Social and ethical aspects of software engineering

While this is a serious failure, im not sure its fair to say that this is a great example of an ethical dilemma. As an envisaged future of transportation, selfdriving cars are being discussed from various perspectives, including social, economical, engineering, computer science, design, and ethics. We will discuss the ethical issues and the code of ethics for software. Social engineering is a technique hackers use to manipulate end users and obtain information about an organization or computer systems. Bock over time, industry has strengthened our network defenses with security appliances and antimalware protection. The social responsibility of a software engineer essay. Slashdot conduct ethical social engineering tests to identify an organizations susceptibility to attack. In this course, ill explore another phase of ethical hacking, social engineering. Ethical and social challenges are addressed in section 3 regarding technical aspects, and section 4 addressing social aspects. Ability to learn new models, techniques and technologies as they emerge and appreciate the necessity of such continuing professional development. Mar 21, 2009 ethical issues in software engineering. Pdf professional and ethical issues of software engineering. The first reason i think social engineering is ethical is due to the intent.

Ethics, like engineering, is a practical subject, and its exercise is in debate and discussion. Presently his focus is on the human aspect of technology such as social engineering and physical security. I recommend reading, if only once, the complete text of the software engineering code of ethics and professional practice. 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. Software engineering faculty of information technology. Social engineering is the art of exploiting human psychology, rather than technical hacking techniques, to gain access to buildings, systems or data. Developing software with social and ethical values. Social issues and sustainability in engineering management. 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. 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.

Ethical issues in software engineering meherchilakalapudi. Ethical issues in software engineering meherchilakalapudi, writes. During the course, you will cover a wide variety of aspects related to social engineering with various tools and techniques. Organizations must have security policies that have social engineering countermeasures. Two 2 required courses addressing ethical and social issues in the computing field and a firm base in object oriented programming. Top 5 tips to make social engineering your career the. Mansoor ali international projects manager, practical action, uk. 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 practicing software engineer engages in a social process during software. Ieee computer society, and later joined by the acm gotterbarn a, 1996. Apr 25, 2020 social engineering is the art of exploiting the human elements to gain access to unauthorized resources. Examples of ethics issues in software engineering download table. 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. 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.

The ethical problems faced by the software engineer involve. Identify, document, and report significant issues of social concern, of which they are. If we never did this, the human race wouldnt evolve. 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. 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. Ethics in computer software design and development southern. 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. 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.

Social engineering is the art of exploiting the human elements to gain access to unauthorized resources. While these cases are meant for engineering students and professionals for their professional development. Who exactly are the public to whom the engineer is obligated. The field examines and sets the obligations by engineers to society, to their clients, and to the profession. How software engineers contribute to the good life for others.

Every human being has certain responsibilities towards the society and. The peopleintensive nature of software engineering has been understood for some time. Social aspects of engineering research and practice mansoor ali international projects manager, practical action, uk. Why we need to address ethical issues in software engineering. Chris hadnagy, aka loganwhd, has been involved with computers and technology for over 14 years. In this document, you can easily notice that the code relates not only to technology aspects, but to social and personal aspects as well. Engineers examines the ethical issues in software engineering. 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. Let us try to understand the concept of social engineering attacks through some examples.

In order to protect their networks, it security professionals need to understand social engineering, who is targeted, and how social engineering attacks are orchestrated. 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. People as part of the information system components can also be exploited using social engineering techniques. As a result, the black hat hackers seek to penetrate a softer target, the people in an organization, by using social engineering. Social engineering code of ethics security through education. Ability to design appropriate solutions in one or more application domains using software engineering approaches that integrate ethical, social, legal and economic concerns. 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. Ethical considerations in software engineering east tennessee. Section 5 describes the current state of norms and standards, while conclusions and final remarks are presented together with recommendations in.

Ieeecsacm joint task force on software engineering ethics and. On the one hand, the consideration of social factors in software engineering activities, processes and case tools is deemed to be useful to improve. The goal of social engineering is to gain the trust of the users of the system. On the one hand, selfdriving cars present new engineering problems that are being gradually successfully solved. Consider the therac25 failure, in which several deaths occurred because of a software engineering failure. It is important that we distinguish the field of applied ethics from other tenets of ethics namely normative ethics, descriptive ethics and metaethics. Social and ethical issues in engineering, ethical principles of engineering, professional code of ethics, some specific social problems in engineering practice. We have seen that many of the related social and legal issues are controversial.

Five 5 courses or 15 credits that are general electives. 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. The types of harms the public can suffer as result of this work. Engineering humanitarian, disaster recovery, and other socially supportive and desirable organizational practices. There are also economic roles that software plays in society that it didnt before. 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. 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. Software engineering ethics are a subset of engineering ethics and professional ethics applied to the design and development of software systems. 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. Please use the index below to find a topic that interests you. Ultimate guide to engineering ethics ohio university. There are special aspects to making ethical decisions in a professional context, but the decisions are based on general ethical principles and theories.

Such emails have the same look and feel as those received from the original site, but they might contain links to fake websites. Social and ethical issues in information technology formerly cse 190b. 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. Aug 05, 2010 why and how i think social engineering can be ethical.

Ethical standards in engineering are influenced by many factors. Applied ethics deals with moral questions concerning specific contested practices, say the engineering ethics. Society of professional engineers nspe adopted their first formal canons of. Software engineering ethics is clearly both an activity and a body of principles. A phishing attack is a computerbased social engineering, where an attacker crafts an email that appears legitimate. 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. The acmieee software engineering code of ethics and professional practice. You must have noticed old company documents being thrown into dustbins as garbage.

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. Engineering ethics is the field of system of moral principles that apply to the practice of engineering. The practicing software engineer engages in a social process during software production and thereby acquires obligations to. 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. Hello, my name is lisa bock, and i am a security ambassador. Should congress or industry develop standards for software, hardware, data. On the other hand, social and ethical problems are typically being presented in the form of an. The following series of engineering ethics cases were created by interviewing numerous engineers from silicon valley and beyond. An introduction to software engineering ethics santa clara. Three 3 courses from restricted categories to ensure a strong software engineering center, while still allowing a considerable flexibility of interests. Software engineering code of ethics ieee computer society. Other social aspects of software engineering have received considerably less treatment. Social media for software engineering social media has changed the way that people collaborate and share information. 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.

Social engineers use a number of techniques to fool the users into revealing sensitive information. Computer society and association for computing machin ery acm, emphasizes strongly professional issues, making it a part of a core curriculum for computing. Can people trust quality of software, services, data. While above the ground, design is a different game altogether, with a. Mackay and hertels class is one of several in the new track. 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 ethical questions are in some ways the future of software engineering, likely to shape its regulatory context, its processes, and its responsibilities. Besides the renown example of selfdriving cars and their potential harmfulness, more mundane software such as social networks can introduce bias, break. Joseph herkert explains how professional engineering can implement micro ethical and macro ethical practices in social ethics.

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. Pdf professional ethics in software engineering curricula. The cases have been written, anonymized, and honed to highlight the ethical content from each interview. When we think about software development, ethics isnt always the first thing. Social engineering is it ethical subliminal hacking. 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. The developers of the software werent tempted to introduce the bug. 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. Why the software engineer is obligated to protect the public. These documents might contain sensitive information such as names, phone numbers, account numbers, social.

As responsible human beings and as professionals, we need to use the knowledge and skills for the benefit of the society. Engineering ethics and engineering philosophy look at the relationship between the engineer as an ind. Risk and safety of citizens as a social responsibility is a prime concern of an engineer. Mansoor ali international projects manager, practical. All manuscripts should explicitly address ethical, social, or sustainability aspects. 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.

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