Technology

Running head: TECHNOLOGY
Ethics for computing professional
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Ethics for computing professional
Introduction
The whole issue of the increasingly high technology is marked with many controversies with potential debates ranging from computer crimes to communication and data transfer. Despite the importance of technology in the development and sustainability of any organization, computer crimes are becoming increasingly high with statistical information from US Uniform Crime showing that one million people in every three million people who access the world web were involved in illegal internet activities (Kevin, et al, 2010). Further to this, computer crime and security survey reported that computer crimes impose security threats and financial losses to the organization and the country at large. In this interest therefore, the issue of computer crimes need to be addressed by the global society if a secure and a sustainable environment have to be achieved. This paper seeks to discuss the security threats that can arise from bad behaviour of IT employees as well as identifying one of the professional organisation’s codes of computing ethics. The author takes the discussion a step further by analysing the aspects of the code of ethics which would help prevent such behaviour (Jordan, 1999). It also focuses on some of the measures which IT organizations need to implement as policies in order to foster an ethical environment.
Security threats that can arise from bad behaviour of IT employees
Computer crimes can be described as the illegal use of the computer network and the internet. Computers are becoming inevitable in the modern society and hence accounting and information technology employees in any organization have the opportunity to access vital and valuable organisations information as well as exposing the information to unauthorised people. The following are some of the security threats which are imposed by the organization’s employees
The greatest security threat can be incurred by the information technology employees. Most organisations in the modern society rely heavily on computers to store vital information such as financial records. The information technology system is design, implemented and maintained by the company’s employees who may not be part of the policy marking or management team. As a consequence therefore, they pose the greatest threat of compromising the information technology system (Ye, 2003). This threat is underscored by the fact that the employees have the security codes required to access the information and in many times, the repair and maintenance of the system is done during the hours when the management team and the other employees are off. Further to this, the control rooms for the systems are restricted to the IT employees only. If the IT employees have the feelings of not being appreciated, recognized or treated unfairly, then the system is at risk of being compromised in order to draw the attention of the management
Accountants and financial employees also pose threat to the security of any organization. These employees have access to organisation’s vital information concerning the financial status of the organisation. If thes...