COMPUTING AND ETHICS

By B.S.srimathy
ETHICS

• Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that involves

systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and
wrong conduct.[1] The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns
matters of value, and thus comprises the branch
of philosophy called axiology.[2]
• Ethics seeks to resolve questions of human morality by defining
concepts such as good and evil, right
and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime. As a field
of intellectual inquiry, moral philosophy also is related to the fields
of moral psychology, descriptive ethics, and value theory.
COMPUTER ETHICS
• Computer ethics is a part of practical philosophy concerned with how
computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional
and social conduct.[1] Margaret Anne Pierce, a professor in the Department
of Mathematics and Computers at Georgia Southern University has
categorized the ethical decisions related to computer technology and
usage into three primary influences:
• The individual's own personal code.
• Any informal code of ethical conduct that exists in the work place.
• Exposure to formal codes of ethics.[2]
SOFTWARE ETHICS
• Software enables us to accomplish many different tasks with computers. Unfortunately, in order to
get their work done quickly and conveniently, some people justify making and using unauthorized
copies of software. They may not understand the implications of their actions or the restrictions of the
U.S. copyright law. Here are some relevant facts:
• Unauthorized copying of software is illegal. Copyright law protects software authors and publishers,
just as patent law protects inventors.
• Unauthorized copying of software by individuals can harm the entire academic community. If
unauthorized copying proliferates on a campus, the institution may incur a legal liability. Also, the
institution may find it more difficult to negotiate agreements that would make software more widely
and less expensively available to members of the academic community.
• Unauthorized copying of software can deprive developers of a fair return for their work, increase
prices, reduce the level of future support and enhancement, and inhibit the development of new
software products.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
• Intellectual Property Rights are the legal rights which creators are entitled to. Creators are
the people who produced intellectual property which are creative works that they have originally
made. With these rights, creators can choose what can legally be done to the work and other
rules that need to be followed. There are a variety of original works that can have property
rights. Some of these include written work, drawings, graphics, and many more. Having these
rights are very important because it allows someone to claim their intellectual ideas as their
own. There is a company called WIPO which are a self-funding agency that has copyrights,
patents, trademarks, industrial designs, and also geographical indications used in e-commerce.
This system is around because they recognize that creative works need to be protected by law
and that they are around to support a creative environment. This company even has a
magazine which displays the work that they have protected and boosts the work of creators
worldwide. They also run workshops and have different forms of training to help innovators
improve their skills and become familiar with new developments. The ability to have an agency
support you and your work is a great step in the world of creativity, and keeping those
intellectual property rights is what will continue to help creators flourish.[1]
HACKING AND PIRACY

• Hacking refers to attempts to gain information from otherwise undisclosed area

• Piracy refers to the unauthorized duplication of completed software
SOFTWARE PIRACY

• Software piracy means denial of intellectual property rights to the software creator or developer.
It is not ethical to use someone else's property without his/her content and without giving
him/her the benefit of it. Developing a software application involves a major investment of time,
money and effort. Software piracy denies the creator the revenue he/she deserves and harms
paying customers, who ultimately bear the cost of illegal use of products. Piracy limits the
creator's ability to be competitive, leading to higher-priced, less advanced products for
customers.
FORMS OF SOFTWARE PIRACY

• 1.Softlifting: It refers to purchasing a single licensed copy of the software and loading it onto several computers contrary to the license terms.
• Example- Sharing licensed software with friends, Co-workers, and others.

• 2.Uploading and downloading: It refers to making unauthorized copies of copyrighted software available to end users connected to a network.

• 3.Software counterfeiting: It refers to illegally duplicating and selling copyrighted software in a form designed to make it appear legitimate.

• 4.Hard disk loading: It refers to installing unauthorized copies of software onto the hard disks of personal computers, often as an incentive for the
end user to buy the hardware from that particular hardware dealer.

• 5.Renting: It is the unauthorized selling of software for temporary use, like renting a video.
CONTROL OF SOFTWARE PIRACY

• Software piracy can be controlled by copyrights, patents, and trademarks. A copyright is the
exclusive property right of the owner, creator, developer, author of a work, granted by law. It
gives the owner an exclusive right to protect his work in all forms. A patent refers to the special
power of monopoly granted by law. Without obtaining a license from the patent holder, the work
can not be used or reproduced. And a trademark refers to the registered word, text, logo
depicting the identity of a product, work or a company.
GETTING PROTECTED
• Before you implement protection measures for your computers, you must be aware of the forms of attacks that hackers may launch. In the following
steps, we are going to discuss different forms of attacks that generally take place.

