IT Governance and Ethics Quiz

When was the first computer built?

1940s

What major storage milestone occurred in 1956?

First hard-drive disk weighed a ton and stored five megabytes.

What was the speed of the space shuttle computer in 1991?

One megahertz

By the early 2000s, what speed did automobile computers reach?

100 megahertz; gigahertz speeds now common

How many cell phones were there worldwide by 2011?

Approximately five billion

Name two unexpected negative applications of cell phones.

Teenagers sexting; terrorists detonating bombs; rioters organizing looting parties

What is a smartphone kill switch?

A feature allowing remote entities to disable applications and delete files

What was the first online social networking site (1995)?

Classmates.com

When was Myspace founded and how many profiles did it have by 2006?

Founded in 2003; roughly 100 million member profiles

Why is social networking popular?

Ease of sharing aspects of life with hundreds of millions of people

Give one positive and one negative use of social networking.

Positive: organize volunteers/protests. Negative: stalking, bullying, jurors tweeting.

Which company started selling books online in 1994?

Amazon.com

What concern led to the creation of PayPal?

Reluctance to provide credit card information online

What are examples of “free stuff” on the internet?

Email, browsers, filters, firewalls, word processors, VoIP services like Skype

How do companies fund “free stuff” online?

Advertising revenue; often collect and sell user activity data to advertisers

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

A branch of computer science that makes computers perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence

What is the Turing Test?

If a computer convinces a human that it is human, it passes the test

Give one example of AI application.

Speech recognition

What are robots designed to do?

Perform physical tasks traditionally done by humans, often in hazardous environments

What is ethics?

The study of what it means to “do the right thing”

What is deontological ethics?

Focus on duty, absolute rules, and intrinsic rightness of actions

What is utilitarianism?

Ethical theory where the best action produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number

What are natural rights?

Rights allowing people to make their own decisions based on their judgment

What is the difference between negative rights and positive rights?

Negative rights: act without interference; Positive rights: obligation for others to provide certain things

What is the Golden Rule in ethics?

Treat others as you would want them to treat you

Do organizations have ethics?

Yes, but ultimately individuals make decisions and actions; both can be held responsible

What distinction separates law and ethics?

Law is enforceable rules; ethics are moral guidelines which may extend beyond law

What company was at the center of the 2013 Target security breach?

Fazio Mechanical (via phishing email)

What unethical practice was Volkswagen caught using in diesel cars?

Software “defeat device” to cheat emissions tests

What common reasons did VW engineers cite for unethical actions?

Everybody is doing it; won’t get caught; culturally accepted