1. Chapter 9 Information Systems Ethics and Computer Crime
Robert Riordan, Carleton University

2. Learning Objectives
Analyze the ethical, social, and political issues that are raised by information systems
Discuss the ethical concerns associated with information privacy, accuracy, property, and accessibility
Identify the main moral dimensions of an information society and specific principles for conduct that can be used to guide ethical decisions

3. Learning Objectives
4. Define computer crime, and list several types of computer crime
5. Contrast what is meant by the term “computer virus,” “worm,” Trojan Horse,” and “logic or time bomb”
6. Describe and explain the differences between cyberwar and cyberterrorism

4. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems
In the past, so-called “white collar” crimes were treated with a slap on the wrist and fines to restore any damage done
Industrial societies have become much less tolerant of financial, accounting, and computer crimes
Managers and employees must make judgments about what constitutes legal and ethical conduct

5. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems
Ethics:
Principles of right and wrong
Assumes individuals are acting as free moral agents to make choices to guide their behavior
Have been given new urgency by the use of the Internet, electronic commerce, and digital technologies

6. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems
A model for thinking about ethical, social, and political issues
Illustrates the dynamics connecting ethical, social, and political issues
Identifies the moral dimensions of the information society, across individual, social, and political levels of action

7. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems
Five moral dimensions of the information age
Information rights and obligations
Property rights and obligations
Accountability and control
System quality
Quality of life

8. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems
The relationship between ethical, social, and political issues in an information society

9. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems
Key technology trends that raise ethical issues
Computing power doubles every 18 months
More organizations depend on computer systems for critical operations
Rapidly declining data storage costs
Organizations can easily maintain detailed databases on individuals

10. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems
Key technology trends that raise ethical issues (continued)
Data analysis advances
Companies can analyze vast quantities of data gathered on individuals to develop detailed profiles of individual behaviour
Networking advances and the Internet
Easier to copy data from one location to another and to access personal data from remote locations

11. Ethics in an Information Society
Basic concepts: Responsibility, Accountability, and Liability
Responsibility: Accepting the potential costs, duties, and obligations for decisions
Accountability: Mechanisms for identifying responsible parties
Liability: Permits individuals (and firms) to recover damages done to them
Due process: Laws are well known and understood, with an ability to appeal to higher authorities

12. Ethics in an Information Society
Ethical Analysis
Identify and describe the facts
Define the conflict or dilemma, the values involved
Identify the stakeholders
Identify the options
Identify the consequences

13. Ethics in an Information Society
Professional Codes of Conduct
Promises by professions to regulate themselves in the general interest of society
Promulgated by associations such as the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), the Canadian Bar Association (CBA), and the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP)

14. Ethics in an Information Society
Some Real-World IT Ethical Dilemmas
Using systems to increase efficiency, causing layoffs and personal hardships
Monitoring employee use of the Internet at work to increase productivity, decreasing employee privacy

15. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

16. Information Privacy and Issues
What information an individual must reveal to others in the course of gaining employment or shopping online
Identify Theft
The stealing of another person’s private information (SIN, credit card numbers, etc.) for the purpose of using it to gain credit, borrow money, buy merchandise, or otherwise run up debt that are never paid. This is especially problematic because it:
is invisible to the victim, they don’t know it is happening
is very difficult to correct…credit agencies are involved
can cause unrecoverable losses and legal costs

17. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Information Rights: Privacy and Freedom in the Internet Age
Privacy: Claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other individuals, organizations, or the state.
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) establishes principles for collection, use, and disclosure of personal information
Provinces have parallel legislation
Only Quebec has legislation governing private sector

18. Information Property - PIPEDA
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
The law gives individuals the right to
know why an organization collects, uses or discloses their personal information;
expect an organization to collect, use or disclose their personal information reasonably and appropriately, and not use the information for any purpose other than that to which they have consented;
know who in the organization is responsible for protecting their personal information;
expect an organization to protect their personal information by taking appropriate security measures;
expect the personal information an organization holds about them to be accurate, complete and up-to-date;
obtain access to their personal information and ask for corrections if necessary; and
complain about how an organization handles their personal information if they feel their privacy rights have not been respected.

