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Taylor R. Fullerton
Professor Connie Douglas
ENGL2116-07
07 December 2016
Information Technology Professionals and Ethics
Voltaire once said, With great power comes great responsibility, (Franz). Information
technology (IT) professionals all around the world use computers every day to research, analyze
data, create programs, advance technology, or as a means of offense or defense against other
computer users. The list of cyber-related capabilities by IT professionals is long and continues to
grow as technology advances. With so much under IT professionals thumb, comes the
responsibility to use their abilities morally and ethically, without taking advantage of their power.
There must be an understanding of the responsibilities entailed to them as IT professionals and
how to apply good ethics in completing their job duties.
Cyber ethics is an issue that has been around since computers were first invented. It is
such a controversial topic in the information technology realm because it hard to determine if
cyber ethics should follow the same ethics principles as the other professional fields. Some
ethicists believe cyber ethics should be its own separate set of principles that only apply to the
cyber field (Barger 9). It is difficult to pinpoint what is ethical and unethical in the computing
profession because it is unlike any other profession. Older professions, such as medicine and law,
have ethical traditions that date back to more than two thousand years ago and have since been
integrated into law (Schultz 44). Because the age of information technology is so new, computer
ethics are not as concrete and solidified. Although, organizations created by IT professionals

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have created codes of ethics for their members in an attempt to set some ethical guidelines for
professionals within the cyber field.
The development of the principles of cyber ethics was difficult to determine because of
the controversy between traditional computer ethicists and other ethicists with opposing views.
The traditionalists believe that the principles of ethics are relatively constant, no matter what
areas of activity they might be applied, meaning that all the professional fields share the same
ethical principles. On the other hand, a computer ethicist named Deborah G. Johnson, says that
new circumstances occasioned by the use of a computer make for new questions about how
ethical principles are to be applied. She claims that the new and unique features of computers
and how they operate has caused new ethical dilemmas (Barger 9).
To determine what is ethical of IT professionals, one must first understand the basis of
ethics. Today, ethics seems to be a reference to concerns of morality, value and justice. In this
sense of the word, it is also interested in the value or goodness of things and situations and with
the justness of institutions (Schultz 2). Ethics is also viewed as a system of accepted beliefs
which control behavior, especially such a system based on morals (Andress, Winterfield 245).
The integration of ethics in the cyber field is called cyber ethics as referred to above. It first
originated in the late 1940s and early 1950s as computer ethics, a field of enquiry, by the work
of MIT Professor and author Norbert Wiener. He predicted the revolutionary social and ethical
consequences of information technology even before computers were around (Stamatellos 2).
The first definition of computer ethics was provided in 1985 by author James Moor: the
analysis of the nature and social impact of computer technology and the corresponding
formulation and justification of policies for the ethical use of such technology. Today, it can be
defined as the discipline of using appropriate and ethical behaviors and acknowledging moral

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duties and obligations pertaining to online environments and digital media (iKeepSafe). Also, it
has been referred to as the systematic study of the ethical and social impact of computers in the
information society (Stamatellos 3).
The implementation of cyber ethics in the IT profession is essential because of the unique
problems raised by information technology (Hester, Ford 39). Information technology involves
all forms of technology that are used to create, exchange, store and use information in its various
forms, such as business data, voice conversations, still images, motion pictures, multimedia
presentations, and several others, including those not conceived yet (Schultz 5). Information
technology is described as the application of appropriate technologies to the organization,
manipulation, and distribution of information by computers and telecommunications
(Stamatellos 2). In order to carry out proper and up-to-date cyber ethics by IT professionals, the
study of ethics in the cyber field must be continued. This can be justified on six different levels.
The first level to justify that that computer ethics should be studied is that doing so will make IT
professionals behave as the title entails, responsible professionals. The second level is because
it will teach us how to avoid computer catastrophe and abuse. Professionals within the cyber
field can examine the computer mistakes of the past, but it is questionable whether or not it will
help them get a balanced view of social responsibility dealing with computers (Hester, Ford 42).
The third level is that the advance of computing technology will continue to create temporary
policy vacuums, a situation where an ethical issue has never before been come across, so a new
policy has to be constructed. This is especially important because new technologies are being
invented every day in which IT professionals will face different and unique ethical dilemmas
than ever before. Level four justifies that the use of computing permanently changes certain
ethical issues to the degree that their alterations need independent study. An example of this

