Corporate ethics

INTRODUCTION

Business ethics (also corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment.Business ethics reflects the philosophy of business,

one of whose aims is to determine the fundamental purposes of a companyIt applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.There is no question that the use of information technology in e-business operations presents major security challenges, poses serious ethical questions, and affects society in significant ways.

The use of information technology in e-business has major impacts on society, and thus raises serious ethical issuesin the areas such as:· Crime

· Privacy· Individuality

·Employment· Health

· Working Conditions

Business/IT Security, Ethics, and Society:

Ethical Responsibility of Business Professionals:As a business end user, you have a responsibility to promote ethical uses of information technology in the workplace.

These responsibilities include properly performing your role as a vital human resource in the e-business systems you help develop and use in your organizations.

The AITP code provides guidelines for ethical conduct in the development and use of information technology.

Business Ethics

Business ethics is concerned with the numerous ethical questions that managers must confront as part of their daily business decision-making.

Managers use several important alternatives when confronted with making ethical decisions on business issues.

These include:

· Stockholder Theory – Holds that managers are agents of the stockholders, and their only ethical responsibility is to increase the profits of the business, without violating the law or engaging in fraudulent practices.· Social Contract Theory - States that companies have ethical responsibility to all members of society, which allow corporations to exist based on a social contract.· Stakeholder Theory - Maintains that managers have an ethical responsibility to manage a firm for the benefitof all of its stakeholders, which are all individuals and groups that have a stake in or claim on a company.

Technological Ethics

Proportionality – The good achieved by the technology must outweigh the harm or risk. Moreover, there must beno alternative that achieves the same or comparable benefits with less harm or risk.

Informed Consent – Those affected by the technology should understand and accept the risks.

Justice – The benefits and burdens of the technology should be distributed fairly. Those who benefit should beartheir fair share of the risks, and those who do not benefit should not suffer a significant increase in risk

Minimized Risk – Even it judged acceptable by the other three guidelines, the technology must be implemented soas to avoid all unnecessary risk.

Ethical Guidelines

The Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP), is an organization of professionals in thecomputing field. Its code of conduct outlines the ethical considerations inherent in the major responsibilities of anIS professional.Business and end users and IS professionals would live up to their ethical responsibilities by voluntarily followingsuch guidelines as those outlined in the AITP standard. You can be a responsible end user by:· Acting with integrity· Increasing your professional competence· Setting high standards of personal performance· Accepting responsibility for your work· Advancing the health, privacy, and general welfare of the public

Computer crime“computer crime is a

criminal activity involving an information technology infrastructure , including illegal access(unauthorized access) , illegal interception, data interference, systems interference , misuse of device, forgery and electronic fraud”

Characteristics of cyber crime:

Silent in nature,Large operational canvas,Almost no physical evidence,High impact and intensity,Far away from scene of crime,

Forms of computer or cyber crime:

1. Hacking;2. Cyber theft;3. Unauthorized use at work;4. Piracy

Software piracy. piracy of intellectual

property computer viruses and

worms.

Hacking : Hacking is

practice of modifying computer hardware and software to accomplish a goal outside of the creator’s original purpose. People who engage in compute hacking activities are often called hackers .

Example of common hacking tactics are:

A. Denial of service,B. Scans,C. Sniffer,D. spoofing.,E. Trojan horse,F. Back doors,G. Password crackers. etc.,

Cyber theft:Many computer

crime involve the theft of money . In the majority of cases, they are “inside job” that involve unauthorized network entry and fraudulent alternation of computer databases to cover the tracks of the employees involved .

Unauthorized use at work:

An organization increase their use of information technology to do business, employees and other insiders are using computers and the internet more and more in their day-to-day work. Although these computing resources can greatly increase worker productivity, they can also be misused.

•Advantages:Can be used to recover lost information where the computer password has been lost.

•Disadvantages-Criminals can use it to their advantage.

PIRACYThe term ‘Piracy’ is generally used to describe the deliberate infringement of copyright on a commercial scale. It is the unauthorized and intentional act of copying, selling, distributing, acquiring or the transferring by any method, means or manner, of entities (like software or any other intellectual property) that are not in the public domain or subject to “fair use”.

There are two types of computer based piracy:

Software piracy Piracy of intellectual property

Software Piracy

Software piracy refers to several practices which involves the unauthorized copying of computer software. This can be done by copying, downloading, sharing, selling, or installing multiple copies onto personal or work computers.

