ethical issues for it security professionals

8/2/2019 Ethical Issues for IT Security Professionals

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Ethical issues for IT security professionals

By Deb Shinder

August 2, 2005 12:00 PM ET

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WindowSecurity.com - Physicians, attorneys and other professionals

whose job duties affect others' lives usually receive, as part of their formal

training, courses that address ethical issues common to their professions.

IT security personnel often have access to confidential data and

knowledge about individuals' and companies' networks and systems that

give them a great deal of power. That power can be abused, either

deliberately or inadvertently. But there are no standardized training

requirements for hanging out your shingle as an IT security consultant or

in-house security specialist. Associations and organizations for IT pros arebeginning to address the ethical side of the job, but again, there is no

requirement for IT security personnel to belong to those organizations.

Why are ethical guidelines needed?

The education and training of IT professionals, including security

specialists, usually focuses on technical knowledge and skills. You learn

how to perform tasks, but with little consideration of how those abilities

can be misused. In fact, many IT professionals approach their work with a

hacker's perspective: whatever you can do, you're entitled to do. (Note: In

this article, we're using the word hackerin the current common meaning,pertaining to "black hat" hackers who use their skills to break into

systems and access data and programs without the permission of the

owners. We're well aware that the term originally referred to anyone with

advanced programming skills, and that there are "white hat hackers" who

use their skills to help companies and individuals protect against the black

hats.)

In fact, many IT pros don't even realize that their jobs involve ethical

issues. Yet we make decisions on a daily basis that raise ethical questions.

What are the ethical issues?

Many of the ethical issues that face IT professionals involve privacy. For

example:

Should you read the private e-mail of your network users just because youcan? Is it OK to read employees' e-mail as a security measure to ensure

that sensitive company information isn't being disclosed? Is it OK to read

employees' e-mail to ensure that company rules (for instance, against
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personal use of the e-mail system) aren't being violated? If you do read

employees' e-mail, should you disclose that policy to them? Before or after

the fact?

Is it OK to monitor the Web sites visited by your network users? Shouldyou routinely keep logs of visited sites? Is it negligent to not monitor suchInternet usage, to prevent the possibility of pornography in the workplace

that could create a hostile work environment?

Is it OK to place key loggers on machines on the network to captureeverything the user types? What about screen capture programs so you

can see everything that's displayed? Should users be informed that they're

being watched in this way?

Remember that we're not talking about legal questions here. A company may

very well have the legal right to monitor everything an employee does with its

computer equipment. We're talking about the ethical aspects of having the

ability to do so.

As a network administrator or security professional, you have rights and

privileges that allow you to access most of the data on the systems on your

network.

You may even be able to access encrypted data if you have access to the

recovery agent account. What you do with those abilities depends in part on

your particular job duties (for example, if monitoring employee mail is a part

of your official job description) and in part on your personal ethical beliefs

about these issues.

The slippery slope

A common concept in any ethics discussion is the "slippery slope." This

pertains to the ease with which a person can go from doing something that

doesn't really seem unethical, such as scanning employees' e-mail "just for

fun," to doing things that are increasingly unethical, such as making little

changes in their mail messages or diverting messages to the wrong recipient.

In looking at the list of privacy issues above, it's easy to justify each of the

actions described. But it's also easy to see how each of those actions could

"morph" into much less justifiable actions. For example, the information you

gained from reading someone's e-mail could be used to embarrass that


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person, to gain a political advantage within the company, to get him/her

disciplined or fired, or even for blackmail.

The slippery slope concept can also go beyond using your IT skills. If it's OK to

read other employees' e-mail, is it also OK to go through their desk drawers

when they aren't there? To open their briefcases or purses?

Real world ethical dilemmas

What if your perusal of random documents reveals company trade secrets?

What if you later leave the company and go to work for a competitor? Is it

wrong to use that knowledge in your new job? Would it be "more wrong" if

you printed out those documents and took them with you, than if you just

relied on your memory?

