Ethical Issues Analysis: IT and Security Consultancy Scenario Report

This report analyzes ethical issues arising in an IT and security consultancy scenario where a consultant serves two competing clients. The core ethical concerns revolve around information ownership, privacy, and confidentiality. The report identifies these issues and provides a detailed analysis, discussing the potential conflicts and ethical dilemmas that arise when a consultant possesses information from multiple clients. The analysis explores how sharing information between clients could compromise privacy and confidentiality, violating ethical principles. The evaluation and justification sections apply various ethical theories, including deontology, utilitarianism, rights theory, and virtue theory, to assess the ethical implications of different actions. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of maintaining client loyalty, respecting information privacy, and upholding confidentiality to ensure ethical conduct in the consultancy practice. The report references several sources to support its arguments and conclusions, providing a comprehensive understanding of the ethical considerations involved.

Topic: Ethical Issues (Scenario 0)
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Contents
Topic: Ethical Issues (Scenario 0)...................................................................................................1
Student Name...................................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Identification Analysis of Ethical Issues.........................................................................................3
Analysis of Ethical Issues................................................................................................................3
Evaluation and Justification.............................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
Reference.........................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
Ethics can be defined as those things or characters that can be termed to be morally right
(Patrignani, 2009). This can be viewed in various perspectives under different situations or
environment in determining if the actions performed are ethical or not. These behaviors that are
examined in order to find out if an action was wrong or right are what are referred to ethical
issues. Ethical issues are defined by different environment in which an action is performed
(Blacks, 2011). In IT and security consultancy environment there are various ethical characters
or habits that are considered in order to ensure that actions or functions are performed well
within the defined code of ethics as expected (Syracuse, 2017).
Identification of Ethical Issues
Based on the IT and Security Consultants scenario given, there are various ethical issues that
arises. These issues revolve around two competing parties who seek IT and security consultancy
services from the same IT and Security consultant. From this the consultant is able to know
information about these two companies. These therefore, brings about information ownership,
privacy and confidentiality as some of the ethical issues related to this scenario ethical issues
Analysis of Ethical Issues
Privacy
This is the act of preserving other people’s information by not sharing their information with
third parties without the owner’s consent (Cohen, 2008). From the given scenario the consultant
is faced with an ethical choice on whether to disclose client A information that could be helpful
to client B. If the consultant chooses to share this information with client B, it will compromise
the privacy of Client A information and this will raise ethical issues since the consultant is
supposed to protect his client’s information with a higher degree of privacy (Relkin, 2008).
Ownership and Confidentiality
Both client A and client B have right to their own information and they are the only people who
can choose what to do with their information. Therefore the information they provide to the IT
and security consultant still remains their property and therefore the consultant should treat their
information with high level of confidentiality (Ramey, 2012). The consultant should therefore
not share client A information to client B without seeking permission from client B. This is
because client A is the sole owner of the information and possesses all the right pertaining to it.
An act of sharing client’s A information with client B by the consultant will therefore be
unethical (Berzai, 2017).

Evaluation and Justification
Privacy
According to deontology ethical theories the consultant should adhere to his/her obligations of
providing services to his clients without having to disclose their information to their competitors
(Chonko, 2012). Therefore it will be ethically right for the consultant to treat his/her client’s
information as private property in which only the owner has the right to share to whoever he/she
wishes. Also the consultant should consider the consequences of sharing clients A information to
Client B as explained by Chonko on the utilitarian theory. Despite the information benefiting
Client B, this action will badly hurt client A and the whole process will be unethical since one
should not use other people’s information to harm them (Chonko, 2012) as it goes against ethical
principle that state that if an action is not right for everyone to take then it should not be taken for
anyone at all (Mary, 2008).
Ownership and Confidentiality
In accordance to the ethical right theory, IT and security consultant should never disclose his/her
own client’s business details as it is only the clients who control over their information
(Bossmann, 2016). Therefore, if the consultant chooses to disclose client’s information this will
amount to unethical action and this will compromise the consultant trust and virtue in providing
services to his/her clients as per the virtue theory. This theory states that a person is judged by
his/her character which is determined by the actions a person takes (Fieser, 2012). For instance,
if the consultant chooses to share client A information with client B and then client B finds out
about the action, client B will no longer trust the IT and security consultant (Mason, 2007) . This
will affect the consultant virtue largely and his level of trust from his clients will reduce due to
failure to keep clients information confidential and respect information ownership of his clients
(Bu/lough, 2010).
Conclusion
From the above explanations, the consultant loyalty should be on both his/her clients by ensuring
that he adhere to ethical actions explained in utilitarian, rights, virtue and deontology ethical
theories (usask, 2009). Therefore, the client should not interfere with his client’s information. He
should ensure that the client’s information remains to be private property and observe the
confidentiality of each client’s information (Sandler, 2011). This will improve his client’s trust
on him and his functions as a consultant will be ethically right.

Reference
Berzai, L. (2017, July). Ethical Problems in Computing. How Ethical Theories Apply to IT Professionals., pp.
5-9.
Blacks. (2011). What is ETHICAL ISSUE? Ethical Issues, 1-3.
Bossmann, J. (2016). Top 9 ethical issues in artificial intelligence. Research, Foresight Institute.
Bu/lough, V. (2010, March). ETHICAL ISSUES IN TECHNOLOGY. Retrieved from Humanism Today:
http://www.humanismtoday.org/site/vol4/bullough.pdf
Chonko, L. (2012). Ethical Theories. The University of Texas. Arlington: DSOF.
Cohen, J. (2008). Privacy and Confidentiality. New York: CIRE.
Fieser, J. (2012). Ethics. Research, University of Tennessee at Martin, USA.
Mary. (2008). Ethical Decision Making in Everyday Work Situations. New York: Wuorum books.
Mason, R. O. (2007). Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age. Research, Southern Methodist
University, Dallas, TX.
Patrignani, N. (2009). Teaching Computer Ethics Challenges and Methodologies. Uppsala: cpsr.
Ramey, K. (2012). 5 Ethical Challenges of Information Technology. use of technology.
Relkin, J. (2008, August). 10 ethical issues confronting IT managers. 1-6.
Sandler, G. (2011). "Five Ethical Theories: Bare Bones for Business Educators". Research.
Syracuse. (2017, May 24). Academic. Retrieved August 29, 2017, from Syracuse University:
http://soe.syr.edu/academic/counseling_and_human_services/modules/
Common_Ethical_Issues/theories_of_ethics.aspx
usask. (2009, March 14). Retrieved August 29, 2017, from usask:
http://homepage.usask.ca/~wiebeb/Etheory.html