Lecture 1

CSC410 - Professional
Practices in IT
Instructor Name : Sidra Nasir
10/30/2024
Introduction to Ethics and Its Principles
2
Topics Covered in this
Lecture
• Introduction to Course
• Ethics , Definition and concept
• Morality in Islam
• Professional and Social Ethics
Learning outcomes of this Lecture
• To understand the concept of Morality and Ethics
• Learning Ethics Concept in Islam and daily life.
• To know different types of Ethical challenges new era.
• How to manage personal Ethics in Society and Profession
What does Professional
Practices mean to you?
Ethics
• Ethics
• Set of beliefs about right and wrong behavior within a society
• Ethical behavior conforms to generally accepted norms; many of which are almost universal
• Guiding principals of conduct for an individual/group
• Influenced by Profession, field, organization
• Related to professional work
• Virtues
 Habits that incline people to do what is acceptable (fairness, generosity, Loyalty etc)
• Vices
 Habits of unacceptable behavior (vanity, Greed, anger, envy etc.)
• Virtues and vices define a personal value system

 Scheme of moral values
Definitions
• Ethics – A branch of philosophy concerned with ways of thinking
philosophically about morality, and moral judgment.
• Morality – Human conduct and character referring to “those acts
which it makes sense to describe as right or wrong, good or bad.”
• Moral Judgment – Judgments based on considerations of how
other people are to be treated, and how others interests are to
weigh against their own.(Moral Judgment: The ability to
evaluate actions or decisions as “right” or “wrong” based on
one’s moral or ethical framework. Moral judgment combines
personal morals with societal ethics to guide choices.)
Integrity
• Integrity is a cornerstone of ethical behaviour
• People with integrity:
 Act in accordance with a personal code of principles
 Extend to all the same respect and consideration
 Apply the same moral standards in all situations
• Lack of integrity emerges if you apply moral standards differently

according to situation or people involved
• Many ethical dilemmas are not as simple as right versus wrong
Open-Ended Questions?
• What are ethics?
• Are ethical decisions important?
• What happens without ethics?
• What is the relation between society – ethics – morals – moral
judgment?
Morals
• Moral code
 Set of rules
 Establishes boundaries of generally accepted behaviour
 Different rules often have contradictions
 E.g. Caught friend cheating? Personal privacy?
• Morality
 Social conventions about right and wrong
 Widely shared
 Form basis for an established consensus
 Morals
 Principles on which one’s judgement of right and wrong are based
 Not related to professional work
Morality
• Morality may vary by:
 Age
 Cultural group
 Ethnic background
 Religion
 Life experiences
 Education
 Gender
Where does morality come from?
• Parents
• Religion
• Peers
• Technology
Parents
• Parents instill ethics and morals in children. Example: A child yells at
their friend – calling them a name.
• How does the parent respond?
• Other ways?
Religion
• Most religions set guidelines on how to make moral judgments.
Example: In the Christian religion the ten commandments serve
as guidelines for making ethical and moral judgments.
• What do Muslims, Hebrews, and other religions use?
Peers
• Friends effect your moral judgments. Example: A friend or colleague
might coax you to use drugs.
• Peer pressure can sometimes cause people to make moral and ethical
decisions.
• Others?
Technology
Technology provides many opportunities to make moral and
ethical decisions. Example: Copying computer games and
violating copyright laws.
1. Does having a radar detector give you the right to break the
law and speed?
2. Is it ethical to slash and burn the rain forests to feed more

people?
3. Should you drive your car to work or school when it is in

within waling distance?
Right, Wrong and Grey areas?
• Unclear situations in ethics, many times they are personal and hotly
debated in politics.
• Black and white – Fairly clear – straight forward, most people feel the
same way about: stealing, murder, honesty, charity.
• Others?
Law
• A system of rules that tells us what we can and cannot do
• Enforced by a set of institutions (the police, courts, law-making
bodies).
• Legal acts are acts that conform to the law.
• Moral acts conform with what an individual believes to be the right
thing to do.
• Laws can proclaim an act as legal, although many people may
consider the act immoral
Why Professional Issues in IT?
●
Computing is one of the key factors for progress in various areas nowadays
●
It has transformed the way we live, learn, work, and play.
●
Advances in computing & related technologies will help improve business,
commerce, manufacturing, communication, research, education, and social
interaction.
●
This improvement will provide us with new tools which will definitely be a
vehicle for economic growth
19
Why Professional Issues in IT?
• Computers/IT/Software sector important for mission-
critical applications
($$$ + Life/Death involved here)
• Something goes wrong, who to blame ???
• Developed countries vigorously follow
Laws/Standards/Ethics, etc. related to computing
• Professionals working in CS/IT with no knowledge of
these aspects risk the chance of jobs, or
procurement of contracts in developed countries.
20
Recent scandals in IT companies
 Satyam Computer Services (India)

