Introduction
Personal and property security are an indispensable aspect of human life. There is a need for people to ensure they keep their property and personal information confidential. Secured property and personal privacy ensure no unauthorized access or use of applicable information and assets as well as protection against theft, damage, manipulation, and publicity of private information for malicious reasons (Drahos and Mayne 2002).
However, as the world continues to develop, insecurity becomes a serious threat to human survival. Illegal access to private property and personal information is increasingly becoming a common practice. This subjects the victims to fear of damage to property and leakage of private data to an unauthorized audience. This essay is seeking to explore security issues in two cases.
Case 1
The relationship between Larry and Steven can be considered as common. Moreover, their relationship is facing a significant threat due to the presence of the opportunity of developing a detection system. Larry’s talent and hard work enable him to invent ways of detecting intrusion in private data. However, he cannot create this program and seeks the assistance of his friend Steven. On the other hand, he has concerns that Steven could include himself in developing this idea. This factor puts their relationship at a risk as well as their common business.
Larry has to ensure that before asking Steven to help him develop this program, he must register it as intellectual property. This means that he will have the right of ownership and authoring this program (Maskus 2000). This will give him automatic legal rights to claim ownership of the program. Besides, this will enable Larry to have copyright protection should Steven try making counterfeit programs or excluding him from this project. Therefore, Larry will have no objection but to involve Steven in developing this program.
The ethical aspects, in this case, cover trust and honesty in their relationship. Larry’s sharing his information with Steven who knows well how beneficial the program will be to him means that he trusts Steven. In his turn, Steven should reciprocate Larry’s trust and not disappoint him. Larry seems to be an intelligent programmer and the chances of developing such and other programs in the future are in the offing. Steven should not be lured to excluding Larry from this project since he may need him in the future. Steven should know that the differences in their abilities must be used to advance their skills, knowledge, and expertise to make them get world recognition and money.
Case 2
No doubt, computers are the greatest invention developed by human beings. They have enabled people to learn, exchange information, transfer funds, and exchange confidential messages for decades (Pfleeger and Pfleeger 2007). However, there is an increasing concern over their safety due to the high number of cybercrimes.
Computer wizards can retrieve, tap, and get connected to private sites, communications, and messages (Jaishanka 2011). The ability of computers to offer predictive search and links makes them the greatest threats to information safety. Most encryptions are digital and thus generated by computers. This means they are prone to cracks and intrusions by people who know how to use them. There is access by unauthorized parties resulting in the leakage of confidential information to the public (Taylor and Fritsch 2010). This also leads to the loss of property through hacked credit cards and online bank accounts.
Cryptography is the use of coded words and digits to ensure legal access to information including internet sites, bank accounts, and other private accounts. People obtain computer-generated codes to use to access their accounts. These codes ensure that no one can access an account without their passwords (Holt 2010). These passwords usually involve encoded words or digits that must be properly decoded to allow access to any information.
There are several policies involving the use of cryptography for digital safety. The most salient of them is privacy. The codes given to an individual should be kept in secret places. A person will be responsible for his or her liabilities if there is negligence while handling the security codes that allow third parties to access them (Brenner 2010). In some cases, the public has codes to access an institution or some other establishment. In this case, the individual has the responsibility of taking care of the codes against access by third parties. However, some criminal actions require suspects and criminals to declare their codes to authorities to track their information.
Conclusion
The world is increasingly becoming modernized due to the use of computers on many occasions. However, despite the ever-increasing attempts to offer digital safety by many organizations, individuals have an obligation of ensuring they keep their personal and institutional information safe. The best secure way of keeping private information confidential is to make sure it is out of reach by third parties.
References
Brenner, S. (2010). Cybercrime: Criminal Threats from Cyberspace (Crime, Media, and Popular Culture). California: Praeger Press.
Drahos, P.,& Mayne, R. (2002). Global Intellectual Property Rights: Knowledge, Access and Development. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Holt, T. (2010). Crime Online: Correlates, Causes and Contexts. Carolina: Carolina Academic Press.
Jaishanka, K. (2011). Cyber Criminology: Exploring Internet Crimes and Criminal Behavior. CRC Press.
Maskus, K. (2000). Intellectual Property Rights in the Global Economy. New York: Institute for International Economy.
Pfleeger, C.P., & Pfleeger, S.L. (2007). Security in Computing. New York: Prentice Hall
Taylor, R., & Fritsch, E. (2010). Digital Crime and Digital Terrorism. New York: Prentice Hall.