Case Study on Recent Ethical Dilemma in ICT Industry

Question: Describe about the Recent Ethical Dilemma in ICT Industry Case Study of A Workplace. Answer: Recent Ethical Dilemma in ICT industry Introduction to ICT industry ICT sector or IT industry includes the widespread range of communication devices like radio, cellular phones, television, wireless signals, computer hardware and software, video conferencing, distance learning, satellite systems, etc. The industry is generally talked about in some specific context like IT in medical science, IT in education and IT in defence, etc. The industry involves integration of audio- visual systems that help common people to store, transmit and edit any piece of information. There are no pre- confirmed definitions for ICT sector. Reason for this is daily up gradation in the industrys prospects. Products offered, technologies used and value added is evolving every moment across the world. Innovation and modernization, along with cut- throat competition are the key features of the industry. The entire industry can be thought of as an umbrella under which lies a hierarchy. This hierarchy contains everything related to technologies facilitating information transmission via some electronic media (Basu Fernald, 2007). Ethical Issues in ICT Industry There are some ethics or principles to be followed by a socially responsible company operating in the ICT industry. Ethical issues based on these principles often faced by the companies in their day- to- day operations are highlighted below: Accessibility- design formed by the companies should be aimed at mass population. It should be sensorial- barrier free. Participatory- there should always be an involvement of user in the design process so as to modernise society as well. Hyborg management- hyborg stands for hybrid organization. It suggests that technology should be integrated with human element. Lifelong education and computer ethics should be keenly followed. Computer crimes and unethical hacking should be strictly prohibited. (Murphy, Smith, Daley, 1992) Besides, all the above issues, a company also owes responsibilities to avoid the lure of technological imperative, which forces the companies to upgrade technically while completely ignoring the urge of social responsibility. The company should also compile with the computer ethics. Another major fact regarding ethics in the ICT industry is that people fail to accept that computers and other technological stuff may not have been produced in the best possible manner. Where there is a possibility to change the methods, they should be changed. IT must help society and serve the needy and if they do not, then they should not be inertly accepted (De George, 2003). Recent Ethical Dilemma of a Company Here, we are talking about an ICT company, which has recently faced an ethical dilemma. The name is not being disclosed here due to confidentiality reasons, so it will be called as ABC Company. The company was involved in the computer crimes. This refers to some illegal activities that are committed via computer system. These activities were aimed at theft/ forgery and online harassment to the people who are dependent on internet to operate. Many business associates were victimised by the company, including many small entrepreneurs. They were indulged in embezzlement of confidential reports and strategies of business organizations and selling them to rivals. Lack of security systems made those clients more attractive to this company, which is actually a hacker (Dhillon Moores, 2011). In addition to this, the company was also a part of intellectual property scandal. Intellectual property is the asset of an enterprise. It includes name, images, symbols and innovations of a company exclusively for its own use and is prohibited for others to copy it. Information technology has enabled the companies to copy such assets of an enterprise and misuse them. Imitating and copying such ideas of successful enterprises for others or using for themselves had been a common practice at this enterprise. Mostly, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were vulnerable because of this company. The reason was the unprotected inventions of small scale entrepreneurs. Hence, those organizations were not able to prevent their rivals from imitating their innovations (Dutfield, 2000). Recommendations Firstly, the company discussed above is not at all alone in the picture. There are many others who are involved with similar dilemma. Some have been penalised whereas others go undetected. Constant improvisation in information and communications technology sector has enabled many hackers or rather, ill- intent companies to go for unethical practices smoothly. Many frauds are possible today because of the emergence of IT industry, as evident from the above case study of ABC Company. However, it is also seen that victims were equally responsible for their problems. Lack of security systems were the primary cause of the unethical practices. Hence, it is recommended to have sound protection to promote ethical code of conduct. After all, prevention is always better than cure (Haugen Roger Selin, 1999). References Basu, S., Fernald, J. (2007). Information and communications technology as a general purpose technology: evidence from US industry data. German Economic Review, 8(2), 146-173. De George, R. T. (2003). The Ethics of Information Technology and Business. Uppsala Universit. Blackwell Publishing. Dhillon, G., Moores, S. (2011). Computer crimes: theorizing about the enemy within. Computers Security, 20(8), 715-723. Dutfield, G. (2000). Intellectual Property Rights Trade and Biodiversity. Routledge. Haugen, S., Roger Selin, J. (1999). Identifying and controlling computer crime and employee fraud. Industrial Management Data Systems, 99(8), 340-344. Murphy, P. R., Smith, J. E., Daley, J. M. (1992). 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