Ethical Dilemmas in the Cyber World

The essay discusses the impact of legal laws, universal laws, and cultural laws on an individual's character, highlighting the case study of Verizon Wireless partner exposing confidential data in the cloud. Four classical theories of ethics - Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue Ethics, and Contract Theory - are applied to understand the ethical implications of this event. According to these theories, the partner's actions were non-ethical and demonstrated a lack of moral character. The essay concludes that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has numerous benefits but also poses cyber threats and challenges for ethical decision-making.

Running head: VERIZON WIRELESS CYBER ATTACK
Verizon Wireless Cyber Attack
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Introduction
ICT or Information and Communication Technology has taken the modern world of
technology. Tremendous advantages are obtained from this technology. It combines the basic
communication mode with technologies like wireless signals (Niebuhr, 2013). It reduces the cost
and complexities of the technologies. In spite of having such marvelous advantages, ICT is
responsible for various cyber attacks and cyber crime in the technological world. The attacks and
cyber threats are challenges for the cyber world. Every cyber threat is a challenge to the ethical
world (Dewey, 2016). The four classical theories of ethics solve the problems of ethical
dilemmas in the world.
The following essay provides a brief description about the cyber attack of Verizon
Wireless organization. It is one of the most dangerous cyber attacks in the history of cyber crime.
The case study is described with the help of four classical theories of ethics. The essay links the
case study with all the four theories of ethics. The description is given in the following
paragraphs.
Discussion
Verizon Wireless Case Study
The very popular and recognized company of the United States of America, Verizon
Wireless, provides several products and services that are wireless. An infamous data breach took
place in the organization in July 2017. All the data related to the customers were exposed in the
cloud. The partner of Verizon Wireless organization was responsible for this cyber attack
("Verizon customer information exposed in data breach", 2017). Data was not protected perfectly

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and it was leaked. The cause of this cyber attack was the non-configured repository files. These
files were based on cloud. Approximately 14 million client details were exposed in the scam.
These details contained the account numbers, pin numbers, usernames and everything about the
clients. This was recorded as one of the most dangerous cyber attacks ever happened.
Four Classical Ethical Theories
The Four Classical Theories of Ethics helps to solve the ethical dilemmas in non-ethical
situations (Dewey, 2016). The theories include the Utilitarianism Theory, Deontology Theory,
Virtue Theory and the Contract Theory.
Utilitarianism Theory
This particular theory states that an activity can be claimed as the best activity only if it
provides maximum utility. Even the activity should maximize the utility of a situation. The
satisfaction gained from a utility after subtracting the suffering and trouble of an individual
involved in that activity (Crimmins, 2017). The two most common types of utilitarianisms are
the average utilitarianism and total utilitarianism. The average utilitarianism occurs when there is
a chance of gaining average utility from a situation. The total utilitarianism occurs when there is
a chance of obtaining complete or total utility from a situation. These assumptions are made after
evaluating the situation by the theory. In the case study, Verizon Wireless has suffered through a
major cyber attack. All the data related to the customers were exposed in the cloud. The partner
of Verizon Wireless organization was responsible for this cyber attack. Data was not protected
perfectly and it got leaked. The cause of this cyber attack was the non-configured repository
files. These files were based on cloud (Arntzenius, 2014). This particular act of the partner of
Verizon Wireless is a non-ethical act. All data in an organization is highly confidential in nature.