19. Information Property - PIPEDA
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
The law requires organizations to:
obtain consent when they collect, use or disclose their personal information;
supply an individual with a product or a service even if they refuse consent for the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information unless that information is essential to the transaction;
collect information by fair and lawful means; and
have personal information policies that are clear, understandable and readily available.

20. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Internet Challenges to Privacy (continued):
Cookies:
Tiny files deposited on a hard drive
Used to identify the visitor and track visits to the Web site  
May or may not be used to gather personal private information
In some cases, only a visitors customer number is maintained, not any personal information. In other cases, personal information can be gathered

21. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
How cookies identify Web visitors

22. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Internet Challenges to Privacy (continued):
Web bugs:
Tiny graphic files embedded in messages and Web pages
Designed to monitor online Internet user behaviour
When a user views the or the page, a message is sent to a without the knowledge of the user
In the case of , the user’s address is known to the server

23. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Internet Challenges to Privacy (continued):
Spyware:
Software downloaded onto a user’s computer – usually without the user’s knowledge – that tracks Web behaviour and reports that behaviour to a third-party server
Spyware is also used to call for ads from third-party servers, or to divert customers from one site to a preferred site

24. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Two Models of Providing Web Privacy: Opt-out versus opt-in model of informed consent
An opt-out model of informed consent permits the collection of personal information until the consumer specifically requests that the data not be collected. The default is to assume consent is given.

25. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Two Models of Providing Web Privacy: Opt-out versus opt-in model of informed consent
An opt-in model of informed consent prohibits an organization from collecting any personal information unless the users specifically requests to allow such use by clicking a box. The default is to assume consent is not given

26. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
The TRUSTe seal of approval

27. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Information Rights (continued)
Technical Solutions:
Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)
Enables automatic communication of privacy policies between an e-commerce site and its visitors
Privacy policy can become part of the page’s software

28. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
The P3P standard

29. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Information Property – Example of a Privacy Statement

30. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Ethical Issues
Under what conditions should the privacy of others be invaded?
What legitimates intruding into others’ lives through unobtrusive surveillance, through market research, or by whatever means?
Do we have to inform people that we are eavesdropping?
Do we have to inform people that we are using credit history information for employment screening purposes?  

31. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Social Issues
In what areas of life should we as a society encourage people to think they are in private territory as opposed to public territory?
Should expectations of privacy be extended to criminal conspirators?  

32. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Political Issues
Should we permit the RCMP or CSIS to monitor at will to apprehend suspected criminals and terrorists?
To what extent should e-commerce sites and other businesses be allowed to maintain personal data about individuals?  

33. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

34. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Property Rights: Intellectual Property
Intellectual property: Intangible property of any kind created by individuals or corporations
Three main ways that intellectual property is protected:
Trade secret
Copyright
Patents

35. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Property Rights: Intellectual Property
Trade secret: Intellectual work or product belonging to business, not in the public domain
Supreme Court test for breach of confidence:
information conveyed must be confidential
information must have been communicated in confidence
information must have been misused by the party to whom it was communicated

36. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Property Rights: Intellectual Property
Copyright: Statutory grant protecting intellectual property from being copied for at least 50 years
Canadian copyright law protects original literary, musical, artistic, and dramatic works. It also includes software, and prohibits copying of entire programs or their parts.

37. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Property Rights: Intellectual Property
Patents: A grant to the creator of an invention granting the owner an exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an invention for between 17 and 20 years
Patent law grants a monopoly on underlying concepts and ideas of software.
Originality, novelty, and invention are key concepts

38. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Challenges to Intellectual Property Rights
Perfect digital copies cost almost nothing
Sharing of digital content over the Internet costs almost nothing
Sites, software, and services for file trading are not easily regulated.
The construction of web pages poses problems: a web page may present data from many sources, and incorporate framing

39. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Who owns the pieces? Anatomy of a Web page

40. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

41. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Accountability, Liability, and Control
Computer-related liability problems
Bank of America system failure caused cheques to bounce, etc.
Sprint Canada’s system failure caused disruption in trading on Vancouver Venture Exchange
Raise issues of liability legislation for software and systems

42. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

43. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
System Quality: Data Quality and System Errors
No software program is perfect, errors will be made, even if the errors have a low probability of occurring
Software manufacturers knowingly ship “buggy” products
At what point should software “be shipped?” What kind of disclaimer statements might be appropriate?

44. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

45. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Quality of Life: Equity, Access, and Boundaries
Balancing Power: Centre versus Periphery
Is IT centralizing decision-making power in the hands of a few, or is it allowing many more people to participate in decisions that affect their lives?
Rapidity of Change: Reduced Response Time to Competition
The business you work for may not be able to respond to rapidly changing IT-enabled market places and be wiped-out, along with your job.

46. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Quality of Life: Equity, Access, and Boundaries
Maintaining Boundaries: Family, Work, and Leisure
“Do anything anywhere” environment blurs the boundaries between work, vacation, and family time
Dependence and Vulnerability
There are few regulatory standards to protect us from the failure of complex electrical, communications, and computer networks upon which we all depend

47. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Quality of Life: Equity, Access, and Boundaries
Computer crime: Commission of illegal acts through the use of a computer or against a computer system is on the increase.
Computer abuse: Unethical but not necessarily illegal acts. Spam is computer abuse.

48. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Spam filtering software

49. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Quality of Life: Equity, Access, and Boundaries
Employment Trickle-down Technology and Reengineering:
The rapid development of the Internet has made it possible to offshore hundreds of thousands of jobs from high-wage countries to low- wage countries. Reengineering existing jobs using IT also results in few jobs (generally). While this benefits low-wage countries enormously, the costs are paid by high-wage country workers

50. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Quality of Life: Equity, Access, and Boundaries
Equity and access: Increasing Racial and Social Class Divisions
Digital divides exist in ethnic, social, and wealth groups
Health Risks:
RSI: Repetitive Stress Injury
Muscle groups are forced through repetitive actions with high-impact loads or thousands of repetitions with low-impact loads

51. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
Quality of Life: Equity, Access, and Boundaries
Health Risks (continued):
CVS: Computer Vision Syndrome
Eyestrain related to computer display use
Technostress
Stress induced by computer use

52. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems
Management Opportunities

53. Management Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions
Managers have the opportunity to use information technology to create an ethical business and social environment.
This does not mean management actions will always please all stakeholders, but at least management actions should take into account the ethical dimensions of IT-related decisions

54. Management Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions
Management Challenges:
Understanding the moral risks of new technology
Establishing corporate ethics policies that include information systems issues

55. Management Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions
Solution Guidelines:
Managers should strive to develop an IS-specific set of ethical standards for each of the following moral dimensions:
Information rights and obligations
Property rights and obligations
System quality
Quality of life
Accountability and control

56. Responsible Computer Use
Guidelines
In area of ethics, we rely on guidelines to guide behaviour. These guidelines can come from many organizations
The Computer Ethics Institute developed these guidelines for ethical computer use that prohibit the following behaviors:
Using a computer to harm others
Interfering with other people’s computer work
Snooping in other people’s files
Using a computer to steal
Using a computer to bear false witness
Copying or using proprietary software without paying for it
Using other people’s computer resources without authorization or compensation
Appropriating other people’s intellectual output

57. Responsible Computer Use
The guidelines from the Computer Ethics Institute also recommend the following when creating programs or using computers:
Thinking about the social consequences of programs you write and systems you design (e.g Napster, or a piece of Spyware)
Using computers in ways that show consideration and respect for others (e.g. proliferation of viruses, instant messaging, etc.)