• 1.Spamming: Spamming refers to the sending of bulk-mail by an identified or unidentified source. In non-malicious form, bulk advertising mail is sent
to many accounts. In malicious form(e-mail bombing), the attacker keeps on sending bulk mail until the mail server runs out of disk space.
• 2.Computer viruses: Computer viruses are malicious codes/programs that cause damage to data and files on a system. Viruses can attack any part
of a computer's software such as boot block, operating system, system areas, files, and application-program-macros.

• 3.Worms: A worm is a self-replicating program which eats up the entire disk space or memory. A worm keeps on creating its copies until all the disk
space or memory is filled.
• 4.Trojan horses: A Trojan horse is a program that appears harmless(such as a text editor or a utility program) but actually performs malicious
functions such as deleting or damaging files.

• 5.Sweeper: This is another malicious program used by hackers. It sweeps or deletes all the data from the system.

• 6.Denial of services: This type of attack eats up all the resources of a system and the system or applications come to a half. Example of such an
attack is flooding a system with junk mail.
• 7.Password guessing: Most hackers crack or guess passwords of system accounts and gain entry into remote computer systems. And then they use
it for causing damages in one or another form.
PROTECTIVE MEASURES

• Now after knowing different forms of attacks, let us now discuss different protective measures
that may be taken against such attacks.

The entire computer security is based on a system of safeguards that are designed to protect a
computer system from deliberate or accidental access and/or damage by unauthorized
persons.
CONTROLLING ACCESS TO SYSTEM
The combination of identification, authentication, and authorization can control access to a
system. This combination is very useful, especially in network security. Various techniques
used for network security are .......

1.Authorization: Authorization is performed by asking the user a legal log in id. If the user is
able to provide a legal log in id, he/she is considered an authorized user.

2.Authentication: Authentication is also termed as password protection as the authorized

user is asked to provide a valid password and if he/she is able to do this, he/she is
considered to be an authentic user.

3.Firewall: A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network is

called Firewall. Firewalls are a mechanism to prevent unauthorized internet users from
accessing private networks connected to the internet, especially intranets.
SECURING DATA

• Though controlled access to a system indirectly secures data, yet there are some other
measures that must be taken in case data gets corrupted even after taking security measures.
These include taking backups from time to time, preparing recovery mechanism, maintaining
transaction logs and having a proper disaster recovery plan. Data security also involves
measures like a secured waste, effective passwords, internal controls, conducting audits, and
using cryptography.
PREVENTIVE MEASURES

• Like many other pieces of technology, computers see constant wear and tear from being used.
Simple things like downloading files, clicking on harmful sites by accident, and allowing dust to
settle on the keyboard can build up to the computer slowing down and possibly being unusable.
However, by running anti-malware programs, deleting files as needed, and cleaning out the
dust on a computer, you can all prolong the lifespan of your computer for years of extra
effective use. Whether they're tasks that should be done every day, once a month, once a year,
or only when needed, below is a list of maintenance tasks to perform to get the most out use of
your computer.
• Try to back up your data at least once per day – no one wants to lose projects you spent
hours, if not days working on.
• Run a malware scan to stay on top of virus prevention. If you have any real-time
prevention tools even then some viruses may slip by. Depending on how frequently you
use the computer you can get away with doing this once a week; more frequent
computer users should do this daily.
• Check for updates every day so you don't miss any crucial upgrades, nor will you have
to spend hours installing dozens at a time if you procrastinate it.
• If you use your computer for many hours at a time during the day, then plan to restart it
at least once. This way, temporary files won't build up and slow down use over time.
• Never shut down by using the power button – always use the option from the start
menu! Never leave your computer on overnight either to save electricity and to prevent
wear-and-tear.
COMPUTER CRIME

• Computer crime or the electronic crime may include thefts or actions in the electronic form that
causes damage or difficulty to other computer users. Computer crime may be of following types
......
• Theft, destruction or alteration of data.
• Theft, destruction or manipulation of programs.
• Hacking.
• Theft of computer time.
Some white-collar crimes are

• Theft of data or software.

• Theft of documentation.
• Sabotage.
• Illegal modification of data.
• Forging or falsification of data.
• Embezzling funds.
• Fraud in figures.
• Installing 'Bugs'.
• Selling reports, paper output.
REASONS FOR COMPUTER CRIME

• Computer crimes take place more often because of nearly no detection and prosecution.
Major reasons for computer crimes taking place are .....
• Little understood by police, courts.
• Low detection rate, often accidental.
• 3-defined laws.
• Data 'value' hard to define.
• Clearly defined laws and strict implementation of these laws can reduce computer crimes to a
great extent.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF COMPUTER ETHICS
• Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.
• Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work.
• Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's computer files.
• Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.
• Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.
• Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not paid (without permission).
• Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without authorization or proper compensation.
• Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.
• Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you are writing or the system you are
designing.
• Thou shalt always use a computer in ways that ensure consideration and respect for other
humans.[8]