DISCUSSIONS
1. Prepare a 300-word Group discussion post in response to one of the following:
Cyber Volunteers: Under Rule 6.9, the authors of the Tallinn Manual indicate that "States have reportedly called upon private citizens to conduct cyber operations against other States or targets abroad (in a sense, ‘cyber volunteers'. Additionally, under Rule 25.3, "...a civilian who directly participates in hostilities loses certain protections attendant to civilian states for such time as he or she so participates."
What potential actions can a targeted State take against a civilian cyber volunteer?
Cyber Leakers: Both Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden leaked classified information to news sources (including Wikileaks). At least in Snowden's case, he insists that he did so as a whistleblower, and public reaction to their actions has been mixed.
Some see their behavior as treason; others see the need for public scrutiny and openness to keep the government honest. How does one balance the potentials for harm?
On the one hand, the government is embarrassed by the releases; on the other, not releasing the information allows the government to overstep its bounds under cover of classification. Can such behavior (i.e., deliberate unauthorized release of classified material to new organizations) ever be justified? If 'yes', then under what circumstances?
2. Prepare a 300-word Group discussion post in response to one of the following:
Software Testing: Under Section 1.2 of the ACM Code of Ethics, Avoid harm to others, "Harm" means injury or negative consequences, such as undesirable loss of information, loss of property, property damage, or unwanted environmental impacts. Given the impossibility of comprehensively testing every possible set of possible input values for a commercial software product, what onus does this place on the individual programmer? On the software development manager?
Autonomous Weapons: Under Section 1.2 of the ACM Code of Ethics, Avoid harm to other, "Harm" means injury of negative consequences such as undesirable loss of information, loss of property, property damage, or unwanted environmental impacts. Given that the raison d'etre for autonomous weapons is to more effectively kill enemy combatants, do you see research and development of such systems to be at odds with the ACM Code of Ethics? At odds with your Christian moral principles?
3. Prepare a 300-word Group discussion post in response to the following: The presenter of the Software Assurance briefing, in 2012, called for organizations to "Build Security In", and recommended certain approaches, processes and standards. Recent events, including the OPM and DNC break-ins, would seem to indicate that this call has been, to at least some extent, ignored. Who is at fault? The software development community? Or consumers (including acquisition professionals) who judge software more by cost than by safety and security?
4. Prepare a 300-word Group discussion post in response to the following: As indicated under Rule 66.4 of the Tallinn Manual, "...there is no express prohibition on cyber espionage in the law of armed conflict (or international law more generally)..." Does this make such actions (including the recent OPM break-in) legal? Under what conditions (if any) might such actions be considered ethical?
5. Prepare a 300-word Group discussion post in response to the following: The current CAE ethics Knowledge Unit covers multiple legal requirements, but does not address objective (i.e., Christian) ethics. Assume that you have become a Federal IT manager; how would you address the need for truly ethical behavior with your workforce?
6. Prepare a 300-word Group discussion post in response to the following: The current CAE ethics Knowledge Unit covers multiple legal requirements, but does not address objective (i.e., Christian) ethics. Assume that you have become a Federal IT manager; how would you address the need for truly ethical behavior with your workforce?