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A principlist framework for cybersecurity ethics
Journal article   Peer reviewed

A principlist framework for cybersecurity ethics

P. Formosa, M. Wilson and D. Richards
Computers & Security, Vol.109, Article 102382
2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2021.102382
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Abstract

The ethical issues raised by cybersecurity practices and technologies are of critical importance. However, there is disagreement about what is the best ethical framework for understanding those issues. In this paper we seek to address this shortcoming through the introduction of a principlist ethical framework for cybersecurity that builds on existing work in adjacent fields of applied ethics, bioethics, and AI ethics. By redeploying the AI4People framework, we develop a domain-relevant specification of five ethical principles in cybersecurity: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, justice, and explicability. We then illustrate the advantages of this principlist framework by examining the ethical issues raised by four common cybersecurity contexts: penetration testing, distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), ransomware, and system administration. These case analyses demonstrate the utility of this principlist framework as a basis for understanding cybersecurity ethics and for cultivating the ethical expertise and ethical sensitivity of cybersecurity professionals and other stakeholders.

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180 Record Views
43 Times Cited - Web of Science

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Citation topics
4 Electrical Engineering, Electronics & Computer Science
4.187 Security Systems
4.187.1592 Cyber Defense
Web Of Science research areas
Computer Science, Information Systems
ESI research areas
Computer Science
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