managers

Privacy (continued) Information Technology for Managers

Right to Privacy Historical perspective on the right to privacy Protected by a number of amendments in the Bill of Rights Information Technology for Managers

Treating Customer Data Responsibly Code of Fair Information Practices and the 1980 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) privacy guidelines Five widely accepted core principles European adequacy standard for privacy protection United States does not meet these standards Organizations should appoint an executive Chief Privacy Officer, or CPO Define, implement, and oversee data privacy policies Information Technology for Managers

Treating Customer Data Responsibly (continued) Establish an effective data privacy program Conduct a thorough assessment Define a comprehensive data privacy program Assign a high-level executive Develop a data breach response plan Track ongoing changes to regulatory and legal requirements Information Technology for Managers

Workplace Monitoring IT usage policy Establishes boundaries of acceptable behavior Enables management to take action against violators Organizations monitor workers to ensure compliance Information Technology for Managers

Workplace Monitoring (continued) Information Technology for Managers

Workplace Monitoring (continued) Fourth Amendment of the Constitution Protects citizens from unreasonable searches by the government Often used to protect the privacy of government employees Cannot be used to control how a private employer treats its employees Public sector employees have far greater privacy rights than those in private industry State privacy statutes tend to favor employers over employees Information Technology for Managers

A Manager Takes Inappropriate Action: City of Ontario, California Contracted with Arch Wireless to provide wireless text-messaging Services Jeff Quon, a member of the Ontario Police Department (OPD) SWAT team Received alphanumeric pager Sent sexually explicit messages to two other workers in the police department and to his wife General computer usage, Internet, and e-mail policy Not specific to pagers Information Technology for Managers

A Manager Takes Inappropriate Action: City of Ontario, California (continued) Ontario Police Department was unable to access the message directly Requested that Arch Wireless provide the transcripts Stored Communications Act (SCA) Attempt to address a number of potential privacy issues not addressed by the Fourth Amendment U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Ruled that Arch Wireless was an electronic communications service and had violated the SCA when it provided transcripts of Quon’s messages to the OPD Information Technology for Managers

Cybercrime and Computer Security Criminal activity in which a computer or a computer network is used as a tool to commit a crime or is the target of criminal activity Electronic fraud Class of cybercrime Involves the use of computer hardware, software, or networks to misrepresent facts for the purpose of causing someone to do or refrain from doing something that causes loss Information Technology for Managers

Types of Attacks Attack on a networked computer from an outside source One of the most frequent types of attack Viruses Piece of programming code Usually disguised as something innocuous Cause some unexpected and undesirable event Often attached to a file Do not spread themselves from computer to computer Macro viruses Information Technology for Managers

Types of Attacks (continued) Worms Harmful computer programs that reside in the active memory of the computer Can propagate over a network without human intervention May install malware (malicious software) on a computer Information Technology for Managers

Types of Attacks (continued) Distributed Denial-of-Service Attack (DDOS) Malicious hacker takes over computers connected to the Internet Causes them to flood a target site with demands for data and other small tasks Zombie Compromised computer Botnet Group of zombie computers running software that is being remotely controlled without the knowledge or consent of the owners Information Technology for Managers

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Types of Attacks (continued) DDOS (continued) Spoofing Zombies are often programmed to put false return addresses on the packets they send out Egress filtering Ensure that spoofed packets do not leave their corporate network Information Technology for Managers

Perpetrators Information Technology for Managers

Defensive Measures Risk assessment Organization’s review of potential threats to its computers and networks Identify which investments of time and resources will best protect the organization from its most likely and serious threats Reasonable assurance Managers must use their judgment to ensure that the cost of control does not exceed the system’s benefits or the risks involved Information Technology for Managers

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Establishing a Security Policy Defines an organization’s security requirements Defines controls and sanctions needed to meet those requirements National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Computer Security Division Automated system rules should mirror an organization’s written policies Information Technology for Managers

Establishing a Security Policy (continued) E-mail attachments Critical security issue Virtual private network (VPN) Uses the Internet to relay communications Maintains privacy through security procedures and tunneling protocols Information Technology for Managers

Educating Employees, Contractors, and Part-Time Workers Must be educated about the importance of security Discuss recent security incidents Protect an organization’s information systems and data by: Guarding their passwords Applying strict access controls Reporting all unusual activity to the organization’s IT security group Information Technology for Managers

Prevention Installing a corporate firewall Established through the use of software, hardware, or a combination of both Can lead to complacency Intrusion prevention systems Prevent an attack by blocking viruses, malformed packets, and other threats from getting into the company network Information Technology for Managers

Prevention (continued) Installing antivirus software on personal computers Virus signature Specific sequence of bytes United States Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) Most of the virus and worm attacks that the team analyzes use already known programs Crucial that antivirus software be updated continually with the latest virus detection information Information Technology for Managers

Prevention (continued) Implementing safeguards against attacks by malicious insiders IT staff must delete the computer accounts, login IDs, and passwords of departing employees Create roles and user accounts so that users have the authority to perform their responsibilities and no more Information Technology for Managers

Prevention (continued) Addressing the most critical Internet security threats Overwhelming majority of successful computer attacks are made possible by taking advantage of well-known vulnerabilities SANS (System Administration, Networking, and Security) Institute and US-CERT regularly update a summary of the most frequent, high-impact vulnerabilities Information Technology for Managers

Prevention (continued) Conducting periodic IT security audits Evaluate whether an organization has a well-considered security policy in place and if it is being followed Test system safeguards Federal Computer Security Report Card Information Technology for Managers

Prevention (continued) Information Technology for Managers

Detection Intrusion detection system Software and/or hardware Monitors system and network resources and activities and notifies network security personnel when it identifies possible intrusions Different approaches to intrusion detection Knowledge-based approaches Behavior-based approaches Information Technology for Managers

Response Primary goal Incident notification Regain control and limit damage Not to attempt to monitor or catch an intruder Incident notification Define who to notify and who not to notify Protecting evidence and activity logs Document all details of a security incident Incident containment Act quickly to contain an attack Information Technology for Managers

Response (continued) Eradication Collect and log all possible criminal evidence from the system Verify that all necessary backups are current Create a forensic disk image of each compromised system Keep a log of all actions taken Information Technology for Managers

Response (continued) Incident follow-up Determine how the organization’s security was compromised Develop an estimate of the monetary damage Determine amount of effort that should be put into capturing the perpetrator Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Summary Ethics Information technology usage policy Set of beliefs about right and wrong behavior Treat customer data responsibly Information technology usage policy Laws governing employee privacy and monitoring Cybercrime Types of attacks Prevention Detection Response Information Technology for Managers