Professional Conduct in IT - Assignment Example

As an employee, I am an agent to my employer. My employer would be vicariously liable for my wrongful acts within the scope of my employment, and if I were to decide to fix the system, the criminal liability of abetting tax would also fall on my employer (Berta, 2003). I am required to exercise due diligence in the normal course of my duties for the company, since any misconduct on my part could place civil or criminal liability on my employer. My duty as an IT practitioner is to provide professional review of systems in accordance to existing laws and regulations.

I also have the duty of improving public understanding of computing, and I should use my professional knowledge and expertise to offer comprehensive evaluations of computer systems (ACM 2008). As such, I would make the clients understand the possible consequences of subjecting the system to wrongful use, as they are obviously doing. I would not go to the extent of reporting the matter to the authorities. However, although I have the duty to maintain client confidentiality, I would report my diagnosis of the system to my employer, and explain that my failure to fix the problem is due to its contradiction with my IT professional ethics.

Reporting the matter to the authorities does not fall under my area of expertise, and I am only liable for actions falling under my professional duty to either my employer or the customers. My professional ethics cover the area of IT, guiding my relations with the client and employer, product management, professional judgment, and overall professional conduct (IEEE Computer Society 2011). As such, I would not be held professionally responsible for not reporting the matter to the authorities. However, my personal moral principles would determine the extent to which I go in search of justice for the company’s tax fraud.

Reference List ACM 2008, ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://plone.acm.org/membership/COE_Flyer.pdf Berta, J. 2003, Employer Liability for the Wrongful Acts of its Employees, McCarthy Tetrault LLP , pp. 1-13. IEEE Computer Society 2011, Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice. Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://www.computer.org/portal/web/certification/resources/code_of_ethics Question 2: What due diligence requires in such a case A request to fix a system that obviously aids in illegal and unethical practice, in this case tax fraud, presents an ethical dilemma to an IT practitioner (Adams & McCrindle 2008).

Professionally, the practitioner has a duty to the employer as well as to the customer, and is also required to maintain proper conduct in adherence to professional code of conduct. If faced with the request to fix the system, I would decline based on the illegality of the practice being upheld. As a professional, I should not make deliberate deceptive claims concerning a system, but should instead disclose any pertinent issue evident in the system (Peslak 2007). In this case, I would make it known to the clients that their system is faulty due to its application in unlawful practices.

I would be honest with the clients, letting them know where the problem is in the