ICT710 Report: Ethical Analysis of Edward Snowden Case & ACS Codes

This report provides an ethical analysis of the Edward Snowden case, focusing on his disclosure of NSA surveillance programs. It employs the Doing Ethics Technique to assess Snowden's actions from the U.S. government's perspective, highlighting violations of national security. The report also evaluates Snowden's conduct against the ACS Code of Ethics, identifying breaches of professional duty. The analysis considers the impact on various stakeholders, including the U.S. government, citizens, and ICT professionals, and explores potential solutions for preventing similar ethical breaches in the future, recommending access control measures for handling confidential data within the NSA.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN ETHICS
Edward Snowden Ethical Issue
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Title “Edward Snowden Ethical Issue”
Executive Summary
The code of ethics and professional practice ensure that professional practitioners have adhered
to the standard of their professions. This study has analysed the ethical perspective of “Edward
Snowden Ethical Issue” from the perspective of U.S Government. From the analysis of Doing
Ethics Technique, it has been seen that Edward Snowden has violated the national security by
revealing the confidential information of NSA to public. On the other hand, the study has also
analysed the situation through ACS codes of ethics, where Edward Snowden has been assessed
as an ICT professional, who is actually unprofessional to his duties.

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Table of Contents
Title “Edward Snowden Ethical Issue”...........................................................................................1
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
List of Abbreviations and Assumption............................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Analysis of Situation using the Doing Ethics Technique................................................................4
What's going on?..........................................................................................................................4
What are the facts?.......................................................................................................................5
What are the issues?.....................................................................................................................5
Who is affected?..........................................................................................................................6
What are the ethical issues and implications?.............................................................................7
What can be done about it?..........................................................................................................8
What are the options?..................................................................................................................8
Which option is best - and why?..................................................................................................9
Analysis of the situation from the point of view of an ICT Professional using the ACS Code of
Ethics.............................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion and Recommendation.................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

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List of Abbreviations and Assumption
List of Abbreviations
 ICT: Information and Communications Technology
 NSA: National Security Agency
 ACS: Australian Computer Society
 U.S: United State
 CIA: Central Intelligence Agency
 FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation
List of Assumption
 Edward Snowden has violated the ACS code of ethics and demonstrated
unprofessionalism as an ICT professional
 Edward Snowden has violated the national security by revealing the confidential U.S
information to the public
 Edward Snowden has unethically caused harm to the U.S public by interrupting the NSA
surveillance program

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Introduction
Disciplinary ethical codes allow an ICT professional to define standard of conduct and
ensure the individual practitioners to meet those standards (Fleischmann, Hui and Wallace 2017).
This study will discuss the case ethical issue caused by Edward Snowden in NSA. Moreover, the
study will analyze this situation using Doing Ethics Technique. Apart from that, the study will
also analyze the situation based on the ACS code of ethics. Both the technique will evaluate the
ethical issues of the situation from the perspective of ICT professional. Moreover, the study will
also provide a suitable recommendation for resolving the case.
Analysis of Situation using the Doing Ethics Technique
What's going on?
In June 2013, the computer expert and former CIA system administrator Edward
Snowden leaked the confidential information about the surveillance program of National
Security Agency (NSA) (Philosophytalk.org 2015). The U.S Government used to gather and
perform data mining on hundreds of internet traffic and U.S phone through this surveillance
program. Moreover, the intension of this surveillance program was to identify the possible link to
the known terrorists. However, Edward Snowden has violated the Espionage Act through leaking
out the state secret. The computer expert has violated the secrecy agreement of the U.S
Government by breaching the ethical codes (Allen 2018). Such unethical behavior of Snowden
has just wasted the vision of U.S government towards tracking the activities of the terrorists,
which can be dangerous for the country.

