Table of Contents

Introduction.........................................................................1
What is Computer ethics?......................................................2
1. Intellectual Property.........................................................2

How are Copyright materials violated?.........................................3

Solution.....................................................................................4
Challenges.................................................................................4

2. Invasion of Privacy............................................................5

How is Privacy Violated?.............................................................6

Solution.....................................................................................7
Challenges.................................................................................8

3. Computer Reliability..........................................................8

Solution.....................................................................................9
Challenges................................................................................10

4. Internet Fraud.................................................................10

How are innocent computer users defrauded?............................12

Solution...................................................................................13
Challenges................................................................................13

5. Computer Attack.............................................................13

Who are the computer criminals?...............................................14

Solution...................................................................................15
Challenge.................................................................................16

CONCLUSION.......................................................................16
REFRENCES......................................................................... 17

This report is written by Akinbayode Olaoluwa Ebenezer.

Introduction
The introduction of Information Technology and development of high-tech
equipment has brought both good and bad fortunes to the human race.
This report explains the notion that the computer systems contribute a
considerable amount of problems of some of the major ethical problems of our
society.

The subjects discussed in this report include violation of intellectual property

rights, invasion of privacy, computer reliability, internet fraud and computer
attack.
Solutions to tackle the problems and challenges faced are also discussed in this
report.

What is Computer ethics?

Computer ethics can simply be defined as set of moral principles that regulate
the use of computers. It is a part of practical philosophy, which deals with how
computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and
social conduct.
Below are five types of ethics issue, which I will be doing a literature review on.
These ethic issues are issues that occurs in our real world :
1). Intellectual Property
2). Invasion of Privacy
3). Computer Reliability
4). Internet Fraud
5). Computer Attack

1. Intellectual Property
Intellectual property can be defined as an intangible property or invention that is
the result of creativity such as inventions, images, literary or a design, to which
the individual has rights and for which he/she may apply for a patent or copyright
protection.
Intellectual property has two parts and they are: - Tangible objects/creativity,
which requires bodily skills, and intangible materials/creativity, which demand
mind skills.

While physical property can be defended by the current legislation, intangible

intellectual property is non-exclusive, which makes it very difficult to protect. This
is because many people can use intangible intellectual materials as many time,
as they want without limitations. Computer software and digital materials such as
e-books, apps, digital music and movies are examples of intangible products that
are threatened by intellectual property violations.

How are Copyright materials violated?

Unfortunately, the fast development of information technology has contributed
negatively in the violation of intellectual property rights. These developments
include, large media storage, increased transmission speed of digital content
through computer networks, and interoperability of media, which allows easy
sharing, modification and conversion. With the use of newer technologies,
copyrighted materials are violated in the following manner

Software piracy: Thousands of apps, songs and video content are illegally
downloaded over the Internet, burnt into CDs/DVDs and sold to millions of people
on a large scale without the permission of the creator. This is very popular in
countries that have laxed law on property protection.

Copyright material may also be violated if the material or its content is

changed or modified without permission.

Illegal Upload/Download: The work is also violated if its material is illegally

downloaded, digitized and uploaded onto the Internet without creators
permission (e.g. Pirate Bay, Extra Torrent).

Plagiarized content. For example, downloading and copying of information

without authors permission. This is common among college students, whereby

they copy peoples work on the Internet and use it as their own without authors
consent.
The real danger and effect of illegal distribution and digitizing of original creations
is that the company or individual may face serious financial problems.

Solution
In order to stop intellectual property abuse, the following actions must be taken: 1.) Author or inventor must clearly state the purpose for which and how their work
should be used. (Weather its free, premium, for education or corporate use.)
2.) Intellectual property owners should adopt the use of watermarks on all their
works and materials.
3.) For preview purposes, they should upload read-only formats of their works
online with strong copyright protection tool, which disables copying, or printing.
4.) They can also protect their works by notifying intellectual property
organizations (e.g. WIPO) of their works. The job of these organizations is to
promote and protect the use of intellectual properties.
5.) Lastly, Government should enact a law to protect intellectual properties. And
people should be made aware of the fine and danger of using illegal materials.

