This article explores information security control and clarifies its ethical significance in the ICT age by analyzing information leak incidents in 2010 and early 2011 from the perspective of information ethics. Since ICT has become pervasive in our society, information security has become a controversial problem. Some commentators have contended that a transparent society, which has eliminated secrets and lies through exposure and leaks, would improve efficiency and fairness in a democratic society. Supporters of Wikileaks, who recognize it as a new type of journalism, take the same view. We find that Kantian deontological arguments generally support a kind of transparent society, while Sidgwick, a utilitarian philosopher who advocated for secrecy in action and policy to maximize utility, might support security controls to prevent information leaks when the concealment of intelligence is meant to improve utility in a community. Transparency of society and strict secret management have their respective disadvantages, so we need to find a balance between the power of the exposure of significant secrets and lies by ethically questionable types of journalism with reasonable secret management in order to protect the security, privacy and welfare of people.
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