IT Ethics and Sustainability: A Report on Challenges and Solutions

This report delves into the ethical challenges confronting the IT industry, emphasizing issues such as security, privacy, copyright infringement, and the digital divide. It examines the impact of these issues on various stakeholders, including employees, investors, consumers, and society. The report then explores potential solutions, including the implementation of robust policies, the use of firewalls, and the adoption of authentication tools to safeguard data and protect privacy. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of making technology affordable and fostering collaborative approaches to address ethical concerns. The report concludes by recommending the use of authentication tools and the development of formal policies and advanced firewalls to mitigate risks and promote ethical practices within the IT sector, specifically referencing Telstra as a case study.

ETHICS
AND
SUSTAINABILITY

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Executive Summary
In the modern day business, there are many ethical issues that have come up in
various industries. Since the IT industry has penetrated in the lives of the people and hence
these issues have become more critical. It is crucial that company takes use of the alternatives
that are present with them for avoiding any such ethical concerns. Companies need to make
policies regarding the cybercrimes so as to reduce the probability of occurring it. Managers
can take use of the tools or techniques so as to make sure that any unauthorised access cannot
be possible. A collaborative approach can be used so that there is overall development of the
whole industry irrespective of the size of the company.

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Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
Major issues related to ethics and its influence on the stakeholders..................................................4
Alternatives for addressing such issues.............................................................................................5
Preferred alternative over the many...................................................................................................6
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
Recommendations.................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................8

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INTRODUCTION
Ethics is something that has become a matter of concern for the companies. This is the era of
global and technological business and hence IT sector plays a very major role in it. There are
changes in ways IT has influenced the lives of the people (Reynolds, 2011). This has raised
many ethical issues for the firms working under this industry. In order to ensure that these
issues do not create negative impact on the firms it is essential that they manage it in a better
manner. Telstra is one of the biggest IT firm in the Australia. This report throws lights on the
ethical issues that are present in the IT industry and the impact it has on the stakeholders
associated with the companies like Telstra. It also describes the alternatives that can be used
for addressing these issues.

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Major issues related to ethics and its influence on the stakeholders
In IT industry there are many ethical issues that is becoming a challenge for the
business (Weckert and Lucas, 2013). These issues have come up due to several kinds of
factors. These issues have become challenges for the society and the industry. Some of the
issues in the cited industry are listed below:
 Security: There are larger set of data that is present on the IT mediums these days
(Venkatesh, Thong and Xu, 2012). Since all the other industries are also dependent on
this industry for their operations. There have been attempts in the past by the hackers
to steal or corrupt these data. This has created major ethical concern for the industry
as the hackers can misuse this data as per their need.
 Privacy: There are many types of personal data related to the stakeholders are present
in this industry. If these data gets leaked then it is a threat to the privacy of the
company as violating such privacy rights is an ethical issue for the Telstra.
 Copyright Infringement: Today the original work of many people is stored on the IT
mediums. Many a times it has been seen that these works are copied by some other
person. This especially happens in multimedia files. It is a violation of the copyright
act and is a major ethical concern in the industry.
 Increased burden on IT personnel: With the increasing competition in the industry, the
burden on the employees to works more accurately is increasing. They have to deliver
quality 24 hours. Many employees get terminated due to their insufficiency to
perform at such transforming and high expectations. This has accounted to one of the
major ethical concerns in the industry.
 Digital divide: In many parts of the world IT technologies have not developed so as
much as it has in the other corners of the world (Quinn, 2014). Countries such as US
have dominance over the internet mediums while the nations in African region have
lower access to these technologies. This has created a digital divide in the world.
Since this is the era of business that is based on IT and hence the nations that do not
have such facilities are lagging in terms of development. It has become one of the
major ethical issues in the industry.
All these issues have negative impact on the IT industry’s stakeholders. If these issues are not
addressed in a proper manner then it may create some serious problems for the society. Some
of the impact on the stakeholders has been listed below.

