Comprehensive Report: Ethical Issues, Alternatives in the IT Industry

This report provides an executive summary of the ethical issues currently affecting the IT industry. It highlights significant problems such as security breaches, privacy violations, and copyright infringement, and their impact on stakeholders including employees, investors, customers, the government, and society. The report explores several alternatives to address these issues, including policy creation, use of firewalls and authentication, and promoting affordable technology. The preferred alternative is the use of authentication tools to protect against unauthorized access. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of continuous re-evaluation and implementation of solutions to protect the industry and its stakeholders from ethical concerns.

BUSINESS ETHICS

1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In the era of technology, ethical issues in the IT industry have increased considerably.
This is making this industry more vulnerable to losses as well as ruining the image of the
business. This is directly affecting all the stakeholders associated with the industry. This is a
matter of concern as the pressure of performing in an ethical manner is increasing day by day.
This has also reduced the trust of many customers in the industry. There are many
alternatives that can be utilised by the firm so as to make sure that such kind of ethical issues
does not arise in the industry. This report addresses about the ethical issues that are present in
the industry as well as the alternatives that can be adopted by them for removing it.

2
Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
Major ethical issues and its impact on the stakeholders.....................................................................3
Alternatives for addressing these issues.............................................................................................4
Preferred Alternative.........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................6
INTRODUCTION
In various industries all around the world, there are many changes that are taking
place. Changes in the business methodologies have brought many ethical issues with it

3
(Biddle, et al., 2012). In order to ensure that these issues do not create problems for the
company, it is better that they have alternative solutions for reducing their impact. In
Information and Technology industry there are many ethical issues that arise in daily
operations of the firm. This report highlights the issues that are present in the IT industry as
well as its impact on the stakeholders. It also underlines the major alternatives for addressing
these issues.
Major ethical issues and its impact on the stakeholders
There are many incidences in the IT industry where the ethical issues have been raised
due to various reasons. In the past these issues have blotted the image of this industry. Some
of the major issues related to IT industry are as follows:
 Security: This has become one of the major issues in the IT industry. Private and
personal data of billions of people in and around the world is stored in the IT
mediums (Stahl, Eden and Jirotka, 2013). If the data is not protected then it leads to
ethical violation. Hackers always try to hack systems that increase this problem. This
may lead to frauds with the stakeholders that can result in the form of heavy lose to
them. If the data goes into the wrong hand they can misuse it.
 Privacy: If any kind of security breach happens than there is always a chance that
privacy of people is at stake (Ramey, 2012). This leads to violation of right to privacy
for the person which is not good for the industry. Most of the hackers try to steal the
data and use them for their personal benefit without the knowledge or permission of
the person. This is a big ethical issue for the IT industry.
 Copyright Infringement: There are many kinds of data that is available on the IT
mediums (Quinn, 2014). It is difficult for the industry to protect this data. Many
people copy the work of others especially software or some other designs in
technology. This has been done for various purposes and hence it is violation of the
copyright and making it is a major ethical issue in this Industry.
 Increased pressure on the IT personals: The complexity of the Industry is increasing
especially in terms of the accuracy it has to deliver. This has mounted the pressure on
the IT experts. Big organisations have to operate 24 hours and they have to deliver
perfectly all the time. This has created ethical concerns for the IT industry.
 Digital divide: Information and technology has not reached in every corner of the
world. Developed nations such as America has greater control over the internet and
other digital mediums of communication. This has created a greater divide in the

