Ethics of Computer Security and Privacy

A lot of people use computers to do their assignments for either school or work. Lots of times they are storing useful and important information. So it is very important that their information on the computer is kept safe and confidential. It is also highly necessary to keep the information from getting lost, stolen, or misused. In businesses, they have to make sure their information is secure from hackers, and being accessed by those who are unauthorized. Stolen information can be very crucial to a company. People who have computers at home also have to make sure confidential information such as bank accounts and credit card numbers are kept secure when doing internet transactions. An action that could cause lost of information, software, data, or the cause of damage to computer hardware is known as a computer security risk.

A computer crime is when someone purposely breeches a computer's security. This is a little bit different from cybercrimes, which are known as illegal acts that are done over the internet, and is one of the top priorities for the FBI. People who commit these crimes are known as hackers, crackers, cyber terrorists, unethical employees, script kiddies, cyber extortionists, and corporate spies. Hackers used to have a good reputation, but they have now been labeled negatively. Unethical employees are people who steal information from the company that they work for by illegally accessing the databases.

Like a cracker, script kiddies are people who wish to do harm, but lack the technical knowledge to. Most of them are young and are just learning the basics of hacking programs. Corporate spies are hired because of their high knowledge of computers and networks to steal or delete data and information. Shady companies hire them to practice company espionage, gaining the advantage of their company's competitor. Because of people like these, it is important that computers at businesses and at home are kept tightly secured.