Portfolio Assignment 2

Scott Hommel

7/9/2013

CMSY-129-N091

Portfolio Assignment 2

Digital Ethics

     The government of Saskatchewan reportedly defended its provincial computer system against "millions of cyber attacks" last year. With 15,000 computers in the network containing sensitive information related to health and finance, the province has made cyber-security a top priority out of necessity. Trying to stay one step ahead of hackers, they are committed to employee education and training which empowers them with the awareness and tools needed to prevent breaches of security. Retired computer security expert Terry Roebuck spent many years at the University of Saskatchewan thwarting hackers and ensuring the province's security. According to him the greatest threats come from "directed attacks", where cybercriminals are looking for specific information in a specific place. They will often cross-reference information from social networking sites with staff lists, gaining personal information that hackers can then use against the company to infiltrate their system. Seemingly one of the leading authorities on cyber-security, Saskatchewan has apparently had no previous security breaches and has yet to prosecute anyone for hacking into the province's system. This article is directly related to digital ethics, and governmental computer ethics in particular. The government is responsible for "defending a country's critical infrastructure from foreign governments, cybercriminals, and terrorist groups" according to this week's reading and that is exactly what Saskatchewan is doing.

In light of what the U.S. is currently going through with Edward Snowden, it was interesting to read about how another country handles cyber-security. While the United States has declared computer hacking by other nations "an act of war", Snowden disclosed that the U.S. government was doing exactly that with other countries. One thing that really grabbed my attention was how Roebuck described some of the tactics that hackers use. Gathering personal information from social networking sites, they are able to cross-reference information with the business that their target works for. The victim may receive an email claiming to be a picture of their son or daughter, yet when they click it there is no picture but now their computer has been compromised.

http://scotthommelcmsy129.blogspot.com/

Works Cited

Baldauf, Ken. "5.3 Governmental Computer Ethics." Emerge with Computer Concepts. Vol. 4.0. Boston:

     Course Technology, 2013. ISS 50. Print.

    

Zakreski, Dan. "Sask. Government Computers Attacked Millions of times Last Year." CBC News. N.p., 9 July

     2013. Web. 10 July 2013. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/story/2013/07/08/saskatoon-

          government-computer-hacking-130708.html>.