Ethical Computing Guidelines free essay sample

The five best guiding principles include to always act with integrity, as integrity is an important ingredient to a healthy business, follow the law at all times, as structuring a company to be law abiding is crucial to maintaining the long term health of the company, be honest and fair, as honesty and fairness are invaluable to earning trust from customers, reveal and report all information truthfully without manipulation or misrepresentation, as falsely reporting findings of investigations can lead to worse problems of manipulation down the road, and to respect and encourage diversity and never discriminate against anyone, as diversity is a crucial value for a healthy society. (Duke) B) Are chain letters good or bad? Are they illegal? Summarize the opposing arguments you find. Chain letters are bad and often illegal if they request money or other items of value and promise a substantial return to the participants. A typical chain letter arrives in the recipients mailbox with a list of names and addresses. The recipient of the chain letter is instructed to send a certain amount of money, often $5, to the name and address at the top of the list, remove that person from the top of the list and place the recipients own name at the bottom of the list. The recipient then is instructed to send copies of the letter to other people with the promise, assuming everyone who receives the letter participates, the recipient will move to the top of the list and receive a substantial amount of cash. Chain letters are gambling and violate Title 18, United States Code, Section 1302, the Postal Lottery Statute. The opposing argument, probably formed from the originators of chain letters, is that chain letters represent free enterprise and a form of community sharing of resources. They would argue that mailing letters and a small amount of money in the hope of receiving a substantial return is harmless and should absolutely not be illegal. Nevertheless, chain letters are illegal, and whats more are a bad investment, namely because you are unlikely to receive a return on your investment. Chain letters are successful under the assumption of everyone participating. If someone in the chain does not participate, you will not be receiving a return on your investment. The U. S. Postal Service advices recipients of chain letters to return the letter to the Post Office with a note on the chain letters envelope indicating it may be illegal. (Valentine) C) How does anonymous e-mail work and why would you use it? Anonymous e-mail works through a system enabling an e-mail user the ability to send e-mail througha 3rd party, thereby masking their identity from the recipient of the e-mail. Anonymous e-mail also hides the e-mail senders e-mail address, the time stamp indicating the time the message was sent, and the message path from sender to receiver. A good reason to use anonymous e-mail would be to remain anonymous, however a common reason to use anonymous e-mail is unethical message sending. A hacker may use anonymous e-mail with false contact information to entice the recipient to send personal information in reply, such as bank account numbers. Anonymous e-mails use computer viruses to obtain personal information such as these bank account numbers, or social security numbers. Anonymous e-mail works by the sender of these e-mails making false claims and misrepresenting their true identity, making the recipient believe they are receiving the e-mail from a trusted source requesting this personal information. (Janssen) D) What are five ways e-mail use can be unethical? Unethical commercial e-mail use includes spamming, and within spamming there are multiple unethical ways of using e-mail. Mass e-mail sent blindly to thousands or even millions of people is unethical. An e-mail containing an opportunity to sign up for something, be it a subscription to a magazine or some other type of service, without a valid opt-out clause is also unethical. A common a highly unethical use of e-mail involves the use of web bugs or unwanted tracking cookies that the receiver of the e-mail unknowingly subjects himself to once he opens the e-mail. The use of harvesters, special robots designed to gather e-mail addresses from websites is a highly unethical use of e-mail. Finally, e-mail use without valid e-mail header information is also unethical. E-mail header information indicates to the receiver of the e-mail who is sending it. Sending it with false e-mail header information is unethical. (Rainoff) E) Why is the deliberate spreading of viruses unethical? Name at least five reasons. The deliberate spreading of computer viruses is illegal, therefore it is also unethical. Second, computer viruses are viral in nature, meaning they spread beyond control by their very nature, putting other systems at risk. Third, deliberately spreading computer viruses destroys the efforts of individuals and companies, destroying unsalvageable information once the computer virus gains access to the data and information. The deliberate spreading of computer viruses contributes to an ongoing battle between computer hackers who enjoy this unethical activity and consumers, increasing the necessary costs of protection from viruses through computer anti-virus programs. Fifth reason, the deliberate spreading of computer viruses compromise important data, from financial data involving bank account data to national defense data involving sensitive strategic information. (Webroot) Works Cited Duke, Mike. Walmart Statement of Ethics. September 2008. Website. 23 May 2013. lt;http://az301759. vo. msecnd. net/statementofethics/pdf/U. S_SOE. pdfgt;. Janssen, Cory. techopedia. 2010-2013. Website. 23 May 2013. lt;www. techopedia. com/definition/15052/anonymous-emailgt;. Rainoff, Mathew J. SpanRejection. com. 2000-2013. Web Page. 23 May 2013. lt;http://www. spamrejection. com/whatisspam. htmgt;. Valentine, Qiana. U. S. Postal Inspection Service. 2012. Website. 23 May 2013. lt;https://postalinspectors. uspis. gov/investigations/MailFraud/fraudschemes/sweepstakesfraud/ChainLetters. aspxgt;. Webroot. 2004-2013. 28 May 2013. lt;http://www. webroot. com/En_US/consumer/articles/computer-security-threats-computer-virusesgt;.