Challenges
The main challenge is that people tends to go for cheaper materials, even when
they know that they are breaking the law. For example, in the case of CD piracy,
people prefer the pirated CD because its cheaper than the original one. This

makes it a bit challenging for the solution to work. But I believe with proper law
and awareness campaign, intellectual property violation will reduce.

2. Invasion of Privacy
Invasion of Privacy is one of the core issues of computer ethics because people
are worried about losing their right of privacy such as freedom, solitude,
anonymity, intimacy and right to control their personal information.
We are now living in a modern computerized world whereby information has
become a valuable commodity. Let me give two examples in which information
has become a very powerful tool.
In some corporations (e.g. marketing company, social media platform, email and
webhosting providers, etc.), for them, information is money and because of this,
they sell and buy information collected from various users.
While for some security forces and other arms of government (e.g NSA, State
Security services, Malaysia's Secret Service etc.), information is security and
because of this, they control and use personal data collected from various
sources of database in the name of public security and protection.
In these two citied cases which Ive given, individuals and groups do not at most
times have the ability to control the flow of their own personal information (such
as name, age, sex, race, address, telephone number, email address, medical
record, employer information, location etc.) and therefore can not determine for
themselves how, when and which personal information should be released or
shared with other third parties. Even in some cases, personal information of
individual are maintained, shared and sold without their permission.

The issue of privacy invasion is becoming alarming these days as many

sophisticated technologies are being used as surveillance tools. Below are some
ways in which privacy are violated in our real world.

How is Privacy Violated?

Information Abuse: For financial gain, some organizations use collected
customer data illegally for unauthorized purpose without their formal knowledge.
Intrusion: It is an illegal act of entering or acquiring possession of someone
else's property (e.g hacking an innocent users name and changing their
password). My email has once been hacked and password stolen and I have
never been able to recover it till date. My privacy was violated.
Interception of information: Eavesdropping is a very common problem
on the Internet whereby hackers or third parties have unauthorized access to
private information and communication through the use of software applications.
Data Matching: Security departments are now equipped with far more
sophisticated technologies that they can detect almost anything. They use data
matching to compare two or more unrelated database to produce new
information. By using data matching method to gather statistical information,
issues like computer profiling occurs. For example, there was a story in the news
about TSA; an organization responsible for airport security in the USA, that they
detained a five years old boy because his name matches with a wanted terrorist.
Data Mining: It involves the process of compiling masses of data into one or
more databases in order to extract new information. Mostly used by marketing
companies to send advertisements, which individuals do not request for.
Computer and

network surveillance:

Many company websites,

membership and e-commerce websites in particular tracks user's activity with the

use of cookies without the knowledge of the user. A cookies is a small piece of
data sent from a website and stored on the visitor's hard disks to gather
information about their activities and preferences. While in some other cases,
governments, corporations and criminals have used malicious tools to monitor
computer users.
Phone Surveillance: At this age, almost anything can be hacked. If
tampered with by professional criminals or security departments, smart devices
may be used to record videos, transfer files and capture pictures of individuals
without the knowledge and permission of the user.

Solution
According to some great philosophers, violating the right of privacy violates the
person. So in order to protect our personal information from being invaded, what
should we (the people) or government be forced to do?
1.) Individuals must be very careful and limit information given out via Internet,
paper or other electronic format. Should they wish to release some of their
personal information to an organization, they must understand what information
is collected about them, purpose, security safeguards and how will it be used.
2). In the case of Internet, individuals should refrain from posting personal
information of themselves on social media platforms/forums. If they wish to send
any important information over the Internet, an encryption tool should be used.
3.) Individuals and corporate entities should install personal firewalls and
antivirus on their computer systems.
4.) I also believe that Privacy is a fundamental human right, which must be
protected by law. Therefore, a legislation (e.g. Data Protection Act) must be
enacted by the government to protect personal data of people from illegal use.