4
world where due to lack of the IT solution they are unable to grow at the same pace
(Reynolds, 2011). This is ethical concern for the world being a global village.
It is having negative impact on the stakeholders of the IT industry. All these issues have
to be addressed in a proper manner so as to reduce the chances of business failure (Whitman
and Mattord, 2011). There are several ways in which these issues impact stakeholders of the
industry.
 Employees: These stakeholders are under higher pressure of making sure that such
issues does not occur. On the other hand their data is also on stake.
 Investors: If the data about their business gets stolen or there is a case of copyright
infringement then there is chance of business failures which can be a loss for the
company. Piracy has been a problem in this industry (Brey, 2012).
 Customers: They face threats related to frauds due to security or privacy issues. Many
personal and private data is on stake due to data leaks. This can harm their personal
interest.
 Government: It is a challenge for the government to ensure that such black hackers do
not exist in the society. If any kind of frauds happens then government has to pay to
the beneficiaries.
 Society: IT industry is changing the overall society (Tavani, 2011). The deep
penetration of IT industries in the lives of the people has increased the threat as
impact can be very dangerous.
Alternatives for addressing these issues
IT Industry has to put proper care about addressing these issues. Otherwise there can
be losses to the firms and the stakeholders associated with it. In order to address above
mentioned ethical issues some of the alternatives are as follows:
 Making policies: It is essential that industry makes policies and revise it from time to
time so as to ensure that there is no such malpractice exist that may lead to security or
privacy issues. On the other hand policies regarding data theft and piracy can help
preventing this industry from ill effects of the ethical issues (Wakunuma and Stahl,
2014). There must be creation of proper ethical guidelines and must be implemented
with uniformity in the whole industry.

5
 Use of malwares: Use of firewalls helps in protecting from any kind of attacks
through malwares. This helps in protecting data from getting corrupted that can be of
higher use for the stakeholders.
 Authentications: Use of authentication pages can be very helpful as it prevents from
any kind of unauthorised access. It is essential that industry upgrades its systems
continuously so that a better and more secured authentication can be provided (Bose,
2012).
 Making technology affordable: In order to reduce the divide that is present in between
the rich and the poor countries, there is a requirement of unanimous efforts which will
help in removing this disparity. This will only be possible when the cost of the
technology is reduced.
 Collaborative approach: All the companies in the industry can make a collaborative
team so as to make sure that there is less chance of copyright infringement. This can
also help in making sure that there is no copy of the idea by the others that one
company is using.
Preferred Alternative
Among the several alternatives available with the industry, the best alternative is to use the
authentication tools. This helps in providing a greater protection against the unauthorised
excess of the hackers which is a major reason for all the ethical issues. This kind of
authentication system provides layers of protection which is harder to breach. Apart from this
it is also to taken care that there is the requirement of continuous up gradation of
authentication tools as the ways of making the breach is also getting advanced. Access to the
important data must be provided only to the few people so that there are lesser loop holes in
the system.
Conclusion
From the above report it can be concluded that in the IT industry is facing a lot of
ethical issues. With the reach of IT in the daily lives of the people, this situation has become
worse. Ethical issues like privacy and security has created problems for the stakeholders.
Industry needs to re-examine itself and implement alternatives that could prevent them from
such kind of ethical concerns. Use of authentication tools can prevent systems from any kind
of breach which can be helpful for the company.

6
REFERENCES
Biddle, B., Curci, F.X., Haslach, T.F., Marchant, G.E., Askland, A. and Gaudet, L. (2012)
The expanding role and importance of standards in the information and communications
technology industry. Jurimetrics, pp.177-208.
Bose, U. (2012) An ethical framework in information systems decision making using
normative theories of business ethics. Ethics and information technology, 14(1), pp.17-26.
Brey, P.A. (2012) Anticipating ethical issues in emerging IT. Ethics and Information
Technology, 14(4), pp.305-317.
Quinn, M.J. (2014) Ethics for the information age. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Ramey, K. (2012) 5 Ethical challenges of Information Technology. [Online]. Available at:
https://www.useoftechnology.com/5-ethical-challenges-information-technology/. [Accessed
on: 6th March 2018].
Reynolds, G. (2011) Ethics in information technology. Cengage learning.
Stahl, B.C., Eden, G. and Jirotka, M., (2013) Responsible research and innovation in
information and communication technology: Identifying and engaging with the ethical
implications of ICTs. Responsible innovation, pp.199-218.
Tavani, H.T. (2011) Ethics and technology: Controversies, questions, and strategies for
ethical computing. John Wiley & Sons.
Wakunuma, K.J. and Stahl, B.C. (2014) Tomorrow’s ethics and today’s response: An
investigation into the ways information systems professionals perceive and address emerging
ethical issues. Information Systems Frontiers, 16(3), pp.383-397.
Whitman, M.E. and Mattord, H.J. (2011) Principles of information security. Cengage
Learning.

7