Question

Using the Internet as a research tool, select one latest case study from the IT industry, wherein the ethics were compromised to a considerable extent. Based on the selected case study, do reflective writing (at least 250 words). Your writing must include the following:

1. summary of the selected case study (i.e., from the IT industry) – 5 Marks

2. specify as to which ethical values were ignored/compromised in the context of the selected case study – 10 Marks

3. provide recommendations for how such unethical issues could have been avoided in the first place – 10 Marks

The Students are required to use the template provided in the Annexure for answering this subtask A specimen case study is of the Facebook Cambridge Analytica Scandal (i.e., accessible at the web link, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/17/the-cambridge-analyticascandal-changed-the-world-but-it-didnt-change-facebook). Please note that you should refer to a different case study, other than the one mentioned above, to address this subtask.

Answer 1

This Case Study is about the US messaging company DUBSMASH.The information was being sold as the part of collected dump.

Atleast 162 million email address ,passwords were sold by the man who was outside the US.Also informarmation such as location,personal details were also there.Many weak passwords were being cracked and encrypted with simple algorithms and some combinations.Some of the websites – particularly MyHeritage, MyFitnessPal, and Animoto – were known to have been hacked as they warned their customers last year that they had been compromised, whereas the others are seemingly newly disclosed security breaches. In other words, this is the first time we've heard these other sites have been allegedly hacked. This also marks the first time this data, for all of the listed sites, has been peddled publicly, again if all the sellers' claims are true

Here is the breif summary of what happened:

161,549,210 accounts for 0.549 BTC ($1,976) total

11GB of data taken in December 2018. Each account record contains the user ID, SHA256-hashed password, username, email address, language, country, plus for some, but not all the users, the first and the last name. This alleged security breach has not been previously publicly disclosed. Dubsmash is a video-messaging application popular with millennials and younger folk..

How can it be avoided in the first place:

Well its not just the company responsibilty to secure your account.Users must learn how to create strong passwords which can't easily be decoded .Using no names or age in the password or any information which is very common.

From the companies perpective it should CLONE the data or use various levels of encryption so thaqt even hacked or sold by hackers the data cant be used decypted easily.

Thanks