BIM 6th IT ethics & Cyber Security

Ethics

Ethics is a code of behavior that is defined by the group to which an individual belongs. Ethical
behavior conforms to generally accepted norms, which may change over time to meet the
evolving needs of the society or a group of people who share similar laws, traditions, and values
that provide structure to enable them to live in an organized manner. Ethics help members of a
group understand their roles and responsibilities so they can work together to achieve mutual
benefits such as security, access to resources, and the pursuit of life goals.

Ethics is based on well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought
to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.

Some years ago, sociologist Raymond Baumhart asked business people, "What does ethics
mean to you?" Among their replies were the following:

"Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong." "Ethics has to do
with my religious beliefs."
"Being ethical is doing what the law requires."
"Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts." "I don't know what
the word means."

Like Baumhart's first respondent, many people tend to equate ethics with their feelings. But
being ethical is clearly not a matter of following one's feelings. A person following his or her
feelings may recoil from doing what is right. In fact, feelings frequently deviate from what is
ethical.

Nor should one identify ethics with religion. Most religions, of course, advocate high ethical
standards. Yet if ethics were confined to religion, then ethics would apply only to religious
people. But ethics applies as much to the behavior of the atheist as to that of the devout religious
person. Religion can set high ethical standards and can provide intense motivations for ethical
behavior. Ethics, however, cannot be confined to religion nor is it the same as religion.

Being ethical is also not the same as following the law. The law often incorporates ethical
standards to which most citizens subscribe. But laws, like feelings, can deviate from what is
ethical. Our own pre-Civil War slavery laws and the old apartheid laws of present-day South
Africa are grotesquely obvious examples of laws that deviate from what is ethical.

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BIM 6th IT ethics & Cyber Security

Ethics in the Business World

Ethics has risen to the top of the business agenda because the risks associated with
inappropriate behavior have increased, both in their likelihood and in their potential negative
impact. We have seen the collapse of financial institutions such as Bank of America, CitiGroup,
Countrywide Financial, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, and American
International Group (AIG) due to unwise and/or unethical decision making regarding the
approval of mortgages, loans, and lines of credit to unqualified individuals and organizations.

We have also witnessed numerous corporate officers and senior managers sentenced to prison
terms for their unethical behavior, including former investment broker Bernard Madoff, who
bilked his clients out of an estimated $65 billion, and Stewart Parnell, former CEO of Peanut
Corporation of America, who was sentenced to 28 years in prison for knowingly shipping
contaminated food product, resulting in a salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and
sickened more than 700. Clearly, unethical behavior in the business world can lead to serious
negative consequences for both organizations and individuals.

Several trends have increased the likelihood of unethical behavior. First, for many
organizations, greater globalization has created a much more complex work environment that
spans diverse cultures and societies, making it more difficult to apply principles and codes of
ethics consistently. Numerous U.S. companies have moved operations to developing countries,
where employees or contractors work in conditions that would not be acceptable in the most
developed parts of the world. For example, it was reported in 2016 that employees of the
Pegatron factory in China, where the Apple iPhone is produced, are often forced to work
excessive amounts of overtime—up to 90 overtime hours per month—while their overall wages
have been cut from $1.85 to $1.60 per hour.

Second, in today’s challenging and uncertain economic climate, many organizations are
finding it more difficult to maintain revenue and profits. Some organizations are sorely tempted
to resort to unethical behavior to maintain profits. Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket chain,
admitted its first half-year of profits for 2013 were overstated by $400 million. Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles admitted its U.S. auto sales were overstated by hundreds of cars each month
starting as far back as 2011.

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BIM 6th IT ethics & Cyber Security

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the concept that an organization should act ethically
by taking responsibility for the impact of its actions on its shareholders, consumers, employees,
community, environment, and suppliers as shown in figure below.

Figure: - An organization’s program CSR affects its shareholders, consumers, employees,

community, environment, and suppliers

An organization’s approach to CSR can encompass a wide variety of tactics—from donating a

portion of net profit to charity to implementing more sustainable business operations or
encouraging employee education through tuition reimbursement. Setting CSR goals
encourages an organization to achieve higher moral and ethical standards.

