Applied Ethics: Examining Operation Shadow Web Cybercrime

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Added on 2024/07/01

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This essay provides an ethical analysis of "Operation Shadow Web," a cybercrime case involving the Infraud Organization, through three distinct perspectives of applied ethics: professional, philosophical, and sociological. It explores how professional ethics are violated by IT professionals involved in cybercrimes like identity theft and credit card fraud. The philosophical ethics perspective examines the security and privacy breaches associated with the stolen data. Finally, the sociological ethics perspective investigates the roles and impacts of the various members involved in the Infraud Organization, highlighting the social responsibilities and values at stake. The analysis draws upon the media article detailing the operation and relevant academic sources to provide a comprehensive understanding of the ethical dilemmas presented by such cybercrimes.

OPERATION SHADOW WEB
Assignment 1: Three Distinctive Perspectives of Applied Ethics
Student Name:
Student Number:
Word Count: 1462
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Perspective 1: Professional Ethics................................................................................................... 3
Perspective 2: Philosophical Ethics................................................................................................. 4
Perspective 3: Sociological Ethics...................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Applied Ethics is the part of ethics that is mostly concerned with the investigation of public and
private moral issues. There are basically three different perceptions of the applied ethics through
which these moral issues can be identified and solved. These perspectives are philosophical ethics,
professional ethics, and sociological ethics. Cyberethics means the issues related to the ICT
(information and communication technology).
In this essay, all three different perspectives are used to approach and analyze the cyberethics of
the issue involved in the Media Article “Operation Shadow Web”. This article explained about the
cyber-crime happened in the Australia and other countries and the three perspectives of the applied
ethics and how these ethics have been applied and implemented.
Media Article: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-08/infraud-australian-among-36-arrested-in-
global-cybercrime-ring/9407622
Perspective 1: Professional Ethics
This is the main branch of the applied ethics in the field of ICT (Information and Communication
Technology) as this perspective can be best suitable for determining and analyzing the cyber
ethical issues. The main cyber issues that have happened mostly includes with the role of IT
professionals in the developing, designing and maintaining the software and hardware system of
the computer. Tavani (2012, p.16) says that “The only method to make logic of ‘Computer Ethics’
is too slender its emphasis to those activities that are inside the control of the individual ethical
computer professional”.
In the media article of “Operation Shadow Web”, a group of 36 people including an Australian man
has been identified in the case of a global identity robbery ring called as “one-stop shop for
cybercriminals”. They steal the credit card of the people and then stole the information of credit
card on the dark wen that causes the loss of more than $677 million. This operation of shadow web
has been coordinated by the law enforcement agencies of the United States, Australia, Europe and
Asia to dismantle and disrupt the international criminal initiative known as the Infraud
Organization. The Infraud Organization was established in the year 2010 by the Ukrainian man
who has operated this cyber issue and made the slogan “In Fraud We Trust”. They used an online
medium to purchase and sell the credit card that was stole including the details of bank security
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numbers, account numbers, and other personal details. It causes the biggest problems to the
professional ethics of the people. From the media article, it was found that the group of around 11,000
members had targeted 4.3 million or even more than that, credit and debit card holders and also bank
account of the people in the whole world. Apart from the simplifying of the information of stolen credit and
debit card’s information, the Infraud organization also illegally provide the network of a temporary third-
party (escrow) account so that the persons could legalize the proceeding by using the online currencies such
as Liberty Reserve, Web Money, Bitcoin, and Perfect Money. Mr. Rybecki, an official of the cybersecurity
team has said that “this is one of the biggest international cybercrime and it reproduces the disturbing and
increasing threat impersonated by cybercrime”.
Collste (2012, p.28) states that different types of specialized relations produce different ethical norms.
These norms deliver the basic ethical outline of a profession. Though, the norms are legal prima facie. If the
specialized ethical norm comes into clash with other ethical norms, for example, with common principles,
they may prevail. These norms can be parted as relations to the employees, workmates, and to the people
who depend on the professional service and work area. Professional code of ethics means the strategies
that specify the expected behavior of the professionals. It is used to clarify that the rights of the
people are protected or not and there should be credibility and consistency in the professional
exercise.
Perspective 2: Philosophical Ethics
Philosophical ethics is different from the professional ethics as philosophical tools and methods are