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change is the issue of intellectual property, as well as, privacy within computer technology. The
fifth level of justification is the use of computing technology generates, and will continue to
generate, novel ethical concerns that call for special study. Level six explains that the set of
novel and changing issues is big enough and coherent enough to constitute a new field (Hester,
Ford 43). The sixth level of justification to study computer ethics seems to support Johnsons
belief that cyber ethics should be a separate field with its own set of ethical principles.
Some of the problems brought about by the use of information technology may not be
considered new in the sense of a completely new problem, but as a new type of a problem. The
old problems have changed in scope and scale because of how information technology has
evolved. This is why it is difficult to decipher if IT professionals should follow traditional
professional ethics or a completely separate set in which it is tailored to the cyber field. An
example of an old problem is speed/reflex behavior. Communication has increased in speed by
the use of computers and can cause unique problems such as an exorbitant tone that would not
have been produced had the person wrote a hand-written letter or reached the person by phone or
face-to-face. Another example is storage and privacy (Barger 9). A lot of information can be
saved on a computer for any period of time. That information, whether accurate or not, can be
shared with other computers at an extremely fast rate and can spread like wildfire by computer
users. Another old problem that has changed shape is identity theft. Nowadays, stealing
someones identity is a lot easier to do then it used to be. It also takes a lot of time and trouble to
fix all the problems caused by an identity theft. Also, because computers are linked by networks,
it is possible to access pretty much any computer, internationally. This causes a problem with
internationality in that material can be sent anywhere, even into countries where it may be
considered obscene or offensive. One of the largest old problems that has been put on a new

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scale is copying/stealing. Computers give users the power to steal images or texts, effortlessly
(Barger 10). These are all factors that ethicists need to consider when determining how to declare
the boundaries of ethical and unethical for IT professionals.
It is of utmost importance for the professional cyber field to solidify what ethical
principles all IT professionals should follow. This is on account of the fact that professional
ethics is one of the key type of ethics that an IT professional would use to make ethical decisions
in computing. The other main types of ethics that are drawn upon when making ethical decisions
in computing are: the law, codes of practice, and personal ethics. The law, meaning the collection
of moral principles with negative consequences for disobedience, which are carried out by law
enforcement, including local, state, federal or by any company or organization. IT professionals
are also expected to follow codes of practice, that which are guidelines for employers to work
within. Lastly, IT professionals, and any other professional, applies their own personal ethics,
values that influence the actions of individuals, to their job and in any ethical decision in which
they are faced while dealing with information technology (Stamatellos 4).
Information technology professionals have many duties and responsibilities that are
expected of them. They have ethical duties as citizens and as ethical persons. This obligation is
not specific to the IT profession, however it is important in maintaining the integrity of the
profession. IT professionals have duties and obligations as employees to their employers. They
have enabling professional duties to the profession as well as to other IT professionals, which are
things they have to do in order to uphold their status as professionals. They have substantive
duties to their users to include all affected by a system, also, in dealing with those less
knowledgeable to not misuse their technical expertise. They also have substantive system duties

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which include being responsible for appropriate maintenance standards, maintain data integrity
and ensuring appropriate ongoing support for systems implemented (Schultz 46).
A big field within the cyber field that many IT professionals are in charge of is cyber
security. Cyber security involves all the technical and procedural measures mandatory for its
three main functions. These functions consist of preventing unauthorized access, modification,
use, and dissemination of data stored or processed in a computer system, preventing any
deliberate denial of service (DoS), and protecting the system in its entirety from physical harm
(Johnson, Snapper 133). The IT professionals that have capabilities within the cyber security area
of the cyber field have a good amount of power because of how much information and how
many databases and computers they are able to access with their applied knowledge. Hence, this
kind of power needs to be regulated by a concrete organization of ethical rules.
However, there are associations and organizations that have attempted to create codes of
ethics for their members. The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) produced the ACM
Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct in 1992. The Brookings Institution in Washington D.C.
wrote The Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics, a project intended for popular
consumption. There is also 47 current codes of ethics relating to cyber field listed on the website
of The Center for the Study of Ethics at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Barger 90).
In conclusion, a significant issue that society faces in todays day and age of technology
is knowing how to get the optimal use of out computers, without crossing any lines of ethics,
specifically IT professionals. These professionals have almost constant access to computers and
have knowledge and power that needs to be guided and regulated with a uniform set of ethical
practices and rules. However, ethicists still argue over whether the cyber profession has a unique
set of ethics principles or should follow the same as the older professions, like medicine and law.

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Works Cited
Andress, Jason, Steve Winterfeld, and Russ Rogers. Cyber Warfare: Techniques, Tactics and
Tools for Security Practitioners. Amsterdam: Syngress/Elsevier, 2011. Print.
Barger, Robert N. Computer Ethics: A Case-Based Approach. New York, NY: Cambridge UP,
2008. Print.
"Cyber-Ethics." iKeepSafe. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.
Franz, Annette. "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility." CX Journey. N.p., 08 July
2014. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.
Hester, D. Micah., and Paul Ford. "Computer Professionals and the Professional Use of
Computers." Computers and Ethics in the Cyberage. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
Hall, 2001. 218-230. Print.
Johnson, Deborah G., and John W. Snapper. "6. Codes of Ethics and Good Practices." Ethical
Issues in the Use of Computers. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub., 1985. 39. Print.
Schultz, Robert A. Contemporary Issues in Ethics and Information Technology. Hershey: IRM,
2006. Print.
Stamatellos, Giannis. "Chapter 2: Computer Crime and Security." Computer Ethics: A Global
Perspective. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 2007. 22-24. Print.