The Balance Between Security And Privacy In The Digital Age

The Need for Cybersecurity

Discuss about the Balance Between Security and Privacy.

In the contemporary era, the biggest technological and social change is due to the increasing and uninterrupted growth of the internet and its uses. However, the increasing dependence on internet and cyberspace has lead to the emergence of new risks and threats to cyber security for the users. Growing dependence on internet and cyberspace lead to new risks and risk of compromising or damaging the key data on which a person relies. The data is being harmed, compromised or damaged in a way which is hard to detect and can’t be defended. Cyber security is an issue which surrounds the positive side and essence of internet nowadays. The internet was designed to be secure but after all, it was never a secure framework though by design it is borderless, horizontal, interoperable and secure but internet is not secure and always poses threat to key data and information. Cyber security is a combination of technology, practices and processes which are grouped together to protect computers, data, information, networks and programs from attacks, crimes, damage or unauthorized access that takes place online with the help of internet access (TechTarget, 2016). Cyber security and physical security both are included in security when talking in a computing context. Cyber security is needed when the key data and information are attacked by hackers, intruders or terrorist without any permission and results in making an unauthorized access to the material information. In case of a cyber-crime, cyber security is needed (Conventus Law, 2016; Prakash, 2017).

Cyber crimes emerge out as a new breed of crime which is committed using computers or something related to them. Cyber crimes are originating because of the growing dependence and over dependence on computers and internet. In the modern life, as everything is being computed and run with the help of computer and internet, cyber crimes and cyber attacks are growing day by day. Internet and computers are becoming a necessary requirement for everyone today and they are undoubtedly contributing towards the ease of doing things. However, despite being so helpful and advantageous internet have claimed with the issues of cyber crime and attacks which results in compromising and damaging the material information and key data. On one hand, the advanced internet and computer technologies enhanced the experience of its users, while on the other hand cyber crime and cyber attacks are making it even harder to protect personal, material or key information or data. So, this essay will examine the enhancement and growth of internet but majorly focuses on the cyber security, its effectiveness and need in the present environment of uncountable cyber attacks and crimes. Recommendations are also provided in order to find the best solution for solving the issues of cyber security breaches.

Examples of Cyber Attacks

Cyber security has the most problematic element of constantly and quickly changing or evolving nature of security risks. Over the last half century, the industry of information technology has evolved increasingly which results in faster, smaller, easier, cheaper and lighter use of IT hardware. (The Economic Times, 2017). Information and communication technology devices are interdependent and breakdown of one can lead to a drastic impact on many others. With the passage of time, experts and professionals have come to the point and expressed the serious concerning issues of protecting information and communication technology systems from being affected and breached by cyber attacks. Cyber attacks are unauthorized access and deliberate attempts to make use, compromise and damage material information by unauthorized persons, intruders, hackers and terrorist. Their objective can be of theft, unlawful actions, damage or disruption. There are increasing number of cyber attacks in Australia and are expected to rise in number in the near time. This is because in future more and more information will be stored electronically and the ability of the cyber attackers to collect, store and analyze the information will grow. The act of protecting IT systems gives birth to the concept of cyber security (Fischer, 2016; Klimburg, 2017).

A recent survey of Australian Cyber Security Centre which was conducted among the partner organizations of ACSC concluded that majority of the organizations has suffered security breaches in last year. It is accounted that Australia is the only country which has a maximum number of recorded cyber security incidents than rest of the world. Australian businesses are experiencing losses up to the average budget allocated to security. 58% of the organizations are facing this serious issue of cyber security threats and issues. It is accounted that in 99% of the organizations phishing and social engineering were the most common methods of cyber attacks followed by malware and denial of services (Pearce, 2017). Another cyber crime issue was held in the US health insurer anthem. An administrator noticed that there is an unusual complex query which was running on their computer networks. This resulted in the exposure of sensitive and valuable information of patients and has revealed the unprepared nature of health industry towards these kinds of cyber attacks.  Moreover, recently at a leading childbirth charity, a computer hack resulted in breaching and loss of information of more than 15000 expectant parents including their usernames, email address, and passwords. It happened because of a breach of national childbirth trust (Pearce, 2017).

Ethical Issues on Privacy and Security

Some of the issues mentioned above are against the law as well against the ethical aspect, thus proved unethical. There is a need to have a significant balance between the privacy and security. In this developing world of e-commerce and internet, privacy is one of the important aspects. Privacy is defined as the right of a person specifying the boundaries and limitations which limit the extent to which the rest of the people can intrude upon or interact with. A person is having full right to control the information related to him or her. The meaning of privacy differs from person to person and everyone see privacy with a different perspective (Business Dictionary, 2017). Similarly, security is the act of the organization to secure and protect digitally transmitted and stored information. Hence, it is very important to identify, understand and analyze ethical issues on privacy and security and associated implications of it.