Supply chain sustainability is a component of CSR that focuses on developing and maintaining
a supply chain that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their needs. Supply chain sustainability takes into account issues such as
fair labour practices, energy and resource conservation, human rights, and community
responsibility.

Many IT equipment manufacturers have made supply chain sustainability a priority, in part,
because they must adhere to various European Union directives and regulations—including the
Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
Directive, and the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals
(REACH) Regulation—to be permitted to sell their products in the European Union countries.

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BIM 6th IT ethics & Cyber Security

Each organization must decide if CSR is a priority and, if so, what its specific CSR goals
are. The pursuit of some CSR goals can lead to increased profits, making it easy for senior
company management and stakeholders to support the organization’s goals in this arena.
However, if striving to meet a specific CSR goal leads to a decrease in profits, senior
management may be challenged to modify or drop that CSR goal entirely.

For example, most U.S. auto manufacturers have introduced models that run on clean,
renewable electric power as part of a corporate responsibility goal of helping to end U.S.
dependence on oil. However, Americans have been slow to embrace electric cars, and many
manufacturers have had to offer low-interest financing, cash discounts, sales bonuses, and
subsidized leases to get the autos off the sales floor. Manufacturers and dealers are struggling
to increase profits on the sale of these electric cars, and senior management at the automakers
must consider how long they can continue with their current strategies.

Fostering Corporate Social Responsibility and Good Business Ethics

Organizations have at least five good reasons to pursue CSR goals and to promote a work
environment in which employees are encouraged to act ethically when making business
decisions:

• Gaining the goodwill of the community

• Creating an organization that operates consistently
• Fostering good business practices
• Protecting the organization and its employees from legal action
• Avoiding unfavorable publicity

Improving Business Ethics

A well-implemented ethics and compliance program and a strong ethical culture can lead to
less pressure on employees to misbehave and a decrease in observed misconduct. It also creates
an environment in which employees are more comfortable reporting instances of misconduct,
partly because there is less fear of potential retaliation by management against reporters.

The Ethics Resource Centre has defined the following characteristics of a successful ethics
program:

• Employees are willing to seek advice about ethics-related issues.

• Employees feel prepared to handle situations that could lead to misconduct.
• Employees are rewarded for ethical behavior.
• The organization does not reward success obtained through questionable means.
• Employees feel positively about their company.

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BIM 6th IT ethics & Cyber Security

Ethical Considerations in Decision Making

We are all faced with difficult decisions in our work and in our personal life. Most of us have
developed a decision-making process that we execute automatically, without thinking about
the steps we go through. For many of us, the process generally follows the steps outlined in
Figure 1- 7 below.

Ethics in Information Technology

The growth of the Internet and social networks; the ability to capture, store, and analyze vast
amounts of personal data; and a greater reliance on information systems in all aspects of life
have increased the risk that information technology will be used unethically. In the midst of
the many IT breakthroughs in recent years, the importance of ethics and human values has been
underemphasized—with a range of consequences.

Here are some examples that raise public concern about the ethical use of information
technology:

• ➢ Governments around the world have implemented various systems that enable the
surveillance of their citizens and are struggling to achieve the proper balance between
privacy and security.
• ➢ Many employees have their email and Internet access monitored while at work,
as employers struggle to balance their need to manage important company assets and
work time with employees’ desire for privacy and self-direction.

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BIM 6th IT ethics & Cyber Security

• ➢ Millions of people have downloaded music and movies at no charge and in

apparent violation of copyright laws at tremendous expense to the owners of those
copyrights.
• ➢ Organizations contact millions of people worldwide through unsolicited email
and text messages in an extremely low cost, but intrusive marketing approach.

➢ Hackers break into databases of financial and retail institutions to steal customer
information and then use it to commit identity theft—opening new accounts and
charging purchases to unsuspecting victims.

Students around the world have been caught downloading material from the web and
plagiarizing content for their term papers.

➢ Websites plant cookies or spyware on visitors’ hard drives to track their online
purchases and activities.

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