Cloud Computing Technology Ethical, Social And Legal Security Concern

Running head: CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY 1

Cloud Computing Technology: Ethical, Social and Legal Security Concern

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CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY 2

Cloud Computing Technology: Ethical, Social and Legal Security Concern

Introduction

Cloud computing is a revolutionary technology that enables convenient, on-demand

network access to a number of computing resources such as services, applications, storage,

servers and networks. The technology has been adopted by a number of firms owing to multiple

advantages such as flexibility in use, reduced costs, rapid deployment, and fast return of

investment (Ratten, 2012). Projections indicate that the end user spending on cloud computing

will exceed $180 billion by the end of 2015, qualifying cloud computing as the technological

choice for majority of businesses (McCue, 2014). Despite its advantages and popularity, the

technology has brought about new ethical, legal and social challenges. Cloud computing

primarily allows the deployment and procurement of computing resources via the internet. The

fact that information is not personalized, but shared and managed by third party organizations

brings about multiple concerns such as the professional conduct of the employees of third party

cloud service providers, negligence, identity theft, and cyber security (McCue, 2014).

Legal, Ethical, Cultural, Social Issues relevant to Cloud Computing

Both Ratten (2012) and Spinello (2010) identify security as the biggest risk associated

with cloud computing technology. The considerable security gap between an organization's

internal activities and the cloud-based infrastructure has prompted privacy concerns linked to

sensitive data processed or stored by the cloud provider. The paper analyzes the existing legal,

ethical and social issues relevant with cloud computing technology besides outlining the

professional code of conduct that ought to govern cloud computing professionals.

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Ethical Concerns

Cloud computing technology brings about a myriad of ethical concerns. Angle (2004)

defines ethics as the basic underlying concepts that define the fundamental principles of

universally accepted human conduct. Based on the definition, ethical concerns are directly

related to security risks. Stamatellos (2007) categorizes ethical concerns as either internal or

external. External risks include internet facilitated breaches by hackers and intentional attacks

using malware or viruses. Internal attacks includes, carelessness from employees leading to

significant security breaches, and intentional breach by malicious or disgruntled insiders leading

to unauthorized access to confidential information. Based on the outlined potential ethical risks,

guidelines should focus on overseeing the professional conduct of employees hence maintaining

confidentiality and taking measures to safeguard client's information (Ratten, 2012).

Cloud service providers must take all measures to safeguard unauthorized access to its

clients private information. The uniqueness of clouds results from the fact that their operations is

outside the control of individual clients yet sensitive and confidential information are often

stored in the cloud (Ratten, 2012). Service providers have complete control over both data and

communication between the host company and cloud users. This raises privacy concerns since

the information may be used for undesired purposes or accessed without authorization. The

providers have the responsibility to employ all reasonable safeguard measures to guarantee

information safety. Increased transparency from individual service providers is also necessary so

as to prevent illegal usage of private information (Brooks & Dunn, 2010).

Another primary ethical concern with regards to cloud computing is long term

sustainability. As technology advances, new ways to compromise data emerges raising critical

concerns on the long term safety of data. Ratten (2012) and Stamatellos (2007) recommend a

CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY 4

number of solutions to the discussed ethical concerns. Ratten (2012) proposes backing up of data

to allow retrieval in cases where they have been corrupted, accidentally deleted or lost over the

cloud. They also recommend installing a firewall to limit unauthorized access to a cloud

network, authenticating identities of all individuals who access confidential information,

encrypting all confidential data and limiting information sharing to what is required, requested or

needed. Recommending measures to address the sustainability concerns, Stamatellos (2007)

contends that, it is every cloud service provider's responsibility to implement an electronic audit

procedure that will monitor and control access to data. The service providers must also create

plans and well-defined legal procedures to handle and address any security breaches (Ratten,

2012).

Legal concerns

The legal landscape surrounding cloud computing environment remains dynamic since

new laws that govern clients and service providers continue to emerge. Since the service

provider and the client are two separate legal entities, their relationship must be governed by

laws that govern information management in different scenarios. Legal issues and the regulatory

framework surrounding data collection, storage and processing in addition to ensuring

compliance to the existing state, national and international legislation raises critical concerns.

According to Roland and Claudia (2010), cloud customers in the European Union, Canada and

the United States are governed by a series of control objectives that governed information

sharing. Key legal issues include protection of information, dispute resolution, terms of service,

performance management, liability and termination of contract.

Protection of information is a fundamental legal concern governed by Section 95B of the

Privacy Act of 1988. Under the legislation, contractual agreements must ensure that service

CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY 5

providers does not in any way breach the stipulated Information Privacy Principles (Baase,

2009). The legislation further prohibits providers for using client's private information for

personal benefits. Cloud providers must also ensure clients information is adequately protected

along the . guidelines of Privacy Act that outlines information disclosure, security and access.

The second major legal concern is liability, or who bears responsibility for information loss,

damage, or leakage (Ratten, 2012). Liability related issues include limitations on liability and

indemnity. Under limitations on liability clause, the cloud service provider bears responsibility

for breach of privacy or confidentiality obligations, intellectual property infringement and illegal

or unlawful acts of commission or omission. However, the liability does not extend to personal

injury, damage to or loss of tangible property and loss due to service interruption.

