Chapter 2

Discussion Questions (Page 70)

6. Describe a situation in which there could be a conflict of interest between an IT worker’s self-interest and the interests of a client. How should this potential conflict be addressed?

9. You are caught in the middle of a dilemma. You have been subpoenaed to be a witness in a work-related sexual harassment case involving your boss and a coworker. On many occasions, you heard your boss make statements to this employee that could be interpreted as sexual advancements. Your boss has made it clear that he will make things difficult for you at work if you testify in favor of the employee. You could choose to testify in a manner that would make it appear that your boss was not serious and that the employee was overreacting. On the other hand, it was clear to you that your boss was not joking with the employee and that he was harassing her. What kind of repercussions could there be if you testify in favor of your coworker? Would you be willing to risk those repercussions? Does it really matter if the case is dismissed because of your testimony?

10. What is the difference between breach of contract and material breach of contract? In a breach of contract dispute, what recourse can the non-breaching party take?

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?(Page 71)

3. Your old roommate from college was recently let go from his firm during a wave of employee terminations to reduce costs. You two have kept in touch over the six years since school, and he has asked you to help him get a position in the IT organization where you work. You offered to review his résumé, make sure that it gets to the “right person,” and even put in a good word for him. However, as you read the résumé, it is obvious that your friend has greatly exaggerated his accomplishments at his former place of work and even added some IT-related certifications you are sure he never earned. What would you do?

4. The daughter of the firm’s CEO is scheduled to participate in a job interview for an entry level position in the IT organization next week. You are a second-year employee in your firm’s IT organization who will participate in the interview process. You will be one of three people who will interview her to form an assessment and make a group decision about whether or not she will be offered the position. How do you handle this situation?

Chapter 3

Discussion Questions (Page 118)

5. You have been assigned to be a computer security trainer for your firm’s 2,0000 employees and contract workers. What are the key topics you would cover in your initial one-hour basic training program for non-IT personnel? What sort of additional security-related training might be appropriate once people have the basis covered?

Answer: From page 104 – 105. Give 5 points

9. What is the difference between industrial spying and the gathering of competitive intelligence? Is the use of competitive intelligence ethical or unethical? Why?

Answer: Page 97

12. What is the difference between risk assessment and an IT security audit?

Answer: Page 102 and 109

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

1.      You are one of the top students in your university’s computer science program of 200 students. You are surprised when you are met after class by two representatives from a federal intelligence agency. Over dinner, they talk to you about the increasing threat of cyberterrorist attacks launched on the United States by foreign countries and the need to counter those attacks. They offer you a position on the agency’s supersecret cyberterrorism unit, at a starting salary 50 percent higher than you know other computer science graduates are being offered. Your role would be to both develop and defend against new zero-day exploits that could be used to plant malware in the software used by the government and military computers. Would such a role be of interest to you? What questions might you ask to determine if you would accept their offer of employment?

Chapter 4

Discussion Questions (Page 165)

8. What is a pen register? What is required in order for a law enforcement agency to gain approve for a pen register?

9. Summarize the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Does it apply to the actions of a publicly held company toward its employees?

10. Do you feel that information systems to fight terrorism should be developed and used even if they infringe on privacy rights or violate the Privacy Act and other such statutes?

11. Why do employers monitor workers? Do you think they should be able to do so? Why or why not?

12. Do you think that law enforcement agencies should be able to use advanced surveillance cameras and data from vehicle data recorders in a court of law? Why or why not?

13. Do you think that the installation of stalker software on suspects’ cell phones should be authorized for law enforcement agencies? If so, under what circumstances should such use be permitted? If not, why not.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

7. You are a new brand manager for a product line of Coach Purses. You are considering purchasing customer data from a company that sells a large variety of women’s products online. In addition to providing a list of names, mailing addresses, and email addresses, the data includes an estimate of customers’ annual income based on the zip code in which they live, census data, and highest level of education achieved. You could use the data to identify likely purchasers of your high-end purses, and you could then send those people emails announcing the new product line and touting its many features. List the advantages and disadvantages of such a marketing strategy. Would you recommend this means of promotion in this instance? Why or why not?

8. Your company is rolling out a training program to ensure that everyone is familiar with the company’s IT usage policy. As a member of the Human Resources Department, you have been asked to develop a key piece of the training relating to why this policy is needed.What kind of concerns can you expect your audience to raise? How can you deal with this anticipated resistance to the policy?

Chapter 5

Discussion Questions (Page 202)

2. Briefly discuss attempts to create laws protecting children from harmful material on the

Internet. Why were early attempts found to be unconstitutional?

4. Outline a scenario in which you might be acting ethically but might still want to remain anonymous while using the Internet. Identify two approaches someone might take to learn your identity even if you attempt to remain anonymous.

7. What can an ISP do to limit the distribution of hate email? Why would such actions not be considered a violation of the subscriber’s First Amendment rights?

8. How would you clearly distinguish between hate speech versus speech that is merely annoying, critical, or offensive? Would you be willing to defend someone’s right to use annoying, critical, or offensive speech? How would you respond if such speech were directed at you or a loved one?

14. How did the Children’s Internet Protection Act escape from being ruled unconstitutional?

Talk to your local librarian and find out if the library has implemented Internet filtering. If so, has it experienced any problems enforcing the use of filters? Write a short paragraph summarizing your findings.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

2. A former high school classmate of yours who moved to China emails you that he has been offered a part-time job monitoring a Chinese Web site and posting comments favorable to the government. How would you respond?

5. A college friend of yours approaches you about an idea to start an online reputation management firm. One tactic the firm would use is to threaten negative posters with a libel lawsuit unless they remove their posting. Should that fail, the firm would generate dozens of positive postings to outweigh the negative posting. What would you say to your friend about her idea?

8. You are a member of your company’s computer support group and have just helped someone from the company’s board of directors upgrade his computer. As you run tests after making the upgrade, you are shocked to find dozens of downloads from adult porn sites on the hard drive. What would you do?

Chapter 6

1. Explain the concept that an idea cannot be copyrighted, but the expression of an idea can be, and why this distinction is a key to understanding copyright protection.

5. What is a cross-licensing agreement? How do large software companies use such agreements?

Do you think their use is fair to small software development firms? Why or why not?

8. Identify and briefly discuss three key advantages that trade secret law has over the use of patents and copyrights in protecting intellectual property. Are there any drawbacks with the use of trade secrets to protect intellectual property?

9. What problems can arise in using nondisclosure and noncompete agreements to protect intellectual property?

10. Outline a multistep approach that a university might take to successfully combat plagiarism among its students.

11. Under what conditions do you think the use of reverse engineering is an acceptable business practice?

12. How might a corporation use reverse engineering to convert to a new database management system? How might it use reverse engineering to uncover the trade secrets behind a competitor’s software?

15. What measures can companies take to combat cybersquatting?

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

3. You have been asked by the manager of software development to lead a small group of software developers in an attempt to reengineer the latest release of the software by your leading competitor. The goal of the group is to identify features that could be implemented into the next few releases of your firm’s software. You are told that the group would relocate from the United States to the island of Antigua, in the Caribbean Sea, to “reduce the risk of the group being distracted by the daily pressures associated with developing fixes and enhancements with the current software release.” What sort of legal and/or ethical questions might be raised by this reengineering effort? Would you consider taking this position?