Challenges
Some people, especially men of the security forces, believe that privacy in form
of anonymity is harmful to our social stability because it protects the guilty ones
and covers their criminal deception. They believe that if you are not a criminal,
then what do you have to hide?
On one hand, there is a threat to personal privacy and at the other hand; there is
a threat to peoples safety and security. These strong arguments are the
challenges faced in social perspectives when it comes to privacy protection but I
believe with a balancing legislation act, the issue of privacy invasion and
criminals hiding under the form of anonymity will reduce.

3. Computer Reliability
Computer reliability can be defined as the ability of a computer machine (either
hardware or software) to deliver its required functions for a given period of time. It
can also be defined as the responsibilities and corporate standards of behavior
expected of computer professionals
We all understand that computer and IT is very crucial in our day-to-day activities
ranging from business efficiency, education, and security e.t.c. Hence, computer
reliability is important because it gives us confidence in computer systems.
A computer system becomes unreliable when it starts to present unwanted
malfunctions or when the program does not meet the users expectations. These
computer problems arise from lack of inadequate testing, poor design,
incomplete coverage of all the necessary materials needed to build the system in
order to minimize cost of development or due to professional negligence.

Let me give a proper example on computer unreliability. When an individual goes

to a store to purchase a new notebook. Upon sighting a beautiful laptop and
reading its box description showing that the laptop is 10 hours of battery life, duo
core processor with less heat, the individual purchased the item. Couple of
weeks later, the individual realizes that the laptop can only go for 3 hours of
battery life, with unbearable heat; this is an example of computer unreliability.

Solution
1.) A licensing board regulating computer production should be initiated. The
board should decide on what standard should be manufactured or developed.
2.) There must be a well-designed legislation biding manufacturers and
developers in charge of system developments to a certain standard. (e.g rules,
regulations and warranties). Any professional who fails honor the law should be
penalized.
3.) A consumer group that protects people from corporate abuse and unsafe
products should be initiated.

Challenges
Some of the challenges faced is that, end-users tend not to use software or
product correctly, thereby passing the blame to developers and manufactures
that, the product is not well designed.
Another challenge is that when a product fails a consumer, they do not know
which authority to report the problem to. With proper awareness, I believe this will
give consumer the confidence and information they need.

4. Internet Fraud
Internet fraud can be defined as any illegal act for which Internet services or
software with Internet access is used to commit a fraud, result in financial gain.
Internet fraud can occur in message boards, email, chat rooms, or on websites.
The development of new technology platforms (such as online shopping, online
banking, e-payment and others) to ease our day-to-day activities, has also
created new potentials for theft and exposes companies and consumers to
financial risk. For example, there was news of an Australian woman who lost over
$80,000 to a romance scam.
Internet fraud cases has become so rampant nowadays that it is becoming
difficult for people to trust anything that has to do with the Internet as fraudsters
are constantly exploring and developing new methods to steal money from
innocent computer users. According to Kros Global Fraud report, millions of
dollars are lost yearly to computer fraudsters.
Below are some common techniques which fraudsters use in stealing computer
user information: Spamming: This is an act by which fraudsters use electronic messaging
systems to send unsolicited bulk messages (spam)
Spyware Application: is a software that gathers information about a person
or organization without their knowledge and send those data to another entity.
Keyloggers: It secretly captures and records actions of key struck pressed on
a keyboard and send those information to the fraudster.
Phishing and spoofing: It is an illegal act of attempting to acquire sensitive
information such as credit card details, usernames and passwords (and
sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an
electronic communication.

How are innocent computer users defrauded?

Employment search overpayment scam: As usual, fraudsters send
random emails to different email users offering them a job to become a financial
representative of an oversea organization. The individual might think this is real
but unfortunately, the intention of the fraudster is to acquire the individual
sensitive information (such as SSN, bank information etc.) for other purpose.
Disaster relief scams: Fraudsters sometime takes advantage when
disasters or tragic events occur where people die or lost everything they have. In
times like these, good and nice people come together to help the victims in any
way they can, including via online donations. During this period, fraudsters set up
fake charity organization websites and steal the money donated to the victims.
Romance scam: is a dating scam involving feigned romantic intentions
towards a victim, gaining their affection, and then using that goodwill to commit
fraud.
Advance fee fraud: is a very common Internet crime causing Internet users
to lose significant amounts of money. This is how it works, fraudster tries to
convince a victim that the victim has been selected for a business deal with easy
money to be gained and the only condition to obtain the gain is that the victim
has to pay a small amount of money in advance. Once the victim pays, the
fraudster keeps requesting for more and more money without fulfilling any
business deal.

