Analyze Five Pertinent Issues

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

The information age is the age we live in today, and with the information age comes an age of ethics. When we deal with the new technologies introduced every day, we need to decide what we must consider ethical and unethical, and what is legal and what is illegal. We must consider all factors so that the use of the information readily available to many persons is not abused. Information technology will be the most fundamental area of ethical concern for business in the future. The most widely used tool of the information age is the computer, whether it is a PC or a network of computer systems. So, the computer security and privacy are an important issue nowadays. Some problems associated with that are, invasion of privacy, computer viruses, Internet scamming, junk E-mails, fraud Accounts, illegal downloading, and hacking.

In this essay, invasion of privacy, computer viruses, Internet scamming, junk E-mails, and fraud Accounts are identified and analyzed.

Invasion of privacy. According to Business Dictionary, invasion of privacy is "Offensive or unjustifiable access obtained to someone's personality or personal affairs without his or her permission and/or knowledge" (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/invasion-of-privacy.html). Some of the examples of invasion of privacy, when computer security is concerned, are: reading personal emails, reading personal text messages, posting videos of someone without their permission, posting videos of under aged children without permission. Practically everyone has an email account, and they're used for personal and business reasons. It's only natural for us to expect a little privacy in our email. Reading someone's e mail is an invasion of privacy and very difficult to prove (he will say you gave him permission, you will deny it). Posting videos of someone without his permission is invasion of his privacy also.

Some of the good opportunities for invaders to invade privacy of others are social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, just to name some of them. The list of those social networks can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites.

Computer viruses. Computer virus is a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer (http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=computer%20virus). Computer viruses are a great concern in computer security. Although, many software programs that count against computer viruses are created, the war still continues. These days, practically everyone's online, downloading and exchanging files, and developers are in such a hurry to get their Web sites up or their files out that checking for a nasty bug is more of a courtesy than a requirement. If you're not careful, your computer can end up with a nasty virus that makes your files act oddly, crashes your computer, pops up bizarre messages, or worst of all, destroys your operating system.

There are a few basic rules that computer users should follow to short-circuit viruses. The best known bit of advice is this: Never open any attachment unless you know who it's from and why they are sending it. Refusing to open unsolicited e-mail of any kind is the only sure-fire way to sidestep all forms of trouble.

Anti-virus software is crucial to preventing virus attacks, but this strategy only works if users update their software. Unfortunately, 'keeping it current' means updating it weekly, at least but most products today allow one to automate this process, but file downloads can be large and slow.

The Virus Bulletin (www.virusbtn.com) offers a list of viruses that are floating through the computer world at present. The site also offers the opportunity to report viruses, should you be unfortunate enough to encounter a new one firsthand.

Internet scamming. Scams can occur in many forms: by post, email, telephone or on the Internet. Some scams are easy to identify, while others may appear to be the real thing. Today, it is easy for criminals to create websites that look professional and generate emails that appear to be from legitimate sources. These websites and emails may try to get you to provide private information that could be used to steal your identity, or trick you into paying them money.

Scammers use email, online ads, pop ups, and search results to trick you into sending them money and personal information. One way to outsmart them is to use your email’s spam filter to screen the email you get. Then forward any email that seems suspicious to [email protected].

Some common online scams are:

Work-at-Home Scams

Weight Loss Claims

Lotteries and Sweepstakes Scams

Fake Check Scams

Imposter Scams

Mystery Shopper Scams

Bogus Apartment Rentals

Miracle Cures

Debt Relief Scams

Pay-in-Advance Credit Offers

Investment Schemes

The "Nigerian" Email Scam

Online Dating Scams

Money Transfer Scams

Tech Support Scams

Junk E-mails. Electronic junk mail or junk newsgroup postings, is most often called a spam. In addition to wasting people's time with unwanted e-mail, spam also eats up a lot of network bandwidth. Consequently, there are many organizations, as well as individuals, who have taken it upon themselves to fight spam with a variety of techniques. But because the Internet is public, there is really little that can be done to prevent spam. However, some online services have instituted policies to prevent spammers from spamming their subscribers.

Spam has become ubiquitous - one of the facts of life. Until strong anti-spam laws are passed and actually enforced, spam proliferation will continue because it's proven to reach a mass audience. If it didn't work, spammers wouldn't waste their time.

There are several ways to block spam from your e-mail inbox. They say prevention is the best medicine, so avoid giving out your e-mail address to unfamiliar or unknown recipients. This has become very difficult to do, however. Spammers can use software programs that troll the Internet looking for e-mail addresses, much like throwing a net in the ocean and seeing what gets caught in it. Nowadays it's almost impossible to shop online without providing a valid e-mail address. Offline stores are even asking for e-mail addresses in exchange for discounts or free merchandise. Realize that what they are doing is potentially opening the door for a flood of unsolicited e-mails. These organizations will most likely turn around and sell their list to someone else looking for valid e-mails. In these cases, it might be wise to have more than one e-mail address, one for friends, family and colleagues and another for unfamiliar sources. There are many free e-mail services in cyberspace to choose from.

A second way to stop spam is to use your e-mail application's filtering features. Most e-mail applications allow you to block specific messages. When an offending e-mail comes in, set the filter to block further incoming mails from that sender.

Illegal downloading. Despite the proliferation of online "warez" websites and the ease with which people continue to download digital assets for which they haven't paid, these acts break the law, as do the acts and devices required to remove copy protection schemes so digital assets can be shared in unlicensed form. Unless you're a security consultant, a crytographer or an employee of the company that makes a piece of software, your right to use an application depends on obtaining a license for that use, usually at a monetary cost. Unless you're a record company or a recording artist, your right to play a piece of music requires you to pay a fee for a legitimate copy of it. The same holds true for motion pictures and television shows, photographs and books.

Posting commercial movies, music and television episodes on your website or blog for others to download violates the copyright holders' right to profit from their work and infringes on their right to restrict when and where people can view or play these forms of entertainment. Obtaining digital assets illegally can result in monetary penalties, as can asserting a fraudulent claim of rights to a work or design. Cracking copy protection schemes can lead to penalties as well, even if you don't profit from removing the protection.

If we limit our online downloads to purchases from legitimate merchants and from the makers of the assets we want to view, hear, read or use, we can eliminate concerns about accidental infringement by refusing to commit deliberate infringement.