Securing information systems is a common and ongoing process.

Discussion 2

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Respond to these colleagues (BELOW): (Half a page each and please, provide each references)

Discussion Topic

Securing information systems is a common and ongoing process. However, business priorities often compete against limited resources, which can result in a data breach. At what point does the decision to not implement best practices based on business priorities become an ethical question? Examine this ethical decision from the Christian worldview perspective.

Post from colleague 1

Hello Class,

The potential incongruity between IT and business practices becomes ethically suspect at the point when leadership knowingly allows vulnerabilities which affectively renders the security infrastructure as inadequate. As Jesus said from Matthew 28:20, ‘teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’, displays the power of reciprocity and where ethical line exists (Biblehub, 2020). The prerequisite for Jesus to be with Matthew, in this case, till the end of age is to not just have faith, but more importantly, acquire the need to follow the principles that Jesus confided in the apostles and humankind to abide by. The functional aspect of principles in this paradigm overlaps with the concept of protocols and policy in security infrastructure. Without an adequate infrastructure, the business may have tacitly decided that its clientele, and possibly the organizations own employees, are somewhat disposable. Various excuses from leadership should fall on deaf ears, as there is always a choice which may not benefit business aims but would retain the integrity of its operations. To play devil’s advocate, it would be ethically sound for a business that is undergoing cutbacks and lacks resources to downsize the corporation in order to fund an optimal security infrastructure.

Reference

Biblehub (2020). Matthew 28:20. Retrieved from https://biblehub.com/matthew/28-20.htm

Post from colleague 2

Good afternoon professor and classmates,

To me, the most important part of cybersecurity, especially with the information that hackers are trying to get, becomes an ethical issue when a company knowingly allows threats when a simple fix could’ve mitigated the problem. This has to do with confidentiality as well, if the information is not secure then it isn’t that confidential anymore, which means the company can be held liable for what happened and what happens to those people once their information is stolen.

Another part of the ethical piece is that there is a shortage of manpower in the cybersecurity world. This means companies are going to try and stretch their resources as far as possible with what they have, and sometimes they may have the opportunity to hire more personnel but not the means to do so. Is it ethical to keep the business running if the security starts to fade? Or should they put the business at risk and hire more?

(2020). In The Increasing Focus on Cyber Ethics Issues. Retrieved from https://online.maryville.edu/blog/cyber-security-ethics/