Monday, 14 November 2011
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Week 8 Exercise
WEEK 8: Additional Assignment for CISB412
Each Team is to work on the questions during today’s class and upload the answer through their blog by Friday 11th November, 5 PM. It is recommended that the teams finalize this assignment during the class time and not take it outside the designated learning time for this week. You need NOT MORE than 2 hours to get this done. Manage your time right. You need not send any email to indicate that you have updated your blog.
- Many cell phones now come equipped with cameras. Managers of health clubs are concerned that people in locker rooms may be secretly photographed by other members carrying small cell phones. What do you think about this? Discuss your answer based on one ethical principle of your choice.
- Before offering a job candidate a position, some potential employers do a criminal background check of the candidate. What are the pros and cons of this policy? Is this ethical? Discuss your answer based on one ethical principle of your choice.
- Refer to the lecture slide for this week on Intellectual Property. Explain with example the following:
o Copyrights
o Patents
o Trademarks
o Trade secrets
4. Discuss software duplicating from the perspectives of act utilitarianism.
- Many cell phones now come equipped with cameras. Managers of health clubs are concerned that people in locker rooms may be secretly photographed by other members carrying small cell phones. What do you think about this? Discuss your answer based on one ethical principle of your choice.
In today’s world, mobile phone has become a necessity for everyone even the younger generation as old as 8 years old. Together with the development of mobile phone, sexual criminals has also advanced by using the camera technology in mobile phones to perform their pervert stuff. This has become a new trend for perverts that is to photograph other person secretly for their own use. Pictures taken secretly in public is still considered legal whereas pictures taken secretly in non-public areas is illegal and unethical. The pictures taken can end up in wrong destination which can be a threat to the person in the picture. For example, Princess Diana once sued a national newspaper publication and the gym owner in year 1993. This legal action was taken to ensure that the photo’s will not be published outside United Kingdom. Some people needs privacy and people in health clubs might be wearing sports attire which are revealing. They certainly would not want this pictures to be taken and published.
The person who are taking the pictures secretly is practicing the Kantianism principe (2nd formulation) which it is wrong for a person to ‘use’ another person. The photographer might be using the photographs to pose threat or to become famous by publishing the photo’s in the Internet.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/9/newsid_2515000/2515739.stm
- Before offering a job candidate a position, some potential employers do a criminal background check of the candidate. What are the pros and cons of this policy? Is this ethical? Discuss your answer based on one ethical principle of your choice.
PROS
Most of the companies do background check of the applicants before the interview session. Normally, the first thing they will look into is on criminal background. Employers practicing this to increase the applicant quality which results in an immediate reduction in number of applications. Although there is fewer candidates, there will be candidates who are serious with the job. This does discourage applicants who masks the truth in order to get a job.
Reputed companies do background check to avoid workplace violence and to increase the company’s profit and reputation. By doing the criminal background check, the employer can eliminate applicants who have previous criminal records so that no violence will occur in future. Although this might be seem to be unethical for the candidate, all the employer’s have a moral and legal obligations in order to provide a safe working environment. This ensures that there will be no potential threat to other employees.
CONS
Although background check seem to a reliable procedure to be done, it has few cons. Information about a candidate might not be accurate and erroneous. For example, his or her identity might be mistaken and the outcome will not be favoring the candidate. If the employer questions about this to the candidate, he or she then can prove by providing the reliable sources such as the school management or previous working management. Some people do not like their information to be available to others because it might posses threat to them. This background check is unethical to them as it invades their privacy.
Another cons is that some old mistakes and problem will be uncovered and it might give a wrong perception to the employer. The candidate might have repented for doing mistakes in the past and he or she feels that they should not be punished currently.
In conclusion, this situation represents Rule Utilitarianism where the employer believe they have the rights to do background check on applicants based on the company’s policy and it is completely ethical.
Based from the applicants, they might practice Kantianism in which they believe that their information is completely private and it is unethical for another person to use the information.
- Refer to the lecture slide for this week on Intellectual Property. Explain with example the following:
o Copyrights
o Patents
o Trademarks
o Trade secrets
Copyrights
Copyright provides protection to creators of materials in a tangible or fixed form. The creators obtain an exclusive right to his/her creative work within a period of time. The creative works can be classified as literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and others. According to Harvey Sells (1999), the U.S copyright have give the protection to the creators up to 95 years as the material been published or registered in U.S before January 1,1978 which under the Sonny Bono Extension Act of 1998. Copyright Act generally gives the author or owner of copyright an exclusive right to control how a copyright work is used, reproduced and distributed. The range of creative works subject to copyright is not always obvious. A computer program, for instance is covered as a literary work. What a copyright does not cover are titles or short phrases used within a copyrighted work.
