GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE COLLEGE 1

JHANG
Department of Computer Science

Government College University, Faisalabad

Course Code: Course Title: Credit Hours:
CSI-411 Professional Practices 3(3-0)
MID Term Course
 Ethics
 Importance of Ethics
 Ethics in Islam
 Professional Ethics
 Why professional ethics?
 Computer Ethics
 Categories of Computer Issues
 Moral and Ethical Problems
 Discuss Ethical Scenarios
 Ethical Principles
 Why People Act Unethically?
 Professional Ethics
 Ethics vs Feelings
 Ethics vs Religion
 Ethics vs Law
 Ethics vs “Whatever Society Accepts”
 Comparison Moral, Ethics, Law
 Commandments of Computer Ethics
 Discuss Different Scenarios
 Codes of Ethics
 IEEE - Code of Ethics
 ACM - Code of Ethics
 NSPE - Code of Ethics
 Problems with Professional Ethics
 Hacking, cracking and virus creation
 Awareness and Educational Issues regards Ethics
 Computing Ethics and Guidelines
 Philosophy of Ethics
 Foundation of Ethics  Metaphysics
 Epistemology  Axiology
 Philosophy-Idealism  Philosophy-Naturalism
 Philosophy-Pragmatism  Philosophy-Existentialism
 Philosophy-Logical Analysis
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GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE COLLEGE 2
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

Final Term Course

 Ethical use of Internet
 Intellectual Copy Right
 Patents
 Trademarks
 Domain Names
 Registered Designs
 Alternatives to copyrights
 Social Application of Rules and Ethics
 Ethical scenarios to use social networks
 Computer-Related Waste & Mistakes
 Computer Criminals
 Ethical Decision Making
 Value Judgment
 Rights vs. Duties
 Accountability and Auditing
 Need for Accountability
 Data Security
 Security benefits of Accountability
 Auditing
 Auditing Principles
 Auditing Benefits
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COURSE OUTLINES
OBJECTIVES:
A Computing graduate as professional has some responsibilities with respect to
the society. This course develops student understanding about historical, social,
economic, ethical, and professional issues related to the discipline of Computing. It
identifies key sources for information and opinion about professionalism and ethics.
Students analyze, evaluate, and assess ethical and professional computing case
studies.
COURSE OUTLINES:
Introduction, Computing Ethics, Philosophy of Ethics, Ethics and the Internet.
Intellectual Copy Right, Accountability and Auditing, Social Application of
Ethics.
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Professional Practice
GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE COLLEGE 3
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

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“Goodness without Knowledge is weak. Knowledge without
Goodness is Dangerous”
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What are computer ethics?
COMPUTER ETHICS
Ethics is a set of moral principles that govern the behavior of a group or
individual. Therefore, computer ethics is set of moral principles that regulate the
use of computers. Some common issues of computer ethics include intellectual
property rights (such as copyrighted electronic content), privacy concerns, and
how computers affect society.

For example, while it is easy to duplicate copyrighted electronic (or digital)

content, computer ethics would suggest that it is wrong to do so without the
author's approval. And while it may be possible to access someone's personal
information on a computer system, computer ethics would advise that such an
action is unethical.

As technology advances, computers continue to have a greater impact on

society. Therefore, computer ethics promotes the discussion of how much
influence computers should have in areas such as artificial intelligence and
human communication. As the world of computers evolves, computer ethics
continues to create ethical standards that address new issues raised by new
technologies.
----------------------------------------------------------------------Explain
the importance of computer ethics.
Importance of computer ethics
 To protect personal & commercial information such as login & password
information, credit card and account information and government and
commercial databases. It also controls unwanted internet mail and ads
(Spam).

 To control plagiarism, student identity fraud, and the use of copyrighted

material, etc.
 To make ICT available and accessible to all peoples, including the disabled
and the deprived. Accessibility needs to be kept in mind during curriculum
design (in educational contexts), in order to maximize the capabilities of the
technology.
 To suppress dishonest business practices and to protect and encourage fair
competition.

 To promote moral and social values in society.

GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE COLLEGE 4
JHANG
Department of Computer Science

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What are computer ethics in Islam?
Computer ethics in Islam?
Ethic in Islam includes many aspects; keeping the promise is an original
Islamic value, and honesty in speech and telling the truth are also Islamic values.
Returning a deposit to its owner is also a beautiful behavior in Islam, a good
advice for everyone also has been regarded as a good behavior in Islam,
preferring others over your self is also a good behavior in Islam. All those ethical
values were exemplified by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his
companions in their true sense.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------What are
professional ethics?
Professional Ethics
Professionally accepted standards of personal and business behavior, values
and guiding principles. Codes of professional ethics are often established by
professional organizations to help guide members in performing their job
functions according to sound and consistent ethical principles.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------What are
moral and ethical problems?
Moral and ethical problems
The problems as ethical problems. ... Ethical dilemmas, however, are defined
rather more narrowly, as situations in which, on moral grounds, persons ought
both to do and not to do something. Such a definition implies that issues of
conflict and choice are central to moral dilemmas.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- What are
ethical problems?
Ethical problems
Whatever the ethical theory under consideration, there are four basic principles
informing of biomedical ethics. They are:
 autonomy  beneficence  non-maleficence  justice
Let's look more closely at each principle.

Autonomy:
The term autonomy is derived from the Greek words autos or self and
nomos or rule, governance or law. It refers to the respect for human dignity and
the right of individuals to decide things for themselves. What does the person
want to have done? In epidemiological practice and research, this principle is
central to the concepts of informed consent and confidentiality.
Beneficence:
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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

Beneficence refers to the obligation to do good and to prevent or remove

harm or injury. What can be done for the good of the individual or community?
What is the balance between the benefits and the risks of the intervention? Can
you think of an application of the beneficence principle in your own work?
Non-maleficence:
The term non-maleficence refers to not inflicting harm or injury – from
Hippocrates' statement "above all, do no harm". Some authors include non-
maleficence with the principle of beneficence, reasoning that beneficence entails
weighing the benefits and harms of health interventions, maximizing the benefits
and minimizing the harm. Hebert considers it better to think of non-maleficence
as an ideal to strive for, since all actions by health practitioners carry with them
the possibility of harm.
Justice:
The principle of justice is best described by the term fairness or giving
each person his/her due. This is related to distributive justice or equity and
impartiality. This principle is critical when there is scarcity or competition for
services or resources. For example, will the health service be available to those
who need it most, without prejudice on the basis of their ability to pay or
geographical location?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Why
people act unethical?
Unethical Behavior
Unethical intentions and behavior can be driven by individual, issue
specific, and environmental factors:
 Bad apples (individual factors): Employees who obey authority figures’
unethical directives or act merely to avoid punishment. They manipulate
others for their own personal gain, fail to see the connection between their
actions and outcomes, and believe that ethical choices are driven by
circumstance.
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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

 Bad cases (issue-specific factors): Issues can vary in the degree of harm
they impose on the victim, and on the degree of agreement among peers.
 Bad barrels (environmental factors): Environments that encourage
individualistic behavior as opposed to a climate that emphasizes doing
what is best for other employees, customers, and the community.
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What are different views about ethics?
Ethics vs Feelings
Many times, there’s a conflict between what we naturally feel and what is
considered to be ethical. Our subconscious reaction to a news event might be
hatred, jealousy or other negative feelings, but we might not be able to morally
argue why we feel that way.
My guess is that the human race developed those subconscious reactions as
an evolutionary mechanism to survive. Our ancestors wouldn’t have been able to
find & obtain food if they hadn’t fought for it. Arguing about ethics would’ve
meant that you’ll have to stay hungry and die. The problem is, most of our
feelings in today’s world are unethical, politically incorrect or even outright
harmful. It takes a great deal of effort to retrospect and self-analyze our feelings
to judge whether they are ethical or not.
Let us take a few common examples and see how to tackle those feelings.
1 Groupism 2. Patriotism 3. Dunbar’s number
4 Negative feelings to content on Social Network
Groupism:
Natural feeling: I am part of a group. I am supposed to help this group
become better. I am also supposed to compete with other groups.
Reasoning:
Being part of a herd made it easier for us ancestors to survive in the wild.
There were so many survival benefits that belonging to a group brought.
Naturally, our ancestors started developing good feelings about belonging to a
group.
Ethical viewpoint:
Help the group. Help other gr0ups too. There is no compelling reason to
compete in today’s times of peace.
Patriotism:
Natural feeling: I was born in a place. I am supposed to help people in the
geographical vicinity around me. There are human- decided borders that define
my country. Those outside the border don’t deserve that much attention as those
inside the border do.
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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