58. Computer Crimes Computer Crime
The act of using a computer to commit an illegal act. The broad definition of computer crime can include the following:
Targeting a computer while committing an offense (e.g gaining entry to a computer system in order to cause damage to the computer or the data it contains)
Using a computer to commit and offense
(e.g. stealing credit card numbers from a company database)
Using computers to support criminal activity
(e.g. drug dealer using computers to store records of illegal transactions)

59. Computer Crimes and the Impact on Organizations

60. Computer Crime – Unauthorized Access
A person gaining entry to a computer system for which they have no authority to use such access
THIS IS A COMPUTER CRIME!

61. Computer Crime – Unauthorized Access Trends

62. Computer Crimes – Who Commits Them?
Unauthorized Access
1998 Survey of
1600 companies by
PricewaterhouseCoopers
82% come from
inside the
organization
(employees)

63. Computer Crimes – Who Commits Them?
Unauthorized Access
Survey by
Computer Security Institute

64. Computer Crime – Various Types 1st Half

65. Computer Crime – Various Types 2nd Half

66. Computer Crimes - Hacking and Cracking
Hackers
A term to describe unauthorized access to computers based entirely on a curiosity to learn as much as possible about computers. It was originally used to describe MIT students in the 1960s that gained access to mainframes. It was later used universally used for gaining unauthorized access for any reason
Crackers
A term to describe those who break into computer systems with the intention of doing damage or committing crimes. This term was created because of protests by true hackers

67. Computer Crimes – Cracker (Humorous)

68. Computer Crime – Software Piracy
This practice of buying one copy and making multiple copies for personal and commercial use, or for resale is illegal in most countries while others offer weak or nonexistent protections. This has become and international problem as shown below

69. Destructive Code that Replicates
Viruses
These programs disrupt the normal function of a computer system through harmless pranks or by destroying files on the infected computer. They come in several types:
Boot Sector – attaches to the section of a hard disk or floppy disk that boots a computer.
File Infector – attach themselves to certain file types such as .doc, .exe, etc.
Combination – viruses can change types between boot sector and file infector to fool antivirus programs
Attachment – released from an when an attachment is launched. Can also send themselves your address book
Worms
This destructive code also replicates and spreads through networked computers but does damage by clogging up memory to slow the computer versus destroying files

70. Computer Crimes – Destructive Code

71. Destructive Code that Doesn’t Replicates
Trojan Horses
These programs do not replicate but can do damage as they run hidden programs on the infected computer that appears to be running normally (i.e. a game program that creates an account on the unsuspecting user’s computer for unauthorized access)
Logic or Time Bombs
A variation of a Trojan Horse that also do not replicate and are hidden but are designed to lie in wait for a triggering operation. (i.e. a disgruntled employee that sets a program to go off after they leave the company)
Time Bombs – are set off by dates (e.g. a birthday)
Logic Bombs – are set off by certain operations (e.g. a certain password)

72. Cyberwar and Cyberterrorism
An organized attempt by a country’s military to disrupt or destroy the information and communications systems of another country. Common targets include:
Command and control systems
Intelligence collection and distribution systems
Information processing and distribution systems
Tactical communication systems
Troop and weapon positioning systems
Friend-or-Foe identification systems
Smart weapons systems

73. Cyberwar and Cyberterrorism
A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack):
an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users.
motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary
generally consists of the concerted efforts of a person or people to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely.
perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways, and even root nameservers.

74. Cyberwar and Cyberterrorism
The use of computer and networking technologies against persons or property to intimidate or coerce governments, civilians, or any segment of society in order to attain political, religious, or ideological goals
Responses to the Threat
At greatest risk are those that depend highly on computers and networking infrastructure (i.e. governments, utilities, transportation providers, etc.) Responses include:
Improved intelligence gathering techniques
Improved cross-government cooperation
Providing incentives for industry security investment