Preaching What We Practice: Teaching Ethical Decision-Making to Computer Security Professionals

摘要

The biggest challenge facing computer security researchers and professionals is not learning how to make ethical decisions; rather it is learning how to recognize ethical decisions. All too often, technology development suffers from what Langdon Winner terms technological somnambulism - we sleepwalk through our technology design, following past precedents without a second thought, and fail to consider the perspectives of other stakeholders [1]. Computer security research and practice involves a number of opportunities for ethical decisions. For example, decisions about whether or not to automatically provide security updates involve tradeoffs related to caring versus user autonomy. Decisions about online voting include tradeoffs between convenience and security. Finally, decisions about routinely screening e-mails for spam involve tradeoffs of efficiency and privacy. It is critical that these and other decisions facing computer security researchers and professionals are confronted head on as value-laden design decisions, and that computer security researchers and professionals consider the perspectives of various stakeholders in making these decisions.