According to the theory of utilitarianism, it states that the decision to be made in any situation will come from the one which is the most advantageous to most and majority of people. The theory states that in the situation where the majority of people are happy with any action, the action will be considered right. Cyber crimes are a result of the lack of knowledge among people about these types of crimes and their happenings. Thus, it can be said that cyber crimes are unethical as well as illegal from the utilitarian theory as it is not benefitting any one and proves to be disadvantageous for all the people. Deontology theory states that when ethics are in play people should stick to their duties and responsibilities during decision making. From the point of view of the people and layman whose information are getting compromised, in this context companies are deontologically wrong in ethical context as they are not adhering their moral responsibilities and duties. The ethical theory of virtue judges a person by his or her character rather than by any action or work which may deviate from the normal behavior of a person. Thus, the actions of cyber security crime are considered virtually wrong in ethical context as the when the theory judged moral, reputation and motivation of the hackers which seems to be unusual and irregular behavior, so it is considered unethical (Moreland, 2017; Larry Chonko, 2017).

In line with the above- stated issues there are some recommendations which can help in resolving the problems. It is recommended that companies and organizations should use the technologically advanced system so that it becomes difficult for the hackers to gain access to the information. The government should make compulsory for every organization to be prepared for any cyber security attack and should have a security system so that the attacks are prevented well before they get worse. Moreover, the government should impose fines on the organizations of not taking proper care of the material personal and confidential information. The companies having personal information of their customers should make a promise to its customers and make them trust on them that their information is safe and secure with the company and there are no chances of compromise and damage to their information. In addition to this, people should be made aware about the illegal and unethical practices of cyber security crimes so that the number of crimes can be reduced up to an extent. Moreover, the government should also focus on enforcing the strong privacy and security laws and also upgrading the privacy procedures and policies with the objective of maintaining privacy breach. This will make more authorized users of information eliminating many fraud and illegal access. It will also let the user have full control on their information and any access to their information will be done with their consent.

The essay starts with the current state of the internet, computer, and technology in the modern world. It also highlights the uses and need of internet and its importance in daily life which leads to the overdependence on the internet. Further, the essay is followed by examples, statistics and recorded cases of cyber security crime which can act as the supporters of our argument. Afterwards ethical analysis of these cyber crime issues is done with the help of ethical theories and it reflects why these actions are wrong when placed opposite ethics. In the end, various recommendations are provided to settle the problems of cyber security crime and with the objective of reducing the number of recorded cyber crime cases. Therefore, a conclusion can be made that no matter how important internet and other information and communication technologies are in our lives, there are many loop holes which affect material and key information of a person, organization or government. So there is a need to work hard on this matter to provide better service specifically in the areas of privacy and security and leads to a balance between the two of them.

References

Business Dictionary, 2017. Privacy. [Online]  Available at: https://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/privacy.html [Accessed 13 may 2017].

Conventus Law, 2016. Cyber Security: The Balance Between Security And Privacy. [Online]  Available at: https://www.conventuslaw.com/report/cyber-security-the-balance-between-security-and/ [Accessed 13 may 2017].

Fischer, E. A., 2016. Cybersecurity Issues and Challenges: In Brief, s.l.: s.n.

Klimburg, A., 2017. National Cyber Security, s.l.: s.n.

Larry Chonko, 2017. Ethical Theories, s.l.: s.n.

Moreland, J. P., 2017. Ethics Theories: Utilitarianism Vs. Deontological Ethics. [Online]  Available at: https://www.equip.org/article/ethics-theories-utilitarianism-vs-deontological-ethics/ [Accessed 12 may 2017].

Pearce, R., 2017. Cyber Security Centre survey reveals alarming rate of data breaches. [Online]  Available at: https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/617897/cyber-security-centre-survey-reveals-alarming-rate-data-breaches/ [Accessed 12 may 2017].

Prakash, V., 2017. 1306 words free sample essay on Cyber Crime. [Online]  Available at: https://www.preservearticles.com/201106117816/1306-words-free-sample-essay-on-cyber-crime.html [Accessed 13 may 2017].

TechTarget, 2016. Cyber Security. [Online]  Available at: https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/cybersecurity [Accessed 13 may 2017].

The Economic Times, 2017. Definition of 'Cyber Security'. [Online]  Available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/cyber-security [Accessed 13 may 2017].