The term computer abuse refers to practices that are unethical but not illegal. Ethics in general is concerned with making the choice between doing right and wrong. A code of ethics has been produced by the Association of Computing Machinery (an American professional body). Its main points are:
1. Contribute to society and human well being, by sharing expert knowledge freely to help colleagues and others.
2. Avoid harm to others. Be careful in what is passed on and follow company procedures.
3. Be honest and trustworthy.
4. Honour property rights, copyrights, and patents.
5. Give proper credit to the intellectual property of others. Do not pass other peoples’ work as your own.
6. Respect the privacy of others. Do not gossip about confidential information. Do not read other people’s e-mail.
Unethical behaviour has, at its roots, selfishness. It is as unethical to browse through someone’s computer files as it is to snoop at their diary. It is as unethical to send a rude message via e-mail as it is on paper. What difference is there in using unlicensed software to travelling on a train without paying the fare?
Unethical behaviour can be regarded as a disciplinary matter in some companies.
Sometimes you may come across conflicting demands. You can apply the following guidelines to help you:
Do to others what you would have them do to you. Think your actions through. How would they affect others?
Consider what is the greatest good or the least harm.
If the action is not right for everyone to take, then it’s not right for anyone to take. What would happen if everyone did what you propose to do?
The Slippery Slope Rule: actions that produce acceptable changes can produce unacceptable changes in the long run. Therefore, they shouldn’t be done in the first place.
Unethical behaviour can be mostly traced back to individual selfishness.
Question 1. Write down two examples of unethical behaviour and suggest a reason for each one why a company regards the unethical behaviour as a disciplinary matter. ANSWER
Computer crime has often been considered as a victimless crime. It is not. It affects individuals, companies and their customers, and society as a whole.
The young man “milking a computer” and making his fortune has a romantic air. However he has committed no less a crime than if he had walked into a bank with a sawn-off shotgun. It is one way that computers can be used for theft. People have also accessed bank databases to get credit card details, which they have used to make fraudulent purchases.
Fraudulent trading on the Internet is a widespread problem.
Question 2. Describe three
ways in which criminals can use the internet. ANSWER
Hacking is the unauthorised access to data. Employees of a company can acquire knowledge of user identities and passwords. On other occasions complete outsiders have managed to penetrate military, university, or corporate computers. Often there is no malicious intent; it’s a mischievous prank by intelligent but rather socially inept young men.
Data can be stolen by unauthorised access to data. This can be by copying and taking away the copy for criminal use. Such theft is hard to detect because the data is still there. An example may be the copying of account details of several customers in a bank computer.
Alternatively the whole computer can be stolen. Laptops are particularly easy to steal, although some thieves have brazenly walked off with a file server through a busy office. Data can also be lifted by use of equipment that can detect the electronic radiation from a VDU screen.
Question 3 Why is data worth stealing? ANSWER
Software Vandalism
Some young men have
gone beyond seeking their thrills through hacking, to writing malicious coding
that is intended to harm computer programs.
Such programs tend to be written by misguided and pathetically
inadequate young men who get their kicks from this kind of vandalism.
They feel big and heroic in the knowledge of the disruption and distress
they cause to others.
Viruses are malicious programs designed to disrupt the work of a computer. Viruses very rarely damage the hardware, but they can:
Destroy data.
Disrupt the operating system
Block up memory
Make the computer do irritating things.
Cause serious system errors.
Reproduce themselves and pass on to other computers.
Sometimes they can lie dormant until a particular event or sequence of events.
Viruses generally:
A logic bomb is similar to a virus, but does not reproduce, nor does it activate until triggered. It can do immense damage to a computer system. It is often planted by an extortionist, or a disgruntled (ex-) employee. The latter might be facing dismissal after a disciplinary inquiry, and would set off the program on his dismissal.
A worm is designed to go into a system and send information back to its author, like a spy. Some worms can act like viruses, replicating themselves and doing damage
Trojan Horses are containers that have a virus hiding inside. The virus is concealed within something that looks legitimate. This might be a document that has an attachment which contains the virus. Some documents might have the malicious code within the document itself, especially those written in html (hypertext mark-up language).
Viruses can travel in floppy disks and other removable storage media. A virus scanner can detect them, and render them harmless. Since new viruses are being written all the time, it is important to update the virus scanner from time to time. Some people use this kind of software to check all floppy disks before material is loaded from them. Other ways of protection include:
Making sure that all purchased software comes in sealed packaging.
Ensuring that nobody loads unauthorised software onto a network.
Not permitting floppy disks of software or data to be removed or brought in to the office. (This can result in dismissal.)
Question 4 Explain three reasons why it is important to have good security on a college network. ANSWER
The risk of malicious damage can also be minimised by the use of the following precautions:
Careful vetting of new staff.
Immediate denial of access to staff who have been sacked or have handed in their resignation.
Separation of duties so that two people are required to enable critical functions to be changed.
High security measures in the “inner sanctum” of the network. Even the computer manager can be monitored.
Education of staff to ensure they are aware of security issues.
Hardware
Threats
Threats to Hardware are obvious and unsubtle. You can smash up the computer equipment with a hammer, but hard drives are remarkably robust, and the data can be lifted off them by experts who charge a fortune to do so. Voltage spikes through the power supply can destroy the central processing unit and the RAM. This is why it is not advisable to use a computer during a thunderstorm.
Magnetic fields from an ordinary magnet can destroy or corrupt data held magnetic storage media. A monitor placed near to hifi speakers can produce a distorted image and the damage can be permanent.
Criminals can also use equipment that can damage the hardware such as high powered electromagnetic pulse generators.
Deliberate destruction of computer equipment is covered by laws on Criminal Damage.
As with any valuable item, reasonable precautions should be taken to prevent theft or other damage including:
locking important items in a secure room
Having restricted access to the servers
locking laptops to desks with wire loops and padlocks.
Question 5
"A virus got
in and destroyed the hardware" Explain why this statement is not
correct. ANSWER.
Presentation Computer Ethics
Now go on to Legal Framework