[LINK] Cyberwar: Hypothetical Scenario for Teaching ICT, Ethics

Tom Worthington tom.worthington at tomw.net.au
Mon Feb 29 08:23:36 AEDT 2016


On 25/02/16 12:46, Chris Johnson wrote:

> ... Discussing ethics for civilians should avoid overtly military
> scenarios ...

War is an activity conducted mostly by civilians. Public
servants and civilian contractors are involved in support of
military operations. Any IT professional could be caught up in this 
situation.

> The proposal does not say which code of ethics needs to be
> considered. ...

The hypothetical is for the ICT profession, so their codes are 
introduced in the course notes which precede scenario:
http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/professional_ethics/

> The scenario and the primary reference seem to assume a state of
> "warfare" ...

Yes, the scenario is about cyberwar.

> Unarmed electronic sabotage of facilities anywhere is illegal,
> immoral, unethical. ...

Where a facility is being used for an criminal activity (or is being 
used to wage war against your citizens) and it cannot be safely shut 
down using physical force, then perhaps electronic sabotage is legal, 
moral, ethical and preferable.

> Since when is it legal even in war to attack /damage/sabotage ANY
> kind of hospital? ...

In war, it is possible to make an honest mistake, assuming it is okay to 
go to war at all.

> But to discus this the students need to have access to Geneva
> conventions etc ...

The Geneva conventions are not very clear on cyberwar. With ethics there 
are never any clear answers and I wanted students to start to think 
about what activities they should, and should not, be involved in.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
The Higher Education Whisperer http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/
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Adjunct Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science, College of
Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University
http://people.cecs.anu.edu.au/user/3890 http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4799-8464



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