Legal, Ethical, and Professional Issues in Information Security

Think we need those things in Information Security? You bet we do! I would even suggest that we should be even more ethical, professional, and certainly as legal as we can be. In IT we are privy to information that is considered private, can be very personal, and can create great harm if leaked. From the website informationRisk a great quote comes: “With electronic access and technological advancement, it is much easier for professionals today to make a mistake, behave incorrectly and have their unethical actions to go viral.” (Gupta, 2012)

 IT can be a small industry in a community, and bad press can haunt a person for a long time. If you have been around for very long, you have heard stories, and you may have met the people about whose stories you hear. I for one never want to be that person.

A manager of mine from a previous employer once told me that we should behave as if what we did were going to be placed in the newspaper for everyone to read and judge and we should behave accordingly. BTW, he wasn’t scolding me. I believe that is exactly how we must all behave. If we all could, the world would have a lot less drama in it. This story is interesting to me because, after he told it to me, I agreed with it, but didn’t give it any more thought, then in my research for graduate school and a topic about ethics, this story pops right out in my second internet search. The subject of the link below is public officials, but I don’t think that matters. It applies equally to myself and others in my industry.

http://www.ca-ilg.org/post/front-page-test-easy-ethics-standard

References

Gupta, U. (2012, February 4). Role of Ethics in IT Security. Retrieved from InfoRisk Today: https://www.inforisktoday.com/role-ethics-in-security-a-4469

Institute for Local Government. (2015). The “Front Page” Test: An Easy Ethics Standard. Retrieved from Institute for Local Government: http://www.ca-ilg.org/post/front-page-test-easy-ethics-standard