Reading Assignment

• Read Chapter 6 of Quinn (Computer and Network Security) except for Section 6.5 on Online Voting.
• Read Brian Harvey of the Computer Science Department at the University of California at Berkeley on the ethics of hacking
      -This is a good overview of most of the topics on hacking touched upon in Quinn's book as well as another perspective on Kantianism.
• Skim over the Wikipedia Article on Hacking
• Review Sections 2.2-2.8 of Quinn (Ethical Theories).

Discussion Questions

1. What is hacking? Are there moral difference between 'white-hats' and 'black-hats?'
2. Wozniak and Jobs supposedly sold 'blue boxes' before they founded Apple-- analyze and discuss the ethics of their actions using the ethical frameworks that we have become familiar with in this class. In particular, consider last week's topic about the discussion of the piracy of music and page 302 of Quinn which draws a comparison from music piracy to hacking.
3. Can you think of other situations comparable to Phone Phreaking that could be faced by a contemporary Computer Scientist?
4. Section 6.3.9 of Quinn lists the penalties for Hacking under Federal law. Do the punishments, as defined by law, fit the crime? Or should the penalities be increased/decreased depending on each situation?
5. Quinn discusses several measures Network Administrators (NAs) can take to prevent Hacking and increase network security. What are the moral responsibilities of NAs should they fail to maintain adequate security measures? If so, should there be Federal laws mandating punishments?
6. Consider the situation described in Section 6.4.4 of Quinn and discuss who would be morally at fault (the hackers or the NAs) should a DDoS attack have occured that brought down the Internet for a few days.