This class is very important as you learn practices to research and find out how people can be unethical or ethical when practicing within the cyber field. This class tasks its students to learn what ethical tools you can use, 7 in total for the class, and use those tools to research a viewpoint on certain events and what could have been done to be more ethical or beneficial to the community. As the course goes through each module, the different tools are utilized to argue for or against actions that are presented to the class. With these tools, views can be broadened to find out if there are alternative choices or actions that can be made to make sure that ethics are practiced appropriately.
Ethical Tools Studied-
- Utilitarianism
- Kantian Deontology
- Ethics of Care
- Contractarianism
- Virtue Ethics
- Ruism
- Ubuntu
Skills and values that are gained include, knowing to practice ethically so that society as a whole can benefit from ideas or choices, and knowing how to view different items or ideas that are produced in today’s world as something ethical or not. There are many new ideas and with AI and algorithms being made, there can be bias and misinformation that is spread amongst the population, and it becomes our job to make sure we have the tools needed to view what is going on and do the appropriate research to define what is being ethical or not. Within the cyber realm, this will be needed so that we do not overstep bounds or cause issues that could cause catastrophic problems.
Information Warfare
For each module that is done in class, there is a case analysis that is performed to visualize the ethics behind the question. This case analysis was one of my favorites as it related to cyber warfare in the form of information warfare. Ideas such as misinformation, propaganda, and influence on voting practices are brought into discussion as well as using the insights from other ethical authors who present these situations and how they can be potentially beneficial or negative towards those around them. Taking these concepts into consideration allows for students to see if the choices or actions that are being made are morally and ethically correct.
Course Reflection
This is the reflective piece I made on the course to look back at the content that was observed throughout the semester. Each module had its own quirks that set it apart from the rest, however, each one could be looked at ethically, allowing us to observe if the actions should have happened, or could have been done better.