Thomas George IFSC 2200 Final Project Dr Berleant December 9 2013 Computer Ethics Ethics deals with placing a value on acts according to whether they are good or bad Every society has its rules about whether certain acts are ethical or not These rules have been established as a result of consensus in society and are often written into laws When computers rst began to be used in society at large the absence of ethical standards about their use and related issues caused some problems However as their use became widespread in every facet of our lives discussions in computer ethics resulted in some kind of a consensus Today many of these rules have been formulated as laws either national or international Computer crimes and computer fraud are now common terms There are laws against them and everyone is responsible for knowing what constitutes computer crime and computer fraud The Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments of computer ethics have been de ned by the Computer Ethics Institute 1 Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people 2 Thou shalt not interfere with other people s computer work 3 Thou shalt not snoop around in other people s les 4 Thou shalt not use a computer to steal 5 Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness 6 Thou shalt not use or copy software for which you have not paid 7 Thou shalt not use other people s computer resources without authorization 8 Thou shalt not appropriate other people s intellectual output 9 Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you write 10 Thou shalt use a computer in ways that show consideration and respect On the ip side of the coin computer hackers have their own set of ethics Some but not all of their ethics go directly against the ethics set in place by the Computer Ethics Institute The idea of a hacker ethic is perhaps best formulated in Steven Levy s 1984 book Hackers Heroes of the Computer Revolution Levy came up with six tenets 1 Access to computers and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works should be unlimited and total Always yield to the Hands On imperative 2 All information should be free 3 Mistrust authority promote decentralization 4 Hackers should be judged by their hacking not bogus criteria such as degrees age race or position 5 You can create art and beauty on a computer 6 Computers can change your life for the better Hackers A hacker is a slang term for a computer enthusiast i e a person who enjoys learning programming languages and computer systems and can often be considered an expert on the subject s Among professional programmers depending on how it used the term can be either complimentary or derogatory although it is developing an increasingly derogatory connotation The pejorative sense of hacker is becoming more prominent largely because the popular press has cooped the term to refer to individuals who gain unauthorized access to computer systems for the purpose of stealing and corrupting data Hackers themselves maintain that the proper term for such individuals is cracker Among hackers there are also different classi cations and within these classi cations there are different attitudes and views as to what they do and what a hacker is White hat A white hat hacker breaks security for non malicious reasons perhaps to test their own security system or while working for a security company which makes security software The term white hat in Internet slang refers to an ethical hacker This classi cation also includes individuals who perform penetration tests and vulnerability assessments within a contractual agreement The EC Council Moore also known as the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants is one of those organizations that have developed certi cations course ware classes and online training covering the diverse arena of Ethical Hacking Wilhelm Black hat A black hat hacker is a hacker who violates computer security for little reason beyond maliciousness or for personal gain Moore Black hat hackers form the stereotypical illegal hacking groups often portrayed in popular culture and are the epitome of all that the public fears in a computer criminal Moore Black hat hackers break into secure networks to destroy data or make the network unusable for those who are authorized to use the network Grey hat A grey hat hacker is a combination of a black hat and a white hat hacker A grey hat hacker may surf the internet and hack into a computer system for the sole purpose of notifying the administrator that their system has a security defect for example Then they may offer to correct the defect for a fee Moore Elite hacker A social status among hackers elite is used to describe the most skilled Newly discovered exploits will circulate among these hackers Elite groups such as Masters of Deception conferred a kind of credibility on their members Thomas Script kiddie A script kiddie also known as a skid or skiddie is a non expert who breaks into computer systems by using pre packaged automated tools written by others usually with little understanding of the underlying concept hence the term script i e a prearranged plan or set of activities kiddie i e kid child an individual lacking knowledge and experience immature Andress Neophyte A neophyte n00b or newbie is someone who is new to hacking or phreaking and has almost no knowledge or experience of the workings of technology and hacking Moore Hacktivist A hacktivist is a hacker who utilizes technology to announce a social ideological religious or political message In general most hacktivism involves website defacement or denial of service attacks Organized criminal gangs Groups of hackers that carry out organized criminal activities for pro t Chabrow 1 2 3 4 Intellectual Property One of the more controversial areas of computer ethics concerns the intellectual property rights connected with software ownership Some people like Richard Stallman who started the Free Software Foundation believe that software ownership should not be allowed at all He claims that all information should be free and all programs should be available for copying studying and modifying by anyone who wishes to do so Stallman Others argue that software companies or programmers would not invest weeks and months of work and signi cant funds in the development of software if they could not get the investment back in the form of license fees or sales Johnson Today s software industry is a multibillion dollar part of the economy