IT Ethics Handbook: Right and Wrong for IT Professionals Review

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IT Ethics Handbook: Right and Wrong for IT Professionals ReviewOver the last couple of months, I've been reading a book titled IT Ethics Handbook by Stephen Northcutt (Syngress). I'd like to say I spent all that time examining ethical issues, when in reality it was just a hard book to finish...
Chapter list: System Administration and Operations; Audit; Vulnerability Disclosure; Digital Postmaster; E-mail Scams; Information Security Officers; Programmers and System Analysts; Database Administration; Information Service Providers; Brother's Keeper; End-user and Employee Computer Security; Customer Ethics; Trusted Assistant; Ethics and Contractors/Consultants; Telecommuting and Mobile Computer Security; Personal Computer Users; Penetration Testing; Content Providing; Privacy; Management/Employer Ethics; Conclusion
Each chapter is made up of a brief discussion of ethical matters in that particular area, followed by vignettes where you have to figure out what you'd do. The author gives a "conservative" and "liberal" answer to the dilemma, followed by a summary of what they consider the right answer to be. While there's some benefit to be gained from thinking through some of the scenarios, the content is just far too uneven and in some cases irrelevant. It took me a number of attempts to find where the author explains what is meant by the conservative and liberal "answers". They are so extreme as to be comical in some cases. Apparently the author uses them as "guardrails" to set the boundaries of the issue. Even then, the author's answer is often too liberal for my tastes or just wishy-washy. In one scenario, the question is asked if IP spoofing is acceptable if it causes no damage (since it's a way for super hackers to show off). The author feels that at best it helps shore up security, and at worst it eats up resources and causes destruction. So what? Is it right or wrong?
In the Personal Computer Users area, the first scenario is being unable to stop playing FreeCell when your husband asks you to come to bed and not play past midnight. For the life of me, I don't see how this has anything to do with IT ethics. The whole Trusted Assistant chapter has nothing to do with IT. It's basically about what an administrative assistant should or should not be able to do. Fine for general business, out of place for IT ethics. And as a final nit, the chapter on Information Service Providers has the term misspelled at the top of each page ("Information Sercive Providers").
While it's possible to get some value from this book, I feel it could have been much better.IT Ethics Handbook: Right and Wrong for IT Professionals OverviewThe target audience for this book is any IT professional responsible for designing, configuring, deploying or managing information systems. This audience understands that the purpose of ethics in information security is not just morally important; it equals the survival of their business. A perfect example of this is Enron. Enron's ultimate failure due to a glitch in the ethics systems of the business created the most infamous example of an ethics corporate breakdown resulting in disaster. Ethics is no longer a matter of morals anymore when it comes to information security; it is also a matter of success or failure for big business.*This groundbreaking book takes on the difficult ethical issues that IT professional confront every day.*The book provides clear guidelines that can be readily translated into policies and procedures.*This is not a text book. Rather, it provides specific guidelines to System Administrators, Security Consultants and Programmers on how to apply ethical standards to day-to-day operations.

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The Secret Power of Blogging: How to Promote and Market Your Business, Organization, or Cause With Free Blogs Review

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The Secret Power of Blogging: How to Promote and Market Your Business, Organization, or Cause With Free Blogs ReviewI've purchased 6 books on blogging before this one, and none have been as complete a guide. If you're thinking of starting your own blog for your cause, business or organization but have been putting it off due to time constraints or the technology involved, then this is the book for you.
The Secret Power of Blogging covers everything from blog conception to updating to promotion, in a format that is geared in layman's terms and easy to digest.
Well organized with all the tools you'll need to start and maintain your blog successfully, this book will remain an excellent source of reference in your home library long after your blog is up and running.
The Secret Power of Blogging: How to Promote and Market Your Business, Organization, or Cause With Free Blogs OverviewBlog is short for Weblog. A Weblog is a journal (or type of newsletter) that is updated often and intended for the general public. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site owner. In July 2006, the Pew Internet & American Life Project estimated that the U.S. "blog population has grown to about 12 million Americans," some 8% of U.S. Internet users. The number of U.S. blog readers was estimated at 57 million (39% of the U.S. online population). If you have a product, service, brand, or cause that you want to market inexpensively online to the world, you need to look into starting a blog. It is an ideal marketing vehicle. You can use it to share your expertise, grow market share, spread your message, and establish yourself as an expert in your field for virtually no cost. A blog helps your site to rank higher in the search engines because Google and other search engines provide references to blogs and their content. Tiny one-person part-time businesses and mega companies like Microsoft, Apple, Nike, General Motors, Amazon.com, and Yahoo! use blogs as well as. Most Fortune 1000 firms are using responsible blog marketing as well as advertising on blogs for one simple reason: it works! It generates profits immediately and consistently! In addition, many blogs earn additional revenue by selling advertising space on their niche-targeted blog.

