Ethical Dilemma: Early System Launch

This assignment discusses a scenario where a company's CEO pressures the project manager to deliver a system one month before the deadline by skipping security encryption. The project director refuses, explaining the consequences of a security breach and the potential harm to the company's reputation. The best option is for the project director to educate the project manager on the importance of encryption, leading to a decision that prioritizes the company's security and reputation.

Running head: EARLY LAUNCH
SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHS, Charles Sturt University
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Assignment 1: Doing Ethics Technique
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Word Count: 1000

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Q1. What's going on?
The scenario is a company which is developing a system wants to skip the encryption
and deliver the system one month before the deadline to get another huge amount of order.
The project manager is trying to offer huge bonus to the project director and his team to get
the job done as per their requirements which is to deliver the system one month before the
deadline by skipping the much needed encryption (YouTube, 2018).
Q2. What are the facts?
The facts are:
 Pressure from the CEO to get another project
 Consequences, if the project does not delivered early
 To launch the product before the deadline
 The product will launch without proper encryption
 Product can be hacked as it lacks security implications
 Encryption is a vital issue in the system as per the developer
Q3. What are the issues (non-ethical)?
The main non-ethical issue of the scene is developing a system without security
implication and encryption. If a system is made without security implications then it can be
hacked in the future (Seo & Emura 2013). Shortcuts are the only way to deliver the product
before one month of the deadline. The lack of encryption can lead to a massive security
breach in the future.
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Q4. Who is affected?
If the system is delivered without the necessary security implication then the owner of
the system will get affected. As the system is delivered before time without proper encryption
there are high chances of the system getting hacked and of the security violation. The
developer will also can get affected as the security encryption is the duty of the developer
though the seniors of the company is bribing them to do unethical jobs. The developing
company will also affect if any security violation happen in future. The developing
company’s reputation will also be in stake.
Q5. What are the ethical issues and their implications?
There are several ethical issues in this scenario. The superiors of the company are
corrupted. The CEO of the company pressurized the employees to deliver the project 1 month
before the deadline of the project that is beyond the ethics (Ruedy et al., 2013). The
developer of the project is strictly against delivering the product one month before as the
security encryption is not implemented. The developing company is looking for their profit
and compromising the security which is unethical and must not be done. Huge bonuses were
approached to the developers for completing the system before 1 month of the deadline
without encryption. These are the ethical issues which are covered from the current scenario.
The owner of the system can get affected in future (Pistono & Yampolskiy 2016). The system
can be hacked which can lead to loss for the organization or the company. The superiors must
not bribe the developers for the early launch it is against the ethics of the developing
company.
Q6. What can be done about it?
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The only thing that can be done is by implementing the encryption in the system by
taking the required time. Security encryption will help the developing company and the
receiving company both in the long term. The security of the customers is the responsibility
of the company so security implications is must for the developing system. The project
director and the project manager must consult with each other that what can be done for the
betterment of the company as well as the betterment of the system to avoid security violation
(Schwalbe, 2015). The employees of the company must do their job in ethical way to avoid
any unwanted situation.
Q7. What are the options?
There are three options available for the current scenario:
In the first scenario the program director surrender under pressure and agreed
the conditions given by the program manager, to skip the security encryption and after
three weeks of the delivery of the system suddenly security breach occurred and the
whole systems get hacked. The news is circulated on air and this affected the
company’s reputation. Project manager is blaming the program director for the
security breach and the program director felt that he should not have skipped the
encryption.
In the second scenario, the project director rejects the proposal of the program
manager as it involves the security of the people’s personal data. The program
manager is unsatisfied by the refusal and complained the CEO about the refusal. The
project manager suggested the CEO about removing the project director from the
project.
In the third and the last scenario, the program director explain the
consequences if the encryption have not done in the system. The program director
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further explains how any security breach can affect the company in the long term to
the reputation of the company if any security breach occurs in the future (Andress,
2014). The project manager understood the importance of the encryption for the
system and for the reputation of his company and agreed to implement the encryption.
Later the program manager convinced the CEO for the encryption and delivering the
product on the deadline date only.
Q8. Which option is the best and why?
The best option is the third option in which the program director explains the
importance of encryption to the project manager. The project director explains how the lack
of encryption will affect the system and how it can harm the reputation of their company in
the long run. The projects manager also understood that the importance of the encryption
needed in the system (Tsalikis & Peralta 2014). The project manager further convinced the
CEO for the encryption and CEO feel the same like the project director and project manager
feels for the system and for the company and CEO assured that the encryption will be
implemented and the system will deliver in the given deadline. It is the best option because it
will help the developing company to hold on to their reputation in the market. This will also
help to protect the people’s personal data by preventing security breach (Iphofen, 2016).
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References:
Andress, J. (2014). The basics of information security: understanding the fundamentals of
InfoSec in theory and practice. Syngress.
Iphofen, R. (2016). Ethical decision making in social research: A practical guide. Springer.
Pistono, F., & Yampolskiy, R. V. (2016). Unethical research: How to create a malevolent
artificial intelligence. arXiv preprint arXiv:1605.02817.
Ruedy, N. E., Moore, C., Gino, F., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2013). The cheater’s high: The
unexpected affective benefits of unethical behavior. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 105(4), 531.
Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Seo, J. H., & Emura, K. (2013). Revocable identity-based encryption revisited: Security
model and construction. In Public-Key Cryptography–PKC 2013 (pp. 216-234).
Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Tsalikis, J., & Peralta, A. (2014). Priming effects on business ethical decision
making. International journal of strategic innovative marketing, 1(1), 1-8.
YouTube. (2018). Scenario 3: Early Launch. [online] Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5M7ohdZ6qA [Accessed 19 Mar. 2018].
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