COIT20263 Information Security Management: Group Discussion Term 1

This document presents a group discussion on information security management, focusing on copyright protection for information produced by Cosmos, ethical considerations in information security, and measures to prevent unethical practices among employees. It addresses issues such as copyright infringement, the importance of ethics policies, and strategies for monitoring employee behavior. The discussion emphasizes the need for training, clear policies, and ethical leadership to maintain integrity and prevent misuse of sensitive information. This resource is valuable for students studying information security management and organizational ethics, providing practical insights and solutions to common challenges in the field. Desklib offers a platform to explore similar solved assignments and study resources.

Running head: INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGEMENT
Information security management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Question/Issues (a) - Copyright Protection of information that is produced by Cosmos.
Daily huge amount of information is produced by thousands of freelance reporters of
Cosmos around the world and that information is read by several users of Cosmos. There is a
need to protect the information produced by Cosmos. Copyright infringement is a major issue
faced by online news portals on a regular basis and this must be dealt upon strongly. Before
taking into account what kind of information can be copyrighted, there is a need to look into
some of the examples of copyright infringement.
A reporter reports on an import meeting happening in town and a radio announcer
mentions the article and reads few lines from the article without giving due credit to the
reporter or asking for permission in the first place. This is an example of copyright
infringement (Dratler & McJohn, 2017). Information can be infringed upon by freelance
reporters of Cosmos also.
A reporter might read an article published by another reporter and then he/she decides
to publish that information without taking prior permission from the author leads to
infringement (Rcfp.org, 2018). Another form of infringement which is rampant is copying
photos from someone else’s work. This is a major violation which needs to be looked into by
Cosmos.
Cosmos can ensure copyright protection of information if they have sufficient
information about what can be copyrighted. A copyright law of a country will grant
protection only when a work is deemed original that is produced solely by a person (Yin,
2017). Cosmos needs to approach relevant authorities in Australia tasked with copyright
protection. Any work can be protected if there is necessary proof that this work is original

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work of some person. Cosmos should ensure sufficient proof when they claim copyright
protection.
Question (b): Ethics in Info Sec.
Ethics may be understood as a set of guidelines or more specifically moral principles
that governs conduct of a person whereas ethical dilemma is an ethical contradiction, which
occurs when there are two choices, which are morally different leading to confusion (Scalet,
2014).
Individuals with certain degree of autonomy in the organization can misuse his/her
position such that it results in behavior that does not match with moral policy of Cosmos.
Cosmos needs to design certain ethics policy framework to help the employees deal with
ethical dilemma and also to prevent possible misadventures.
Since there is huge amount of information for Cosmos to manage, they need
Information security personnel to keep those data safe. Information Technology security
personnel of a organization always possess great deal of power since they have access to
confidential data about individuals and private data about companies’ network.
The security personnel either can intentionally or unintentionally abuse the power
granted to him/her. There is absence of framework that provides quality training to
individuals about ethics (Littig, 2017). Companies such as Cosmos need to introduce an
ethics subject in which the staff needs to be trained on. As an example, it is not ethically
correct to read private emails of others. Cosmos staff has to exercise precaution in this matter.
They have to abide by the ethics policy of Cosmos.

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Question (c) - Measures that Cosmos can take to prevent employees from unethical
practices.
Employees can be tempted to read private emails of other employees. This is a very
bad practice and must be dealt strongly by Cosmos. Staff needs to get trained on how to
protect individual accounts. This will ensure protection of individual accounts and also
prevent staff from misuse.
One of the measures that Cosmos can take is that they can develop a plan which
would monitor egos of employees. This would ensure prevention of bad behavior of
employees because those employees feel entitled. There are few staffs who might feel they
deserve a special treatment at work even when they do not deserve it. These types of people
are likely to break the rules.
The company needs to make sure that managers and employees review policies
designed by the company regarding retaliation and hostile workplace. Such polices needs to
be shared to each employee and discussed. The company must not give special privileges to
managers and they must hold them to the same standard as employees.
Evaluating a manager on ethical leadership practices will help the company to prevent
unethical practices (Webucator, 2018). There can be huddles or face to face meeting with
employees for discussion of ethical issues and behaviors. Additionally, the company must
model integrity and ethical behavior by infusing company values in business
communications. Lastly, the company can ensure best practices by providing professional
development opportunities.

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References:
Dratler Jr, J. and McJohn, S.M., 2017. Cyberlaw: Intellectual property in the digital
millennium. Law Journal Press.
Littig, B., 2017. 19.1 Sustainability, ethics and business. Teaching Business Sustainability:
From Theory to Practice.
Rcfp.org. (2018). Introduction -- What can be copyrighted | Reporters Committee for
Freedom of the Press. [online] Available at: https://www.rcfp.org/first-amendment-
handbook/introduction-what-can-be-copyrighted [Accessed 15 Apr. 2018].
Scalet, S., 2014. Markets, ethics, and business ethics. London: Pearson.
Webucator. (2018). How to Prevent Unethical Behavior in the Workplace | Webucator.
[online] Available at: https://www.webucator.com/how-to/how-prevent-unethical-behavior-
the-workplace.cfm [Accessed 15 Apr. 2018].
Yin, M., 2017, June. Multimedia authentication for copyright protection. In IOP conference
series: earth and environmental science (Vol. 69, No. 1, p. 012160). IOP Publishing.