Information Technology Ethics Principles

Question: Discuss about the Information Technology Ethics Principles. Answer: Introduction The article describes a website that is in use by many Australian individuals; the site is known as Hackers for hire. Most of the people in Australia are looking for such hackers to hire them with their legal or illegal works. Some individual wants to hire hacker professionals to perform such task that is completely illegal and completely illegal. Recently one lady from Australia has hired a hacker to know about her husband if he is cheating on her, so she wanted the hacker to hack his WhatsApp to check if he his cheating on her or not. The article also describes that how ethical and unethical is hacking in Australia. But it is also true that some people in Australia are the real need of hackers for their legal work, but somehow it can be said to unethical as well. Here the article is argued based on two ethical theories as described below (Pro et al., 2015). Overview of some moral principles: There are some ethical principles that need to be considered when reviewing and addressing the given article. The report says that hacking is a crime in Australia, and the Australian government does not evolve in such activities and can take some serious action against the person who is hiring the hackers or the person who is committing the crime. Three classical ethical theories need to be considered such Consequentialism, Deontology and Virtue Ethics (Sandler, 2013). Based on the ethical principles we can argue how right is hacking and if it is not then how hacking is completely unethical. Understanding the Two Ethical Theories (Consequentialism and Deontology) The two terms Consequentialism and Deontology are two classical ethical theories that need to define a particular task or action that is performed in any context. Consequentialism refers to any work or action where the individual does not think about the job if it is wrong or right, the only thing he or she remembers is that the outcome needs to be achieved at any cost because at the end of the project they will be paid a handsome amount (Carlson, 2013). So here the hacker and the individual who is a service buyer think about the outcome rather than thinking about whether the task performed his wrong or right. On the other hand, Deontology is exactly opposite to it, and it is a set of rules that need to be followed before performing any task. It refers to work where the individual needs to think that whether the job that he or she is doing is appropriate or not (Sunstein, 2013). Because here the outcome does not matter for the individual, here it is observed whether they performed a task is right or wrong, and then they will complete the work. Overview of Deontology on Hacking The deontology, when applied to the given article, refers that some individuals are there that think about the work before they perform the task, and there are also some people who hire such hackers for their legal works (Jetha, 2013). Deontology explains about the action that will be carried out whether the work is right or wrong. The ethics say that the individual and the hacker need first to think whether they performed a task is correct then only they can carry out the work. Let us consider one example to understand Deontology in much better way. In this article, the hacker Jarmaa tells that the function that is performed should not affect any particular person then it is entirely legal to play. So here the consequence does not matter, but it is important to understand whether the task is right or wrong (Thomas, 2015). Overview of Consequentialism on Hacking Here in this ethical theory as describe earlier that the hacker is not going to think if the work that they are doing is completely illegal. The outcome is the only thing they are going to be considered in the task is that the outcome (Vossen, 2014). For an example, if an individual is asking a hacker to hack some companys database so that they can review it and can know what they the best and what are kind of pricing they are offering to their customers. Let us see one more example, a student from Australia hired a hacker so that they can change their grades from the college university. So here the individual is only looking for self-benefits rather thinking about the consequences, they don't even bother to understand whether the task that is performed is entirely unethical. This ethical theory defines that the hacker and the service buyer both are only focused on the consequences, and they both don't even care whether the task is ethical or unethical (Hiller et al., 2013). Figure 1: Argument Mapping (Source: Created by Author) Recommendations Jail sentence and penalty: The Australian government needs to take some serious actions against such criminals who perform such activities. The Government should pass a law that will conclude that whoever is going to perform such illegal activities will be sent to a long jail sentence along with fine or penalty depends on upon the crime. This includes both the service buyer and the service provider. Immediately action required: In Australia hacking is completely banned but still there are some similar activities been going by using online service. The government needs to take to block such sites and warn the site owners for publishing such illegal services online and showcase them a notice stating that if its continue then some serious consequences need to be faced. No Customers Trust: Those who are looking for some illegal work done, they should use such sites because there will be some hackers who can access your personal data files that will lead to serious consequences. Conclusion The document describes the ethical theories based on the given article that is provided. The report explains how the Consequentialism and Deontology theories are applied in the performed task and what its outcomes are. We always think about the outcome and in this case, hackers also do the same they only perform a task because of the outcome they don't even think if the job is wrong or right to act. The article explains about how the theories are related to the selected topic. References Carlson, E. (2013). Consequentialism reconsidered (Vol. 20). Springer Science Business Media. Hiller, A., Ilea, R., Kahn, L. (2013). Consequentialism and environmental ethics (Vol. 25). Routledge. Jetha, K. (2013, January). Cybercrime and Punishment: An Analysis of the Deontological and Utilitarian Functions of Punishment in the Information Age. In Proceedings of the Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law (p. 17). Association of Digital Forensics, Security and Law. Pro, I., IT, S., addresses, R. (2015).Rent-a-hacker site leaks Australian buyers' names and addresses.The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 May 2016, from https://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/rentahacker-site-leaks-australian-buyers-names-and-addresses-20150529-ghca3f.html Sandler, R. L. (2013). Environmental Virtue Ethics. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Sunstein, C. R. (2013). Is Deontology a Heuristic? On Psychology, Neuroscience, Ethics, and Law. On Psychology, Neuroscience, Ethics, and Law (August 1, 2013). Thomas, A. J. (2015). Deontology, Consequentialism and Moral Realism. MinervaAn Open Access Journal of Philosophy, 19. Vossen, C. (2014). Cyber Attacks Under the United Nations Charter. Critical Reflections on Consequentialist Reasoning. Critical Reflections on Consequentialist Reasoning.(August 11, 2014).