Professionalism and Ethics in Computing
📌 Computing professionals are expected to possess expertise, act competitively, be responsible, and trustworthy, as granted by professional bodies.
⚙️ Professionals engage in tasks like designing systems, diagnosing anomalies, validating software, and recommending security policies, knowing their decisions directly affect user welfare.
📜 Ethics is defined as the study of actions a responsible individual should choose, involving moral principles that govern behavior based on standards of right and wrong (rights, obligations, fairness).
🚫 Unethical behavior in ICT, also known as computer or ICT crimes, includes actions that contravene the established Code of Ethics for ICT Professionals.

The 10 Commandments of Computer Ethics (Computer Ethics Institute, 1992)
🚫 Commandment 1: Do not use a computer to harm others, including corrupting data, stealing information, or engaging in hacking, spamming, phishing, or cyberbullying.
🛑 Commandment 2: Do not use computer technology to cause interference in another user's work or disrupt normal computer functioning.
🕵️ Commandment 3: Do not spy on another person's computer data without their prior consent, except in cybercrime cases.
💰 Commandment 5: Do not contribute to the spread of misinformation or false news/rumors using computer technology.
⚖️ Commandment 8: It is wrong to claim ownership of work that is the output of someone else's intellect (plagiarism).

Challenges in Enforcing ICT Professional Ethics
🛡️ Data Security remains a daily challenge due to external intrusions (hacking, intrusion attempts) opened by network connectivity.
🤯 Trust in Complex Systems forces users to trust systems blindly to use them efficiently, given the increasing complexity of operating systems composed of millions of lines of code.
🗣️ Freedom of Speech on the internet conflicts with other rights, raising issues regarding censorship and who should legitimize its enforcement.
⚖️ Intellectual Property enforcement is complicated by the simplification of copying texts, images, and sounds on the World Wide Web, blurring lines between piracy and legitimate use.

Key ICT Policy Objectives (Kenya, guided by National ICT Policy)
🎯 Ensure IT acts as an empowerment tool addressing gaps related to gender, youth, rural populations, and serving as a literacy tool.
🏥 Utilize ICT to achieve objectives like alleviating poverty and improving healthcare and general population welfare.
💻 Foster the use of ICT in schools and universities to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

Addressing Professional Issues and Mitigating Cybercrime
🔐 Implementing encryption (scrambling data for secure transmission) and firewalls (filtering data exchange between networks) are crucial technical measures.
📜 Developing up-to-date, common cyber laws for combating crime and protecting intellectual property is necessary to foster a cybercrime-free information society.
🔬 Establishing forensic standards for retrieving and authenticating electronic data is vital for successful criminal investigations and prosecutions.

Piracy and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
💿 Piracy involves unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or public communication of copyrighted material (software, music, films, etc.).
⚖️ When purchasing software, you buy a license to use it, not the software itself; exceeding license installation limits constitutes breaking the law.
🤔 Warning signs of pirated software include prices "too good to be true" or software delivered in "zero cases" instead of full retail boxes.
✍️ Plagiarism is the wrongful appropriation and publication of another's ideas or expression, considered academic dishonesty and a serious ethical offense, even if not always a copyright crime.
🧪 Trade Secrets (confidential business information like recipes or processes) are protected as IP if the owner takes steps to keep the information confidential.

Forms of Intellectual Property Protection
🔑 Patents grant exclusive rights to an inventor for a set period to make, use, and sell an invention (must be novel, useful, and non-obvious).
🏷️ A Trademark is a distinctive sign (logo, sound) that differentiates a company's goods/services and builds reputation; protection is indefinite as long as requirements are met.
📚 Copyright automatically grants the creator of original literary, musical, or artistic works the exclusive right to copy, distribute, and adapt the work, typically lasting the creator's life plus 50 years.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ Computing professionals are obligated to perform tasks consciously because their decisions impact user welfare and functionality.
➡️ Key ethical principles include contributing to society, avoiding harm to others, and being honest and trustworthy.
➡️ To combat piracy, organizations should distribute an ICT policy statement to all employees defining rules for using company computing products.
➡️ To prevent plagiarism, always cite sources properly, acknowledge borrowed material, and avoid taking credit for others' work.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Dec 02, 2025, 18:36 UTC