Ethical Issues in Secured Communications Essay -- Communication Ethics

Ethical Issues in Secured Communications1. Introduction The outstanding growth of network technologies in the past decade have contributed to millions of new applications and industries. literally millions of companies around the world were created to serve this huge growth. Even though many of those companies did not survive until the present time, most of the applications did survive and they are still wide used among consumers of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds. Most of the widely used applications are not secured. I volition define what is meant by a secured communication later in the paper. However, this paper is more concerned in the way people use these applications in terms of identity. Many applications allow users to participate in specific watchword groups or web activities as anonymous. Anonymity might not be a problem in open chatting rooms for example, but what about banking applications or email or even instant messaging. Email and instant messaging softwa re are free to use and provided by respective companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo. Those services do not require a real identity to be used and many people use these services as anonymous. The turnaround of being anonymous is to be verified, and in order for someone to be verified on the internet, he/she has to be authenticated. Authentication ensures that the person using a specific application is whomever he/she claims to be. This paper will look in detail on how authentication can be achieved on the web and wherefore it is necessary. Then I will focus on the notion of anonymity and identity. Then we will see who supports anonymity on the web and why. Then we will see who stands against it and why. A controversial example will be given and ... ...2 2000 B.C. Intell. Prop. & Tech. F. 041901 - Herman T. Tavani, Privacy and the Internet3 1999 B.C. Intell. Prop. & Tech. F. 060506 - Dr. Ronald J. Kizior, Lurking on the Internet4 1999 B.C. Intell. Prop. & Tech. F. 060507 - Ad am White Scoville, Text is self The Merger of Property and Identity5 W. Stallings, Cryptography and Network Security Principles and Practice, Prentice Hall, 2002, Ch. 146 E. Shaefer, MATH 178/196 class notes, Santa Clara University, Computer Science and Mathematics division7 http//www.penet.fi/press-english.html8 http//legacy.eos.ncsu.edu/eos/info/computer_ethics/privacy/anonymity/9 http//www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/eklund/Opinnot/netsec.html10 N. Ling, Data Compression 1 class notes, Santa Clara University, Computer Engineering Department11 Anonymity on the web FAQ