Business Ethics Discussion

December 2, 2020AdminBusiness

Business Ethics Discussion

Discussion #4 Responses

Below is the initial question that the following two responses are answering.

Instructions:

Instructions for Classmate Responses: Respond specifically to your classmate’s answer of Question 2. Refute your classmate’s answer by providing support from another course material source other than the one your classmate used. Example: your classmate used the eBook to support the opinion that Marriott is complicit. You argue that Marriott is not complicit, using another source from course content (other than the eBook) to argue your case.

All citations of course materials in this course should include a page or paragraph number (except videos and podcasts). (i.e. – (Brown, 2016, p. 160) or (Brown, 2016, para 7))

Response 1:

What are the ethical issues surrounding the breach? Support your answer with course materials.

In ethical terms, what is at the root of this issue for Marriott and the Starwood acquisition? Even though the breach happened in 2014, how is Marriott now complicit? Or is Marriott not at fault at all? Support your answer with course materials.

REFERENCES

Britz, J. (n.d.). Technology as a threat to privacy: Ethical challenges to the information profession. http://web.simmons.edu/~chen/nit/NIT%2796/96-025-Britz.html

Cloudmask(n.d.). http://The Business Ethics Workshop. (2012). Saylor Academy. https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_the-business-ethics-workshop/index.html

Response 2:

What are the ethical issues surrounding the breach?

In ethical terms, what is at the root of this issue for Marriott and the Starwood acquisition? Even though the breach happened in 2014, how is Marriott now complicit? Or is Marriott not at fault at all?

References:

Britz, J.J., Technology as a Threat to Privacy: Ethical Challenges to the Information Profession, Retrieved from: http://web.simmons.edu/~chen/nit/NIT%2796/96-025-Britz.html

Cloudmask, The cost of data security: Are cybersecurity investments worth it? Retrieved from: https://www.cloudmask.com/blog/the-cost-of-data-security-are-cybersecurity-investments-worth-it

Initial Question

Discussion #6 Question

Marriott International

Marriott International, an American hospitality company founded in 1927, is the largest hotel chain in the world, with 30 different brands in 131 countries. It has been on the Fortune 500 list of 21 years, and prior to the COVID pandemic, was ranked 151 on this list.

Marriott acquired the Starwood Hotels chain in 2016. Starwood Hotels had run upon some difficult times in the previous couple of years. In 2014, Chinese State Sponsored Attackers were able to install malware to steal debit and credit card data at some of the Starwood Hotels. When discovered in 2015, Starwood Hotels reported this breach of customer information, with a total of over 50 of their hotels and their guests impacted.

However, in 2016 when Marriott bought Starwood Hotels for $13 billion, they decided to maintain the same IT system within the Starwood properties. Only the Starwood IT staff were replaced.

In 2018, after using the original Starwood IT system for two years, a security tool inside Marriott picked up on a “suspicious event” within the guest reservation system. After further research, Marriott determined that the Starwood reservation system had been accessed. An internal investigation determined that the hack resulted in the data of 500 million customers being stolen. Worse, it was found that this breach had been going on since 2014.

Click this link to read the Official Statement made by Marriott in 2018:

Marriott Official Statement Nov 30 2018

QUESTIONS:

What are the ethical issues surrounding the breach? Support your answer with course materials.
In ethical terms, what is at the root of this issue for Marriott and the Starwood acquisition? Even though the breach happened in 2014, how is Marriott now complicit? Or is Marriott not at fault at all? Support your answer with course materials.

My submitted response to Question 2

The information exposed in a data breach can vary and the data can be lost due to everything from insider threats to hacking to employee negligence, all data breaches contain personal identifying information in a format that can be read easily by thieves (Novinson, 2018, p. 1). Marriot management assumption on the safety of the Hotels, was ethically a mistake – considering that they had history of the Hotel’s Impacts. This alone makes Marriot complicit to the breach. In ethical terms, the management of Marriott should have considered every aspect of Starwood before making their call of purchase. The authorities should determine every fault and rectify it to ensure a safe accommodation facility for the customer base. However, Marriott did not consider the safety of the people, making them complicit for a data breach that started in 2014.

Reference:

Novinson, M. (2018, July 31). The 10 Largest Data Security Breaches Of 2018 (So Far). Retrieved from https://www.crn.com/slide-shows/security/300107291/the-10-largest-data-security-breaches-of-2018-so-far.htm/1

Course Material

Theme 1: Emerging Technology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ1VaCeRoyA

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610275/meet-the-woman-who-searches-out-search-engines-bias-against-women-and-minorities/

https://qz.com/1260121/facebook-is-making-public-the-rules-it-uses-to-police-content/

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/13/net-neutrality-rules-look-doomed–will-consumers-pay.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/06/27/california-is-verge-passing-sweeping-new-online-privacy-law-targeting-facebook-google-other-tech-giants/?utm_term=.ca9bf525d9d3

Theme 2: Data Protection

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2018/02/13/480357.htm

https://www.cloudmask.com/blog/the-cost-of-data-security-are-cybersecurity-investments-worth-it