Reasoning:
Patriotism is Groupism in a higher scale. Most borders were drawn for
political benefits by a small group of individuals running that country. There
have been countless stories of propaganda by governments to motivate people to
join their wars to fight people over borders. We humans tend to justify these
efforts as noble.
Ethical viewpoint:
Wars are always bad. There is no reason to be proud of your country just
because you were born in it. It is okay to be in your country and help your
country because you are used to it. But it is also okay to move to other countries
and help those countries.
Dunbar’s number:
Natural feeling: I cannot maintain more than 150 stable relationships.
Reasoning:
Our brains have limited capacity and it becomes mentally hard to maintain
more relationships.
Ethical viewpoint:
Acceding to the Dunbar’s number promotes Groupism. Just as we push
ourselves to become better humans, we should also try to push the Dunbar
number limit further. Accepting that all life forms in this world (and outside the
world if life exists) are part of the same group counters the negative effects of
Groupism.
Negative feelings to content on Social Networks
Natural feeling: I hate what’s being posted on Facebook. They are just
stupid selfies, people gloating their achievements or just distracting,
unproductive content.
Reasoning:
1. Many of us have been taught to compete with others since our childhood.
We tend to compare ourselves with others.
2. We don’t like selfies because they are attention-seeking and we look down
upon those who seek attention.
3. Distracting, unproductive content is noise to us and we cannot handle too
much noise in our daily life.

Ethical viewpoint:
1. We don’t have to compete with our friends. We can applaud their life
2. achievements without comparing our lives with theirs.
3. We don’t have to look down upon those who seek attention. Comedians,
actors and other entertainers are attention-seeking but we don’t look down
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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

upon them.

4. It is up to us to filter out noise in our lives. Social networks aren’t thrusted

into our face. We can choose to stay away from them if they are noisy. Or
even better, adjust the content shown in our feed and tailor it our comfort.
Conclusion:
It is easy to give in to our feelings. An analogy would be with unhealthy
foods. It is easy to choose unhealthy foods because they are tasty and easy to
prepare. But we hit the gym, avoid those foods and exercise because we want to
become better individuals. Similarly, we can take the ethical route, avoid
negative feelings and exercise those reactions because want to become better
individuals.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------What is
the difference between Ethics and Religion?
Difference Between Ethics and Religion
When academics talk about ethics, they are typically referring to decisions
about right and wrong. As noted above, the study of ethical behavior goes back
thousands of years to ancient Greece. Ethics are a branch of philosophy that
investigates questions such as “What is good and what is bad?” “Is it just to
reward one group with more benefits than another?” “What action should an
individual or organization take if a client mistreats him/her/it?” In practice, ethics
are decision-making tools that try to guide questions of human morality, by
defining concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice
and crime, etc.

Often, religion and ethics are treated as the same thing, with various
religions making claims about their belief systems being the best way for people
to live, actively proselytizing and trying to convert unbelievers, trying to legislate
public behaviors based around isolated religious passages, etc. Of course, not all
religions are the same, some are more liberal than others and some more
conservative, but in general, all religious traditions believe that their faith
represents a path to enlightenment and salvation.

By contrast, ethics are universal decision-making tools that may be used by a

person of any religious persuasion, including atheists. While religion makes
claims about cosmology, social behavior, and the “proper” treatment of others,
etc. Ethics are based on logic and reason rather than tradition or injunction. As
Burke suggests of the “hortatory Negative” of the “Thou Shalt Not”s found in
many religious traditions that tell people how to behave by “moralizing," ethics
include no such moralizing.
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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

If something is bad, ethics tells us we should not do it, if something is

good, obviously there is no harm in doing it. The tricky part of life, and the
reason that we need ethics, is that what is good and bad in life are often
complicated by our personal circumstances, culture, finances, ethnicity, gender,
age, time, experience, personal beliefs, and other variables. Often the path that
looks most desirable will have negative consequences, while the path that looks
the most perilous for an individual or organization will often result in doing the
most good for others. Doing what is “right” is a lot harder than doing what is
expedient.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------What is
the difference between Law and Ethics?
Difference Between Law and Ethics
In simple terms, the law may be understood as the systematic set of
universally accepted rules and regulation created by an appropriate authority
such as government, which may be regional, national, international, etc. It is used
to govern the action and behavior of the members and can be enforced, by
imposing penalties.