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 Employees: Workers of the IT industry are under serious pressure of performing in a
better manner so that such issues do not occur. Their personal data is also on stake.
 Investors: If the data is not secured in a proper way then there is always a chance that
there can be heavy loses to the stakeholders. Copyright infringement like in the case
of piracy has increased in the past several decades which have resulted in losses for
the investors.
 Consumers: The information related to the consumers of the firm are at stake. This
has created the chances of frauds that arise due to security and privacy (Stair, et al.,
2011). If any data gets leaked of the clients of the companies then they may cause
them personal harm.
 Government: Any kind of unethical frauds that happens in any industry is directly
effecting the government as they have to take care of such issues. If any such frauds
occur then government has to give compensations to the clients.
 Society: There is a change in the IT industry which has become a part and parcel of
the lives of the people in the society. These changes have direct effect on the society.
If the data leak is related to economic welfare of society occurs then it is an ethical
issue for the society.
Alternatives for addressing such issues
This industry is changing at much faster rate as compared to other industries hence a
more dynamic approach must be applied for tackling all these issues. If all these issues have
not been taken care of then there can be serious loses to the stakeholders associated with
them. There are some of the alternatives that IT industry can use for addressing these issues:
 Making policies: It is one of the best ways of ensuring that such malpractice does not
occur in the industry. Making policy can help in reducing the amount of unethical
practices in the industry (Wright, 2011). Thefts related to the data can be reduced to
minimum by making policies. Ethical guidelines must be made as per the
requirements of the industry and it must be uniformly implemented within the
industry.
 Use of firewalls: There must be use of firewalls that protects data from any kind of
attacks with the use of malwares. This will help Telstra in safeguarding from hackers
that aims to destroy hardware and software of the firm.
 Authentication tools: Tools such as login pages can help in safeguarding private and
important data of the firm (Floridi, 2013). This does not allow unwanted person to

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access the systems of the users. Telstra needs to upgrade their authentication tool from
time from time so that a better authentication can be provided.
 Making technology affordable: It is crucial for the industry to make sure that they
work on the technology that is affordable. This will help in reducing the divide that is
created between the developed and under developing nations. For doing this an
extensive amount of research needs to be done.
 Collaborative approach: It is crucial for the companies in the industry to make sure
that they have collaborative efforts to reduce such unethical practices in the industry
(Stahl, et al., 2014). Copying of the idea generated by the Telstra by the other must be
reduced (Telstra, 2015).
Preferred alternative over the many
There are many alternatives that are available with the IT industry so as to address the
unethical practices in the society (Tavani, 2011). Among these alternatives the most suitable
alternative can be to take use of the authentication tool. This is due to the reason that it does
not allow any unauthorised person to access the system. This will help in making sure that no
frauds or data temper is done. Multilayer authentication tools can be highly beneficial. Even
the access to the system should also be given to limited number of stakeholders so that the
chances of frauds can be further reduced.
Conclusion
From the above report it can be summarised that Information and technology industry
is facing many kinds of challenges in the form of ethical issues. IT industry has penetrated in
the lives of the society and hence the concerns related to the ethics have broadened. Issues
such as security and privacy have threatened the stakeholders of the industry. IT firms needs
to use all the alternatives present with them for preventing such affairs. Taking use of the
authentication tools can help Telstra in preventing from such kind of breach.
Recommendations
Telstra aims to become one of the best performing firms in the industry. While
achieving this they need to ensure that they have taken proper care of all the ethical concerns
that are associated with the company. Cited firm needs to use the authentication tools so that

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any unauthorised person may not access to the systems of the company. They also need to
continuously upgrade it so that they remain ahead of the hackers. A formal policy that could
stop mal practices inside the firm is required. Use of the advanced firewalls will protect them
from any kind of cyber-attacks.
REFERENCES
Floridi, L., 2013. The ethics of information. Oxford University Press.

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Quinn, M.J., 2014. Ethics for the information age. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Reynolds, G., 2011. Ethics in information technology. Cengage learning.
Stahl, B.C., Eden, G., Jirotka, M. and Coeckelbergh, M., 2014. From computer ethics to
responsible research and innovation in ICT: The transition of reference discourses informing
ethics-related research in information systems. Information & Management, 51(6), pp.810-
818.
Stair, R., Moisiadis, F., Genrich, R. and Reynolds, G., 2011. Principles of information
systems. Cengage Learning Australia.
Tavani, H.T., 2011. Ethics and technology: Controversies, questions, and strategies for
ethical computing. John Wiley & Sons.
Telstra . (2015) Conducting our business ethically. [Online]. Available at:
https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/about-us/community-environment/pdf-e/
sustainability-report-2015-responsible-business.pdf. [Accessed on: 11th March 2018].
Venkatesh, V., Thong, J.Y. and Xu, X., 2012. Consumer acceptance and use of information
technology: extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. MIS quarterly,
pp.157-178.
Weckert, J. and Lucas, R., 2013. Professionalism in the information and communication
technology industry. ANU Press.
Wright, D., 2011. A framework for the ethical impact assessment of information
technology. Ethics and information technology, 13(3), pp.199-226.

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