An analysis of ethics as foundation of information security in distributed systems

Abstract

Security of distributed systems requires both technical and administrative foundations. Technical foundation is based on cryptographic measures and access control models, and is well understood. Administrative foundation is based on several non-technical layers added on top of technical communication protocols. Several models for secure interconnection of information systems suggest common ethics to be the uppermost layer and base for legal, managerial and operational procedures. Ethics as a foundation of secure interconnection of systems is critically analysed and several problems of ethical layer are identified. Considering this analysis, a new group and social contract layer is suggested on top of ethical layer. The new approach can be enforced within current technology, supports social behaviour of human beings, and is iterative allowing forming of larger secure communities by interconnecting existing secure groups.