Hacker Chronicles 1/HACKER1.ISO/cud3/cud308e.txt

Text File | 1992-08-18 | 7KB | 109 lines

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Review of COMPUTER ETHICS: CAUTIONARY TALES AND ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN
COMPUTING, by Tom Forester and Perry Morrison. 1990. Oxford (Eng.): Basil
Blackwell. 193 pp. (np). (Reviewed by Jim Thomas, Northern Illinois
University).

The questions raised in the U.S. by Secret Service procedures in so-called
"computer crime" investigations such as Operation Sun Devil, the growth in
public computer literacy, and the general public recognition that computers
are moving from the periphery to the center of social control and
organizational operations make COMPUTER ETHICS a timely and worthwhile
tome. Although both authors resided in Australia when the book was written
(Tom Forester remains at Griffith University in Queensland and Perry
Morrison is now at the University of Singapore), the work focuses primarily
on the U.S. for examples, but draws as well from international data to
argue that society has yet to confront the twin dilemmas of hardware and
software malfunctions and misuse by humans.

In some ways, the book is misnamed. The themes are not restricted to those
of ethics, but include as well risks to society by over-reliance on
computer technology (especially when it fails) and to thornier social
issues, such as privacy, the social implications of artificial
intelligence, and the potential problems of the increasingly computerized
workplace. The authors organize each of the eight chapters around a specific
issue (Our Computerized Society, Computer Crime, Software Theft, Hacking
and Viruses, Unreliable Computers, The Invasion of Privacy, AI and Expert
System, and Computerizing the Workplace), summarize the problems by drawing
from an impressive wealth of data from conventional and other media, and
conclude each chapter with a hypothetical example and set of questions that
enhance the value of the work for college graduate and undergraduate
classes.

About one third of the book directly confronts computer crime and "computer
underground" activities, such as piracy and hacking. There is no obvious
ax-grinding, and especially with piracy the authors raise issues in a
generally non-judgmental manner. They observe that an increasing number of
software authors have recognized the general ineffectiveness of
program-protecting their products and have increasingly moved away from the
practice. However, the focus of the discussion avoids the type of "warez
sharing" that occurs on pirate BBSs and begs the issue of swapping
copyright programs without purchasing them. The discussion example focuses
on the ethical issue of copy-protecting programs with a disk-wiping virus
rather than using an example that teases out the nuances of using
unpurchased software. I am also a bit troubled by the cursory attention
given to the different types of piracy. Participants enmeshed in the
"pirate culture" on BBSs would agree that theft of proprietary source code
for profit or reselling copied programs is clearly wrong. Further, even
within the computer underground, pirates range from "kids" who crack and
swap games to older and more sophisticated users who simply enjoy
collecting and examining various types of programs. Without teasing out the
complexity of the pirate culture, many of the important issues are glossed
over, such as the ethics of "fair use" to pre-test a program, the harm (or
lack of it) in using a program that would not have been purchased, but
whose use expands a product's visibility and reputation (thereby expanding
the market), and the problem of an increasing array of available software
that if purchased would be exceed the resources of all but the most
affluent computerists.  In fairness, not all relevant ideas can be
addressed in a single chapter, and the authors satisfactorily provoked
enough questions to make this an interesting and useful section.

The most troublesome chapter, "Hacking and Viruses," simplifies the
phreak/hacking community and alludes to studies that do not accurately
reflect the computer underground. Although a relatively short and seemingly
innocuous discussion, the section "why do hackers 'hack'?" cites studies
suggesting that "severe social inadequacy" typifies many hackers. The
authors do make it clear that there is no simple answer to explain
motivation, they tend to ignore the primary reasons cited by most hackers:
The challenge, the excitement, and the satisfaction of success and
increased knowledge. Granted, these reasons, too, are simplistic as a
satisfactory explanation but they provide an antidote to the general
imagery portrayed by law enforcement officials that hackers are dangerous
social misfits and criminals who should be prosecuted to the full extent of
the law.

Also troublesome is the inclusion of virus writers and spreaders with
hacking activity. Hackers are as vehemently opposed to spreading viruses as
law enforcement. In fact, hackers, because of their use of networks and
reliance on smoothly functioning hardware, have far more to lose than the
average computer user by their spread. Nonetheless, the authors do raise a
few questions about the differences in the various types of activity,
asking, for example, whether system-browsing should be criminalized in the
same way as other predatory behavior.  The degree to which this chapter
provokes disagreement and challenge to some of the claims (or vehement
responses to some of the questions) is simply an indicator of the utility
of this work both for stimulating thought and for generating discussion.

Although the remainder of the book is not as directly relevant to the CU
community, it nonetheless provides interesting reading.  The authors
continually remind the reader that despite their benefits, computers
possess numerous demonstrable dangers. The value of the work is not simply
the admonition of the risks of computer misuse, but more importantly, that
social attitudes, ethical issues, governmental policies, and social control
strategies have lagged far behind in the need to be aware of how computers
change our lives and how these changes may usher in new forms of social
interaction for which we are unprepared as we cross into the
cyber-frontier.

The authors' scholarship and documentation, although impressive, does not
tempt them to fall back into academicese.  The volume reads like a novel
and--even where one might disagree with claims or conclusions--the
provocations are stimulating rather than combatative. In short, Computer
Ethics is fun and worth reading.

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