Three years ago Jennifer started her own consulting business. She has been so successful that she
now has several people working for her and many clients. Their consulting work include.sd advising
on how to set up corporate intranets, designing database management systems, and advising about
security.
She is currently designing a database management system for the personnel office of a mediumsized
company. Jennifer has involved the client in the design process, informing the CEO, the
director of computing, and the director of personnel about the progress of the system. It is now
time to make decisions about the kind and degree of security to build into the system. Jennifer has
described several options to the client. Because the system is going to cost more than previously
planned, the client has decides to opt for a less secure system. Jennifer believes that the
information they will be storing is extremely sensitive. It will include performance evaluations,
medical records for filing insurance claims, salaries and so forth.
With weak security, employees working on client machines may be able to figure out ways to gain
access to this data, not to mention the possibility of online access from hackers. Jennifer feels
strongly that the system should be more secure. She has tried to explain the risks, but the CEO,
director of computing and director of personnel all agree that less security will do.
What should she do? Should she refuse to build the system as they request?
Things to Consider in Your Assignment:
 You should list at least 3 clauses from the ACS Code of Ethics and up to 5 clauses from the
ACS Code of Professional Conduct, you think are specifically relevant in deciding how to
resolve the situation. Make sure that you refer to the most up to date ACS Codes which are
available on the ACS website – www.acs.org.au.
 You should also list any relevant Australian legislation that you think applies to this scenario.
 Your analysis, discussion and recommendations should use the framework you selected in
Week 3 – Solving an Ethical Dilemma.
Your assignment should be 400 -500 words in length (excluding your code lists, legislation list and
references).
You may need to undertake a small amount of research, however, most information you will need is
available via the seminars and their references. Also,
• use a cover page – as per the suggested template,
• use in‐text referencing,
• use complete Harvard Notation, submit in “Word” format or equivalent format that can be
readily opened in MS Word, keep your formatting simple: Arial 11pt, 10pt after paragraph,
single line spacing, headings in bold, maximum 2 indent levels/bullet levels. Do not use page
borders, word art, page backgrounds or similar extraneous decoration
• Your uploaded file name should identify you as part of its name – e.g.
PE_Assignment1_William_Smith.
Marking Guide
Marks will be awarded using the following guidelines.
• 15% meeting the procedural requirements, including, spelling, grammar, number of words,
document formatting,
• 30% how logically and thoroughly you identified and described professional ,ethical and
legal issues arising in the scenario,
• 30% how well you developed your recommendations and supported them with relevant,
correct referencing,
• 20% how well you convinced the reader that you understood the issues,
• 5% did the material generate interest in the reader?