An Analysis of Ethical Issues and Solutions in the IT Industry

This report delves into the evolving ethical landscape of the IT industry, emphasizing the significant impact of technological advancements on data privacy and security. It identifies key ethical concerns, such as data breaches and privacy infringements, and their effects on stakeholders, including consumers, employees, and investors. The report analyzes various alternatives for addressing these issues, including policy implementation, the use of malware protection, and authentication tools. Ultimately, it advocates for the adoption of authentication tools as the preferred method for safeguarding data. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of a collaborative approach within the IT industry to tackle ethical challenges and promote innovation in data security and privacy.

ETHICS
AND
SUSTAINABILITY

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The ways of doing business all around the world has changed. This has brought many
ethical concerns with it. Today’s world is highly dependent on the IT devices. This has
brought many ethical challenges for the stakeholders that are associated with this industry. It
is the role of the top leadership and management to check out the alternatives that would help
them in confronting these ethical challenges. Choosing the best alternative is an essential task
as it would help them in ensuring the long term growth of the company. This report revolves
around the major ethical concern that is associated with the IT industry and the steps that can
be taken for confronting this issue.
Contents

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Introduction...........................................................................................................................................1
Ethical issue to be addressed and its impact on the stakeholders.......................................................2
Alternatives for addressing these issues.............................................................................................3
Preferred alternative..........................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................4
References.............................................................................................................................................4
Introduction
Businesses have changed irrespective of the industry which has led to lot of ethical
issues in the industry (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2014). It has become highly crucial for the
managers and leaders of the organisation to take care of the ethical concerns that are
originating in the industry. World has become more digital and hence the ethical concerns

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related to the IT industries have also increased in the past few decades. Since IT industry has
penetrated into the lives of the people and become a part and parcel of their living hence it is
necessary for the companies to take care of these ethical issues and find alternatives for
facing them. These ethical issues have greater impact on the stakeholders associated with the
business. This report highlights the ethical issue that is present within the IT industry as well
as its impact on the stakeholders associated with it. It also describes about the alternatives
that are present for addressing the ethical concerns.
Ethical issue to be addressed and its impact on the stakeholders
There are many ethical issues that are raised in front of the IT companies (Reynolds,
2011). This is due to the fact that IT industry has entered into almost every kind of operations
that is related with the human life. From business to personal life IT industry has made a
grater reach and hence affecting the lives of the people. It is necessary for the industry to
think about these ethical issues in a more responsive way so as to eliminate it from the root
levels. Among these bigger the most important ethical issue that this industry is facing is
related to privacy and security.
There are larger amount of data that is stored on the IT mediums. Every day the chunk of this
data is expanding exponentially. It has become more critical for the industry to find ways for
ensuring that data breach cannot happen (Dao, Langella and Carbo, 2011). Privacy of the
people is their right and nobody can utilise the data without the permission of the person
himself. There are many hackers that are in search of making a breach and steal some of the
most important information. It is crucial for the company to make sure that they have a policy
for avoiding such kind of problems. Many of the private or personal data is stored on such
mediums. All these data are at the risk of getting stolen by some hackers that may result in
long term loses for the individuals or the organisation. If the data is related to the organisation
then it may give edge to the other organisation.
Apart from this the individual perspective about privacy suggests that there is very much
private data stored on the digital forums and if gets lost then it could create financial
implication for the company. It may also dismal the image of the person (Biedenweg, Monroe
and Oxarart, 2013). It is also giving rise to the situation where the privacy rights of the people
are stake which is a crime in many of the countries. Such type of practices results in huge
loses to the company. Many a times due to data breach there is loss of property rights which
can result in heavy loses to the beneficiaries. Data infringements are done by hackers as well

