LEGAL, ETHICAL AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

To minimize liabilities and reduce risks, information security practitioner should:
•    to understand current legal environment
•    to stay updated with laws and regulations
•    to watch for new issues which emerge.

The rules the members of a society to balance the right of the individual to self determination with the requirements of the society as a whole are called as laws.

Laws: Rulesaa which mandate or prohibit certain societal behavior.

Ethics: This defines socially acceptable behavior.

The basic difference between laws and ethics is which laws carry the sanctions of a governing authority and ethics do not. Ethics in turn based on cultural mores that fixed moral attitudes and customs of a particular group. The different types of laws are

Civil: Governs the nation or state.

Criminal: Addresses violations is harmful to society.

Tort:  Enables individuals to look for recourse against others in the event of personal, physical or financial injuries.

Private: Regulates relationship between individual and the organization, and encompasses family law, commercial law and labor law.

Public: Regulates structure and administration of government agencies and their relationships with citizens, employees, and other governments giving careful checks and balances.

Policy Versus Law: Most organizations develop and formalize a body of expectations known as policy. Policies serve as organizational laws complete with penalties and sanctions to require compliance.
To be enforceable, policy should be distributed, readily available, understood easily and acknowledged by employees.

Ethics and Information Security
The ethical issues particular to information security, follows the Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics. They are

The Ten Commandments of computer Ethics
From the Computer Ethics institute
1.  Not use a computer to harm other people.
2.  Not interfere with other people’s computer work
3.  Not snoop around in other people’s computer files.
4.  Not use a computer to steal.
5.  Not use a computer to bear false witness.
6.  Not copy or use proprietary software for which you haven’t paid.
7.  Not used other people’s computer resources   without authorization or proper      compensation.
8.  Not appropriate other people’s intellectual output.
9.  Not think about the social consequences of the program you are writing or the system you    are designing.
10. Always use a computer in ways which ensure consideration and respect for your fellow humans.

Ethical Differences Across Cultures
Cultural differences generate difficulty in determining what is and is not ethical especially when considering the use of computers. Difficulties occur when one nationality’s ethical behavior conflicts with the ethics of another national group. For instance: many of ways in which Asian cultures use computer technology is software piracy