Cyber Crime and Software Theft at Workplace in ICT Sector: Three Distinct Perspectives of Applied Ethics

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHS, Charles Sturt University
Cyber Crime and Software Theft at Workplace in ICT Sector
NOMULA SANDEEP GOUD
Student Number
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1. Introduction
Ethical Issues are defined as those kind of issues that have moral dilemmas in their
determination of the act in either the basis of right or wrong (Niebuhr, 2013). The ethical
issues of the workplace at the ICT Sector can be many out of which cybercrime and crime
related to the theft of the office software for personal benefit is of prime importance
(Sorokin, 2017). Applied Ethics which can be defined as the form of ethics with morality and
controversial selections can be divided into three types of perspectives depending upon the
way in which the ethical theories are being adhered namely Professional Ethics,
Philosophical Ethics and Sociological or Descriptive Ethics (Nussbaum, 2013). In the
following essay, the three types of ethical perspectives are used to decipher the ethical
issues that are one of the pivotal at workplace of an Information and Communication
Technology office sector which is cybercrime and theft of the office software for personal
use. The workplace that has been mentioned here is any workplace that deals with the
above issue and is related to the Information and Communication Technology.
2. Professional Ethics Perspectives
The standard of behavior that is being expected by professionals in both their personal
and corporate code of conduct is termed is Professional Perspectives of Ethics (Dent &
Whitehead, 2013). The various code of conduct that the professional ethics perspective
mentions are the three factors of Professionalism, Integrity with the people and the
Confidentiality maintained by the people working in the ethical scenario. These kind of
professional ethics are needed for the maintenance of the decorum and the decency level in
the office premises. The importance of the professional ethics lies in the fact that without
the professional ethics, it is not possible to sustain in a professional scenario and also to
effectively run the business amidst the steep competition of the peers and counterparts.
NOMULA SANDEEP GOUD

The professional ethics perspective is one of the main issues that is faced by one of the
member of the workplace (Durkheim, 2013). The member is an integral part of the
Information Technology and Communication team who is expected to perform in a
professional way in front of the clients and also to maintain the code of conduct that is
there in the office both in the professional and personal matter.
Professionalism has not been maintained by the member of the company which is the
first criteria of the professional code of conduct in the ethics. The professional behavior of
the people of the company relates to the fact that the member will maintain a decent and
cordial relation with the company as well as the client (Fromm, 2013). The member has
nowhere maintained the professionalism in the matter and has given the software of the
company to the rival brand which has made the behavior of the professional person against
the professionalism.
Integrity which is another feature of the professional ethics sector is also being
hampered in the case study. The selling of the confidential software from the workplace to
the rival firm hampers the integrity of the workplace and also with the colleagues. The way
that integrity is being hampered in the workplace is the fact that with the selling and the
hampering of the private information, there is a chance that every single aim of integrating
the workplace and the workers is being hampered in the place (Pope, 2016). The betrayal of
the member to the overall workplace makes the factor of integrity hampered to a major
extent in the workplace of the company as well as to the sector of information technology
and communication.
The member has not maintained one of the principle ethics of professional behavior in
the code of conduct scenario which is maintenance of confidentiality. The member has
given the secrets of the company including the chief software on which the workings of the
NOMULA SANDEEP GOUD