Ethical codes can fill in the gaps in which laws and regulation fail
to reach or simply can not be applied. Most professions have an ethical
codes in which they must follow. Those codes signifies or states what
they hold most dear. For example CPA'S and doctors each have a code of
ethics that represent each of their professions values and principles.
Most IT Professionals, unlike Doctor's and other professionals, do
not have a general rule making body, they may have many professional
organizations specialized to specific groups.
- Association of Information Technology Professionals(AITP)
- CyberSecurity Institute (CSI)
- Independent Computer Consultants (ICCA)
- Information Systems Security Association (ISSA)
- Association for Computer Operations Management(AFCOM)
- Computing Technology Industry Association(CompTIA)
In fact the existence of these bodies signify a lack of respect for
ethics in society in general, requiring not only the validation of this
types of bodies but also rely on their power to enforce sanctions when
ethical violation occur. Something that could be well covered by the
state and the academia.
It can be argued that these ruling bodies should be in fact
unnecessary, since ethical considerations do not depend on ones
profession, even if very specific considerations can seem restricted in
the function they will be shared by another professions. It could also
be stated that this is a function of the state and the legal system,
that delegating these functions in non governmental, even if public
organizations, is detrimental to the public good, and overall block to
transparency of procedures.
These bodies will also promote the exertion
of corporative influence toward their specific groups interests, one
such interest is reducing competition by limiting or increase the
difficulty of access to functions and a general increase in prices since
they permit a coordinated fixing of payments in a monopolistic way and
promote the practice of obtaining special treatment and recognition for
those that depend on their specific activities.
