Introduction

Hacker-for-hire website released the names of the buyers and their respective addresses online. The website provided the hacking services in Sweden and Australia. It asked for the name and address of the buyer along with the reason for the hack job to be done. The buyers believed that the information that they provided would be kept a secret; however, the details of 60 Australians were revealed to the public (Tung, 2015).

The report covers the ethical analysis of the activity using different ethical theories, such as, Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue Theory and Contract Theory of Ethics.

Utilitarianism Theory

As per the principles that are defined under this theory of Ethics, an act is evaluated as ethically correct or incorrect on the basis of the utility of the same. Utility in this case refers to the pleasure that is gained as a consequence of the action and the absence of the evil or suffering caused by the action.

In the case study, hacker-for-hire is a website that provides illegal services to the customers. The execution of such hacking services may cause pleasure to the buyer in terms of understanding the details of the accounts or systems that are hacked. However, it will result in suffering for the party that is hacked. The private and sensitive information of the hacked account or system will be exposed in front of the unauthorized entities (Bentham, 2005).

The line of business that the web site deals in is not legal in itself. However, releasing the details of its customers to the public can also not be justified. It will lead to the embarrassment for the customers and will also cause a lot of humiliation.

 It can be seen that the utility of the action is causing more suffering as compared to the pleasure. Therefore, the activity has been termed as ethically incorrect and unjustified as per the Utilitarianism Theory of Ethics (Gamlund, 2012).

Deontology Theory

The Deontology Theory of Ethics is the ethical theory that says that the activities and actions that are performed must adhere to the set of rules and guidelines that are defined around them.

As per the Australian laws, it is not legal to carry out hacking activities that are not carried out by the professional entities under the defined contracts. The hackers and the buyers of such services can face legal obligations as a result. Also, it has been stated that the organizations must protect the private and sensitive details of its customers under the Intellectual Property rights and policies. The regulations suggest that the privacy of the information must be maintained at all times (O’Neill, 2010).

In this case, hacker-for-hire is a web site that was carrying out illegal activities. The activity of contracting the site for carrying out hacking services was not correct on the ethical grounds as per this theory. However, to reveal the details of the buyers in public is not an ethical countermeasure that should have been adopted. The website was already carrying out an unethical activity and added to the same by not adhering to the Intellectual Property rights (Equip, 2017).

There is a clear violation of Australian laws and Intellectual Property rights in this case. It is due to this reason that the act is termed as ethically incorrect on the basis of the principle of the Deontology Theory of Ethics.

Virtue Theory

As per the Virtue Theory of Ethics, an activity can be termed as ethically correct is it has positive virtues associated with it.

The virtues that were associated with the buyers to contact the web site to hack a particular system or an application were completely selfish in nature. The activity was based upon the suspicion, jealously and the motive to cause harm to the party that will be hacked (Hursthouse, 2000).

In the activity that was carried out by the web site which included the release of the buyer details in the public, the virtues that were associated were the selfish benefits to gain publicity at the cost of the embarrassment of the others (Bowden, 2005).

In both the cases, the virtues that have been associated with the activities are not positive. They are selfish and negative in nature and therefore, the activity that has been described in the case study has been termed as ethically incorrect as per the Virtue Theory of Ethics (Grcic, 2013).

Contract Theory

Contract theory of Ethics is based upon the principles that state that the actions that are carried out shall be in agreement with the social norms and guidelines and must adhere to the same.

In the society that we live in, it is necessary to maintain peace and harmony. The same shall be done without causing damage to the rest of the entities that are present in the society. The actions that are executed must also abide by the same.

The activities that the buyers were carrying out by contracting the web site for hacking a particular system or application were not legal.  It was also not in accordance with the social norms and guidelines. It would have resulted in the disturbance of social harmony or peace. For instance, one of the buyers had requested the hacking of the phone of her husband as she was suspicious that her husband was cheating on her. The correct method as per the social norms was to directly discuss the matter with the husband rather than involving a third party in between (Browne, 2012).

The web site was not doing the correct activities by providing such hacking services to its customers. It then released the names and details of the buyers in public without their consent. This resulted in a lot of embarrassment and humiliation for the buyers. It also led to the disturbance of the social harmony for the parties that were involved. The actions that were carried out by the web site were also not in accordance with the social guidelines (Wempe, 2004).

The two sets of activities, that is, the activities of the buyers and the activities of the web site were not in social agreement. It has therefore been evaluated that the actions mentioned in the case study were not ethically correct as per the ethical theory of Contract.

Recommendations and Conclusion

Hacking is an activity that cannot be justified or accepted unless it is professional and the parties that are involved have provided their consent. There are various hacking activities that are performed for testing of the systems and applications and those activities are legal as well.

However, in this case, the hacking services that were being provided by the web site were not legal. These services may have resulted in the legal obligations for the buyer and for the service provider as well. It was necessary to put a stop on the same. The mechanism that the web site adopted to do the same was not ethical as well. The details of the buyers were released in public which led to a lot of embarrassment and humiliation for them.

The corrective and ethical form of action would have been to deny the services to the buyers and to inform them in private that consent will be required from all the parties to carry out hacking services and activities.

The web site should have also obtained a professional contract to execute the hacking services.

References

Bentham, J. (2005). Business Ethics: Utilitarianism. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from https://ww2.it.nuigalway.ie/staff/h_melvin/prof_skill/L2_handout.pdf

Bowden, P. (2005). Virtue ethics, Aristotle and organisational behaviour. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from https://w3.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/gig/aapae05/documents/bowden-virtue.pdf

Browne, K. (2012). Introduction to the social contract theory. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from https://www2.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ362/hallam/Readings/SocialContractHelium.pdf

Equip. (2017). Ethics Theories: Utilitarianism Vs. Deontological Ethics – Christian Research Institute. Christian Research Institute. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from https://www.equip.org/article/ethics-theories-utilitarianism-vs-deontological-ethics/

Gamlund, E. (2012). Ethics. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/MNSES9100/v14/lectures/mnses-ethical-theory-gamlund.pdf

Grcic, J. (2013). Virtue Theory, Relativism and Survival. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from https://www.ijssh.org/papers/273-C10018.pdf

Hursthouse, R. (2000). Virtue Ethics and Human Nature. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from https://www.humesociety.org/hs/issues/v25n1-2/hursthouse/hursthouse-v25n1-2.pdf

O’Neill, O. (2010). Kantean Ethics. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from https://gbelic.org/courses/intro/lectures/lecture-7-deontology.pdf

Tung, L. (2015). Rent-a-hacker site leaks Australian buyers’ names and addresses. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from https://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/rentahacker-site-leaks-australian-buyers-names-and-addresses-20150529-ghca3f.html

Wempe, B. (2004). On the use of the social contract model in business ethics. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2004.00374.x/abstract