Core Values and Value Conflicts in Cybersecurity (Essay Sample)

Core Values and Value Conflicts in Cybersecurity
According to the author, the central values relevant to cybersecurity are privacy, security, fairness and accountability. Privacy is a value arguing that personal data should be managed diligently as guided by someone’s identity, dignity, moral autonomy, confidentiality, anonymity and liberty (Christen et al., 2020). The second value, security, address the safety of data and valuable information through protection from harm, breaches or attacks. Fairness in cybersecurity upholds equality, justice, democracy, non-discrimination and freedom in cyber-related activities. Lastly, the value of accountability is a procedural policy that addresses openness, transparency and explainability regarding internet services, processes and procedures. Generally, goodness and ethicality in cybersecurity are maintained by privacy, security, fairness and accountability values.
Among the primary values that drive cybersecurity, privacy and security share conflicting beliefs. Value conflict is the difficulty in simultaneously respecting the guidelines of more than one value (Van de Poel & Christen, 2020). For instance, privacy dictates that valuable data be handled confidentially and anonymously while security strives to protect information between an agent and potential threat. There is no clear danger in privacy, while in security, there are identified malicious parties. Sensitive data can be hidden from unauthorized access, but in ensuring safety, some privacy principles might be customized to target a known threat.