Computer Ethics, Safety and Cybercrime

What you need to know

• Computer ethics is the set of moral principles that govern the use of computers and information: respecting other people's privacy, their property and their work, and refusing to use a computer to harm anyone. The four classic areas of concern are privacy, accuracy, property and accessibility.
• Unethical and unacceptable practices include software piracy, plagiarism of another person's writing or code, hacking into a system you are not authorised to use, spreading viruses, sending spam, cyberbullying and trolling, using another person's password, altering records without authority, and taking a phone into an examination hall.
• Ergonomic safety is about the person. Sit upright with the back supported and feet flat on the floor; keep the top of the screen at about eye level and roughly an arm's length away; use a chair of adjustable height; light the room well and fit an anti-glare screen to reduce eye strain; and follow the twenty-twenty-twenty rule by looking at something about twenty feet away for twenty seconds every twenty minutes. Take regular breaks to avoid repetitive strain injury in the wrist and backache.
• Laboratory safety is about the room. Do not eat or drink near the system, do not overcrowd the laboratory, keep cables tidy and out of walkways so nobody trips, do not overload a socket, keep the room ventilated and cool, keep the equipment free of dust with covers, and keep a carbon dioxide or dry powder extinguisher within reach, never water, because water on live electrical equipment is lethal.
• Equipment safety in Nigerian conditions deserves its own answer. Unstable mains supply is the leading cause of damage, so use a voltage stabiliser and an uninterruptible power supply, which also gives time to save work and shut down properly during an outage. Earth the installation, use a surge protector, shut down through the operating system rather than pulling the plug, and service the machine regularly.
• A computer virus is a malicious program that attaches itself to a file or program, replicates when that file is used, and interferes with the normal working of the computer. It is written deliberately by a person; it does not arise on its own.
• The wider family of malware: a worm spreads itself across a network without needing a host file; a Trojan horse disguises itself as useful software and opens the system to an attacker once installed; spyware secretly records what the user does; a keylogger captures every keystroke including passwords; adware forces advertisements; ransomware encrypts the user's files and demands payment for the key; and a logic bomb lies dormant until a set condition or date triggers it.
• Symptoms of infection are a sudden and persistent slowdown, programs crashing or refusing to open, unexpected pop-up windows, files missing, renamed or changed in size, the hard disk working when nothing is running, the machine restarting by itself, and antivirus software being disabled without the user's action.
• Infection reaches a computer through infected flash drives and memory cards, pirated software and cracked installers, email attachments from unknown senders, downloads from untrusted websites, and across a network from an already infected machine.
• Prevention is specific and examinable: install reputable antivirus software and keep it updated, since an outdated antivirus cannot recognise new threats; scan every flash drive before opening it; avoid pirated software; do not open attachments or click links from unknown senders; keep the operating system updated; turn on the firewall; back up important files regularly; and use strong passwords.
• Cybercrime is any criminal activity carried out using a computer or the internet. The forms to name are hacking and unauthorised access, identity theft, phishing, which uses a fake email or website to trick the user into surrendering login details, spoofing, advance fee fraud known locally as four one nine or yahoo-yahoo, ATM card fraud and skimming, SIM swap fraud, cyberstalking and cyberbullying, denial of service attacks, software piracy, child pornography, and cyberterrorism.
• Nigeria's principal law on this is the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act of 2015, amended in 2024. It criminalises unlawful access to a computer system, computer-related fraud and forgery, identity theft, cyberstalking, cybersquatting, child pornography and attacks on critical national information infrastructure, and it prescribes imprisonment and heavy fines on conviction. The EFCC prosecutes most internet fraud cases, and courts order the forfeiture of laptops, phones, cars and houses bought with the proceeds.
• Two other laws complete the picture. The National Information Technology Development Agency Act of 2007 created NITDA to regulate information technology in Nigeria, and the Nigeria Data Protection Act of 2023 established the Nigeria Data Protection Commission and governs how organisations may collect, store and use personal data.
• Safe personal practice online: use a password of reasonable length mixing capital and small letters, digits and symbols, and a different one for each important account; turn on two-step verification; never disclose your PIN, OTP, BVN or card details to anyone, since no genuine bank asks for them; check for https and the padlock before entering any detail; log out and clear the browser on a public or school computer; verify a website address letter by letter before signing in; keep personal information off public profiles; and report fraud attempts to the bank, the police or the EFCC rather than keeping quiet.