used to examine and analyze the ethical dilemma related to the professional ethics. While in
professional ethics, the main concern is obligation and responsibility, philosophical ethics has a
different methodology. It mainly concerns about the behavior of individuals as well as social
policies. The social issues include security, privacy, and confidentiality that can affect and make
the loss of the social spectrum and these all moral issues are related to the philosophical ethics of
cyber technology and cybercrime.
Thomas (2016), states that The main benefit of a philosophical method to ethics is that it evades the
controlling basis of rule and religion as well as the partisanship, uncertainty, and irrationality that may
illustrate social or completely personal ethical views.
From the chosen media article “Operation Shadow Web”, one of the major philosophical ethics
was the security and privacy of the stolen credit cards and personal information of the people. The
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member of the Infraud Organization uses the medium on the dark web which is a portion of the
internet to collect the personal information of the people and enable the sale of stolen credit and
debit card and also the stolen data.
Tavani (2012, p.19), states that there are three stages to conduct the research for identifying the
issues related to the philosophical ethics of the applied ethics. This can be used in the issue from the
chosen media article “Operation Shadow Web” as the first stage is made help from the cyber
technology to pirate the copies of information and identify the cyber issue of a stolen credit card.
The second stage is to analyze the issue in a contextual and descriptive manner to simplify the
practice. Last third stage is to deliberate the issues in terms of logical arguments and moral theories.
In this scenario, it is the responsibility of the cybersecurity team to provide security and the
confidentiality of the data and details of credit cards and should have made some procedures to
provide protection of the data.
When the cybercriminals steal the personal information and when the investigators of law-
enforcement team identified this cybercrime, the justice department refused the permission of
cybercriminal to fleece behind the obscurity of the web. To get protection and security from such
cyber-crimes, everyone should be aware of the legal features of the confidentiality.
Perspective 3: Sociological Ethics
According to Ulman (2015), The idea of social ethics has been planned to improve the refrains of
civil society, international ascendency, and bearable social development to plug to the requirement
of an organization, and a long-term vision of our cooperative needs. Sociological ethics can also be
termed as Descriptive ethics, describes the specific moral system and also explains the view of a
number of people of various cultures or group of members of specific moral and cyber issue. The
sociological investigations actually give the complete information about the case. Sociological
ethics helped the investigators to identify the total members involved in the cyber-crime of the
stolen credit card information. Around 11,000 people involved in this cyber-crime. The members
of Infraud Organization performed the different role to do this crime like there were administrators
who manage the daily tasks and make strategic planning to do this fraud and approved the
membership of the fraudsters. Another member was super-moderators and moderators who
controlled the particular matter areas in their expertise and the moderator’s role was to moderate
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one or more particular area of sub-forum within the subject matter. Another member involved was
vendors who illegally sold the services and products to the members of Infraud groups. VIP
members collect the information from the members of Infraud group and enable their illicit actions.
From the sociological ethics perspective, we can better understand the impact of the cyber
technology and this can also help to better examine the various forms and activities. Because the
principles and values of social ethics response to the actual and real practices of life, the actions of
the ethical issues can be easily analyzed which is pertinent to cautious on what is the correct thing
to do to stop such ethical dilemma. The ethical theories like sociological and deontological ethics
should be unified to avoid these cyber dilemmas and unethical practitioners. According to Ulman
(2015), they have given the knowledge of beneficence, mon-maleficence and the idea of justice.
The sociological ethics provides the methods of communication and an alternative way to protect
the injustices and the cyber dilemmas and also promote the values of social utilities, social
responsibilities, and social ethics. These ethics perspective has been applying to the case scenario
taken from the media article “Operation Shadow Web”, and the law enforcement agencies are still
working on these types of dilemmas to identify and disrupt the international cybercrime
administrations like Infraud Organization.
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References
 Collste, G. (2012) Applied and Professional Ethics Linkoping University.
 Media article: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-08/infraud-australian-among-36-
arrested-in-global-cybercrime-ring/9407622
 Tavani, H.T. (2012) ethics and technology Controversies, Questions, and Strategies for
Ethical Computing, Wiley.
 Thomas, W. (2016) philosophical ethics Retrieved from
https://www.lmu.edu/Assets/Colleges+Schools/CBA/CEB/Essays/Philosophical+Ethics.p
df
 Ulman, Y.I. (2015) Social Ethics. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275654052_Social_Ethics
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