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The Rabbi and the CEO: The Ten Commandments for 21st Century Leaders Review

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The Rabbi and the CEO: The Ten Commandments for 21st Century Leaders ReviewThomas Zwiefel is what I would call an Edgewalker. He is a global citizen who has the ability to walk between many worlds in a way that makes a profound difference to all he touches. This book is an example of an Edgewalker book in the way that it bridges ancient wisdom and modern dilemmas. The ancient wisdom of the Ten Commandments has survived because it works for humanity. The Rabbi and the CEO is a book that shows us in very specific ways how to live a life in the corporate world that honors the deepest spiritual values we hold. While based on Judaic tradition, the guidance of this book is valuable for anyone from any faith.
We need more leaders to read this book and to take this message to heart. The world of business is transforming because it must, for all our sakes. The Rabbi and the CEO shows us how to take the steps that will transform our organizations so that our organizations can make a positive difference for the world.The Rabbi and the CEO: The Ten Commandments for 21st Century Leaders OverviewLeadership is in crisis. In the rough seas of a borderless economy, the Internet, and outsourcing in turbulent markets, a seismic shift has changed the game. The days of the Great Man-whether a Churchill or Kennedy, even a Gates or Welch-are numbered. Virtually anyone can lead now. But how do you breed principled leaders for the twenty-first century? Is leadership a matter of DNA, culture, or coaching?The answer can be found in the 3,000-year-old tradition of Judaism. Jews are not called the People of the Book by accident. Torah, Talmud, and Kabbalah hold a powerful amalgam of life-and-death leadership stories and astonishingly practical lessons for twenty-first-century managers. In a unique synergy, Dr. Thomas Zweifel, Swiss Consulting Group CEO, Columbia professor, and author of leadership books like Communicate or Die and Culture Clash, teams up with Rabbi Aaron Raskin, Jewish leader, mensch, and author of Letters of Light, to blend the timeless wisdom of the Ten Commandments with a cutting-edge methodology based on twenty-five years of coaching leaders-a mix that provides winning tools for lasting success.

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Computing the Mind: How the Mind Really Works Review

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Computing the Mind: How the Mind Really Works ReviewThis book is very ambitious introductory text to both cognitive psychology and philosophy of the mind, and is able to integrate the two fields seamlessly. To be quite honest, it contains the best summary of modern, scientifically based philosophy of the mind that I have seen so far. What's more, the book contains ample references to art, music, literature, pop culture, and the history of philosophical and psychological thought, to help put the material in the context of the human experience. The chapters on ethics, happiness, the self, and the future of brains/minds also do an excellent job of exploring the different angles of brains/minds and conscious experience.
With regards to the previous reviewer: this book is a survey text, and it doesn't go as in depth on some issues as would be ideal. But since it was built to be a survey text, the author probably was working within certain confines regarding length and depth of exploration of the topics. For a fuller exploration of the material, the reader will need to rely on the footnotes, citations, and Google searches. However, a course instructor can get around this by supplementing the book with journal articles and other additional material.
There are a number of passages where a lot of information is packed into 3-4 sentences, and the passage needs to be 'unpacked', in a sense, to be fully understood. I don't know if this is simply the authors writing style, or if this was done to meet length requirements set by the publisher. Either way, do not be dismayed if a certain passage takes 4-5 reads to make any sense. Because on that 5th read, you'll finally get it, and then be in awe of just how much insight was tightly packed into the three sentences you just spent 5 minutes on ;).Computing the Mind: How the Mind Really Works OverviewIn a culmination of humanity's millennia-long quest for self knowledge, the sciences of the mind are now in a position to offer concrete, empirically validated answers to the most fundamental questions about human nature. What does it mean to be a mind? How is the mind related to the brain? How are minds shaped by their embodiment and environment? What are the principles behind cognitive functions such as perception, memory, language, thought, and consciousness? By analyzing the tasks facing any sentient being that is subject to stimulation and a pressure to act, Shimon Edelman identifies computation as the common denominator in the emerging answers to all these questions. Any system composed of elements that exchange signals with each other and occasionally with the rest of the world can be said to be engaged in computation. A brain composed of neurons is one example of a system that computes, and the computations that the neurons collectively carry out constitute the brain's mind. Edelman presents a computational account of the entire spectrum of cognitive phenomena that constitutes the mind. He begins with sentience, and uses examples from visual perception to demonstrate that it must, at its very core, be a type of computation. Throughout his account, Edelman acknowledges the human mind's biological origins. Along the way, he also demystifies traits such as creativity, language, and individual and collective consciousness, and hints at how naturally evolved minds can transcend some of their limitations by moving to computational substrates other than brains. The account that Edelman gives in this book is accessible, yet unified and rigorous, and the big picture he presents is supported by evidence ranging from neurobiology to computer science. The book should be read by anyone seeking a comprehensive and current introduction to cognitive psychology.

