Intelligence techniques in computer security and forensics: At the boundaries of ethics and law

Abstract

Computational Intelligence (CI) techniques have been widely used in the domains of computer security and computer forensics. One problem that normative discussions of technologies face is that the technical capabilities under investigation tend to be unclear and that the experts in normative questions do not tend to be experts in technical developments and vice versa. The present paper therefore sets out to chart the ethical and legal problems arising from a new and fast moving field, namely that of computational intelligence and its application to computer security and forensics. Using artificial neural networks (ANNs) as an example of computational intelligence, the paper's main aim is to create a link between what can now be perceived as technical developments and established discourses in ethics and the law. It aims to chart the territory to highlight likely ethical and legal problems related to ANNs and point in the direction of future research. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.