Part 1: Ethical Dilemma
The act of breaking into a secure system is a crime, and also a clearly defined one. The ethical dilemma here is not a question of whether or not what Steven did was wrong, but whether or not the dean’s actions in preferring not to punish him were wrong. Should he be punished if his intentions were not evil? It is also pointed out that his act brought about positive changes to the security of the system, should this be considered?
Part 2: Role of IT
In this case IT plays a central role. Not only is the system broken into a part of IT, the entire case centers around IT and the student is even an IT major. It deals with network security, programming languages, and algorithms. The school found out who accessed the main frame rather quickly by tracing his IP address, all this is part of IT.
Part 3: Stakeholders
1. Steven Mackey: He is the student who is an admitted hacker and committed the crime in question. Steven Mackey has no rights to break into the mainframe and access the payroll files. He is only a student at the college and has no rights over the Colleges property.
2. Dr. Lillian Green, Dean of Students: It is her decision whether or not to punish Steven. She is the Dean of Students and has the right to punish the student in anyway possible.
3. Riverview State College: This is the college campus where the crime occurred and they own the network and the mainframe that he circumvented. The college has all rights to their property and they have the right to secure their information and file suit against anyone that breaks their security.
4. Riverview employees: The data in question belongs to the professors and other employees and was considered secure. The employees have the right for their personal information to be secure and not to be tampered with by a unauthorized person such as a hacker.
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Part 4: Alternative Actions and Consequences
Action 1: The Dean leaves it at a stern warning with no academic punishment.
Steven Mackey is almost unaffected. He goes on as a student at the school with no marks against him on his record. Dr. Green follows her original plan and overlooks Steven’s crime as he did not actually view the files. Because of Dr. Green’s choices, she is viewed as too lenient and receives criticism from her peers. The University could also feel the same sort of backlash as Dr. Green as they could also be seen as unfairly lenient and this could reflect badly on them as a whole. Not only is the University seen as being lenient but also it shows that they are not very worried about their security and may be inviting other hackers to try and breach the system. The Employees have the right to the security of their personal data. They have the most to lose in this action as nothing is done to improve the security of the system or prevent other hackers from attempting the same type of breach. Even though Steven did not actually look at any of their files, they now know how insecure their data is and this would most likely cause them to worry about the state of their records. Since no action is taken to protect their information they will complain to Dr. Green about her decision and this could cause a clash between the administrators and the employees that work below them.
Action 2: Steven is expelled permanently and criminal charges are pressed against him by the University.
This action has an incredibly negative impact on Steven Mackey’s future. Not only is his education prematurely ended but it also has a negative effect on his employment opportunities. He will constantly have to explain why he was expelled due to it being on his transcript. This may cause companies to disregard his talents for fear that he would hack into their system. Dr. Green and Riverview State College will have set a standard of non-tolerance to divert any other students from attempting any similar antics thus keeping the integrity of the school intact.. The Riverview employees will be assured that their privacy is protected.
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Action 3: Steven is punished with a form of “community service” by working with the IT department to strengthen their security for a set amount of unpaid hours.
In this case, the best case scenario for everyone is reached, but to do this the law is circumvented. Steven gets to continue being a student at the University and not only is he able to continue his education but he gets additional experience by working with the IT department to increase the security of the system. Even though his work is unpaid it could certainly contribute to his future resume as security work done for a large, visible organization. Steven escapes prosecution this time but it is uncertain if he will learn from the mistake and do it again with more damaging consequences in the future. Dr. Green wanted to keep Steven as a student at the university because she saw him a bright and harmless student. By punishing Steven to do community service with the IT department, she is not receiv