Reference no: EM131280006

Your friend Dan is a computer security expert. He believes that the software used on many Web sites is insecure, even for banks, other financial institutions, major utility companies, etc. The software allows access not only to the Web page, but to other parts of the site's computer systems. Dan wrote a program that would probe Web sites to check if they are vulnerable to fairly simple hacker attacks. He's thinking of running his program on 2000 Web sites and publishing a summary of the results (without mentioning sites by name) to alert the public and the business world to the problems. He knows you just took a computer ethics course and asks you for advice.

Discuss the ethical issues. Who are the stakeholders? What are the relevant risks, responsibilities, obligations? Give at least one argument for each of the three positions: that Dan's plan is professionally and ethically obligatory, that it is acceptable, or that it is ethically prohibited. Then tell which category you think it is in and give reasons.