Performance management legal concerns includes the service levels, response times,

flexibility of service, business continuity and disaster recovery (Kinkela, and College, 2012).

Since cloud providers are primarily service companies, legal concerns on the level of service

provided by the agency arises. Legislations prescribes three elements of effective service

provision: The service should be meaningful, measurable, auditable, and incentive-oriented to

encourage performance at required levels. There are also legal concerns on the response times

that should follow an interruption in part or all of service provided since interruptions may lead

to significant losses by the client. With regards to flexibility of service, legal concerns include;

pricing models and the range of services offered and covered while business continuity and

disaster recovery legal concerns should outline specific guidelines on how the provider responds

to interruptions to both communications network and system failure.

Social concerns and Professional Code of Ethics

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In their article, Huang and Hsieh identifies the sociology of cloud computing as

constituted by IT artifacts, organizations and the services offered. Cloud, therefore, is simply a

distribution of computers over a virtual network hence any social concerns arise from the

individuals within the network. These include employees of individual cloud service providers,

employees of cloud clients and hackers. The professional code of ethics governing all technical

staff in the cloud fraternity is, therefore, of critical value. All employees are expected to execute

their duties with honor, dignity and integrity by using their skills, initiative and judgment to

causes that positively affect the society. Employees are also expected to use their skills and

knowledge to serve the clients always upholding the highest levels of professionalism at all

times.

Social and professional concerns extend to the loyalty between clients, employers and the

professionals employed by cloud providers. In most cases, information breach is often linked to

employees, whether intentional or planned (Ratten, 2012). As a result, employees should not in

any way disclose client's confidential information without permission. Cloud providers and their

employees also have the responsibility to keep clients informed of any security breaches or

potential conflict of interest. The cloud provider should also uphold honesty by ensuring their

clients have a clear knowledge of possible adverse effect of using their services. Hence, cloud

service providers should be factual, truthful and free from exaggeration when marketing or

advertising their services to clients (Ratten, 2012).

Theoretical Analysis

The ethical, legal and social concerns evident in cloud computing can be interpreted

from two opposing ethical theoretical perspectives; utilitarianism and Kantian ethical theory.

Utilitarianism recommends the maximization of utility defined as gaining the highest possible

CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY 7

benefit while reducing negatives (Brooks, 2012). The sharing of computing resources in cloud

computing is fundamentally based on the utilitarian principle. By extensions, the ethical, legal

and social concerns can be addressed by using the principle's approach. The theoretical

perspective expects cloud computing professionals to be able to determine what is morally right

or wrong by weighing the potential harms against the potential benefits. For professionals to

make ethical decisions, they must question their actions and evaluate the potential harmful

consequences (Brooks, 2012).

Outlined by Emmanuel Kant, Kantian ethics identifies morality as primarily judged on

the basis of the will. Kant believes that a good will in turn lead to good actions hence there is

considerable difference between actions performed in accordance with duty and those performed

from duty (Brooks, 2012). From an ethical perspective, professionals in the cloud computing

industry ought to act morally at all times. The professional is expected to follow codes of

conduct to the letter in all circumstance irrespective of the consequences. The theory is

fundamentally different from utilitarianism which provides for moral actions to be determined by

the underlying consequences.

Conclusion

Evidently, cloud computing technology raises multiple ethical, legal, social and

professional concerns. Similar to all other sectors, ethical, legal and social dilemma are bound to

arise in cloud computing. Effective resolution is ultimately a matter of honesty, integrity and

taking personal responsibility while adhering to the underlying legal and professional codes. The

complexity of the cloud network makes conflict of interest, whether potential, real or perceived,

unavoidable. By adhering to the code of Practice, such conflicts of interests can be effectively

CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY 8

resolved or managed. A formalized disciplinary process for handling complaints or cloud

computing professionals' misconduct is also recommended to address the concerns.

CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY 9

References

Angle, C. (2004). Defining ethics, good & evil. Redding, CT: Philosophy Pub. Co.

Baase, S. (2009) A Gift of Fire : Social, Legal, And Ethical Issues for Computing and The

Internet (3

edition), Pearson.

Brooks, T. (2012). Hegel's Philosophy of Right. John Wiley & Sons.

Brooks, L. J., & Dunn, P. (2010). Business & professional ethics for directors, executives, &

accountants. Mason, OH: South Western Cengage Learning.

Kinkela, K. and College, I (2012). Practical and Ethical Considerations On The Use Of Cloud

Computing In Accounting. Journal of Finance and Accountancy, 1(2):1-10. Available

Online: http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/131534.pdf

McCue, T. J. (2014). Cloud Computing: United States Businesses Will Spend $13 Billion On It.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2014/01/29/cloud-computing-united-states-

businesses-will-spend-13-billion-on-it/

Ratten, V. (2012).Cloud Computing Services: Theoretical Foundations of Ethical and

Entrepreneurial Adoption Behavior. International Journal of Cloud Applications and

Computing, 2(2), 48-58

Spinello, R.A., (2010) Cyberethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace. New York: Jones and

Bartlett.

Stamatellos, G. (2007) Computer Ethics: A Global Perspective. New York: Jones and Bartlett.

Roland, T. and Claudia R. (2010). Head in the “Cloud” – Feet on the Ground: Understanding the

Ethical Challenges of Web 2.0 or Lawyers, Law Firms and Judges.

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