Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!uflorida!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Implications of recent virus (Trojan Horse) attack
Keywords: security ethics culture
Message-ID: <8909@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 16 Nov 88 21:52:47 GMT
References: <1698@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU> <8844@smoke.BRL.MIL> <2200@cuuxb.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Distribution: na
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 13

The problem is, ethics and legality have little logical connection
with each other.  One does not solve an ethical problem by passing
crime laws.  To take Mumaugh's example of playing "rogue", it IS
technically a crime to do so with Federal facilities.  However I
am sure that this has not much deterred people from doing it.  And
one might wonder whether it is even unethical, much less something
criminal.  If the Federal bureaucracy were properly based on
hierarchical authority/responsibility/accountability, then when a
supervisor decided that such "abuse" was benign or even beneficial,
it should be allowed.  Unfortunately that is not the way the Civil
Service operates, especially in peacetime.

No, ethics and morality need to be self-motivated.