Solution

1.) Government should start massive campaign awareness on Internet fraud in

order to educate computer users.
2.) Computer users should install antivirus, antimalware, email filtering, web
filtering software on their computers.
3.) Individuals should not respond to unsolicited email offers or accept payment
from individuals they did not purchase from.
4.) In order to guard your personal information, dont give out your credit card
details online unless the site is a secure and reputable. Before you use the site,
check out the security and the encryption software it uses.

Challenges
The main challenge is that some victims decides not to report internet crimes
because they have little to benefit from it, while some are frustrated with the
expensive prosecutions, time consuming investigations and light sentences.
Also without help from the authorities or family members, some victims would
continue communicating with the fraudsters hoping that they can correct the
issue but unfortunately they end up getting more conned.

5. Computer Attack
Computer attack can be defined as an attempt by computer criminals to destroy,
expose, disable, alter, steal or gain unauthorized access to computer network or
device.
The development of information technology and the spread of personal computer
and computer networks bring forth new ability for crime and illegal activities. The
centralization of data via network databases gives new opportunities to computer

criminals to access unauthorized computer materials, manipulate data and steal

information easily and quickly.

Who are the computer criminals?

Computer criminals (sometimes called hackers) can be regarded as ambitious
people with impressive educational credentials or technical skills who regard
themselves as heroes. The targets and motivations of computer criminals are not
different from motivations of ordinary criminals. And because computer attack
involves little physical danger for the computer criminal, has low risk of detection
and can appear to be more like a game than a crime of the traditional kind,
hence, most computer crimes are considered victimless crimes with no serious
consequences. But the actual fact is that, computer attacks can cause financial
and managerial problems to companies and businesses.
Below are some ways in which computers are attacked.
Virus: is a malware or worm software application that replicates by inserting
copies of itself into other computer programs or data files.
Password guessing/attack: Password attack is process by which hackers
try to recover passwords from data that have been transmitted or store on a
computer. One common method is a brute-force attack.

Spyware: is an software application that gathers computer activity and

information about a person or organization illegally without their knowledge and
send those gathered information to hackers.

Denial-of-service attack: Denial-of-service attack is a network attack

designed to bring the network to its knees by flooding the network with useless
heavy traffic. Examples of those attacks include Ping of Death and Teardrop
attacks which exploit limitations in network protocols

Solution
Below are the solutions I propose to solve these kinds of attacks
1.) Internet providers and big companies should establish security measures
such as anti virus systems, filtering anti-spam software, firewalls and encryption
devices that protects data transmitted.
2.) Internet users should also be encouraged to install personal firewalls and
antivirus on their computers to block attacks. If they believe their system has
been hacked or attacked, they should look for a professional technical help who
will help them to resolve the issue.
3.) In addition, Government should create a new legislation, dedicated to tackle
crimes computer crimes

Challenge
There are several reasons why computer attack may be a challenge. First, some
computer crimes can be very difficult to detect.
Second, some victims decided not to report computer crimes because they have
little to benefit from reporting computer crimes, while some are frustrated with the
expensive prosecutions, time consuming investigations and light sentences.
And finally, some companies cover up computer crimes for publicity fear. It is bad
publicity for a business company to admit that its security system does not work
efficiently or that some company insiders have stolen money or information. All
these make it difficult for the solutions to work.

CONCLUSION
The more IT development advances, the more it will create new potential for
computer criminals but the risks can be managed with proper law, causion and
awareness.
In conclusion, I do not believe that computers can be completely neutralized from
being used for criminal purposes.

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