COIT20263 - Information Security: A4A's Copyright & Ethics Analysis

This report provides an overview of information security management for Academics for Academics (A4A), an NGO supporting Australian universities and colleges. It highlights Australian copyright law and its application to A4A's activities, emphasizing the importance of original work and the rights of copyright holders. The report also outlines a code of ethics for A4A members, covering fair treatment, privacy, communication, system integrity, cooperation, honesty, education, social responsibility, and workplace quality. It addresses the responsibilities of A4A members who handle student information unethically, emphasizing accountability for copyright infringement and data misuse. The conclusion stresses the need for A4A to adopt and enforce security policies to ensure responsible and ethical conduct, ultimately improving services to students and institutions.

INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGEMENT
Information Security Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Copyright protection of the information produced by the members of A4A.............................1
Ethics in InfoSec of the members of A4A.................................................................................3
The one who would be responsible if any member of A4A handles the information of
students unethically while working at a member institution......................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Academics for Academics (A4A) is an NGO that has been established to assist public
as well as private universities and colleges based in Australia. The academic professionals
registered with A4A is responsible to provide the voluntary services like supervision of
research project, teaching a subject (Safa et al. 2016). They have planned recently to adopt
the information security policy that can safeguard the students’ information.
This report will highlight the copyright laws as well as the code of ethics associated
with InfoSec by which A4A can securely conduct their business activities.
Copyright protection of the information produced by the members of A4A
The Australian government has imposed copyright law for their country. The work
needs to be original for the copyright protection (Ifinedo 2014). The owners of the work must
keep their documents safe and secure so that it does not get lost.
Australian copyright law protects multiple items which include-
Artistic works- the artistic works include the photos, logs, paintings and drawings;
Dramatic works- choreography, screenplays and scripts (Siponen, Mahmood and Pahnila
2014); Published editions- the published editions include the cover design, layout,
typography; Music; Film; Sound Recordings and broadcast- TV and Radio.
The items that are not protected by copyright involves the-
The ideas provided by some authors cannot be protected. The general information
which is available to everyone and is available over the Internet. The names, slogans or titles
are generally cannot be stolen in general.

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The one who creates the material is the owner of the material. Copyright lasts a
lifetime and it remains additional seventy years after the death of the owner. The owner can
prepare a will and can hand over the copyright material to somebody (Hsu et al. 2015). If any
company wants to hire a fresh employee for writing copies, then the employee should sign a
written agreement and should provide information about the owner.
The members of A4A must be aware of these copyright policies and must work
accordingly. The A4A members those who want to provide the voluntary services like the
teaching of a subject, the supervising a research project must be aware of the copyright
policy. The A4A members must provide the assignments to the A4A and must not share the
assignments with anyone.
The copyright owner’s permission is required when anyone wishing to utilize the
whole part of the owner’s document or some portion of the owner’s document. The copyright
owner’s permission will be required to produce or copy the work. The copyright owner is
required to reproduce or copy the work, the permission is also required to communicate that
work to the public (Alshaikh et al. 2016). When someone publishes, rent or re-broadcast the
A4A members’ work needs the permission of them.
A4A must strengthen their security policies, must install firewall and antivirus
software in the system as that can help them to mitigate the risks associated with the
copyright infringements.
Ethics in InfoSec of the members of A4A
The A4A members should follow the code of ethics related to InfoSec as prescribed
by the Australia Government-

