An Example of Computer Abuse

An Example of Computer Abuse

Choose one of computer abuse which you think is morally wrong. Explain why you consider it as morally wrong using any of the ethical principles you have learned in the earlier modules.

A computer abuse example that I consider as morally wrong is the trap door. Some developers of electronic systems, usually those concerning financial systems, device holes in the systems that enable them to circumvent security of the system or create functionalities of the systems that are not part of the systems’ intended use. Examples of trap door implementations are systems that exploit rounding errors of financial transactions to transfer the almost negligible values to an unauthorized account. Even if the source code of the system does not contain a trap door, the trap door could be injected to the system through the compiler.

This is just a sophisticated method of stealing. Most of the ethical and legal principles from the previous modules are against stealing and breach of trust, which make trap doors morally wrong. For example, most Divine Natural, and Moral laws with the preliminary theories of ethical altruism, the finalist theories of Mill’s utilitarianism, the Kantian Categorical Imperatives, and the Nichomachean Ethics, condemn stealing and dishonesty so trap doors are not acceptable.