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as many times their intention is just to corrupt the information. In the age were data is
everything this can be a greater threat for the company. Due to all these there is increased
pressure on the IT personals which is another ethical issue for the company.
All these security and privacy concern has a very deeper impact on the stakeholders that are
associated with the companies in the Industry (Lim, Stratopoulos and Wirjanto, 2013). The
stakeholders either consumers or employees of the company are at greater risk of getting their
data stolen. Since the competition in the market is increasing at faster rate and hence if the
data related to the company gets leaked to the competitors then it can be loss to investors. It
may also lead to business failures. It is also the loss to the stakeholders like Government who
will have to pay for the persons who have losses in financial terms. On the larger scale it does
loss to the overall society.
Alternatives for addressing these issues
Companies in these industries have to think about the ways in which the issue of
security and privacy can be addressed (Gill, 2012). There are various alternatives present
with the companies that can help them in addressing these issues. Some of these alternatives
are as follows:
 Making policies: This can be one of the best methods to reduce the cases of security
breach. Industry needs to make a common policy that every stakeholder must follow.
It is also essential that firm revise these policies from time to time. There must be
strong laws made for the piracy and data theft.
 Malwares: In the case when hacker’s intention is just too corrupt the data by putting
any kind of bug, the use of malwares can be helpful in this regards (Hilty and
Aebischer, 2015). Use of such software can be beneficial for the stakeholders.
 Authentication: There are certain tools that help in safeguarding the data (Van de Poel
and Royakkers, 2011). They do it by giving access of the data to only authorised
personnel’s. These types of authentication tools are highly in use these days.
Companies also need to upgrade the authentication tools on regular basis.
 Collaborative approach: All the companies in the industry should support banning of
such practices in the industry (Kibert, et al., 2011). This can only be done by making a
forum where the latest technology for addressing such data can be shared with each
other.

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Preferred alternative
In the list of alternatives that are present with the companies for addressing the issue
of security and privacy, use of authentication tools for providing the access is the best. This
ensures that users are informed whenever their data is being used by others. Tools like
password and one time passwords are highly efficient (Ramey, 2012).These technologies
must be regularly upgraded so as to tackle the issues related to security concerns.
Conclusion
From the above report it can be concluded that IT industry is expanding at very high
speed and the reach of technologies in the lives of the people have become very deep. It has
created a situation for the industry where they have to think about using alternatives for
addressing these. There is some long terms harm to the company and the stakeholders
associated with them if the data is not secured properly. Use of the tools like authentication
pages and one time passwords can be beneficial for the company in the longer run. Fighting
against the ethical issues must be a collaborative approach where every firm shares the new
innovations for fighting these ethical issues.
References
Biedenweg, K., Monroe, M. C., and Oxarart, A. (2013). The importance of teaching ethics of
sustainability. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 14(1), 6-14.
Carroll, A., and Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and
stakeholder management. Nelson Education.

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Dao, V., Langella, I., and Carbo, J. (2011). From green to sustainability: Information
Technology and an integrated sustainability framework. The Journal of Strategic Information
Systems, 20(1), 63-79.
Gill, K. S. (Ed.). (2012). Information society: new media, ethics and postmodernism. Springer
Science & Business Media.
Hilty, L. M., and Aebischer, B. (Eds.). (2015). ICT innovations for sustainability (Vol. 310).
Springer.
Kibert, C. J., Thiele, L., Peterson, A., and Monroe, M. (2011). The ethics of
sustainability. UK: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
Lim, J. H., Stratopoulos, T. C., and Wirjanto, T. S. (2013). Sustainability of a firm's
reputation for information technology capability: The role of senior IT executives. Journal of
Management Information Systems, 30(1), 57-96.
Ramey, K. (2012) 5 Ethical challenges of Information Technology. [Online]. Available at:
https://www.useoftechnology.com/5-ethical-challenges-information-technology/. [Accessed
on: 24th March 2018].
Reynolds, G. (2011). Ethics in information technology. Cengage learning.
Van de Poel, I., and Royakkers, L. (2011). Ethics, technology, and engineering: An
introduction. John Wiley & Sons.