Posted: September 1st, 2022

Ethics in IT

Ethics in IT
Introduction
Offensive cyber warfare has resulted in a wide range of ethical problems due to unconventional weapons that cause collateral damage to civilians when attacks are launched on government or military computer systems, thus requiring the adoption of ethical policies to counter such incidences. Cyberweapons have difficulties launching attacks on their targets due to the interdependence of computer systems, thus causing collateral damage to civilians in cyber warfare between different major parties such as countries (Lucas, 2017). The ethical issues arise since the damage arising from cyberwarfare attacks affects individual and organizational data thud compromising their operations. Observing ethical considerations needs to be legal, reasonable, and proportional by observing ethical military attacks, adopting noncombatants immunity strategies in the attacks, adhering to proportionality in scope and size of the attack concerning provocation, and ensuring that the attacks do more of good than harm.
Aggressive/offensive cyber warfare increase ethical issues in cyber warfare, taking tedious and difficulties of using cyberweapons effectively to pinpoint their targeted computer systems. In this case, the attacks influence high danger that increases collateral damage if the attack was directly launched on military computer systems and installation (Lucas, 2017). The fact that country and military installations are interconnected with military sites results in collateral damage to civilians, thus introducing ethical issues. The damage arising from cyber warfare is extreme when the attack is targeted on a country with primitive technology, thus making it hard for them to recover from the attacks. Offensive cyber warfare is characterized by disproportionality, noncombatant immunity strategies, lack of reason, and more harm than good results; thus, there is a need to introduce ethical policies.
Summary
Unethical experiences have been registered in implementing cyber welfare as they cause collateral damage to the civilian. There are different vectors and contributors to cyber welfare, such as biometrics, unethical hackers, social domain, and state-sponsored threats. There are different challenges arise from cyber wars due to not adhering to ethical standards and guidelines. The conduct of cyberwar needs to incorporate ethical and legal standards in the interest of protecting civilians. On the contrary, ethical standards and guidelines at different levels are violated by different parties, thus introducing a challenge to protecting civilians. Additionally, the organizational and state operations on technology and cyber system fail to observe privacy consideration, thus posing security risks and threats to the system.
Background
Cyberwarfare entails the use of computer technology and innovations to compromise the operations of a state or an organization through launching a deliberate attack of information systems for political, military, and strategic purposes. Cyberwarfare is launched at the expense of the victims (government, military, or organization) and in the attackers’ interest, such as the hackers, states, or military organizations. In this regard, the digital attacks through operations such as hacking or viruses by one nation compromise the vital computer system of another to cause destruction, death, and damage. Consequently, legislation has been enacted to protect the interdependent components and devices during cyberwarfare incidences. The legislation is both local and international. The United States different laws and Acts that include the Homeland Security Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Ach, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability directed toward protecting civilians in cyber warfare attacks. On the other hand, at the international level, there are the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and 1977 and the Hague Convention of 1899 and 1907 that regulate cyber warfare to ensure that they are implemented within the legal and ethical constraints. Additionally, cyber warfare ethical issues arise in intelligence collection and surveillance on countries and the military computer system that cause collateral damage through privacy intelligence collection. The privacy intelligence collection occurs when the civilian sites and computer systems are affected in intelligence collection and surveillance on a state or military computer system, thus making the civilians vulnerable. The civilian operations are further affected when civilian data gathered is shared with organizations and parties of interest, making them vulnerable.
Major threat vectors, contributors to cyber-warfare
Biometrics
Cyberwarfare is facilitated by different contributors and vectors across different jurisdictions. The contributors and vectors play a vital role in implementing cyber warfare, thus violating the ethical and legal standards set in the interest of civilian safety. In this case, the use of biometrics in cybersecurity has negatively contributed to cyber warfare. Biometrics adopts an individual physical and unique characteristics to verify a person’s identity so that they can gain access to a computer and network system. The physiological traits such as eyes, fingerprints, and behavioral traits, provide a unique security authentication puzzle (Andress and Winterfeld, 2013). The biometric data storage is in constant threat from attackers and hackers, and its access contributes to success in cyber warfare. The biometric data is unique and irreplaceable but is storage is expensive and technically difficult. Therefore, biometric data is at risk, and upon being accessed by the attackers, it contributed to cyber warfare.
