COMPUTER ETHICS, CRIME, AND SECURITY

INTRODUCTION

Computers are used nowadays in almost all walks of life. This age is called the age of computers, computers are used in education, business, manufacturing, designing, entertainment, research, and development. They are everywhere, be at homes, schools, shops, offices, railway stations, airports, and hospitals. It is one of the greatest inventions. But as some great inventions are used by bad people to cause harm, similarly computers can also be used to cause harm.

COMPUTER ETHICS

You must be aware of certain ethics related to the use of computers. Ethics are beliefs and rules. These rules state what is right and what is wrong . Ethics is important in our daily life also.

Good behavior is that which pleases and helps others and is also approved by society. Behaviour is generally judged by the insertion of a person.

The advancement of technology makes it possible for unethical and criminal activities to be carried out in a more sophisticated way. children should thus be aware of moral and ethical issues and must develop a good sense and social responsibilities. These are always people who are violating the rules of society – for ” money ” or for ” fun”.The problems of computer ethics are more or less like other general ethical problems.

Let’s discuss some of the major ethical issues in the computers world nowadays.

Intellectual property Rights

Property is anything you own. you have rights over the property. It is protected by law. similarly, ideas and thinking produced by the mind are also protected by law. It is illegal to use them without the permission of the owner or producer. The rights related to literary or artistic work, inventions, discoveries, etc are called intellectual property rights.

Due to the advancement of technology and the advent of computers, information storing becomes easier. The Internet is also a huge storage house of information. small disks can contain thousands of lines of valuable information. This does not, however, mean that you can use this information [ created by other people ] as you wish without permission. These are certain issues relating to the use of such information.

You use intellectual property all the time, whether you know it or not. For example, in most of the books, magazines the matter belongs to the author who writes them or to the publishing company that printed them. The same also applies to software, music, and art.

You must have seen this c symbol c enclosed within a circle on different items, books, magazines and even web pages. This symbol generally comes before a statement, ALL Right Reserved. Do you know why this statement and symbol used? The © symbol is used widely. It shows that the material and information are copyrighted, and are the sole property of the owner. It is unlawful and unethical to use them without the permission of the owner.

Software piracy

Software piracy is the illegal reproduction and distribution of software applications. pirated software is a very dangerous trend. It hurts everyone, from developers to sellers and software users. software piracy has a significant impact on the economy. It leads to job loses and revenue losses to the companies.

You must avoid using pirated software. Do you know that even possession of software that has been illegally copied is also piracy, The different forms of software piracy are given below:

End-User Piracy
Internet Piracy
Pre Installed Software Piracy

Counterfeiting

This is the process of making and distributing illegal copies of software packages that reproduce the developer,s packages. The illegal copies resemble the original copy.

Online Auction piracy

This takes several forms such as selling of software that is never authorized for resale by a third party. Sometimes online distributors use legal terms and phrases to fool users. So, don’ t be fooled. It is a fact that the price of software is sometimes too high, but you must not use illegal copies which are cheap and easily available. There will be several occasions when you will face such problems. Never hesitate to show your morality. It may appear to be beneficial for some time but ultimately, it will lead to frustration.

Some of the limitations of pirated software are given below:

Quality

Pirated software often does not have various key elements. It also does not have warranty protection or upgrade options.

Viruses

Some people may supply dangerous viruses with counterfeit CDs. This may damage your hard disks and ruin your valuable work. Pirated software that contains viruses, may destroy the company resources.

Privacy

Privacy is an important aspect of life. It is a desirable condition or a moral right that a person, has in relation to another person, or with respect to the possession of information by other persons about him\herself. It is unethical to infringe in the privacy of other people without the consent of the person. It leads to embarrassments. There are of course some conditions to know all these things about another person. For example, a psychiatrist or a doctor may ask the patient questions that are regarded as private, in order to treat the patient in a better way. But it is again the duty of the doctor not to disclose this private information to other people

This applies to computers also. you may know for example that, your friend has stored private information on his computer. The first thing is that you must not try to access that information. If you are given permission to access you must not disclose it to other people.

It is also unethical to interfere with someone else ‘ s work. you must always distance yourself from such work.

Computer Security

Computer Security includes procedures and techniques, that are designed to protect a computer from accidental, or intentional theft, unauthorized access, or manipulation.It is both an individual and an organizational concern.

computer security is often viewed as a disaster for the user because it can cause serious damage to both the individual user and the organization. such damages may include revenue, valuable data loss, productivity loss, and many more which may even lead to bankruptcy. computer security breaches can be broadly divided into the following categories.

Hardware
Networks
Natural disasters
Software
Personal

Hardware Breaches can be both intentional and accidental. Cables, modems, phone lines are often vulnerable to security breaches.

Software Breaches include computer viruses, password cracking, various sniffer programs, etc.

Networks are vulnerable to security breaches. A weakly managed network system can be harmful. Networks are used to transmit data and information, they may be trapped by unethical people to access information about a company.

Natural Disasters can also cause security violations. They may lead to operational problems in a computer system. Hurricanes, earthquakes floods, etc .may prove devastating for companies.

Computer Security Controls

Computer Security Controls are established and implemented to reduce security breaches. There are many types of controls. Some of them are:-