A Review of Ethical Issues in the Field of Cybersecurity
Zijian Cui · Applied and Computational Engineering · 2025
The ethical dilemma of cybersecurity in the era of big data presents a multi-dimensional outbreak trend. As the speed of technological change far exceeds the update of laws and regulations, the crisis of technological trust and social ethical conflicts are intertwined, forcing the reconstruction of the global governance system. This study comprehensively deconstructs the ethical disputes in the current field of cybersecurity and summarizes five core contradictions, including the zero-sum game between monitoring rights and privacy rights, the systematic spread of algorithmic discrimination, the new hegemony of data colonialism, the gap between rights and responsibilities of vulnerability disclosure, and the failure of the AI application attribution mechanism. Based on the comprehensive analysis and systematic integration of multi-dimensional fragmented cases, this study proposes a hierarchical and progressive governance paradigm: the technical governance layer pragmatically improves the existing system, the institutional coordination layer links multiple mechanisms, and the cultural identity layer improves the digital citizen literacy. By balancing the dual logic of technological innovation and value constraints, this framework provides an operational governance path for cybersecurity regulatory departments to optimize ethical risk assessment tools, Internet companies to establish algorithm audit committees, and technology research and development institutions to improve ethical embedded design. It has important theoretical reference value for building a humanistic-oriented digital civilization order.