Ethics of Computing

Ethics of Computing

What is Ethics?

Ethics examines the rational justification for our moral judgments; it studies what is morally right or wrong, just or unjust. In a broader sense, ethics reflects on human beings and their interaction with nature and with other humans, on freedom, on responsibility and on justice.

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Ethics examines the rational justification for our moral judgments; it studies what is morally right or wrong, just or unjust. In a broader sense, ethics reflects on human beings and their interaction with nature and with other humans, on freedom, on responsibility and on justice.

The ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct lists general principles and responsibilities around complying with the code.

According to it, professional programmers should:

1. Contribute to society and human well being
2. Avoid harm
3. Be honest and trustworthy
4. Be fair and take action not to discriminate
5. Respect the work required to produce new ideas and create new artefacts
6. Respect privacy
7. Honor confidentiality

EU Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI

These guidelines are based on fundamental rights and ethical principles. Key requirements are:

1. Human agency and oversight
2. Technical robustness and safety
3. Privacy and data governance
4. Transparency

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Ethics of Computing

5. Diversity, non-discrimination and fairness
6. Social and environmental well being
7. Accountability

Computer Ethics

Computer ethics is the set of commonly agreed principles that govern the use of computers. Like ethics more generally, computer ethics is essentially a set of philosophical guidelines or moral standards that aim to influence behavior and prevent harm.

Cybercrime

Cybercrime is a threat that evolves as rapidly as new technology does. Through hacking, malware, viruses, worms, phishing, Trojan horses, and so on, cybercriminals and hackers can steal money and data, commit fraud, traffic in illegal content and intellectual property, and commit identity theft.

Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malicious software (malware) that threatens to publish or blocks access to data or a computer system, usually by encrypting it, until the victim pays a ransom fee to the attacker. In many cases, the ransom demand comes with a deadline. If the victim doesn't pay in time, the data is gone forever or the ransom increases.

How to Reduce the Risk of Cyber Attacks

• Installing anti-virus on your device
• Using security systems such as firewalls or VPNs
• Storing files on cloud services so that they are encrypted and secure
• A business could implement a password policy to ensure employees have strong passwords and change them regularly

Security & Hacking

Hacking refers to activities that seek to compromise digital devices, such as computers, smartphones, tablets, and even entire networks. And while hacking might not always be for malicious purposes, nowadays most references to hacking, and hackers, characterize it/them as unlawful activity by cybercriminals—motivated by financial gain, protest, information gathering (spying), and even just for the "fun" of the challenge.

Ethical hacking involves an authorized attempt to gain unauthorized access to a computer system, application, or data. Carrying out an ethical hack involves duplicating strategies and actions of malicious attackers. Ethical hacking is often to test the security of a piece of software or system.

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Ethics of Computing

Freedom of Information

The UN Declaration of Human Rights states that: 'Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers'

In theory, this gives everybody equal access to information. Thanks to the Internet, information is more widely available than ever before, so it is essential that this information is dealt with in a responsible way.

Freedom of information is not an absolute right, and a lot of countries have laws the limit what people can say, read or access. Sometimes this is to protect copyright and licensing (TV or films) or place age restriction on activities such as gambling. However, some countries also have more oppressive laws and prevent people from speaking freely. This includes countries such as China and North Korea.

Ethics of AI

Positives of AI

• Positive impact on human life e.g. identifying cancer, predicting weather, etc.
• Improving daily life – traffic management, shopping suggestions, etc.
• Analyzing large datasets, self-learning (machine learning) that humans could not do.
• Always available, no emotional decisions, faster decisions, more accuracy.
• New inventions, solutions or ideas that humans may not think of.

Negatives of AI

• Data privacy issues and potential misuse with the use of existing datasets.
• Ethical issues – no emotion in decision e.g. law, drones in war.
• Unemployment – replacing humans in jobs.
• No innovation or creativity – AI is limited by the algorithms on which it is based.
• Risk of creating sentient machines that develop a conscience.