Facing the Computer Ethics Dilemma
C. Dianne Martin and David H. Martin
Although the major professional societies have developed codes of ethics, they
have been criticized for failing to establish sanctions, enforce them or test
their applicability in the real world. Because the codes have been so rarely
applied to actual situations, they have not undergone the years of interpretation
and practical analysis to which ethics codes in other professions have been
subjected. Instead the legal system is being used to settle an increasing number
of issues related to computers. Since 1958 there have been over 2,500 reported
cases of intentionally caused losses in which computers played a major part
or were essential to the scheme (Parker, et al., 1988, p. 2). This situation
has prompted the enactment of computer crime statutes in most states as well
as two federal laws, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act of 1986. Legality, however, falls far short of what
is required for high standards of ethical conduct and awareness.
Leaders in the computer field need to recognize the ethical conflicts faced
by computer professionals and to establish ethical standards that are practicable
in both the computer science and business communities. Brian Kocher (1989),
past President of the ACM, stated that computer professionals must start to
police themselves with licensing and certification standards established by
the professional societies, or else lawmakers would wrest that prerogative from
them by enacting ill-conceived legislation to regulate their activities. Hoffman
(1988), a computer security expert, suggested that professional computer users,
like automobile drivers, must be licensed if they intend to use their computers
in other than a stand-alone mode in their own home or office. This is similar
to the on-road versus farm use of motor vehicles. Computer professionals would
have their license revoked if they turned from computer user to computer abuser.
Such suggestions of licensing or self-policing are not merely hypothetical musings.
There are ample precedents of industries or professions where, given the opportunity
to engage in self-policing and having failed to effectively mount adequate programs,
the government has used a legislative sledgehammer to force a change. The most
recent and highly visible example has been in the government procurement arena,
in particular in the defense procurement industry. Concerned with recurring
scandals in the defense industry, former President Reagan appointed a Blue Ribbon
Panel on Defense Procurement to advise him on how to bring under control the
excesses incurred by government contractors that implicated corporate management
at the highest levels.
The cornerstone of the Blue Ribbon Panel’s recommendations was a self-policing
program that included the following recommendation: when the company, through
its own programs, uncovered fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement, it should
voluntarily disclose such things to the government. This program of self-policing
was not particularly successful because of the fear of civil or criminal proceedings
that might flow from such disclosure. Complaints continued, and Congress passed
legislation to require mandatory ethics training for defense contractors and
for their government counterparts. Also required was a certification with each
contract that the defense contractor is familiar with the laws and regulations
relating to government contracting and that they have no information concerning
a “violation or possible violation of the laws and regulations (Public
Law 100 – 679, 1988).” A false certification is subject to criminal
penalties.
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