Breach of Ethics is a Growing Concern in Today's Digital World

Student
Professor
Course
Date
Breach of Ethics is a Growing Concern in Today's Digital World
Cyberspace is the name of the virtual world comprising computers and technology. Cyberspace and the internet have made it easier for people worldwide to communicate differently. Be it entertainment or formal business meetings, or even the buying and selling products, and everything is at our fingertips. Even banking systems have become computerized and store data on hard drives and the internet. With every transaction we make on the internet, we leave behind an electronic trail of data. Organizations that we interact with and the government all construct databases to document our daily activities (Quinn 228). A constant rise in technology results in constant improvement and up-to-date security systems to protect the electronic data trails and keep mutual trust between interactive parties on the internet. With advancements in technology every day, it is becoming increasingly important for people to understand the safety hazards taking place on the internet. These hazards mainly revolve around access to information about a person without the individual's consent. It is a breach of privacy and a violation of the general code of conduct and ethics.
Cyberspace attacks are the efforts of hackers to hijack people's data utilizing cyberspace. Hackers try to find new ways to break into security systems to hack users' data and personal information. It can be detrimental to the masses and have dangerous consequences. Hackers try to find ways that benefit themselves at the cost of another's property and details. Although cyberspace itself does not exist in any physical form, severe consequences are associated with such issues, such as the Twitter hacking and Marriot Hotel chain data hacking that took place in the previous years.
Background
The first event which will be part of the discussion is the major Twitter Hacking of 2020. The event took place on 15 July 2020. Many famous people's Twitter accounts got hacked, such as Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates. These are just a few prominent names from the list.
Several tweeters observed a suspicious tweet from Elon Musk as Elon Musk's account posted a tweet saying that he was feeling charitable and would doubt any donations made to a specific bitcoin account. It can be considered a form of identity theft as the hackers used the website to access personal details and accounts of famous people (Quinn 110). Initially, people did not suspect any unusual activity because charitability is something that many famous personalities were engaging in, considering the world's situation due to the coronavirus outbreak in 2020.
Suspicion arose when several famous accounts posted the same tweet with the exact bitcoin account details, which led to Twitter suspending all activities and accounts to access the problem. It was an attempt by Twitter to ensure the hackers do not gain access to any other individual accounts and make sure none of the private details of the people come out in the public eye. By the time Twitter understood the issue, $70,000 had already been donated to the bitcoin account.
Twitter revealed that the hack was made possible by manipulating Twitter employees and sensitive credentials. Once the hackers gained access to the system through social engineering tactics, around 130 targeted accounts were affected. Forty-five of these accounts had settings like passwords and email reset, and false tweets were posted (Davis). Eight were used to download personal data, showing that the hackers received the IP addresses, devices used, and emails. Twitter also reported that the hackers gained access and read the messages of thirty-six accounts, out of which one belonged to an elected official from the Netherlands. The hackers quickly stepped into the systems because over a thousand Twitter employees worldwide had access to internal tools. These internal tools allowed hackers to access and make account details and settings while handing control to others. It made the security system far weaker than it initially was, making it harder for the social media firm to defend it against an external hacking party. The breach mainly consisted of phone-based spear phishing. Spear phishing is a variant of phishing in which the hackers target a particular group of recipients and email addresses (Quinn 331). There are many reasons for attackers to pick a group of people rather than randomly selecting people. A hacker always has an ulterior motive for getting into a system.
An example can be the elderly as they are more easily gullible compared to the youth or a group of individuals with valuable information. In this case, the hackers were after world-famous individuals with solid financial bases and critical information. The company restored hacked accounts to mitigate the damage and improve its security systems to prevent future manipulation. However, there was constant surveillance on accounts of celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama paired with firms such as Apple to ensure no other suspicious posts were made from these accounts, and the information of these celebrities and organizations was safe.
The second cyberspace event that caused an uproar was the Marriot Hotel System Hacking. The event took place around January to February 2018. The hotel system management found out that hackers gained access to the system by using the credentials of two employees. Although it is still unknown how the hackers gained access to the credentials, it is said that it was a phishing attack that tricked the employees into compromising the credentials. As a result, the data of around 5.2 million customers was compromised worldwide (Jordan Valinsky). The information included credit card information and passport numbers of the customers. Most of the hack cost had been paid by insurance but at the expense of customers' data being exposed. Several personal information was hacked, such as birthdates, mailing addresses, names, airline programs, companies, partnerships, affiliations, and loyalty information. However, no credit card details and passwords were shown to have been compromised. National IDs and driver's license numbers were secure as well.
Furthermore, it took the hotel chain a month to identify and investigate if the system had been compromised. It gave the hackers a significant amount of time finishing the deeds and gaining access to such information. As soon as Marriot International became aware of the problem, they quickly disable credential logins, arranged sources to inform and assist the guests, and implemented higher monitoring systems.
Initially, Marriot denied that such a leak or breach of security could result in detrimental consequences for the customers. Still, it was inevitable that the chain would have to work on its security management system. It also resulted in the hotel system getting accused of weak security because this was the second time in two years that Marriot International suffered a severe cyber hack. Due to the virus outbreak and the security breach that occurred, the hotel lost many clients as there is a raised demand for travel. Both the events paired together resulted in a 7% decline in Marriot's shares (Jordan Valinsky). People also argued that only because credit card details were safe does not mean that the leaked information was not sensitive. The details regarding loyalty account numbers and history can guide the attackers about the travel preferences of the consumer on an individual scale. Such criminals can then establish phishing campaigns that become impossible to detect.
Marriot was accused of an effort to downplay the second breach of data in a row due to its lack of sincerity towards providing customers with a security system to rely on upon without any inconvenience. It took the hotel chain a month to notify the guests about the issue when it is something that they should have done immediately. It prevented the guests from taking precautionary measures, such as changing security questions, login passwords, monitoring the accounts for any impers...