Many times the term law is juxtaposed with the term ethics, but there is a
difference, as ethics are the principles that guide a person or society, created to
decide what is good or bad, right or wrong, in a given situation. It regulates a
person’s behavior or conduct and helps an individual in living a good life, by
applying the moral rules and guidelines.

For a layman, these two terms are same, but the fact is that there is a
difference between law and ethics. Read the article carefully, to overcome your
ambiguities.
Definition of Law
The law is described as the set of rules and regulation, created by the
government to govern the whole society. The law is universally accepted,
recognized and enforced. It is created with the purpose of maintaining social
order, peace, justice in the society and to provide protection to the general public
and safeguard their interest.
It is made after considering ethical principles and moral values. The law is
made by the judicial system of the country. Every person in the country is bound
to follow the law. It clearly defines what a person must or must not do. So, in the
case of the breach of law may result in the punishment or penalty or sometimes
both.
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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

Definition of Ethics
By ethics, we mean that branch of moral philosophy that guides people
about what is good or bad. It is a collection of fundamental concepts and
principles of an ideal human character. The principles help us in making
decisions regarding, what is right or wrong. It informs us about how to act in a
particular situation and make a judgment to make better choices for ourselves.
Ethics are the code of conduct agreed and adopted by the people. It sets a
standard of how a person should live and interact with other people.

Key Differences Between Law and Ethics

The major differences between law and ethics are mentioned below:

1. The law is defined as the systematic body of rules that governs the whole
society and the actions of its individual members. Ethics means the science of
a standard human conduct.
2. The law consists of a set of rules and regulations, whereas Ethics comprises of
guidelines and principles that inform people about how to live or how to
behave in a particular situation.
3. The law is created by the Government, which may be local, regional, national
or international. On the other hand, ethics are governed by an individual, legal
or professional norm, i.e. workplace ethics, environmental ethics and so on.
4. The law is expressed in the constitution in a written form. As opposed to
ethics, it cannot be found in writing form.
5. The breach of law may result in punishment or penalty, or both which is not in
the case of breach of ethics.
6. The objective of the law is to maintain social order and peace within the
nation and protection to all the citizens. Unlike, ethics that are the code of
conduct that helps a person to decide what is right or wrong and how to act.
7. The law creates a legal binding, but ethics has no such binding on the people.
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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

Conclusion
Law and ethics are different in a manner that what a person must do and what
a person should do. The former is universally accepted while the latter is ideal
human conduct, agreed upon by most of the people. Although, both the law and
ethics are made in alignment so that they do not contradict each other. Both go
side by side, as they provide how to act in a particular manner. Every person is
equal in the eyes of law and ethics, i.e. nobody is superior or inferior. Further,
these two allow a person to think freely and choose.
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What is the difference between Moral, Ethics and Law? compare
between Moral, ethics and law
Law is intended to, at a fundamental level, reflect and enforce the moral and
ethical standards of a civilized society. The first thing that should be understood
is the slight difference between morals and ethics.
Morality:
Morality deals with that which is regarded as right or wrong. Morality stems
from an individual's conscience and from the values of a given society, which
might be based on religious tradition or on political principles such as democracy
or socialism. Moral conduct would be that which is considered 'right' based on
people's consciences and society's shared values. Morality is one way for a
community to define appropriate activity.
Ethics:
Ethics (from the Ancient Greek word ethikos meaning 'theory of living'),
is a type of philosophy which attempts to figure out that right versus wrong in
any given situation or scenario. In general terms, ethics are practical moral
standards that distinguish right from wrong, and give us a guide to living 'moral'
lives. These standards might include duties that we should follow, such as
fidelity in marriage, or the consequences of our behavior on others.
The act of embezzling money from a company, for example, is not only a
legal wrongdoing against the company but also an action that could result in
people losing their jobs. In more specific terms, some of the more difficult
ethical questions on which a government might legislate could include issues
relating to abortion, euthanasia and animal rights.
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Hackers vs Crackers Infographics
What is your view about hackers?
Hackers
 GOVERNMENT POSTGRADUATE COLLEGE
12