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Fair treatment: The members should treat everyone in a fair way. The members
should not discriminate anyone on the grounds of national origin, religion and race.
Privacy: The members must access the private information of the computer system
and the assignments they prepare when it is required in the course of duties (D'Arcy, Herath
and Shoss 2014). The members should maintain the confidentiality of the information and
must not disclose the information at any cost.
Communication: The members should inform A4A about the computing matters that
can affect them like the maintenance of security, sharing of resources, the occurrence of
system monitoring as well as the legal obligations.
System Integrity: The members should assure the integrity of the system, they must
maintain the hardware and the software and should be aware of any kinds of malware attack
(Peltier 2016). The systems if gets attacked by the malware can become vulnerable, thus if
any kind of virus attacks their systems they must act responsibly and must report A4A.
Co-operation: The A4A members must co-operate with the computing professionals.
The members should discuss with each other if any issue arises and must not get into direct
conflict with the fellow computing professionals.
Honesty: The members of A4A according to the security policies must act honestly
and should seek help from the professional whenever required (Fogarty et al. 2017). The
members according to the ethics of security policies must follow the professional advice and
should not get into conflict with the professionals.
Education: The A4A members must be proficient in a particular subject and must
continue to update their subject expertise. Alongside the subject, they must have sound
knowledge of the computer technology, the members must be tech savvy and should be

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capable to solve the minor computing issues (Alshaikh et al. 2016). The A4A members
should share their knowledge with the rest of the A4A members in the same A4A members’
institutions or other similar A4A members’ institutions.
Social Responsibility: The A4A members must take into considerations the social as
well as the legal issues that crop up in the computing environment. The members should
communicate the understanding to the others whenever they will feel appropriate (Fogarty et
al. 2017). They must ensure that their ethical principles match with the policies and laws
related to the computer system.
Workplace Quality: The members of A4A must maintain a healthy and safe as well as
productive workplace for all the members and the students of the A4A registered institutions.
The one who would be responsible if any member of A4A handles the information of
students unethically while working at a member institution
A4A has decided to adopt the copyright laws and they are ready to follow the code of
ethics related to InfoSec prescribed by the Government. Thus the members’ associations
registered with A4A must abide by all the ethics and the copyright laws. The members of
A4A should act responsibly. The academic professionals or the members of A4A if using the
students’ information unethically then the academic professionals will be responsible for such
mishaps. If someone copies the contents of the students’ documents, then that individual will
be accused of the copyright infringement (Alshaikh et al. 2016). A4A has already specified
that the information or the data generated by the A4A member will be the property of that
particular member. They must protect the students’ documents, must protect them from being
stolen or copied and must store them in safe and secure locations. The A4A members must
ensure that the students’ documents must not get misused at any cost.

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Conclusion
It may be concluded from the above discourse that the A4A members must adopt the
security policy to carry out their business activities in well and secured manner. The code of
ethics as well the copyright laws can help them the academic professionals or the A4A
members to act responsibly and ethically. Following the code of ethics and copyright laws,
the A4A can maintain peace in the academic workplace. A4A has established last year so, the
informational security policies are still in the premature stage. It is hoped that by
implementing the security policies fully they can provide better services to the students and
the colleges and universities in coming future.

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References
Alshaikh, M., Maynard, S.B., Ahmad, A. and Chang, S., 2016. Information Security Policy:
A Management Practice Perspective. arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.00890.
D'Arcy, J., Herath, T. and Shoss, M.K., 2014. Understanding employee responses to stressful
information security requirements: a coping perspective. Journal of Management Information
Systems, 31(2), pp.285-318.
Fogarty, W., Riddle, S., Lovell, M. and Wilson, B., 2017. Indigenous education and literacy
policy in Australia: bringing learning back to the debate. The Australian Journal of
Indigenous Education, pp.1-13.
Hsu, J.S.C., Shih, S.P., Hung, Y.W. and Lowry, P.B., 2015. The role of extra-role behaviors
and social controls in information security policy effectiveness. Information Systems
Research, 26(2), pp.282-300.
Ifinedo, P., 2014. Information systems security policy compliance: An empirical study of the
effects of socialisation, influence, and cognition. Information & Management, 51(1), pp.69-
79.
Peltier, T.R., 2016. Information Security Policies, Procedures, and Standards: guidelines for
effective information security management. CRC Press.
Safa, N.S., Von Solms, R. and Furnell, S., 2016. Information security policy compliance
model in organizations. computers & security, 56, pp.70-82.
Siponen, M., Mahmood, M.A. and Pahnila, S., 2014. Employees’ adherence to information
security policies: An exploratory field study. Information & management, 51(2), pp.217-224.