The ability to define absolute morality and ethics in a world that increasingly bases its values on individual moral relativity is rare. The uncommon capacity extends beyond the mere ability to personally define the concept, but includes the social ramifications of making one’s personal or institutional beliefs public (Speed and Mannion). In this simple analysis, two phenomena are confronted: the inability to define absolute morality, and the fear of defining absolute morality due to societal backlash. In both cases, the student is denied foundational training from which every part of their future policy and program creation will grow.
To understand the fundamental danger in this lack of a moral foundation in the field of cyberse- curity, it would be beneficial to understand the concept, itself. Cybersecurity is the augmentation of human and technological ability to form a new state of being (Poteete). Technology alone is not capable of initiating moral programs or leading itself to address malicious or environmental concerns, just as a human is not capable of analyzing a billion books of information per hour. Both the individual and technology work together in a manner that becomes a new functional entity (Wiener). In this way, technology provides some form of autonomous activities while guided by the individual who sets its course and purpose. The reality of cyber-augmented decisions become more significant as humanity delegates increasing amounts of thinking to machines.
If the value of moral principles are not instilled in our classroom, from where will it be gathered? Society cannot provide moral solutions beyond the variable morality that is accepted by society itself. In that relativity, reality is obscured or often replaced with fantasy. There is already much debate on ”is it possible to have absolute morality without religion?” That debate delves into philosophical approaches that are far beyond the scope of this simple post, but still leave practicality at a loss. The discussion of ethics, morality, religion, realism, metaphysics, and beyond, (Gamwell) provides endless diversion from the truth. In all of the research, it fails to provide a definitive answer for the student.
What is a moral decision? This is were religious context becomes increasingly important to society. Those with defined religious beliefs will have absolute answers, as those without strong beliefs find their opinions changing with the seasons. As a Christian, I can confidently state that our decisions are to align with the principles of ”right” and ”wrong” as conveyed in the Holy Scriptures. When working as cybersecurity professionals, it is not social, national, cultural, tribal, or any other beliefs that must guide our actions, but principles founded in love and obedience, as stated by our Lord:
”Jesus answered, ’The greatest is, ’Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. The second is like this, ’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.’” (World English Bible, Mark 12:29-31)
These are the principles that remove doubt about direction and purpose. In the mere act of accepting that there is an absolute morality, individual human behavior may model that belief system. If only, for nothing more, than to be internally consistent, a person would naturally gravitate towards their own beliefs (Cialdini and Cialdini). Although any religious belief system may provide for absolute morality, Christianity does so in both justice and love. Where God is not only a loving God, but just and righteous, not tolerating evil. These traits may be seen in principles as simply stated as the Fruits of the Spirit:
”But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (World English Bible, Galatians 5:22-23).
This short post may serve only as an introduction as to why values, ethics, principle, and absolute morality is important in cybersecurity instruction. When programmers are faced with questions about auto-reporting parents or guardians for not allowing their children to be corrupted or mutilated, when faced with coding algorithms that automatically generate social media posts that deny the value of human life, or, when faced with any situation that incorporates machine learning, behavioral monitoring, hacking, defending, or ongoing operations that violate a human created in God’s image, we can rely on a solid foundation of absolute Truth. When a student is taught absolute values based on Scripture and a personal relationship with Christ, technology becomes a method to maintain personal dignity and expand the Kingdom of God by the inherent nature of the one who wields it.
References
Cialdini, Robert B, and Robert B Cialdini. Influence: The psychology of persuasion. Vol. 55. Collins New York, 2007.
Gamwell, Franklin I. “Moral Realism and Religion”. The Journal of Religion 73, no. 4 (Oct. 1993): 475–495. https://doi.org/10.1086/489254. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/489254.
Poteete, Paul Wyatt. “Psychometric Modelling of Cybersecurity Roles”. In International Confer- ence on Cyber Warfare and Security, 530–XVII. Academic Conferences International Limited, 2020.
Speed, Ewen, and Russell Mannion. “The rise of post-truth populism in pluralist liberal democra- cies: challenges for health policy”. International journal of health policy and management 6, no. 5 (2017): 249.
Wiener, Norbert. The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society. 56–59. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.
World English Bible. 2020. https://ebible.org/web/.
Opinions expressed in the Geneva Blog are those of its contributors and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official position of the College. The Geneva Blog is a place for faculty and contributing writers to express points of view, academic insights, and contribute to national conversations to spark thought, conversation, and the pursuit of truth, in line with our philosophy as a Christian, liberal arts institution.
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