Spend a few minutes on Facebook, and it becomes eminently clear that Facebook fraud is rampant. The once pristine LinkedIn is now ground zero for scammers. Ethics is not something that is respected by many users on most social media platforms.

However, for those who want to play by the rules, cybersecurity ethics is an important topic. Yet the challenge is defining the often very thin line between ethical and unethical cyber and cybersecurity behavior.

In Cybersecurity Ethics: An Introduction, 2nd Edition (Routledge), author Dr. Mary Manjikian has written a particularly valuable reference to help the reader navigate the often-murky waters of cybersecurity ethics.

Manjikian is a professor in the College of Arts & Sciences at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. While written as a textbook, this book makes the topic accessible and understandable. At 250 pages, it is a digestible guide that gives the reader a thorough yet comprehensive understanding of the topic.

The book contains three parts of which Part one lays out the foundation of cybersecurity ethics, which has its base in the fields of general ethics, philosophy, and the philosophy of science. She writes of three ethical frameworks that can be applied to the topic, namely virtue ethics, utilitarian ethics, and communitarian ethics.

Part two shows how these frameworks can be applied to cybersecurity, with Part three detailing how these ethics can be applied to current issues, including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), artificial intelligence, big data, and more.

When asked to describe some areas relevant to cybersecurity ethics, many people may shake their heads. However, in fact, almost every area of information technology has ethical considerations that must be dealt with. From privacy and intellectual property to software copyrights, surveillance, and more, all of these areas fall under the rubric of cybersecurity ethics.

At its extreme, when cybersecurity ethics are not dealt with, as Edward Snowden writes in Permanent Record, the repercussions can be severe and devastating. There, Snowden details how the United States intelligence agencies violated not only cybersecurity ethics but also the United States Constitution and countless laws when they performed unheard-of levels of mass surveillance.

Anyone who works with or has even a peripheral involvement with information technology needs to understand cybersecurity ethics. For some people, it can be directly related to their job, and for others, it can involve their personal data.

For those looking for a comprehensive introduction to the topic written in a readable and actionable manner, Cybersecurity Ethics: An Introduction is an excellent reference. The book will make a person a better employee and responsible citizen, and help them understand the many areas where others may be violating their data ethics and what to do about it.