Analysis of Cyber Crime Case Sony Pictures Company †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Cyber Crime Case of Sony Pictures Company. Answer: Introduction Ethics is the branch of philosophy, which deals with what is right or wrong. The definition has been widely been proposed to be the code of morals for a particular profession, the standard of conduct of given profession. It is important to understand unethical is not necessarily illegal (Buncombe, 2015). In everyday life, individuals, as well as organization, faces common ethical problems. There are many ethical dilemmas, which relates to the cybercrime such as the society right to security versus the cryptography, and the private versus the public control of the information (Dion, Weisstub Richet, 2016). These issues have been relevant today than any other time. The millions of computers, which are connected to each other, have made the information to be accessible as well as approachable. The technological changes have output on the ethical development, which brings about the unanticipated problem that has caused an ethical vacuum (Mack, 2015). There has been an increase in the nu mber of the computer crimes that have been committed by perfectly respectable individual who have shown the full limit to their understanding of the computer ethics. Based on this the essay will attempt to look at the ethical issue which the society is confronting about the cyber-crime. Sony ethical issue In the year 2014, there was one of the biggest and most expensive hacks ever to be recorded which took place at the Sony Pictures Company (Mack, 2015). The hackers broke into the computer system of the Sony pictures entertainment, stole huge swaths of confidential documents, and posted them online the following week, thus exposing everyone from the potential cyber criminals. Additionally, there were journalists who have been poring over the documents as well as reporting of the recent films productions (Mack, 2015). There were also employees data, which was laid vulnerable on the internet. The multiple reports from the USA government officials they believed that the attack was tied to the North Korean government, who had expressed the outrage over the Sony-backed film, which was called the Interview, which was an action comedy, centered on an assassination plot against the North Korean leader Jong Kim (Gallagher, 2015). The company canceled the theatrical release of the film on Wedne sday, and they responded to the vague threats against theaters that were showing the film which was posted by these hackers. It had taken around two weeks for the individuals who work at the Sony to get the grasp of the seriousness of the situation (Siegel Worrall, 2014). Sony Company top management refused to inform them about the extent of the damage, instead, the employees relied on the news sources from the social media (Peterson, 2014). Two weeks after the attack, the Sony employees found themselves thrown into what was regarded as the pre-PC age. Half of the organization six thousand eight hundred computers, as well as the servers, were rendered to be dead and they had all the information, which was stolen and deleted (Sharma, Mittal Verma, 2015). Due to this, the workers had to rewrite every single file that was deleted by hand. The paper became the main form of communication, which was used to write the memos and to do the lists. The hackers had even gotten the staff perso nal information. Analysis of the issue using theories This case is upsetting as well as disturbing especially when the information of the company, as well as personal data, was breached. This case could be analyzed using various ethical theories, which will highlight if they were violated based on the case. The first ethical theory to analyze the case is the individualism theory (Peterson, 2014). This theory state that individuals especially those who are high in the company should do everything in their power to satisfy the needs of the owners and the shareholders. In this case, we have seen the management has taken more than a week to notify the workers of the situation of the breach of their information. On one side, the management was acting in the best interest of the owners and the shareholders since they did not want the information to spread in regards to the breach. On another perspective, I think this was not the right thing to do (Peterson, 2014). These actions are not supported by the utilitarianism theory, which purports th at one should always do things, which are aimed to maximize the happiness for themselves as well as for the others. The majority of the employees who worked for Sony felt upset because the management did not tell them of the news in regards to what was happening to the company they held them from the social media (Peterson, 2014). When the story broke out it stained on the reputation of the company brand. Some individuals may view Sony company as terrible as well as unethical thus buy the products of the other brands. This means less money for the owners, which could lower their price per share, and this would take money aware from the shareholders. The effect of this would make the shareholders and the owners unhappy. Sony Company has broken on this theory because every individual who is involved is unhappy to some extent (Von Solms Van Niekerk, 2013). For example, the employees had to rewrite every single file, which was deleted by the GOP hackers. Recommendations The surge to the Cyberattacks has rattled on both the business as well as the consumers. To enable the companies to prevent a similar situation happening to them, the cyber experts said they need to do better on the job of segmenting their data in order to enable the employees to access the data they require (Kokas, Tryon, Gusterson Braun, 2016). Even the person to the top of the organization does not need an access to everything. It is important for the company to clamp on sharing their spreadsheets especially on the one which was not encrypted instead they should use databases which are secured in order to access the important information. In the case of Sony Company, the hackers leak the spreadsheet in the human resources, which were filled with vital medical as well as employee information. The use of the Kantianism theory could contribute greatly to make the decision better especially for the top corporate level individuals. The theory highlights that one should act rationally in order to make business decisions, respect people and help them to make the rational decisions. In the case of Sony, management did not make the decision rationally especially when they had to wait for more than a week to inform the employees of the situation the company was suffering (Peterson, 2014). To prevent future shortcomings on the same it is important to involve all the stakeholders involve and channel a common way to prevent such an occurrence again. Moreover, it is important for the organization to implement regular email deletion policy to prevent such vital information from leaking out especially when there has been an attack on the company. Conclusion As seen in the case of Sony Pictures, the company there was a hack on their system and vital information was stolen. This show the individuals who were involved do not observe classical ethics. The situation causes the company to lose a lot of money, especially when it was facing the lawsuits from the former employees who alleged that the company was neglecting protecting their personal information, which they entrusted it with such as the medical data that was compromised from the stolen spreadsheet. At a time the companies overlook at their security protocols and think they could not be hacked, it is important to implement a code of ethics which will help govern the organization especially when such situations occurs what should be done. Hiding the workers of the shortcoming the company faced could not help the company rather it would devastate them and they could sue them if their privacy data was breached. References Buncombe, A. (2015). Sony Pictures hack: US intelligence chief says North Korea cyberattack was most serious ever against US interests. The Independent, 7(01). Dion, M., Weisstub, D., Richet, J. L. (2016). Financial Crimes: Psychological, Technological,and Ethical Issues. Gallagher, T. (2015). CSCI 215E. 01: Social and Ethical Issues in Computer Science. Kokas, A., Tryon, C., Gusterson, H., Braun, J. (2016). Freedom Edition: Considering Sony Pictures and The Interview. Journal of Broadcasting Electronic Media, 60(4), 714- 728. Mack, R. L. (2015). Cybercrimes: Legislation and Current Trends. Marsh, D. (2017). Are Ethical Hackers the Best Solution for Combating the Growing World of Cyber-Crime? (Doctoral dissertation, University Honors College, Middle Tennessee State University). Peterson, A. (2014). The Sony Pictures hack, explained. The Washington Post, 1. Sharma, M., Mittal, S., Verma, A. (2015). Cyber Ethics in Security Application in the Modern Era of Internet. IITM Journal of Management and IT, 6(1), 140-143. Siegel, L. J., Worrall, J. L. (2014). Essentials of criminal justice. Cengage Learning. Yar, M. (2013). Cybercrime and society. Sage. Von Solms, R., Van Niekerk, J. (2013). 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