Patents
A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor.Generally, the term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed and been registered. However, under certain circumstances, patent term extension or adjustment may be available. There are three types of patents:
1) Utility patents - May be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement.
2) Design patents - May be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and decorating good design for an article of manufacture.
3) Plant patents - May be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant.
Trademarks
A trademark is literally a “mark” that one business uses to distinguish its products or services from another. The “mark” can be classified as a word, design, number, two-dimensional or three-dimensional form, sound or colour, or a combination of two or more of these elements. Most of organization use trademarks for marketing purpose so that other companies or competitors can’t use the same trademark. For example, McDonalds’ company use the unique letter “M” while KFC use the combination of white and red colour as their trademark to representing their company.
Trade Secrets
Trade secrets are information that companies keep secret to give them an advantage over their competitors. The unauthorized use of such information by persons other than the holder is regarded as an unfair practice and a violation of the trade secret. Depending on the legal system, the protection of trade secrets forms part of the general concept of protection against unfair competition or is based on specific provisions or case law on the protection of confidential information. The subject matter of trade secrets is usually defined in broad terms and includes sales methods, distribution methods, consumer profiles, advertising strategies, lists of suppliers and clients, and manufacturing processes. For example, the formula for Coca-Cola is the most famous trade secret and Colonel Sanders as the KFC founder use the trade secret to protect the recipe of fried chicken.
4. Discuss software duplicating from the perspectives of act utilitarianism.
Software duplicating is an illegal business because it is an unauthorized copying. From the software developer’s view, it is unethical to copy a software and to distribute it. Copyright law protects the developer but it can only incur a legal liability towards a organization or institution. Many people are using duplicated software without getting caught as there is no enough time and money to investigate each person and to take action on them.
Eventhough some softwares lack of copy protection, it does not means that anyone have permission to copy the software in order to sell or distribute it. Some people may have bought a legal copy of the software, but shares it with their friends and family. It is also considered illegal if the license permits only one machine to be installed to.
Most of the students will hesitate to buy original software as they are very expensive but this does not mean it is ethical. It might be cheaper to buy the duplicated software but the developer will not be getting a single cent for his hardwork. If the software is very useful and they are going to use it, its better to buy the original to support the developer.
In conclusion, the users who are using the duplicated software will be happy to use it but the developer will be losing and gets nothing out of their hardwork.
http://www.uwo.ca/its/pps/softethics.html
Monday, 31 October 2011
Assignment 1(The importance of Ethics among the IT professionals)
The importance of Ethics among the IT professionals
Section 1 Group 5
Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Selangor, Malaysia
Abstract
In work environment, ethics is the common rules or approach for all professionals need to obey in order to achieve a great environment in an organization. Most of people think that ethics and morals is something that share the same meaning but actually they are not. The morals are towards the personal character, while ethics stress a social system in which those morals are applied. In other words, ethics point to standards or codes of behavior expected by the group to which the individual belongs. The ethics might be national ethics, social ethics, company ethics, professional ethics, or even family ethics. So while a person’s moral code is usually unchanging, the ethics of he or she practices can be others to depend on.
This paper is written based on data collection from many sources such as webs, articles, and books. So, this paper will provide an overview on the importance of ethics among the IT professionals. Furthermore, it will be explaining the beneficial of applying ethics to IT professionals in order to achieve a good relationship among the workers or team members in an organization.
Keywords: Importance of ethics, Ethics, Morals, IT professionals
Introduction
According to Velasquez (2010),Ethics can be divided into two things,firstly,it refers to well founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what human tend to do usually in terms of rights,benefits to society or specific virtues.Secondly,it refers to the study and development of one’s ethical standard.Stoodley (2009) state that ethics has been defined in terms of agent.Thus,the agent’s actions or processes have formed the starting point for ethical frameworks.
The concept of Professional Ethics is partly comprised of what a professional should or should not do in the work place (McLarty,2007).Worthington (2008) state that Professional ethical issues can occur in developing any information technology system.The internet and web allow many people around the world to quickly connect to an IT system.As a result,Worthington state that professionals are more likely to confront ethical issues when dealing with the internet and world wide web.Professionals may be called to account for their actions not only in their own country,but in any jurisdiction in the world.