JHANG
Department of Computer Science

The original use of the term hacker dates back to 1950s when at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology some students had a strong desire of
experimenting and learning about technology. A hack back then meant
something very original and ingenious and solely meant to explore the arena of
computers and technology. Currently the terms is used in a rather negative sense.
And this is because most of the times people confuse the term hacking with
cracking. But it is totally not to be confused with crackers. We will deal with the
crackers in detail later.
White Hats, as they are sometimes called are mostly the programmers.
They acquire an advanced knowledge of programming, computer languages and
codes. They are the ethical hackers who stay within the limits of the law. They
do not access any system or network illegally. They are constantly looking for
the flaws in the computer and internet security and their sole aim is to rectify
these flaws and improve the security of the content. The companies hire these
white hats in order to audit and check their network security.
These hackers work as professionals and correct the flaws with their
advanced knowledge of the area and reduce the risk that might put the security of
the company at stake. They discover the weak points in the network securities
and work tirelessly and put in their best efforts to seek solutions to these network
issues. They establish the reason behind these loopholes and work for fixing
them.
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Explain different interests of hackers

The hackers are interested in knowing how things work. They like to explore
and discover the computer systems, programming and the networks. While some
hackers may only be interested in learning the things others turn their passion
into their profession thus making them professional hackers. They are essentially
very well acquainted with all sorts of software tools, techniques and codes that
the crackers know.
They know how a cracker would attempt to attack any content which is
meant to be secure on the websites and across computer systems. They design
exactly such software and tools that a cracker would use and then they work on
improving the system with more secure tools and techniques. This ensure that the
computer systems and the network systems become secure enough to not be
thwarted by the crackers.
The white hats also break in the security but their purpose of breaking in is
entirely non-malicious. They do this only to test their own systems for security
purposes and they do it legally with the permission of various companies and
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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

firms that hire them for this job. White hats come under the banner of ethical
hacking which doesn’t involve any illegal practice of hacking. The professional
hackers mean no harm to any company or individual.
------------------------------------------------------------------------What is
your view about crackers?
We have learnt about the hackers, how they work, what their interests are and
what they do. Now when we talk of crackers, we must know that crackers are
also hackers. But their ways of works differ a lot. While a hacker works totally in
the interest of a company or an individual, the cracker works totally in an
opposite manner.

The purpose of a cracker is to break the security of computers and

networks. It is an illegal activity. They make use of their knowledge to make
personal gains and breach the security across networks. They acquire extensive
knowledge and learning about computers, their programming, software, codes
and languages and use them to break into computers for criminal gains.

The crackers are also known as Black Hats. They gain access to the
accounts of people maliciously and they can misuse the secured information
across networks. They can steal credit card information, they can destroy
important files, disclose crucial data and information or personal details and sell
them for personal gains. Their purpose can range from little personal gains to
bigger criminal interests. They can make employees of a company divulge highly
secure information. They violate computer security. Once they have gained the
control over a system, they can do anything like steel data, destroy it, use it to
their advantage etc.
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Explain different interests of crackers.
While some crackers are driven by sheer publicity of their abilities in the
field of hacking, some do it for criminal and malicious purposes. They
intentionally breach the computer and network security merely for profit or
maybe there is challenge in it. They are interested in gaining access to various
programs and software without paying royalties. The only purpose they have is
illegal hacking leading to security problems. There may be a theft from the
accounts of credit card holders, important data may be lost and secure
information may be divulged. Some crackers are interested in modifying the
software by reverse engineering. And they do this merely for amusement or to
showcase their knowledge and abilities.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Explain
difference between hackers and crackers.
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JHANG
Department of Computer Science

Hackers vs Crackers
There is a common view that the hackers build things and the crackers
break the things. These are basically two entirely different terms. They may seem
similar but there are differences between how the two actually work. While
hackers have an advanced knowledge of the computer related security crackers
usually are not as skillful as hackers.
Very few of them are skilled enough to create their new software and tools.
So they generally rely on certain not so reputed, in fact the disrepute websites to
download several automated programs to execute their deed. Hackers try to
counter the potential threats that the crackers pose to the computer and internet
security across varied networks. Crackers always know that their activities are
illegal and they are breaking the law so they tend to cover up their tracks.
However the professional hackers being competent enough and quite
skillful with their work, potentially restore the security set ups across the
corrupted networks and they help in catching the specific crackers. Although
most of the crackers are less skilled yet many of them are able enough. They
possess advanced skills and extensive knowledge just like the professional
hackers.
They have the ability to create tools and software that help them exploit all
sorts of weak points that they discover in the highly secured programs. This
makes it even difficult to catch these crackers. Because they do not leave a trail
behind. The number of skilled crackers is very low yet we should not ignore
them. They certainly pose serious threat to the internet security.
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