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It should not have been leaked at any cost. According to the utilitarianism theory, there is no
scope of utility in this situation and thus is considered as non-ethical.
Deontology Theory
This particular theory states that any decision is taken based on rules and regulations of
the morality of a particular activity. The rules should not be broken at any cost while taking the
decision. Deontology theory is also defined as the type of ethics that is done by duties and
obligations. It can also be put in the way that the decisions are taken forcefully (Lazar, 2017).
This obligation is the moral obligation of any situation. The obligations or forces depend on
external and internal sources. Deontology theory states that an individual must be morally correct
in every aspect and in every decision of his life. This will help him to grow his character. The
internal sources are those sources that help the individual to develop his inner feelings, inner
thinking. The friends, family, relatives all come under the category of internal sources. However,
the external sources are those sources that help to understand the rest of the world and the
surrounding where he is living. It includes the legal laws, universal laws, religious and cultural
laws (Chen & Schonger, 2017). All these sources create a havoc effect on the individual’s
character. This case study clearly defines the negative side of the character of the partner or
Verizon Wireless. They are responsible for the exposure of data in the cloud. They did not
perform their duty well. Ethical and moral issues did not oblige them. Therefore, according to
Deontology theory, this is absolutely non-ethical and negative in nature.
Virtue Theory
The third theory of Four Classical Theory of Ethics, the Virtue Ethics states that an
individual’s character is the most important component for thinking ethically (Audi, 2012).
According to this theory, when an individual is in an ethical dilemma, he has to solve his

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problem using his own intellect and own perception. These thoughts and perceptions are
managed by that individual’s character. If the individual has a soft corner in his heart, it is
evident that he has a good character and thus the decision taken by him would be good.
Similarly, if the individual does not have a good character, he will end up in taking a bad
decision (Van Hooft, 2014). The whole control of good and bad thinking is the hands of that
individual. In the case study of Verizon Wireless, the partner leaked all the client data in the
cloud. This gives a negative impression of his character. According to this theory, he has a non-
ethical character.
Contract Theory
The final and the last theory of the four classical theory ethics is the contract theory. This
theory states that the ethical values and thinking vary when a contract is present in case of an
individual (Fried, 2015). It is a deal that helps to bring out the moral and ethical values of that
individual. Human beings form a complete society. The society can reach its objectives only if
all human beings behave ethically and take decisions morally. This contract is the motivational
and ethical stamp for any organization. All employees should follow this contract. It helps to
promote the ethical values in everyone. Verizon Wireless was bound to serve to their customers.
It was their duty to protect the confidential data of the clients (Dewey, 2016). This was a type of
contract between them. Since, Verizon Wireless was unable to maintain the contract, it can be
claimed as ethically incorrect.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above essay it can be concluded that ICT has taken the modern world
of technology. Tremendous advantages are obtained from this technology. It combines the basic

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communication mode with technologies like wireless signals. It reduces the cost and
complexities of the technologies. In spite of having such marvelous advantages, ICT is
responsible for various cyber attacks and cyber crime in the technological world. The attacks and
cyber threats are challenges for the cyber world. Every cyber threat is a challenge to the ethical
world. The four classical theories of ethics solve the problems of ethical dilemmas in the world.
The essay describes the case study of Verizon Wireless organization. The partner of Verizon
Wireless exposed confidential data in the cloud. It was a non-ethical act. The four classical
theories of ethics help to identify and understand the case study well. The four classical theories
of ethics are the Utilitarianism theory, Deontology theory, Virtue Theory and the Contract
theory.

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References
Arntzenius, F. (2014). Utilitarianism, decision theory and eternity. Philosophical
Perspectives, 28(1), 31-58.
Audi, R. (2012). Virtue ethics as a resource in business. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22(2), 273-
291.
Chen, D. L., & Schonger, M. (2017). Social preferences or sacred values? theory and evidence of
deontological motivations.
Crimmins, J. E. (Ed.). (2017). The Bloomsbury encyclopedia of utilitarianism. Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Dewey, J. (2016). Ethics. Read Books Ltd.
Fried, C. (2015). Contract as promise: A theory of contractual obligation. Oxford University
Press, USA.
Lazar, S. (2017). Deontological Decision Theory and Agent-Centered Options. Ethics, 127(3),
579-609.
Niebuhr, R. (2013). Moral man and immoral society: A study in ethics and politics. Westminster
John Knox Press.
Van Hooft, S. (2014). Understanding virtue ethics. Routledge.

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Verizon customer information exposed in data breach. (2017). Fox Business. Retrieved 13
September 2017, from http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/13/security-lapse-leaks-
data-from-millions-verizon-customers.html