Many professional organization are guided by ethical or professional codes.Professional code serve as the framework for professional conduct and provide guidelines in the ethical decision making process.According to Jefferson (n.d), ethicals and professional codes are not meant to replace law or morality but to serve as guidelines for professional conduct.
It is crucial that professional included IT professional recognize the importance of ethics and guideline that govern the professional organizations.Jefferson (n.d) state that the guideline is important as it provide the ethical principles that will assist them in the many of the professional decisions they will make.Ethics are not just how we feel about something,it is a reasoned process.It may become habitual or intuitive once we have a set of value to apply consistently (Iacovino,2002).
Importance of Ethics among the IT professionals.
The important of ethics among professional focus on computer professional feel responsible for ensuring that computer technology is not used in ways that harm people, the environment, or society. Based on this important, every IT professional want to be an employee that works for an organization that is fair, honest and ethical in its practices. Researchers have shown that employee that works comfortably without to face any mistreatment by the fellow employees or by the organization itself tends to contribute better for the organization.
Another important thing of ethics among the professional is about access data. According to Gordana (2003), computer professional only access data required to perform their job. They only access data that they want to complete their task beside to access another data that not required to complete their own task. Other than that, they use the right time to complete their task. The task must be done properly considering all factors such as the quality of the data that they access. Improper ethics education can cause professionals to do the task without concentrate, not concern at all whether the task done is complete or not.
The other important is the procedure of IT process will keep in secret. This is because IT professional only participate in development task, the objective and context of which have been made explicitly (Dahlbom and Mathiassen, 1999). This is very important for big organization in other to survive in the industry. There have their own strategy or benchmark that is key success to their business.
Another important of ethics among the professional are the professional will more responsible and punctual in complete the project or the task given with allocated resources. This is because computer professional only take part in project with the time and resources assigned that make it possible to deliver a good job (Dahlbom and Mathiassen, 1999).
Furthermore, living in this era of Information Technology’s, computer crime is one of the problems that might attack an organization. Viruses and hackers are getting widespread over the years. Therefore, Bynum (2001) stated that logical security can be divided in five aspects that is privacy and confidentiality, integrity by assuring data and programs are not modified without proper authority, unimpaired service, consistency by ensuring that the data and behavior being see today is same as tomorrow, and lastly, controlling access to resources. Nowadays, there are many malicious kids of software that being used in order to access to certain system without authorization. For example, viruses, worms, Trojan horses, logic bombs and also bacteria or rabbits which could harm the computer system of an organization. So, this is an unethical action that could be penalized due to unauthorized access and breaking company system. Therefore, the IT professionals should concerns on the ethics been applied in Information Technology and Computer Science in order to achieve a great environment among the IT’s industries at the same time improving individual performance.
Beside that the importance of ethics among the IT professional will increase the culture of respect among the professional. This respect come from the cooperation between the the team members in contribute to the development of the project and the professional capabilities of users, meaning that developers understand what users needs.
Other than that, the importance ethics among the IT professional will leads to customer satisfaction. Computer professionals develop systems that use technology such way as to satisfy the interest of the users, in addition computer develop systems that bring about good work environments.
Benefits of Applying ethics to IT professional
Information technology and computer professionals began to think seriously by considering the long-term effects of computer ethics. They recognized the need to organize professional bodies such as the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to produce professional codes of conduct. However, the rapid growth of powerful computers in the hands of nonprofessionals widens the scope of potential problems.
According to Joseph (2010),The list of potential benefits linked to an effective ethics program includes the recruiting and retaining people of high quality. Other benefit is to promote the work environment to be more satisfying and productive. This will also build and maintain the reputation in the community association in which you are operating. Moreover, ethics will maintain the trust to ensure continued self-regulation and will confirm the open discussion of ethics issues.Benefit of ethics will also provide guidance and sources of ethics for employees before making difficult decisions. Other than that, it will align the efforts of staff with a broader mission and vision of the association.
Conclusion
At the end of this paper, readers completely understand the importance of Ethics among the IT professionals. No doubt, ethics is a set of principle that not only focused and been applied on the IT professionals but also towards all the workers in any industries or departments. By applying the ethics among IT professionals, it will assist to achieve the great environment within an organization with a good individual performance and ethics. Furthermore, applying ethics approaches could determine the right or wrong of an individual action. According to Catherine Rainbow (2002), there are several approaches or theories that being used in an organization especially IT professions in order to determine the action such as Kantianism and utilitarianism. Guthrie (2002) also stated that ethical theories can be classified into several terms that are utilitarianism, ethical relativism, and also deontological theories. Each approach has its own functions in order to determine the action but depends on situation that is currently been discussed. So that, with the ethics theories, most of IT professionals might not be penalized due to unethical action. The unethical action can be as plagiarism, disturbing people privacy, unauthorized access, hacking and others. Furthermore, in IT professions, they need to concerns on the code of ethics in order to improve the performance individually and at the same time improving the company itself. For example, according to SANS San Antonio (2004), the IT professionals must strive for technical excellence in the IT profession by maintaining and enhancing their own knowledge and skills. This code of ethics is build to ensure that the IT professionals will strive for the best performance with high credibility, responsibility, and maturity to handle the tasks in Information Technology’s.
