Social and ethical aspects of software engineering

Lets now look at some of the threats that information system face and what can be done to eliminate or minimize the damage if the threat were to materialize. These documents might contain sensitive information such as names, phone numbers, account numbers, social. Social engineering code of ethics security through education. On the other hand, social and ethical problems are typically being presented in the form of an idealized unsolvable decisionmaking problem, the socalled trolley problem, which is grossly misleading. To address issues such as these, the school of engineering and the human rights institute have created a track of courses within uconns human rights minor that explores the social aspects of engineering, including energy, infrastructure, and water resources management. Now i am not saying that the outcome of the exercise may enable someone to do something malicious, but i dont think this is a justifiable reason not to gain knowledge, research, test and experiment. Section 5 describes the current state of norms and standards, while conclusions and final remarks are presented together with recommendations in. Evidencedbased management for sustainability and social issues in a technologically and socially and electronically linked world.

The field examines and sets the obligations by engineers to society, to their clients, and to the profession. Joseph herkert explains how professional engineering can implement micro ethical and macro ethical practices in social ethics. Chris hadnagy, aka loganwhd, has been involved with computers and technology for over 14 years. All manuscripts should explicitly address ethical, social, or sustainability aspects. The cases have been written, anonymized, and honed to highlight the ethical content from each interview. Bock over time, industry has strengthened our network defenses with security appliances and antimalware protection. Let us try to understand the concept of social engineering attacks through some examples. Ethics is a broad term, considered to be a discipline of philosophy and applied ethics is one branch of ethics. For example, despite the central role of women in programming the first digital computers, and the central role of women like margaret hamilton and grace hopper leading the formation of software engineering as a field in research and government, these. Ieeecsacm joint task force on software engineering ethics and.

The engineering ethics cases in this series were written by santa clara university school of engineering students clare bartlett, nabilah deen, and jocelyn tan, who worked as hackworth engineering ethics fellows at the markkula center for applied ethics over the course of the 20142015 academic year. Apr 25, 2020 social engineering is the art of exploiting the human elements to gain access to unauthorized resources. Three 3 courses from restricted categories to ensure a strong software engineering center, while still allowing a considerable flexibility of interests. Curtis et al 1 cite a number of studies in a variety of contexts demonstrating the substantial impact of behavioural i. In this document, you can easily notice that the code relates not only to technology aspects, but to social and personal aspects as well. Please use the index below to find a topic that interests you.

In order to protect their networks, it security professionals need to understand social engineering, who is targeted, and how social engineering attacks are orchestrated. Social issues and sustainability in engineering management. Computer society and association for computing machin ery acm, emphasizes strongly professional issues, making it a part of a core curriculum for computing. The following series of engineering ethics cases were created by interviewing numerous engineers from silicon valley and beyond.

Every human being has certain responsibilities towards the society and. This paper examines current ethical issues of software system design and. Engineering ethics is the field of system of moral principles that apply to the practice of engineering. Software engineering code of ethics ieee computer society. Social engineering is the art of exploiting human psychology, rather than technical hacking techniques, to gain access to buildings, systems or data. On the one hand, the consideration of social factors in software engineering activities, processes and case tools is deemed to be useful to improve. Social engineers use a number of techniques to fool the users into revealing sensitive information. Engineering ethics cases markkula center for applied ethics. The practicing software engineer engages in a social process during software. Software engineering professionalism is a movement to make software engineering a profession, with aspects such as degree and certification programs, professional associations, professional ethics, and government licensing. Identify, document, and report significant issues of social concern, of which they are. Society of professional engineers nspe adopted their first formal canons of. Mansoor ali international projects manager, practical. Software engineering ethics is clearly both an activity and a body of principles.