Unethical hackers
Unethical hackers have been engaged in the unauthorized access of network and computer systems of states, nations, military, and other organizations, thus assisting in implementing cyber warfare. The unethical uses advanced technological knowledge to access and regulate computer software and system (Andress and Winterfeld, 2013). The ethical hackers exploit weaknesses and breaching defenses in computer and network systems. The unethical hackers use their technological skills and knowledge to exploit weaknesses in the computer systems, thus aiding cyber warfare implementation.
State-sponsored threats
State-sponsored cyber-attacks have immensely contributed to cyber warfare implementation that negatively affects the civilian and vital state resources and infrastructures such as the military or the transport system (Hadji and Bogdanoski, 2016). The state-sponsored attacks are done with the objectives of exploiting money from systems and individuals, gathering of intelligence, and the exploitation of national infrastructure vulnerabilities. States can conduct high-level hacking and cyber-attack operations, thus facilitation the conduct of cyber warfare.
Social domain
The social domain in technology entails the set of technology components founded on organizational similarities and technology, and they are used in serving the nations, individuals, and organizations at different social levels (Hadji and Bogdanoski, 2016). The social domains operate based on principles, technologies, and standards subject to violation, thus assisting the conduct of cyber warfare. The social domains are used as social, economic, and cultural levels, thus presenting many domains subject to attacks, thus facilitating cyber warfare.
Major challenges associated with ethics in cyberwar
Design, Test environment, and Deployment
The designing, creations, and development of cyber-related systems and infrastructure need to be done observing high levels of ethical consideration to protect individual and civilians in the case of a cyber-attack, but challenges associated with ethics leaves the users vulnerable. The design, test environment, and deployment need to be conducted within safety and protection confines to ensure that the three operations are not compromised by the attackers or the hackers (Robinson, Jones and Janicke, 2015). The hackers and attackers rely on the slightest opportunities to exploit the system, and thus ethical standards need to be upheld. The professionals engaged in the cyber system and infrastructure have a high tendency to breach the confidentiality involved in their operation, thus exposing the system to the attackers. In this case, the design needs to be done to prevent and counter attackers. The test environment needs to be protected with detection and anti-intrusions software. The deployment needs to be the implementation with security considerations. Failure to adopt security measures in developing and applying security systems and infrastructure introduces a conflict between security and ethics, thus making the systems and infrastructure vulnerable.
Insufficient Skills and Training Insider Threats
The failure to adequately train professionals and staff involved in the operation and management of the cyber systems and infrastructure makes it impossible to observe ethical standards and guidelines, thus exposing them to cyber warfare. Sufficient training and skills in Information Technology take the incorporation of ethical guidelines to guide the professional in making decisions and conducting normal organizational operations. Insufficiently skilled and trained professionals pose insider threats knowingly and unknowingly as the attackers can take advantage of their incompetence to launch attacks on computer systems, thus leading to a cyber-warfare (Robinson, Jones, and Janicke, 2015). Staff with sufficient skills and training have relevant information on things to do and those to avoid in their operations to the point that they observe ethical guidelines directed towards the protection of computer systems and infrastructure. Therefore, insufficient skills and training make the professionals engage in unethical practices that increase insider threats, making the organization vulnerable to cyber warfare.
Government Monitoring using technology
The government engages in unethical monitoring of organizational and state cyberinfrastructure using different technologies and innovations that pose a threat to cyber-attacks. Authoritarian governments rely on technology to monitor and monitor the organizations and other states, thus increasing the chances of cyber warfare (Caplan, 2013). Government monitoring and surveillance need to be conducted within the ethical and legal guidelines to ensure that confidentiality, informed consent, benevolence, and truthfulness in the interest of the parties involved. On the contrary, governments breach the ethical consideration in system monitoring, thus compromising the safety of cyber systems and infrastructure.