References
1. Bynum (2001), Computer and Information Ethics. Retrieved October 31, 2011 from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-computer/#ComCri
2. Dahlbom and Mathiassen (1999), professional code of ethics. Retrieved October 24, 2011 from http://www.larsmathiassen.org/20.pdf
3. Guthrie (2002), Computer Ethics. Retrieved October 30, 2011 from
http://courses.cs.vt.edu/cs3604/lib/Ethics/notes.html
4. Gordana (2003), On the Importance of Teaching Professional Ethics to Computer Science Students. Retrieved October 24, 2011 from http://www.idt.mdh.se/~gdc/work/TeachingProfEthics.pdf
5. Iacovino (2002),Ethical Principles and Information Professionals : Theory,Practice and Education.Retrieved 26 October,2011 from http://www.alia.org.au/publishing/aarl/33.2/full.text/iacovino.html
6. Joseph (2000),Ethics in the Workplace.Retrieved 28 October,2011 from http://www.asaecenter.org/Resources/articledetail.cfm?ItemNumber=13073
7. Jefferson (n.d),Ethical Perspectives of Library and information science graduate students in the United States.Retrieved 26 October,2011 from http://www.deepdyve.com/lp/emerald-publishing/ethical-perspectives-of-library-and-information-science-graduate-SV75AfRokp
8. McLarthy (2007),Professional Ethics.Retrieved 25 October,2011 from http://it.toolbox.com/wiki/index.php/Professional_Ethics
9. Rainbow (2002), Description of Ethical Theories and Principles. Retrieved October 30, 2011 at http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/kabernd/indep/carainbow/Theories.htm
10. SANS San Antonio (2004), IT Code of Ethics. Retrieved October 30, 2011 from http://www.sans.org/security-resources/ethics.php
11. Stoodley (2009),IT Professionals experience of ethics and its implications for IT education.Retrieved 27 October,2011 from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/26105/1/Ian_Stoodley_Thesis.pdf
12. Velasquez (2010),What is Ethics.Retrieved 27 October,2011 from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html
13. Worthington (2008),Ethics for ICT Professionals.Retrieved 27 October,2011 from http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/ictethics.shtml
Saturday, 22 October 2011
Talk with IT Professional
Talk with IT professional
On the 21st October, our group 10 had attend to a talk that been organized by UNITEN with three IT professionals in the IT industry. The professionals are from InternetNow, TIME Engineering Berhad and HP.
The aims for this talk is to illustrate the jobs, activities, process and challenge that been faced in the IT industry to undergraduate students. So that, students will get a clear picture on what is going on outside in terms of technology advancement, managing risks, and also the threat in IT. The professional had emphasis the students to understand the IT field before start working later.
Furthermore, they also described the job opportunities in the industry for example in cyber security, data center, software development, and also business perspective. They had explained what jobs is offer on each of the department. For example, they need a system analyst to monitor and identify any fraud on the software that been develop.
Lastly, the IT professionals had emphasis the student to clearly identify which company to do internship later. The best company will give the best experience to develop skills, managing pressures, and work in a group and so on.
As a conclusion, the talk has given us (group 10) the great experience and become eager and more passion to work in the IT industry. Thanks to InternetNow, Time Engineering and also HP for the informations that been shared to us.
p/s: There is no photo because we our camera memory has been virused. Sorry for that.
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Introduction of Members
CISB412 Social and Professional Issues
For a start, let me introduce u guys about social and professional issues. Basically, when talking about this subject or field. its actually introduces students to ethics and professional issues pertaining to Information Technology. It prepares students (who will be the future professionals in a complex technological society) to deal with issues related to computers through introduction to issues ranging from ethical, social, legal, and economical relevant to being a responsible computer user (professional or personal). It also exposes students to the use of ethical/value analysis as a practical tool in defining and solving day-to-day ethical conflicts they might confront as computing and IT professionals. Students will also be introduced to the Malaysian legal infrastructure related to computer usage.