Social engineering is a technique hackers use to manipulate end users and obtain information about an organization or computer systems. In this course, ill explore another phase of ethical hacking, social engineering. Two 2 required courses addressing ethical and social issues in the computing field and a firm base in object oriented programming. You must have noticed old company documents being thrown into dustbins as garbage. Can people trust quality of software, services, data. The implementation of such an ethical framework can overcome the traditional dichotomy between professional skills and ethical skills, which plagues the engineering professions, by proposing an approach to. While these cases are meant for engineering students and professionals for their professional development. From the above discussion, it is important to conclude that engineers need to have a good understanding of social processes, to engage with a team of experts or in some cases to handle social and technical tasks on their own. As a scholarly discipline, it is closely related to subjects such as the philosophy of science, the philosophy of engineering, and the ethics of technology. The ethical problems faced by the software engineer involve. Presently his focus is on the human aspect of technology such as social engineering and physical security.

Ethical issues in software engineering meherchilakalapudi. There are also economic roles that software plays in society that it didnt before. Social media for software engineering social media has changed the way that people collaborate and share information. With a focus on privacy, social justice and inclusion, were developing a values debt framework vdf to ensure human values in software have a positive economic impact on an organisation. Ethical issues such as the dualuse dilemma, privacy and protection has exposed gaps in the knowledge of software professionals in dealing with the ethical and social implications of. The purpose of this article is to propose an ethical framework for software engineers that connects software developers ethical responsibilities directly to their professional standards. Ethical and social challenges are addressed in section 3 regarding technical aspects, and section 4 addressing social aspects. Social software engineering sse is a branch of software engineering that is concerned with the social aspects of software development and the developed software sse focuses on the socialness of both software engineering and developed software. Dec 11, 2014 engineering is a field that has a huge social impact, he said, and by making the human rights minor available to our engineering students, they can now consider these impacts in depth and objectively. Ethics, like engineering, is a practical subject, and its exercise is in debate and discussion. As an envisaged future of transportation, selfdriving cars are being discussed from various perspectives, including social, economical, engineering, computer science, design, and ethics. On the other hand, social and ethical problems are typically being presented in the form of an.

The social engineering framework is a searchable information resource for people wishing to learn more about the psychological, physical and historical aspects of social engineering. On the one hand, selfdriving cars present new engineering problems that are being gradually successfully solved. Ultimate guide to engineering ethics ohio university. It is important that we distinguish the field of applied ethics from other tenets of ethics namely normative ethics, descriptive ethics and metaethics. Explores how social and technical issues interact in information technology, with an emphasis on ethical issues. The peopleintensive nature of software engineering has been understood for some time. Mar 21, 2009 ethical issues in software engineering. The social responsibility of a software engineer essay bartleby. Aug 05, 2010 why and how i think social engineering can be ethical. Engineering as an experimentation for the good of mankind is a notable factor involving far reaching consequence, ethical dilemmas make engineering decisions relatively difficult to make. Top 5 tips to make social engineering your career the. Ethical standards in engineering are influenced by many factors. An introduction to software engineering ethics santa clara.

As responsible human beings and as professionals, we need to use the knowledge and skills for the benefit of the society. Five 5 courses or 15 credits that are general electives. We have seen that many of the related social and legal issues are controversial. Ethics in computer software design and development southern. Why we need to address ethical issues in software engineering. With the influence of computers on all walks of life and the role of software in all the systems, software professionals have the power to do good or bad to the society. The implementation of such an ethical framework can overcome the traditional dichotomy between professional skills and ethical skills, which plagues the engineering professions, by proposing an. The developers of the software werent tempted to introduce the bug. Ability to learn new models, techniques and technologies as they emerge and appreciate the necessity of such continuing professional development. Google tech talks march, 20 2008 abstract the talk focuses on human aspects of software engineering and illustrates how agile software development helps coping with some challenges of. The practicing software engineer engages in a social process during software production and thereby acquires obligations to. The first reason i think social engineering is ethical is due to the intent.

How software engineers contribute to the good life for others. As a result, the black hat hackers seek to penetrate a softer target, the people in an organization, by using social engineering. Software engineering ethics are a subset of engineering ethics and professional ethics applied to the design and development of software systems. The social responsibility of a software engineer essay. Should congress or industry develop standards for software, hardware, data. While above the ground, design is a different game altogether, with a. A phishing attack is a computerbased social engineering, where an attacker crafts an email that appears legitimate. Other social aspects of software engineering have received considerably less treatment. A report on the social, legal and ethical issues surrounding autonomous systems has been published by the royal academy of engineering with a focus on two emerging areas of technology that will have potential benefit to society transport, in terms of autonomous road vehicles.

