THE ETHICS OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

White hat, black hat, red hat? Subtle actions can have great impact. From authentication to authorization, validation to verification, automation to thermonuclear war. There’s a lot of power in the hands of developers, a lot of everyday decisions intended to be ethical, professional, defensible, and consistent. But what are we doing and what pitfalls sit in our laps every day we don’t recognize? Let’s look back at some of our worst decisions and the looming decisions most of us will make in the next five years.