IMPLEMENTING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: ETHICS, IMPACTS AND SECURITY

The major ethical issues related to IT are privacy, accuracy, property (including intellectual property), and accessibility to information. Privacy may be violated when data are held in database or are transmitted over networks. Privacy policies that address issues of data collection, data accuracy, and data confidentiality can help organizations avoid legal problems.

Information technology can make organizations after flatter and change authority, job content, and status of employees. As a result the manager's job methods of supervision and decision making may drastically change. Also, many middle managers may lose their jobs.

The major negative impacts of IT are in the areas of job loss, invasion of pr4ivacy, and dehumanization. In terms of their impact on health and safety, computers can increase stress and health risks to eyes, back, bone, and muscles. Ergonomically designed computing facilities can greatly reduce the risks with computer use. Properly planned information systems can decrease the dehumanization, and shifts in workloads can reduce stress.

The major positive impacts of IT are its contribution to employment of the disabled, improvements in health care, delivery of education, crime fighting, and increased productivity. However, the effect on employment levels in general is debatable. In one view, IT will cause massive unemployment because of increased productivity. In another view, IT will increase employment levels because automation will make products and services more affordable, thus increasing demand, and because the process of disseminating automation is slow to allow the economy to adjust to information technologies. Telecommuting options will lessen automobile traffic and pollution, as well as present certain managerial challenges in some organizations.

Data software, hardware and networks can be threatened by many internal and external hazards. The damage to an information system can be caused either accidentally or intentionally. Also, computer criminals are driven by economic, ideological, egocentric or psychological factors and are difficult to identify. Most computer criminals are insiders, but outsiders (such as hackers and crackers) can cause major damage as well.

Information systems are protected with controls such as security procedures, physical guards, or detecting software. These can be classified as controls used for prevention, deterrence, detection, damage control, recovery and correction of information systems. Biometric controls are used to control access by checking physical characteristics (e.g. fingerprints and retinas) to identify authorized users.

Auditing is done in a similar manner to accounting/finance auditing, around, through, and with the computer. A detailed internal and external IT audit may involve hundreds of issues and can be supported by both software and checklists. Related to IT auditing is the preparation for disaster recovery, which specifically addresses how to avoid, plan for, and quickly recover from a disaster.