A Door We Must Choose Ourselves

A power indeed we have learned, for the dark side is as tasty as the light. Although not as epic as the powers Jedis hold, I have learned a great deal from this class. These skills that I have learned have opened many doors for me. These doors, however, are no longer simply labeled as good and bad, dark and light, but rather each of these doors hold a cautionary question: "Is this ethical?"

Throughout the class we learned how to hack. We learned how to search for vulnerabilities within a network, and exploit them. We learned that through old and possibly current systems, we are able to access the internal information not available to the public. In many cases, these actions are deemed illegal outside a virtual or closed environment. And to most, the combination of the words "hacking" and "illegal" induce an almost automatic response to labeling these actions as "bad" or unethical. But early in the class we realized that these lines are not as defined as we thought. We watched a documentary for class on Anonymous and their hacktivism. Through this film and our discussion, the class came to the understanding that laws regarding technology, just like all laws, can come under scrutiny and that its status as a law does not define it as unethical. We also ran through the scenario of being a penetration tester. We assume that since it is our job to test a system, and that we have a certain level of access to their information, that what we do is okay. But does this make it okay to sift through personal information that may be within the bounds of your contract as well? What if you realize that the company you work for runs a shady business in the side, but you are contractually obligated not to divulge any information found in the network. This is where our lines begin to blur, and where we began to paint our own lines. Because without this guideline, the task of determining what is right and what is wrong no longer default to the law, but instead it is determined by our own hands. This is our first responsibility: judging our own actions.

In class we learned how to collect packets that are sent over the network that are not necessarily meant for us. There are some arguments that suggest that these packets are free for the taking since they are in free air, and that the information in public space is public as well. But we can also liken this situation to playing catch, when we throw the ball to our friend, do we loose ownership of the ball? We ran through many similar situations regarding property, but what was apparent to me is that our current view on technological philosophy is ancient. This is our second responsibility, moving forward our philosophical views on technology.