Ethical Aspects of Information Security and Privacy

This essay reviews ethical aspects of computer and information security and privacy. After an introduction of ethical approaches to information technology , the focus is first on ethical aspects of computer security. These include the moral importance of computer security, the relation between computer security and national security, the morality of hacking and computer crime, the nature of cyberterrorism and information warfare, and the moral responsibilities of information security professionals. Privacy is discussed next. After a discussion of the moral importance of privacy and the impact of information technology on privacy, privacy issues in various information processing practices are reviewed. A concluding section ties the two topics together.