Emerging ethical issues with present and emerging technologies and new trends in enterprise and application software security
Emerging technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, bid data, low code no code, DevOps and block chain have great potential in revolutionizing business operations. However, the technologies raise ethical concerns that should be addressed before their deployment in the production environment (Dhirani, Mukhtiar, Chowdhry, & Newe, 2023).
Emerging ethical issues with present and emerging technologies
Data privacy and data protection: with emerging technologies, vast amounts of data are generated. Collecting, storing, and analyzing the data raises privacy and data protection concerns. Questions such as who has access to personal information need to be answered. Ethical concerns regarding data privacy and data protection include:
Artificial intelligence surveillance raises concern over privacy, consent, and potential of control by government or corporations.
Exploitation of personal data due to the increase in the amount of data collected by companies raise ethical concerns. For example, companies may use personal data for profit/marketing without consent thus violating the privacy of the data subjects.
Infodemic and data weaponization: infodemics refer to too much information including false and/or misleading information especially during a disease outbreak. Weaponization refers to the exploitation and abuse of personal data to harm their target.
Risks associated with artificial intelligence:
accelerated adoption of generative AI increases the risk of production of biased outcomes. Models are trained on data representing societal biases which can be amplified through the models.
Questions of autonomy and accountability of decisions made by AI systems that could to harm or unethical outcomes. For example, who takes responsibility for accidents caused by self-driving cars?
AI could also result in job displacement due to automation.
Robotics has an impact on the human relationships and social structures due to the increasing use of robots in surgery, caregiving, and manufacturing among other industries. The possibilities of autonomous weapons raise concerns on accountability on warfare and the associated accidental risks.
Emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) could lead to addiction, manipulation and social isolation. The social risks are concerning for children and vulnerable individuals.
New trends in enterprise and appclication software security
Zero trust architectures (ZTA): encompasses users, application and infrastructure designs that enforce zero trust principles in an organization’s IT infrastructure. ZTA includes security technologies such as micro-segmentation, multi-factor authentication, encryption, identity and access management, and encryption. The principles of zero trust are enforce least privileged access, assume breach, and continuously monitor and validate.
Users: Based on the principle of enforcing least privileged access. strong authentication, application of the least privilege access principle, and verification of user device integrity.
Applications: Based on the principle of continuous monitoring and validation. Do not trust applications, continually monitor applications at runtime to validate their behavior and remove implicit trust between various application components when they communicate.
Infrastructure: address security related to infrastructure such as switches, routers, cloud storage, and internet of things devices.
Disruptive technologies: Technologies such as mobile computing, cloud computing, and social computing have disrupted how organizations manage information technology. Disruptive technologies require new security technologies due to increased connectivity and access.
Increased focus on secure software development: Software consumers are increasingly requiring the integration of security throughout the software development lifecycle. For example, DevSecOps emphasizes on early detection and remediation of security vulnerabilities throughout the development process.
Integration of emerging technologies: Use of technologies such as AI and machine learning enhance the detection of anomalies, prediction of potential threats, and automation of incident response. For example, AI may be used for real time analysis of large amounts of data for identification of attack patterns and mitigation measures (Anica-Popa et al., 2024).
Software defined networking: entails the use of software enabled control to manage different kinds of network ranging from enterprise to home network. The centralized approach and programmability provides an opportunity to improve network security (Sahay, Meng, & Jensen, 2019).
Privacy-first security: with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and data protection act of 2019, organizations are increasingly focusing on securing customer data and maintaining privacy standard. Strategies employed to ensure privacy-first include encryption, anonymization, and data masking.
Security defense and resilience: Data security threats such as ransomware continue to threaten organizational data thus requiring prevention, detection, and response measure. Organizations are increasingly investing in robust backup and recovery plans to ensure systems can be restored thus enhancing resilience.
Conclusion
Emerging technologies hold great promise for innovation. However, they also raise ethical and security concerns including privacy, accountability, and potential misuse. Organizations have to balance the potential of emerging technologies and associated risk to ensure that the technologies benefit the organizations while causing little or no harm.
References
Anica-Popa, L., Vrîncianu, M., Pugna, I. B., & Boldeanu, D. (2024). Addressing cybersecurity issues in ERP systems – emerging trends. International Conference on Business Excellence, 18, pp. 1306-1323. doi:https://doi.org/10.2478/picbe-2024-0108
Dhirani, L. L., Mukhtiar, N., Chowdhry, B. S., & Newe, T. (2023). Ethical dilemmas and privacy issues in emerging technologies: A review. Sensors, 23(3). doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/s23031151
Hancock, E. (n.d.). Pursuing privacy-first security. Retrieved from https://www.cloudflare.com/the-net/pursuing-privacy-first-security/privacy-led-security/
Palo Alto Networks. (2024). What is Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA)? Retrieved from https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/what-is-a-zero-trust-architecture
Sahay, R., Meng, W., & Jensen, C. D. (2019). The application of software defined networking on securing computer networks: A survey. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 131, 89-108. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2019.01.019