Is Hack's Unauthorized Computer Entry Morally Wrong?

Huping Zhou, a former cardiothoracic surgeon from China, whom recently moved to Los Angeles and became employed at UCLA School of Medicine as a researcher, was sentenced to federal prison for HIPAA violations. This made him the first person in the United States to receive a prison sentence for HIPAA violations. His employer informed Zhoe that they were starting the process of terminating his employment .Zhou accessed the medical records of his former colleagues that night. During the following three weeks he accessed the records of celebrities, and high-profile patients 323 times. He claimed that he was unaware that it was illegal to view these records. No evidence was found that Zhou misused the information he obtained, nor did he sell the information. He received a four month jail sentence and a 2,000 dollar fine (Dimick, 2010).

On February, 8, 2011, Ortho Montana, PSC, a healthcare provider submitted a data breach which affected thirty seven thousand people. The type of breach described was ‘Theft’ and information was breached from Laptop. The exact description included in the web description states a laptop which had electronic unsecured protected health information was either lost or stolen. This took place when the laptop was taken to an event by a workforce member.

This argument has convincing premises; however, it lacks legitimate evidentiary support leading it to be an invalid argument.

My argument I found it to be valid, and for my premises to be true. It is also true that for an argument to be sound the conclusion must also be true, which also makes my argument a good one.

In today’s health care industry providing quality patient care and avoiding harm are the foundations of ethical practices. However, many health care professionals are not meeting the guidelines or expectations of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) or obeying the organizations code of ethics policies, especially with the use of electronic medical records (EMR). Many patients fear that their personal health information (PHI) will be disclosed by hackers or unauthorized users. According to Carel (2010) “ethical concerns shroud the

An argument is valid whenever the conclusion must be true if the premises are true.

Stated in this way the argument is valid, but for it to be sound we must be able to accept all of its premises.

As computers, digital devices, and electronic health record (EHR) have become a significant part in delivering health care, health informatics ethics has emerged as a new set of standards in addition to existing codes of medical ethics (Hoyt and Yoshihasi, 2014, p. 219). It is comprised of medicine, ethics, and informatics in health care. As the International Medical Informatics Association’s (IMIA) Code of Ethics states, one of the general principles of information ethics pertains to information privacy and security (Hoyt and Yoshihasi, 2014, p. 220).

Mr. Zhou, a researcher, was sentenced to four months in federal prison and fined $2000 for looking at the confidential medical records of co-workers and celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Saraswat, 2010). Zhou was accessing records he had no authority to look at over a period of about a month. These celebrities came in for care and privacy and Mr. Zhou violated their privacy rights. Although Mr. Zhou, like the nurse in this unit’s study guide was not caught selling or releasing the information, it was still a violation of the patient’s right to privacy. I agree with the court’s decision to fine Mr. Zhou, as he was selfish and

THE COMPUTER FRAUD and Abuse Act, the law that’s been at the heart of almost every controversial hacking case of the past decade, is in the news again this month.

One of the eight key points of Patient’s Bill of Rights is Confidentiality and (privacy) of health information so she also have violated the right of the patient. (cms.gov)

He argues that this is logical as if the first two arguments are believable then the final one must be too.

An argument is valid if and only if it is impossible that its premises are all true and its conclusion false.

A virtual intruder, like Tony Soprano, quietly downloads countless patient files containing private medical information — names, procedures, medications, related claims data — which are then sold and resold across the globe. Or imagine that a few laptops containing much of the same type of data fall into the wrong hands.

The ethical issues surrounding hacking, stem from several sources mainly dealing with order and control, and information ownership. What is difficult to decipher from all the media hoopla surrounding the terms, "hacker" and "hacking" is both the simultaneous sensationalism and the condemnation of said activities. Of course just recently, even a movie was made and was appropriately called Hackers. The term and all that it implies has truly entered our popular consciousness when Hollywood has made a box office movie on it. As the advancement of computer technologies and systems of information become increasingly more and more complex in today's fast paced modern world and said technologies become an integral