What if the documents you read showed that the company was violating

government regulations or laws? Do you have a moral obligation to turn themin, or are you ethically bound to respect your employer's privacy? Would it

make a difference if you signed a nondisclosure agreement when you accepted

the job?

IT and security consultants

who do work for multiple companies have even more ethical issues to deal

with. If you learn things about one of your clients that might affect your other

client(s), where does your loyalty lie?

Then there are money issues. The proliferation of network attacks, hacks,

viruses and other threats to their IT infrastructures have caused many

companies to "be afraid, be very afraid." As a security consultant, it may be

very easy to play on that fear to convince companies to spend far more money

than they really need to. Is it wrong for you to charge hundreds or even

thousands of dollars per hour for your services, or is it a case of "whatever the

market will bear?"

Is it wrong for you to mark up the equipment and software that you get for the

customer when you pass the cost through? What about kickbacks from

equipment manufacturers? Is it wrong to accept "commissions" from them for

persuading your clients to go with their products? Or what if the connection is

more subtle? Is it wrong to steer your clients toward the products of

companies in which you hold stock?


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Another ethical issue involves promising more than you can deliver, or

manipulating data to obtain higher fees. You can install technologies and

configure settings to make a client's network more secure, but you can never

make it completely secure. Is it wrong to talk a client into replacing their

current firewalls with those of a different manufacturer, or switching to an

open source operating system which changes, coincidentally, will result in

many more billable hours for you on the premise that this is the answer to

their security problems?

Here's another scenario: What if a client asks you to save money by cutting

out some of the security measures that you recommended, yet your analysis of

the client's security needs shows that sensitive information will be at risk if

you do so? You try to explain this to the client, but he/she is adamant. Should

you go ahead and configure the network in a less secure manner? Should you"eat" the cost and install the extra security measures at no cost to the client?

Should you refuse to do the job? Would it make a difference if the client's

business were in a regulated industry, and implementing the lower security

standards would constitute a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and

Accountability Act, the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act, Sarbanes-Oxley or other

laws?

Summary

This article has raised a lot

of questions, but has not attempted to provide set answers. That's because,

ultimately, the answer to the question "Is it ethical?" must be answered by

each individual IT professional.

Unlike older, more established professions such as medicine and law, most

ethical issues that IT and security professionals confront have not been

codified into law, nor is there a standard mandatory oversight body, such as

the national or state medical association or bar association, that has

established a detailed code of ethics.

However, the question of ethical behavior in the IT professions is beginning to

be addressed. Voluntary professional associations such as the Association for

Computing Machinery (ACM) have developed their own codes of ethics and

professional conduct, which can serve as a guideline for individuals and other


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organizations.

Resources

For an excellent, detailed paper on how to use the ACM code of ethics in

making decisions and discussion of many common scenarios,

see http://www-cs.etsu.edu/gotterbarn/p98-anderson.pdf.

For very detailed discussions of both technological and non-technological

ethical issues that face IT pros from systems admins to programmers to ISPs,

see Stephen Northcutt's bookIT Ethics Handbook, published by Syngress.

Debra Littlejohn Shinder, MCSE, MVP (Security) is a technology consultant,

trainer and writer who has authored a number of books on computer operating

systems, networking, and security. She is also a tech editor, developmental editor

and contributor to more than 20 additional books. Her articles are regularly

published on TechRepublic's TechProGuild Web site and Windowsecurity.com,and have appeared in print magazines such as Windows IT Pro (formerly

Windows & .NET) Magazine. She has authored training material, corporate

whitepapers, marketing material, and product documentation for Microsoft

Corp., Hewlett-Packard, DigitalThink, GFI Software, Sunbelt Software, CNET and

other technology companies. She lives and works in the Dallas-Fort Worth area

and can be reached [email protected] atwww.shinder.net.
http://www-cs.etsu.edu/gotterbarn/p98-anderson.pdfhttp://www.syngress.com/catalog/?pid=2900mailto:[email protected]://www.shinder.net/http://www.shinder.net/mailto:[email protected]://www.syngress.com/catalog/?pid=2900http://www-cs.etsu.edu/gotterbarn/p98-anderson.pdf

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