Computer and Network Security - Ethics for the Information Age - page 351

25. Do you agree with the author that it is a bad idea for a government to allow online voting
from home computers?
In-Class Exercises
26. Debate this proposition: Those who create nondestructive malware are doing the com-
puter industry a favor because the patches created to block them make computers more
secure. To use an analogy, each virus has the effect of strengthening the immune systems
of the computers it targets.
27. The University of Calgary offered a senior-level computer science course called “Com-
puter Viruses and Malware.” The course taught students how to write viruses, worms,
and Trojan horses. It also discussed the history of computer viruses and taught students
how to block attacks. All course assignments were done on a closed computer network
isolated from the Internet. Some computer security experts criticized the university for
offering the course. One researcher said, “No one argues criminology students should
commit a murder to understand how a murderer thinks” [98]. Debate whether the Uni-
versity of Calgary was wrong to offer the course.
28. Divide the class into two groups to debate this proposition: It is wrong for a company to
hire a former malicious hacker as a security consultant.
29. A distributed denial-of-service attack makes the Web site for a top electronic retailer
inaccessible for an entire day. As a result of the attack, nearly a million customers
were inconvenienced, and the retailer lost millions of dollars in sales to its competitors.
Law enforcement agencies apprehend the person who launched the attack. Should the
punishment be determined strictly by considering the crime that was committed, or
should the identity of the culprit be taken into account? If the identity of the perpetrator
should be taken into account, what punishment do you think would be appropriate if
he were
A teenager who launched the attack out of curiosity
An adult dedicated to fighting the country's overly materialistic culture
A member of a terrorist organization attempting to harm the national economy
30. Divide the class into two groups. One group should come up with arguments why the
United States should work to create an international ban on cyber attacks, analogous
to the Chemical Weapons Convention, that outlaws the production and use of chemi-
cal weapons. The other group should come up with arguments why the United States
should strive to become preeminent in cyber attack technology.
31. East Dakota has decided to allow its citizens to vote over the Web in the presidential
election, if they so desire. Thirty percent of the eligible voters choose to cast their
ballots over the Web. The national election is so closely contested that whoever wins the
electoral votes of East Dakota will be the next president. After the election, state elections
officials report the vote tally and declare candidate X to be the winner.
Two weeks after the inauguration of President X, state officials uncover evidence
of massive electoral fraud. Some voters were tricked into connecting to a phony voting
site. The organization running the phony site used the credentials provided by the duped
voters to connect to the actual voting site and cast a vote for candidate X.