Verizon Wireless Case Study: Ethical Issues in Cyber Crime

This essay delves into the ethical dimensions of cyber crime, using the Verizon Wireless data breach of July 2017 as a central case study. The essay explores how the leak of confidential customer data by a Verizon Wireless partner, which affected approximately 14 million clients, can be analyzed through four classical ethical theories: utilitarianism, deontology, virtue theory, and contract theory. The analysis reveals the breach's unethical nature across all four frameworks, highlighting the failure to maximize utility, uphold moral obligations, demonstrate ethical character, and adhere to contractual agreements. The essay emphasizes the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in modern society, while also acknowledging its role in facilitating cyber crimes. The conclusion underscores the unethical nature of the Verizon Wireless case, reinforcing the importance of ethical considerations in the digital age.

Running head: ETHICAL ISSUES IN CYBER CRIME
Ethical Issues in Cyber Crime
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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ETHICAL ISSUES IN CYBER CRIME
Ethical Issues in Cyber Crime
The extension of information technology can be defined as the information and
communication technology or ICT. The main role of information and communication technology
is that it does its task as unified communications (Dewey, 2016). The mixture of several
telecommunications like wireless signals, audio-visual systems and computer that enable the
users for storing, retrieving and altering the information come under ICT. However, the root
cause of all sorts of cyber crime and cyber threats are also because of this ICT. It can be used as
an advantage as well as a breach.
The essay given below outlines the discussion on the Verizon Wireless case study. it was
a security breach that occurred in the month of July in 2017. The main aim of this essay is to
understand the case study by using the four classical theories of ethics. This essay also describes
the four theories with proper justifications. The description is given in the paragraphs below.
Verizon Wireless is a company in the United States of America producing several
telecommunication products like wireless items. In July 2017, all the confidential data of that
organization was leaked. Verizon Wireless partner did this security breach. They leaked the data
in the cloud ("Verizon customer information exposed in data breach", 2017). The principal cause
of this security breach was various repository files. These files were not at all configured and
were completely based on cloud. The entire cyber world was shaken with this incident. Normal
people were also affected in this. The confidential information of about 14 million clients came
out and were revealed in front of everybody.
The four classical theories of ethics help to understand or justify a case study or a
situation whether it is ethical or unethical (Arntzenius, 2014). The four theories are utilitarianism

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theory, deontology theory, virtue theory and contract theory. These theories have their own
justifications and descriptions to justify a particular situation. The first theory is the utilitarianism
theory. This particular theory states that the action that provides the utmost utility is the best
action (Crimmins, 2017). The addition of all the contentment without including the displeasure is
the best action. The utilitarianism theory divides into two divisions. They are the total
utilitarianism and average utilitarianism. In the case study of Verizon Wireless, the partner of the
organization has leaked the entire data of the clients in the cloud (Niebuhr, 2013). This is
extremely non ethical. It has only created problems for everyone and has no utility in the society
and the organization. The information had all necessary data like the account details, the
usernames, the pin numbers of the customers. They were absolutely exposed in front of the
world. According to the utilitarianism theory, any situation that has utility is ethical (Arntzenius,
2014). However, in this case, the scenario is opposite. The data was breached and that was
unethical. Therefore, the case study of Verizon Wireless is unethical in terms of utilitarianism
theory of ethics.
The second theory of classical theories of ethics is completely different than
utilitarianism theory. The second theory is the Deontology theory. This theory has a paradigm in
overall ethics (Chen & Schonger, 2017). In this theory, any person takes up a decision on the
basis of the morality of any action. This action should be based on certain and specific rules and
regulations. In other words, deontology theory is defined as a distinct set of ethics for rules and
obligations. The obligation that makes a person work ethically is known as moral obligation. The
external and the internal sources are responsible for moral obligation. Deontology theory says
that any individual should not leave the path of ethics even in his worst situations (Lazar, 2017).
Any type of sources that surrounds the individual like the legal rules and universal rules are the

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external sources and the personal and the cultural sources are known as the internal sources.
These are responsible for the betterment of the character of the individual. The personal sources
include the friends, family and relatives. They are the main and the very first tutors for life. In
the case study of Verizon Wireless, the partner of the organization has leaked the entire data of
the clients in the cloud. The customers have trusted Verizon (Chen & Schonger, 2017).
Therefore, it was their duty to secure all the data. However, all the data were leaked. They did
not perform in their job. Apart from being non-ethical, this particular act was an infamous cyber
crime. This is not at all acceptable in terms of ethics.
The third theory of ethics stresses on the character of a person. This theory, known as the
virtue theory of ethics, claims that a good character is the sign of ethical thinking. It is said that
an ethical decision is always based on the thoughts on the individual (Audi, 2012). Even, when
he tries to solve a dilemma with his intellect, he is using his own thoughts. The decision
completely depends on his character. An individual, who has a good character and wants to help
everybody, will come up with a good decision (Van Hooft, 2014). This decision will be good for
both him and the society. However, if the decision is not correct, it is evident that the person
does have a good character. In the case study of Verizon Wireless, the partner of the organization
has leaked the entire data of the clients in the cloud. The reason for this breach is unknown
however; there can be a chance that the decision was not taken willingly (Niebuhr, 2013). If
virtue theory is taken into account, and if the decision was taken irrespective of the fact that it
was taken willingly or unwillingly, it can be said that they do not bear an ethical character.
The fourth theory of classical ethics is the contract theory. This particular theory states
that the morality of the values of a person is completely dependent on a contract (Fried, 2015).
This contract is nothing but a deal, which helps to take out the moral and ethical rules of a human

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being. Human beings only form a society. When they do their job properly and perform their
duties perfectly the society would be successful. Similarly, when the human beings do not do
their jobs properly and do not perform well, the society will be unsuccessful (Niebuhr, 2013).
This contract or deal is main ethical signature of motivation for personnel. The values and
culture of ethics are identified by promoting a contract between all staff members. The moment a
customer buys or takes a product from a company, they are entering into an unseen contract. In
the case study of Verizon Wireless, the contract was clear between the clients and Verizon. It
was their duty to preserve and protect the confidential data (Fried, 2015). However, they did not
do that and as per contract theory of ethics, it is non-ethical.
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that the unified
communications or information and communications technology is extremely important in
modern life. The mixture of several telecommunications like wireless signals, audio-visual
systems and computer that enable the users for storing, retrieving and altering the information
come under ICT. However, the root cause of all sorts of cyber crime and cyber threats are also
because of this ICT. It can be used as an advantage as well as a breach. The above essay gives a
brief description about the Verizon Wireless case study of the United States of America. . The
main aim of this essay is to understand the case study by using the four classical theories of
ethics. This essay also describes the four theories with proper justifications. The four classical
theories of ethics help to understand or justify a case study or a situation whether it is ethical or
unethical. The four theories are utilitarianism theory, deontology theory, virtue theory and
contract theory. All the four theories of ethics are clearly proving this case study as unethical.

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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.
Verizon customer information exposed in data breach. (2017). Fox Business. Retrieved 17
September 2017, from http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/13/security-lapse-
leaks-data-from-millions-verizon-customers.html