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What are the facts?
 Edward Snowden has breached the ethical norms by leaking the confidential surveillance
information of U.S government
 Snowden has caused harm to the national security of U.S through interrupting the data
mining surveillance program
 The intension of the Snowden was unethical in the sense that he broke the national law of
protecting the national assets from the enemies (BBC News 2014)
What are the issues?
 Violation of National Security: Edward Snowden, the computer expert has violated the
national security of U.S through revealing the confidential data mining surveillance
programs of NSA.
 Caused Harm to the National Security: Edward Snowden has interrupted the
surveillance program for data mining towards tracking the contacts with known terrorists.
In this way, he has caused harm to the national security of U.S and U.S public (Irvine
2018).
 Breach of ICT Professional Code of Ethics: The computer expert has violated the code
of ethics of ICT professionals through leaking out the confidential information of U.S
government. Moreover, he has exploited his position of trust for scoring political points.
 Breaking Espionage Act of Data Protection: Edward Snowden has violated the laws of
national security act named Espionage Act of data protection (Dodds 2013). He has
breached the law of data protection by revealing the confidential information to the
enemies.

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Who is affected?
 U.S Government: U.S Government is the prime stakeholder, who is directly affected by
this case. Moreover, Edward Snowden has actually interrupted the big motto of U.S
Government towards tracking the terrorism activities. Such interruption can also cause
harm to the national security of the country and the citizen (Lyon 2014). Furthermore, the
case also has another negative effect on U.S Government, where the Government has
been alleged with violating the privacy of citizen through data mining process.
 U.S Citizen: U.S citizens are also directly involved in this case, where the data mining
process has tracked their telephonic information. The case has negative impact on the U.S
citizens, where the surveillance program has hampered the security of their personal
information and activities. On the other hand, the leaking out of surveillance information
has interrupted the program of tracking terrorism activities. Moreover, now, the terrorists
can easily fulfil their terrorism activates, which can hamper the quality of life of the U.S
citizens.
 Telecommunication and Social Networking Service Company: The case also has
negative impact on the Telecommunication and Social Networking Service Company.
The reputation of the companies can be destroyed on the ground that those companies
have permitted U.S Government to track the Telephonic and internet traffic data of the
normal publics (Walsh and Miller 2016).
 Terrorists group and their Associated People: The case has positive impact on the
terrorists group and their associated People, which actually have negative consequence on
the U.S government and U.S citizens. The terrorists group and their associated People

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will be alert after revealing information of the surveillance program. Hence, they can
easily protect themselves from the Government treats and fulfil their illegal activities.
 ICT Professional: Edward Snowden has set a negative example for the ICT professional,
which can influence the associated colleagues. Such unethical conducts of Edward
Snowden can also encourage other ICT professional to do the same (Murata, Adams and
Lara Palma 2017).
What are the ethical issues and implications?
 Ethical Issue Violation of National Security: Edward Snowden has violated the ethical
norms through breaching the national security of U.S. As per, duty ethics theory, the
ethicality of an action is judged on the basis of its adherence with the duty of the actor.
Moreover, Edward Snowden has not adhered with his duty of maintaining national
security, which can actually hamper the national security of U.S (Near and Miceli 2016).
 Ethical Issue in Causing Harm to the National Security: As per Utilitarianism theory
of ethic, ethical action always enhances the wellbeing of people. However, the
information leak of Edward Snowden can cause security harm for the citizen by
interrupting the terrorism tracking program (Bannister and Connolly 2014). Hence, it is
an unethical action, which will actually enhance the sufferings of U.S citizen.
 Ethical Issue Breach of ICT Professional Code of Ethics: As per duty of ethics, ethical
action is always based on certain rules and norms. However, in this case, Edward
Snowden has breached the ethical codes ICT profession through revealing the
confidential information of U.S Government. Hence, it is actually an unethical initiative
for ICT professional.

