Management and the Technology Professional – B302

Case study answer 1

I feel that if I had been developing the software I would have not used such cloaking methods, as this seems to violate people’s data protection rights. People have the right to know what exactly they are being asked to install on their computer. People were not given any choice as the software was compulsory in order to listen to the c.d. and they were not given any information about the software or what it was. This is because although you are being told about the software, little information is given about the software and few people would know what the capabilities of the software were. As the software developer I should have had more awareness of the impact that using this kind of software would have had on the people using it. I should of looked at codes of conduct in relation to software design and seen that its not good practice to design software that has not been fully tested. In particular the code of conduct “You shall have regard to the legitimate rights of third parties” relates to how I should have been aware of the implications my software could have had on the users.

The developers claim they were unaware of the capability of the software, which leads us to question why it was not picked up by the company when testing the software. This is ultimately due to bad testing which leads onto bad security and bad ethics. Once the situation was made aware to the company they claimed that these methods are not a big risk to the user and that they have been working with big antivirus companies to develop a different program using similar methods. Not enough of a response was made by the company to help people who this had effected although a patch was made available it was still difficult to uninstall the program and a lot of the damage had already been done.

I believe that some form of protection against copyright infringement is necessary. In developing this software, not enough thought was given into the way which this software could be used for malicious and harmful purposes. This caused user’s to lose there trust in Sony. In trying to protect actually data protection and copyright laws it has actually gone full circle and ended up violating the computer misuse act. It allows unauthorised access to computer material by allowing hackers to access and control the computer through the root kit and it also allows unauthorised modification of computer material because when the program is removed it can damage your hard drive.