Types of software piracy

Industrial piracy Corporate piracy Reseller piracy

Internet piracy Home piracy

Intellectual Property

Definition: The ownership of ideas. Unlike tangible assets to your business such as computers or your office, intellectual property is a collection of ideas and concepts.

Different Kinds of Intellectual Property

PatentsA patent is defined as "the grant of a property right to the inventor." A patent grant confers upon the owner "the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing the invention." A patent is granted by PTO for an invention that has been sufficiently documented by the applicant and that has been verified as original by the Patent and Trademark Office( PTO).

A patent is generally valid for 20 years from the date of application .The owner of the patent may then grant a license to others for use of the invention or its design, often for a fee.Trademark:A trademark, as defined as "any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others." Computer-related objects that may be protected by trademarks include corporate brands and operating system logos.

CopyrightA copyright is a form of protection granted to the authors of "original works of authorship," both published and unpublished. A copyright protects a tangible form of expression rather than the idea or subject matter itself. Copyright protection generally lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years.

Trade secretA trade secret is proprietary or business-related information that a company or individual uses and has exclusive rights to. To be considered a trade secret, the information must meet the following requirements:

•Must be genuine and not obvious

•Must provide the owner a competitive or economic advantage and, therefore, have value to the owner

•Must be reasonably protected from disclosure

Privacy Issues

The power of information technology to store and retrieve information can have a negative effect on the right to privacy of every individual.

For example:· Confidential e-mail messages by employees are monitored by many companies· Personal information is being collected about individuals every time they visit a site on the World Wide Web· Confidential information on individuals contained in centralized computer databases by credit bureaus,government agencies, and private business firms has been stolen or misused, resulting in the invasion ofprivacy, fraud, and other injustices.· Unauthorized use of information can seriously damage the privacy of individuals.· Errors in databases can seriously hurt the credit standing or reputation of individuals.

Some important privacy issues being debated in business and government include the following:· Accessing individuals’ private e-mail conversations and computer records, and collecting and sharinginformation about individuals gained from their visits to Internet websites and newsgroups (violation ofprivacy).· Always “knowing” where a person is, especially as mobile and paging services become more closely associated with people rather than places (computer monitoring)· Using customer information to market additional business services (computer matching).· Collecting telephone numbers and other personal information to build individual customer profiles(unauthorized personal files).

Privacy on the Internet:The Internet is notorious for giving its users a feeling of anonymity, when in actuality; they are highly visible andopen to violations of their privacy. Most of the Internet and its World Wide Web and newsgroups are still a wideopen, unsecured, electronic frontier, with no tough rules on what information is personal and private. You canprotect your privacy in several ways:· Use encryption to send e-mail (both sender and receiver must have encryption software).· Anonymous remailers to protect your identify when you add comments in newsgroup postings.· Ask Internet service provider not to sell your name and personal information to mailing list providers, andother marketers.· Decline to reveal personal data and interest on online service and websites user profiles.

Challenges that arise from the use of information technologies in business Employment challengesIndividualities Working ConditionsHealth Issues

Employment Challenges The use of information's technologies has

created new jobs and increased productivity while causing significant reduction in some types of job opportunities

The job created by IT may require different types of skills and education

Because lots of tasks have been automated, Computer monitoring causes intrusion in the personal space for workers

Computer Monitoring

IndividualityComputer based systems are criticized as

impersonal systems that the dehumanize and depersonalise activities that have been computerized because they eliminate the human relationships present in non computer systems

Another accept of the loss of individuality is the regimentation that seems required by computer based systems

Many business application of IT are designed to minimize depersonalization and regimentation

Working ConditionsIT has eliminated monotonous tasks in the

office and factories that formerly had to be performed by people.

It also automates most of the work and gives away more challenging jobs

Health issues The use of IT in work place rises variety of

health issuesJob stressDamaged armedEyestrainRadiation exposureCumulative trauma disorders

Solution to some of these health problems are based on science Ergonomics

Ergonomics

The science of designing user interaction

with equipment and work places to fit the user.

It is a study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body its movements and its cognitive abilities

Cyber TerrorismIt’s the use of internet

based attacks in terrorist’s activities, including acts of deliberate large scale disruption of computer networks, especially of personal computers attached to the internet by means of tools such as computer viruses

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