[PEC] Cyber-behaviour and Ethics

Cyber-behaviour and Ethics

Content

• Some forms of Cyber-crime
  • To discuss the assumptions of legitimate and illegitimate use of computers systems.
  • To describe some forms of cyber-crime and cyber behaviour
• Hackers and Online Deception(骗局)
  • To reflect on the contentious(有异议的) issues arising in some forms of cyber-behaviour
  • To reflect on the moral and ethical implications of some forms of cyber-behaviour
• Cyber-behaviour, Self-concept and Crowdwork
  • To describe the role of the self-concept in relation to cyber-behaviour
  • To describe some of the concerns in relation to cyber-behaviour

What online activities are considered criminal activities?

Cyber-crime and cyber-assisted crime are done or facilitated by individuals skilled in IT and computing.
Such individuals do not follow the code of ethics conduct.

Cyber-crime vs. Cyber-related Crime

Cyber-crime:

• Cyber-piracy
• Cyber-trespass(网络侵权)
• Cyber-vandalism(故意破坏)
  True Cyber-crime can be carried out only through the use of cyber-technology and it can take place only in the cyberspace.

Cyber-related Crime:

• Cyber-exacerbated
• Cyber-assisted
  Cyber-exacerbated crime: cyber-stalking(追踪), cyber-pornography, cyber-bullying, etc.
  Cyber-assisted crime: cyber tax fraud, physical assault with computing devices, property damage, etc.

Cyber-crime examples

• Trojan Horse
• Virus
• Worm
• Logic Bomb
• Password Sniffer
• IP spoofing
• DoS Attack
• Phishing

Trojan Horse

A Trojan Horse or Trojan is any malicious computer program which is used to hack into a computer by misleading users of its true intent.

• Many act as a backdoor; contact a controller to attain unauthorized access to the affected computer and personal information(banking information, passwords, or personal identity).
• It does not attempt to inject themselves into other files or otherwise propagate themselves.

Bots and Botnets(僵尸网络)

• A bot is a backdoor Trojan that responds to commands sent by a command-and-control program located on an external computer.
• Legitimate bots: Internet Relay Chat channels and multiplayer Internet games
• Nowadays, bots frequently use to support illegal activities
• Botnet is a collection of bot-infected computers. Person who control a botnet is called a bot herder
• Botnets can range in size from a few thousands computer to over a million computers.

Virus

A Virus is a piece of self-replicating code embedded within another program --the host
When the user executes the host program, the virus code executes first, finds another executable program and replaces it with a virus-infected program.
After doing this, the virus allows the host program to execute, and if done fast, the user would not notice that virus is present on the computer.

Worm

A Worm is a self-contained program that spreads through a computer network by exploiting security holes in the computer connected to the network.

Logic Bomb

A Logic Bomb is a piece of code intentionally inserted into a software system that will set off a malicious function when specified conditions are met.

Contentious Cyber-behaviour

• Playing games that mimic(模仿) immoral or unethical actions
• Online relationships
• Relationship with virtual personas
• Digital image manipulation
• Multiple personas
• Cyber-sociopaths(反社会的人): cyber-griefer(网络喷子), cyber-bully, cyber-stalker, cyber-trolls
• Cyber-addictions: gaming, gambling, surfing, social media, extreme activities, etc.

Cyber-behaviour and the self-concept

• The self-concept defines perceptions(感知) in relation to ourselves, to others and to social systems.
• Computing technologies, particularly the Internet, are transforming the sense of identity, behaviour, personal relationships, etc.
• Dissocial Personality Disorder arises more in the cyberspace.

Multiple persona issue

• Multiple personas pre-date the Internet -e.g. “work persona” and “home persona”, as promoted by “work/life balance”
• The technology are causing a typical person to have a much greater number
• Multiple personas are considered harmful from the ethical point of view: may require maintaining two or more mutually incompatible value systems
• Risk of becoming a hypocrite(伪君子), a person who claims to follow a particular moral code but then act contrary to that code.

Sociopathic behaviour

• Sociopath is a person who suffers from a dissocial personality disorder
• Computer technologies have been considered a contributor to the development of sociopathic tendencies such as cyber bullying and related behaviours.

Types of sociopathic behaviours(以下都是喷子）

• Griefer - an online version of the spoilsport, a person who takes pleasure in hassling(搅扰) others. Most enjoy making online games unenjoyable for others.
  • New trends: organized griefing, grounded in online message-board communities and thick with in-jokes, code words, taboos, and increasingly articulate sense of purpose.
• Troll - an individual who posts in a public forums or chat room, to subvert(颠覆) the conversation or provoke an emotional response.
• Cyberbully or cyberstalker - an individual who uses the Internet to harass a particular target, using fake identities or public web sites that enable the harassment. Tend to target people who they know from everyday life.

Should cyber sociopathy be diagnosed as a mental illness?

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder DSM-IV
  • A dissocial personality disorder is referred to as antisocial personality disorder.

Virtual and online addiction

• Behavioural addiction refers to addiction to certain online behaviour like gambling, video games, internet surfing, extreme sports, etc.
• Until recently, addiction linked only to the abuse of substances, like alcohol or drugs.
• Research have found that gamblers experience symptoms similar to alcoholism or nicotine addiction.
• Dealing with addictions from Internet-enabled behaviour is difficult.
  • Internet activities do not require face-to-face interaction
  • Internet makes it easy to engage in an addictive behaviour any time and from any place

Homophily(同质性): Birds of Feather and “Likes”

• Homophily is the tendency for people to have close friendships with people similar to themselves.
  • We are more likely to become friends with someone who agrees with us and has similar life experiences.
  • Our friends exert influence over us and vice versa.
• Facebook: Based on the ‘likes’ of our friends, marketers can expect that we will like similar merchandise(商品)
  “birds of a feather flock together”– People having similar characters, backgrounds, interests or beliefs will congregate.

Wikipedia - Crowdsourced content(“众包”)

Should we or should we not cite Wikipedia in our scholarly work?

• Wikipedia is a tertiary(第三方) source, a survey or summary of other work that does not include full evidence, sources or technical details.
• Wikipedia can be edited by anyone.

Crowdsourcing platforms

• Amazon Mechanical Turk
• Crowdsoucing and HaaS?
• Requesters/ Turkers/ Developers
• Hazards: No pay, legitimate work, requesters, invisibility
• Challenges: control, adequate tasks, ethics, reputation, legal protection, systems design, etc.
• 

Cybernetics(控制论)

• Cybernetics explores regulatory systems, their structures, constraints, and possibilities - self regulating and self controlling systems.
• Applicable when a system incorporates a closed signalling loop, a “circular causal” relationship/
  • Feedback loop: system generates a change in its environment and that change is reflected in the system.
  • Applied in learning, cognition, adaptation, social control, emergence, convergence, communication, efficiency, efficacy and connectivity.