Ethics in Computer Forensics

Introduction

According to Shaw (2011), “questions such as whether an employee has obligations to outside parties, and whether a personality test or honesty test should be a pre-employment condition typify business issues with moral significance”. To a large extent, the answers to these questions are determined by a person’s or a business’ moral standards; the values and moral principles accepted by the person or company. These arguments hold in the technology, manufacturing, trading and other industries, and al professions, including the computer forensic profession.

A computer forensic examiner is a professional specialist who works in the digital forensics sector with the responsibility of collecting forensic data from a number of electronic media. The computer forensic examiner uses specialized techniques and standard industry software to in doing this. For one to be a computer forensic examiner, the person is required to have a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems, Information Security or Computer Forensics (Zorz, 2013).

In line with this academic qualification, the individual is supposed to possess technical qualification, certification and licensing from such bodies such as the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialist (IACIS). This is achieved through training, and subscription of membership upon successful completion of the training. The individual is then given a certificate.

The computer forensic examiner is bound by a professional code of ethics and standards of conduct. For instance, as a computer forensic examiner, one is required to exhibit integrity when completing assignments, maintain objectivity when handling forensic examinations, employ validated procedures when conducting examinations, avoid actions that would spur conflict of interest and also abide by the moral and ethical standards of the body.

Infringement of Privacy

Computer forensics usually entails the search of legal evidence in digital media and computers. This information is then examined digitally in a sound manner to identify, recover, preserve, analyze and present opinions and facts about the collected information. During this procedure, the data of the user under forensic investigation is put under scrutiny by third parties who originally may not have rights to access that information but do so with the aim of obtaining digital evidence for civil proceedings. As a forensic examiner one is left in the dilemma of whether to safeguard the privacy of the user under investigation or to allow for legal proceedings to take course for the sake of justice.

In handling this ethical dilemma, it is important to consider Kant’s theory of ethics. According to the theory, when individuals act in respect to duty in terms of being fair and honest, then their actions are of moral worth (Guyer, 2002). In such a case, the forensic examiner has the duty to safeguard the privacy of the information under audit, thus, they should ensure that they stick to the requirements of their duty and only disclose the information to persons with the rights to access it.

Exposure of Confidential Information

During forensic audit, the information and data of a user or an entity under audit risks exposure to computer hacking from unauthorized personnel. This may occur in cases where the examiner leaks out the information to unauthorized persons, or due to negligence, the information gets into the wrong hands. The consequences of such an act may be adverse as such information may be utilized in ways that are harmful to the one whose information was under audit.

In solving this problem and preventing it from occurring, it is important to consider the utilitarianism theory of ethics. The theory maintains that for every action to be embraced, it is important to consider if such a course would result into the happiness of all the people involved (Shaw, 2011). In this case, an action is only good if it grants happiness to all the people that are involved. As such, it is important to consider the kind of emotion that would be stirred in the individual whose information is to be leaked out and the potential recipient’s emotions too. By noting that any of the individuals will not be happy, then one should not engage in any exchange of information and thus respect the privacy of each individual.

Exceeding of Authorization in Conducting Examination

An ethical dilemma can occur in a case where the examiner conducts a forensic examination and exceeds the scope of examination that they are required to tackle ending up working on areas that they are not supposed to work on. An instance is where the examiner conducts a forensic investigation but instead of working within the bound limitations as required goes overboard, works on areas that are in excess of their scope of duty.

Good egoism, which involves promoting the good of others, is an important approach to consider in handling such a dilemma (Farnham, 2006). As such, the examiner should for once value self-interest in the sense that they expand their scope of study beyond the boundaries for the sake of obtaining further information that would be helpful in interpreting the information within the boundaries. This way, the examiner may have valued self-interest, but at the same time safeguarded the interest of the user.

Manipulation of Information

During a forensic investigation, there exposure of a lot of sensitive information from digital media and computers including information from log files. This information is delicate as it concerns user details and can be used to show all processes and actions by a user on a system or a computer. This information is thus critical and any manipulation whatsoever may cause harm to the user. For instance, if such log files are manipulated by an examiner for any reasons, then the user of the digital system or computer may be held liable for any actions regardless of whether the information was manipulated or not. Manipulation of forensic information is a serious offence and ethical dilemma.

In order to avoid such an ethical dilemma, forensic examiners should engage in ethical moral decision making every time they engage in investigations so as to ensure that the data that they are studying is not altered in any way. The moral decision making process would comprise of: recognition of moral issues, where the examiner identifies all the issues that require great care in their audits; moral evaluation, where the examiner identifies the moral implication of each action they choose to engage in; moral intention, where the examiner identifies what they ought to achieve morally in their actions; and moral behavior, which involves the actual engagement in actions that uphold honesty and integrity in the information under study (May & Pauli, 2002).

Conclusion

Any business, industry and profession are guided by several ethical standards and expectations. Computer forensic professionals are no exceptions. It is evident that computer forensics require high considerations of ethics and that any professionals under this field should be ready to embrace the code of ethics and deliver services that are up to standards without compromising the morals of the industry. Various theories of ethics such as egoism, utilitarianism, and Kant’s theory among other, provide efficient frameworks on which professionals in this field can base their moral decision making process and achieve a high sense of morality within the work environment.

References

Farnham, D. (2006). A good kind of egoism. Journal of Value Inquiry, 40(4), 433.

Guyer, P. (2002). Ends of reason and ends of nature: The place of teleology in Kant's ethics. Journal of Value Inquiry, 36(2-3), 161.

May, D. R., & Pauli, K. P. (2002). The role of moral intensity in ethical decision making. Business and Society, 41(1), 84-117.

Shaw, W. H. (2011). Business ethics: A textbook with cases (7th Edition ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Zorz, Z. (2013, May 31). Becoming a computer forensic examiner. Retrieved from http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=14986