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Neuroethics: Challenges for the 21st Century Review

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Neuroethics: Challenges for the 21st Century ReviewOne can say with a strong degree of certainty that despite almost three thousand years of effort, philosophical speculation and rhetoric has failed to produce a coherent and practical systems of ethics: one that is applicable to everyday living and respects the powers and limitations of human beings. Religious dogma has also fallen short in ethical reasoning, in spite of its confidence to the contrary. Instead, religion seems to work against the nature and identity of humanity, and instead of preparing individuals for this life, has as its goal the preparation for life beyond the grave, in a fictitious heaven where oddly enough ethical standards will not be needed. However the monopoly on morality and ethics by philosophy and religion is coming to an end, and the death of god is not just a rhetorical Nietzschean pronouncement. This time it is real, but thankfully science has stepped in to fill in the gap, a prospect once thought to be impossible by ethicists and religionists, holding that the `naturalistic fallacy' and the "inherent determinism" of science are strong counterexamples to any kind of science of ethics or moral responsibility.
But in the past three decades, mostly due to advances in technology for studying the cognitive processes in the brain, neuroscience is pointing the way to a new outlook for ethics. Referred to as neuroethics, it has been discussed in various short treatises and research papers, and a few books, this one being one of them. Although written by a philosopher, its contents are well worth perusing. It is a significant addition to the ethical debate, and also a good introduction to the cognitive neuroscience of human motivations and actions.
Those weary of empty philosophical speculation in ethical considerations may decide not to read this book, given the author's academic affiliation. Such a decision would be a mistake, since the author makes it very clear that a philosophical approach to ethics must be constrained by what is known in experimental neuroscience. In addition, he expresses the hope that professional philosophers will consider the book seriously. No doubt many will, for it seems that many philosophers of late have not felt it a compromise to consider the integration of science with their own systems of thought. Hopefully this trend will increase in magnitude.
There are many interesting discussions in this book. One that is particularly fascinating concerns the possibility of mind reading sometime in the near future. The author points to "the degree of commonality" in the neural correlates of thought and to the possibility that highly complex or abstract thoughts may be less stable across time and be highly variable across subjects. This is a very important observation, since a natural question to ask is then whether thoughts can be "entangled" with each other to the extent that the diminution of one will result the diminution of another. Along these same lines, the author speaks of `brain modules' that are uniquely dedicated to various tasks. Since a unique module is responsible for carrying out these tasks, reverse engineering the processes that it deploys will be straightforward. But, the author argues, more complex and abstract thought patterns will not be the result of a specific module but instead will be handled by more domain-general brain patterns. Whereas domain-specific mental tasks are the result of evolutionary pressures, domain-general tasks are more the result of personal idiosyncrasies. They will thus be more difficult to manipulate or to "read" by an interested party. Another very interesting discussion in the book concerns the neuroscience of free will. Free will has been considered to be axiomatic in any discussion of ethics or personal responsibility, but many in the neuroscience community have begun to doubt its existence. The author proposes an interesting counterexample to the experiment conducted by Benjamin Libet and Daniel Wegner that purports to show that free will is an illusion. In his counter to the Libet/Wegner claim, the author that consciousness does not play a role in decision-making, with the latter being out of human control. But this does not preclude free will, for conscious deliberation sharpens the quality of the decision-making, with the latter being governed by "subpersonal" mechanisms. But these mechanisms are constructed by beliefs, goals, and other personal biases, so it is proper to say that when "they decide, we decide."Neuroethics: Challenges for the 21st Century OverviewNeuroscience has dramatically increased understanding of how mental states and processes are realized by the brain, thus opening doors for treating the multitude of ways in which minds become dysfunctional. This book explores questions such as when is it permissible to alter a person's memories, influence personality traits or read minds? What can neuroscience tell us about free will, self-control, self-deception and the foundations of morality? The view of neuroethics offered here argues that many of our new powersto read ,alter andcontrol minds are not entirely unparalleled with older ones. They have, however, expanded to include almost all our social, political and ethical decisions. Written primarily for graduate students, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the more philosophical and ethical aspects of the neurosciences.

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