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 Ethical Issue of Breaking Espionage Act of Data Protection: As per duty ethics, the
action of Edward Snowden is unethical, as he have not adhered with the rules of
Espionage Act for protecting national security. However, as per his own justification, he
revealed the secure information for the privacy of the public, where his intension was
good for protecting public privacy (Murata et al. 2017). Hence, as per virtue theory, this
action may not be completely unethical.
What can be done about it?
NSA should renew the surveillance program for tracking the activities of the terrorists.
Moreover, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should have to satisfy more legal
requirements prior to access the Americans’ communication from the NSA database for the
investigation of the agency (Raab and Szekely 2017). In such legal requirement, the FBI would
get a warrant before searching the information from the NSA database. Hence, it would be very
difficult for someone to pass on any information to unauthentic person. Apart from that, NSA
can also use Homomorphic encryption, which can be use towards aggregating the encrypted data
(Kalogridis et al. 2014). It would help in both privacy of secure information in the NSA database
and useful aggregate information.
What are the options?
 More Legal Requirement for Data Access: NSA should set more legal requirements for
accessing the confidential information in the renewed surveillance program. Moreover, in
this security measure, the FBI would get an alert, when a person would try to access the
secure and confidential information from the NSA database. In this way, no person even
within the NSA members would be able to access the confidential information without

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the permission of FBI. Hence, the chance of violation of security measures would be
reduced.
 Proper Encryption: NSA can also use proper encryption for protecting the confidential
information. In this way, it would be extremely difficult for any unauthentic person for
understand the meaning of encrypted confidential information (Gotterbarn and Miller
2017). Hence, it would be extremely difficult for the enemies like the terrorists in this
case to understand the encrypted form of confidential information.
 Access Control for Handling Confidential Data: NSA can also use access control
system for handing the confidential data in the Database. Moreover, in such system, a
NSA member requires permission from the Data Steward towards handling confidential
information. Data Steward would give permission to access confidential information only
in case of critical business requirement (Raab and Szekely 2017). Hence, it would be
extremely difficult to for any NSA member to get access to the confidential database
information without critical requirement for the investigation.
Which option is best - and why?
Among the above mentioned 3 options, access control for handling confidential data
would be best for resolving such case. As per Kalogridis et al. (2014), in case of more legal
requirement for accessing data, it might be possible for someone within the FBI members to
avoid the alert on request of getting access to confidential data. Furthermore, Raab and Szekely
(2017) stated that in encryption process, it might be possible for someone within the NSA to help
the unauthentic person in understanding the encrypted form of confidential information. Such
person may easily unethically violate his/her duty to pass on the confidential information to the
enemies. However, Raab and Szekely (2017) opined that in case of access control for handling

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confidential information, the permission for accessing confidential information would be system
generated through Data Steward. Moreover, the request for accessing data would fit the critical
business requirement in the Data Steward. Hence, no person, even within the NSA members can
unethically violate their duties by unnecessary accessing database information and pass on them
to unauthentic persons.
Analysis of the situation from the point of view of an ICT Professional using the ACS Code
of Ethics
The Primacy of Public Interest
In this code of ethics, an ICT professional is supposed to place the interest of public
above those of his/her personal interests or sectional interests. In this case, the NSA surveillance
program was initiated for tracking the contacts of the persons with the known terrorists.
Moreover, the interest of this program was to protect the U.S public from the threats of terrorists.
However, Edward Snowden gave priority of his personal interest to be hero to the public by
revealing the data mining process of NSA (Whitehouse et al. 2016). In this way, Edward
Snowden has underestimated the public interest of being protected from the terrorists.
The enhancement of Quality of Life
In this code of ethics, an ICT professional is supposed to enhance the quality of life of the
people, who are affected by his/her work. However, in this case, Edward Snowden interrupted
the surveillance program of NSA, which used to track the contacts of the terrorists. In this way,
this person has caused harm to the national security, which can directly harm the quality of life
of the U.S citizen (Díaz-Campo and Segado-Boj 2015). Hence, Edward Snowden has actually
violated the ACS Code of Ethics.

