Combined Proceedings of the 13 th and 14 th Annual CPTS Working Conference (2008) ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES IN THE CYBER WORLD – A COMPARISON OF VIEWS OF IT PROFESSIONALS AND STUDENTS LYNETTE DREVIN 1 ABSTRACT: With the growth in Information and Communication technology (ICT) and the consequently possibilities for irresponsible behaviour by some individuals, more and more ethical concerns emerge. Practitioners as well as the educators of young people have to be aware of these issues. The aim of this paper is twofold: Firstly to report on a survey where the ethical views and attitudes of IS professionals and students on IT/IS issues were determined. Recommendations are made to ICT professional societies, organizations and the academic community regarding their role in guiding individuals to act more responsibly when interacting with and using ICT resources. Secondly the aim is to argue about the value of the aforementioned type of surveys that are done from time to time. For example, what can we learn from the results? How can we utilise these surveys to improve behaviour in the cyber world? KEY WORDS: Ethics, cyber ethics, IT professionals, students, ETHICOMP® 2 , responsibility, computer security education. 1. INTRODUCTION Cyber ethics exists in a fast and ever changing ICT (Information and Communication Technology) environment and it is difficult to keep up with moral and ethical issues. Intellectual property rights, privacy, protection of electronic records, information security issues like viruses, spam, denial of service, identity theft, fraud using computers and so forth, are often reported in the media. These problems have escalated with the possibilities provided by the global networked world that are misused by some people. Spinello (1997) refers to the duality of the ethical challenge in the computer and information age. At the one end we have to deploy the technology in a proper manner to solve problems and add value to businesses and individuals. Information technology, on the other hand, provides capabilities that provoke controversial questions such as accountability, intellectual property rights, security risks and so forth. 1 Computer Science and Information Systems, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa, Lynette.Drevin@nwu.ac.za 2 ETHICOMP is a registered trademark of De Monfort University