Laws/legal Systems and Technology
The law has gaps in the administration and protection of organizational operations, thus posing ethical challenges that expose a state or organizational cyberinfrastructure. The question of ethics and legality is vital in information technology to control professionals’ function and operation. The gaps in-laws for failure to sufficiently address the ethical issue of privacy, digital ownership, data gathering, security liability, and access costs inclines professionals to work and act inappropriately at the expense of organizational security (Lucas, 2017). For instance, on the ethical consideration of security liability, there are inherent risks posed to data or information stored electronically, and there is no distinction between risks that are acceptable and freedoms that can be forfeited, resulting in confusion among the IT professionals. In this regard, there is a need for a balance of risk and freedom to create a security system that makes ethical considerations. Therefore, issues of gaps and clarity in the law introduce ethical challenges that make it hard to uphold computer systems’ security.
Major challenges associated with cyber privacy war
Threat analysis and developing threat models for the system
Organizations take the analysis of threats and development of threat models without considering the aspect of privacy, thus compromising the security of the cyber system and infrastructure. The threat analysis development of threat models needs to consider privacy aspects to ensure that security measures and solutions are taken without the attackers (Carr, 2012). The hackers constantly access operations and activities towards security, the system, and infrastructure to position themselves at an advantaged position in implementing the attack. The conduct of threat analysis and development needs to be done in privacy since exposing the operation creates weak points in the computer and network system that can be exploited by the attackers.
Laws/legal Systems and Technology
The information technology-based laws lack clarity or have gaps that make it possible to administer privacy in the professionals’ conduct concerning the technology. The law does not provide provisions to sufficiently protect or cover data since personal data is spread throughout the digital world. Additionally, private and secured accounts containing data can be accessed by unintended sources (Carr, 2012). Privacy has changing legal implications that need to adopt ethical considerations since privacy concerns are delicate aspects. Therefore, insufficient provisions directed towards legal privacy matters introduce challenges in protecting computer systems and infrastructure.
Insufficient training on the biometric software and technology
Insufficient training on biometric software and technology results in misuse, leading to a breach of privacy. The breach of privacy makes unauthorized parties to access accounts and systems. The biometric entails using unique physical characteristics to gain access to a system for the authorized parties. The system stores the personal and physical data, and it is used in authenticating the different users before they access the system or their accounts (Sharma and Purohit, 2018). The users need to protect their biometric information and effectively use the system while incorporating different security and safety measures in the system’s interest. The IT professionals and staff at different levels need to be effectively trained on the best practices safeguarding the biometric software and data to avoid exposing such information at their expense. Therefore, insufficient training on operations and management of biometric software and technology exposes information/credentials used accessing systems and accounts, thus causing cyber warfare incidences.
The legality of Technology Privacy Protections
The legality of technology privacy protections is questioned due to the confusion between constitutional privacy and informational privacy. The technology privacy protection strategies and measures are evaluated from the two aspects of information and constitutional privacy. Constitutional privacy entails the freedom to take individual decisions without others’ interference on matters viewed as intimate and personal. On the other hand, informational privacy takes persons’ interest in exercising regulation over access to information about themselves (Sharma and Purohit, 2018). Therefore, the legality of the strategies or approaches used in attaining the system’s privacy and data is put in question considering the freedom to access information or violation of rights to information. The conflict affects the privacy levels for the information, systems, and accounts.
Conclusion
Cyberwarfare should operate within legal and ethical constraints to uphold the privacy, ensuring that private or civilian entities are not affected negatively through collateral damage. Legal and ethical cyber warfare needs to target single organizations or parties such as nation or military without damaging civilians sites despite their interdependencies. Different factors contribute to cyber warfare, such as biometrics, unethical hackers, state sponsored threats, and social domain, and they need to be effectively regulated in the interest of computer system safety. Additionally, there are major challenges associated with ethics and privacy in cyber warfare, and they need to be regulated under policies and best practices in the interest of computer systems and cyberinfrastructure.

References
Andress, J., & Winterfeld, S. (2013). Cyber warfare: techniques, tactics and tools for security practitioners. Elsevier.
Caplan, N. (2013). Cyber War: the Challenge to National Security. Global Security Studies, 4(1).
Carr, J. (2012). Inside cyber warfare: Mapping the cyber underworld. ” O’Reilly Media, Inc.”.
Hadji-Janev, M., & Bogdanoski, M. (Eds.). (2016). Handbook of research on civil society and national security in the era of cyber warfare. Information Science Reference.
Lucas, G. R. (2017). Ethics and cyber warfare: the quest for responsible security in the age of digital warfare. Oxford University Press.
Lucas, G. R. (2017). Ethics and cyber warfare: the quest for responsible security in the age of digital warfare. Oxford University Press.
Robinson, M., Jones, K., & Janicke, H. (2015). Cyber warfare: Issues and challenges. Computers & security, 49, 70-94.
Sharma, R., & Purohit, M. (2018). Emerging Cyber Threats and the Challenges Associated with them. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), 5(02).

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