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Honesty
In this code of Ethics, an ICT professional is supposed to be honest his/her representing
the skills, knowledge and service. However, in this case, Edward Snowden has demonstrated
dishonesty in representing his service by leaking out the confidential information of NSA to the
public. Moreover, this computer expert was not actually loyal to his profession.
Competence
In this code of Ethics, an ICT professional is supposed to work competently and
diligently for his/her stakeholders. Being an ICT professional, Edward Snowden should be his
prime duty to protect the confidential information of NSA competently and diligently. However,
Edward Snowden failed to maintain his competence and diligence of this duty by revealing the
confidential information of U.S government to the public.
Professional Development
In this code of ethics, an ICT professional is supposed to enhance his/her own
professional development as well as his/her colleagues’ professional development. However, in
this case, being an ICT professional, Edward Snowden has violated the national security and set
a negative example for his other colleagues (Valentine, Fleischman and Bateman 2015). In this
way, he actually hindered his own as well as his colleagues’ professional development.
Professionalism
In this code of ethics, an ICT professional is supposed to enhance the integrity of the
society and respect the members for each other. However, in this case, Edward Snowden has not
demonstrated his professionalism by leaking out the confidential information of NSA to the

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public. Moreover, he has just exploited his position for disintegrating the society by causing
harm to the national security.
Conclusion and Recommendation
While concluding the situation using Doing Ethics Technique, it can be said that Edward
Snowden has just violated the ethical norms by leaking out the information of NSA surveillance
program. Moreover, he has caused harm to the national security of U.S. Such situation can be
handled through access control on handling the confidential information of NSA database. On
the other hand, as per ACS code of ethics, being an ICT professional, Edward Snowden was not
at all professional to his profession. He was incapable of protecting the confidential information
of NSA.
NSA should provide proper training to its ICT professionals for enhancing their
professional development. In this way, such ICT professionals would be loyal to their duties and
roles and protect the confidential information of the NSA database. On the other, NSA should
strongly initiate the access control for handling the confidential information of database.
Moreover, in such privacy system, any ICT professional would require permission from the Data
Steward for getting access to confidential information. Hence, it would not be possible for any
NSA members to access the confidential information unnecessary and reveal them to unauthentic
persons.

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References
Allen, N. 2018. Edward Snowden: the quiet Hawaii life of the NSA whistleblower. [online]
Telegraph.co.uk. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10110342/Edward-Snowden-the-
quiet-Hawaii-life-of-the-NSA-whistleblower.html
Bannister, F. and Connolly, R., 2014. ICT, public values and transformative government: A
framework and programme for research. Government Information Quarterly, 31(1), pp.119-128.
BBC News. 2014. How the US spy scandal unravelled. [online] Available at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-23123964
Díaz-Campo, J. and Segado-Boj, F., 2015. Journalism ethics in a digital environment: How
journalistic codes of ethics have been adapted to the Internet and ICTs in countries around the
world. Telematics and Informatics, 32(4), pp.735-744.
Dodds, N. 2013. Five Eyes spying alliance will survive Edward Snowden: experts. [online] The
Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/five-eyes-
spying-alliance-will-survive-edward-snowden-experts-20130717-hv0xw.html
Fleischmann, K.R., Hui, C. and Wallace, W.A., 2017. The societal responsibilities of
computational modelers: Human values and professional codes of ethics. Journal of the
Association for Information Science and Technology, 68(3), pp.543-552.

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Gotterbarn, D. and Miller, K.W., 2017. Yes, but… our response to:“professional ethics in the
information age”. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 15(4), pp.357-
361.
Kalogridis, G., Sooriyabandara, M., Fan, Z. and Mustafa, M.A., 2014. Toward unified security
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Lyon, D., 2014. Surveillance, Snowden, and big data: Capacities, consequences, critique. Big
Data & Society, 1(2), p.2053951714541861.
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[online] Available at: https://www.philosophytalk.org/snowden
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