 Hewlett Packard
 Computer Associates International
 IBM
 Enron Accounting Scandal
 Read it by yourself
Why Fostering Good Business Ethics
Is Important?
• To gain the good will of the community
• To create an organization that operates consistently
• To foster good business practices
• To protect organization/employees from legal action
• To avoid unfavorable publicity
Microsoft’s statement of
values
Corporate ethics/Compliance officer
 Provides vision and leadership in business conduct

 Should be well-respected, senior-level manager who reports
directly to the CEO
 Ensures ethical procedures are put in place
 Creates and maintains ethics culture
 Is responsible for key knowledge/contact person for ethical
issues
 CEO has :
 Responsibility for compliance
 Responsibility for creating and maintaining the
ethics culture
 Responsibility for being a key knowledge and
contact person
Code of Ethics
 Highlights an organization’s key ethical issues
 Identifies overarching values and important principles
 Focuses employees on areas of ethical risk
 Offers guidance for employees to recognize and deal with
ethical issues
 Provides mechanisms to report unethical conduct
 Help employees abide by the law, follow necessary
regulations, and behave in an ethical manner
Intel Code of Ethics
Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct
• A good example of a code of ethics is the Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct of the Association for Computing
Machinery, an organization of computing professionals that
includes academics, researchers, and practitioners/
• No one should enter or use another’s computer system, software, or data files
without permission. One must always have appropriate approval before using
system resources, including communication ports, file space, other system
peripherals, and computer time.
• Designing or implementing systems that deliberately or inadvertently demean
individuals or groups is ethically unacceptable.
• Organizational leaders are responsible for ensuring that computer systems
enhance, not degrade, the quality of working life. When implementing a computer
system, organizations must consider the personal and professional development,
physical safety, and human dignity of all workers. Appropriate human-computer
ergonomic standards should be considered in system design and in the
workplace.
Acceptable Use Policies
• Many organizations that provide technology services to a group of
constituents or the public require agreement to an acceptable use
policy (AUP) before those services can be accessed.
• Similar to a code of ethics, this policy outlines what is allowed and
what is not allowed while someone is using the organization’s
services.
• “Borrowing” someone else’s login ID and password is prohibited.
• Using the provided access for commercial purposes, such as
hosting your own business website, is not allowed.
• Sending out unsolicited email to a large group of people is
prohibited.
Ethics in IT
• Public concern about the ethical use of information technology
includes:
 E-mail and Internet access monitoring
 Downloading in violation of copyright laws
 Unsolicited e-mail (spam)
 Hackers and identify theft
 Students and plagiarism
 Cookies and spyware
Ethics & Morality in
Islam
Scenario
An organization dedicated to reducing spam tries to get Internet

service
providers (ISPs) in an East Asian country to stop the spammers by
protecting
their mail servers. When this effort is unsuccessful, the antispam
organization
puts the addresses of these ISPs on its blacklist. Many ISPs in the
United States
consult the blacklist and refuse to accept email from the blacklisted
ISPs. This
action has two results. First, the amount of spam received by the
typical email
user in the United States drops by 25 percent. Second, tens of
thousands of
innocent computer users in the East Asian country are unable to send
email to
friends and business associates in the United States.
Questions
1. Did the antispam organization do anything wrong?

2. Did the ISPs that refused to accept email from the blacklisted ISPs do
anything wrong?
3. Who benefited from the organization’s action?
4. Who was hurt by the organization’s action?
5. Could the organization have achieved its goals through a better
course of action?
6. What additional information, if any, would help you answer the
previous questions?
End of Lecture

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CSC410 - Professional

• Virtues and vices define a personal value system

• Lack of integrity emerges if you apply moral standards differently

2. Is it ethical to slash and burn the rain forests to feed more

3. Should you drive your car to work or school when it is in

 Satyam Computer Services (India)

 Provides vision and leadership in business conduct

An organization dedicated to reducing spam tries to get Internet

1. Did the antispam organization do anything wrong?

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