Friday, April 8, 2011

Week Five - Ethics and Security


1. The ethical issues surrounding information technology include 

- Intellectual property
- Copyright
- Fair use doctrine
- Pirated software
- Counterfeit software

Ethics is defined as a system of moral principles.

2. An example of a situation involving technology that is ethical but illegal could be if you made two copies of a software package and sold one to your friend a lot cheaper than the retail cost. This may not be unethical, but it is considered pirating and therefore is deemed illegal.


3. One of the computer use policies that a company might employee could be an Email Privacy Policy which will help minimise the risk of email and instant messaging.

4. The 5 main technology security risks are:



5. One way to reduce each risk as listed above, could be

- Human Error: Sufficient training, strong passwords, firewalls and heavy penalties for misuse and/or misconduct.

- Natural Disasters: Security risk can be prevented by a disaster recovery plan

- Technical Failures: Backing up all important data and files will help minimise the seriousness of any technical failures.

- Deliberate Acts: Virus protection software as well as strong, well protected passwords.

- Management Failure: Sufficient training, back up programs/recovery plans.

6. A disaster recovery plan is the set of process put in place describing how an organisation is to deal with the threat of potential disasters.  Some strategies a firm may employ include replicating important data regularly and sending it to an office offsite.


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