Software engineering faculty of information technology. Social engineering is the art of exploiting the human elements to gain access to unauthorized resources. Around the world, software is a major source of job growth, but also a major source of automation. The types of harms the public can suffer as result of this work. Over the past decade, researchers have given increased attention to the social aspects of software engineering, both to test hypotheses and to create tools to improve practice e.

Consider the therac25 failure, in which several deaths occurred because of a software engineering failure. Organizations must have security policies that have social engineering countermeasures. Ethical considerations in software engineering east tennessee. Engineers examines the ethical issues in software engineering. Risk and safety of citizens as a social responsibility is a prime concern of an engineer.

Applied ethics deals with moral questions concerning specific contested practices, say the engineering ethics. While this is a serious failure, im not sure its fair to say that this is a great example of an ethical dilemma. Social engineering is it ethical subliminal hacking. May 27, 2019 software engineering is one of the more influencing practices we have today that is shaping society, but it doesnt look like the industry is owning this social responsibility. Ability to design appropriate solutions in one or more application domains using software engineering approaches that integrate ethical, social, legal and economic concerns.

When we think about software development, ethics isnt always the first thing. Such emails have the same look and feel as those received from the original site, but they might contain links to fake websites. Mackay and hertels class is one of several in the new track. Mansoor ali international projects manager, practical action, uk. These ethical questions are in some ways the future of software engineering, likely to shape its regulatory context, its processes, and its responsibilities. Ieee computer society, and later joined by the acm gotterbarn a, 1996. We hope that these case studies are used to stimulate discussion between engineers, to help individuals, and the profession as a whole, to advance their understanding of the ethical issues in engineering. There are special aspects to making ethical decisions in a professional context, but the decisions are based on general ethical principles and theories. Software engineering is one of the more influencing practices we have today that is shaping society, but it doesnt look like the industry is owning this social responsibility. Slashdot conduct ethical social engineering tests to identify an organizations susceptibility to attack. Developing software with social and ethical values. Written by a global expert on the topic, social engineering in it security discusses the roots and rise of social engineering and presents a proven methodology for planning a test, performing reconnaissance, developing scenarios. Why the software engineer is obligated to protect the public. Besides the renown example of selfdriving cars and their potential harmfulness, more mundane software such as social networks can introduce bias, break.

Social and ethical issues in information technology formerly cse 190b. Social and ethical issues in engineering, ethical principles of engineering, professional code of ethics, some specific social problems in engineering practice. Engineering ethics and engineering philosophy look at the relationship between the engineer as an ind. We will discuss the ethical issues and the code of ethics for software. Social aspects of engineering research and practice mansoor ali international projects manager, practical action, uk. Ethical issues in software engineering meherchilakalapudi, writes. Pdf professional ethics in software engineering curricula.

Chris has spent time in providing training in many topics around the globe and also has had many articles published in local, national and international magazines and journals. I recommend reading, if only once, the complete text of the software engineering code of ethics and professional practice. Here are some of the ethical problems that software developers should. Who exactly are the public to whom the engineer is obligated. During the course, you will cover a wide variety of aspects related to social engineering with various tools and techniques. The acmieee software engineering code of ethics and professional practice. Hello, my name is lisa bock, and i am a security ambassador. The goal of social engineering is to gain the trust of the users of the system. If we never did this, the human race wouldnt evolve. Pdf professional and ethical issues of software engineering. People as part of the information system components can also be exploited using social engineering techniques. Engineering humanitarian, disaster recovery, and other socially supportive and desirable organizational practices. The field is a licensed discipline in texas in the united states texas board of professional engineers, since 20, engineers australia course accreditation since 2001. Examples of ethics issues in software engineering download table.

1455 626 66 770 21 167 213 611 39 1359 590 1590 1545 1034 1187 548 507 1433 679 814 694 1134 551 799 1116 935 315 1118 673 989 367 831 1218