The Business Ethics Issue

Business ethics are the moral principles which guide the manner in which a business behaves. The similar principles which determine the actions of individuals also implement to the business. Working in an ethical manner includes differentiating between wrong and right and then choosing the right one (Shaw, 2016). Comparatively, it is easier to recognize the unethical business practices. Ethics are basically related to the moral judgments of a person about the wrong and right. In any organization, business ethical problem can direct its employees to take immoral decisions due to different obstacles. For this essay, a news article about Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is taken into consideration. This article about business ethics issue is recently published in “Sydney Morning Herald News” in Australia. It is named as “CBA and ANZ caught in fake banking apps scam” that depicts the ethical issue that is confronted by two of the largest banks of Australia.

As per a European Security Company, CBA and ANZ have been caught up in the fake banking applications scandal. The selected article depicts that fake applications for ANZ and CBA were among many false Android apps which tried to copy the personal banking apps of 6 banks in Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Poland and Switzerland (Hendy, 2018). The selected news article states that customers of the biggest Aussie banks have fallen victim of a wily scam targeting the banking applications on mobile phones. It is a big issue for everyone who may have given personal information on these applications. This essay includes the discussion about the ethical issue confronted by two largest lenders in Australia. It discusses major arguments of this problem in addition to most appropriate ethical decisions. In the last section, it covers ethical decision making procedure that assists company’s decision by determining the linked ethical philosophies.

As per the report of a European Company, more than thousand back customers have innocently downloaded the malicious applications copying legitimate CBA and ANZ from Google Play Store. Before this malfunction was discovered, some innocent users were revealing their personal information, log-in credentials and credit/debit card details to those fraudsters. All of these fake applications were via Google Play Store and customers of these banks have been advised to check their account balances and statements. It is a big ethical issue for anyone who has given the personal information and log-in credentials (Hendy, 2018). The theft of personally recognizable data can result in the financial fraud which may impact the individuals for the rest of their life adversely.

Evaluation of the Collected Information

In this case, three parties are playing important role such as Commonwealth bank, ANZ and Google. In this context, the spokesperson of Google denied to give any information about this. He stated that that company removes the apps which violate their policies and terms. Additionally, he said that their team does not comment on individual apps. Moreover, the spokeswoman of CommBank stated that security of banking details of customers is its first priority. Proactively, the bank monitors the app stores and utilizes the feedback of customer to find out the possible security risks for customers (Iphofen, 2016). Once a doubtful application is recognized, the bank works with the app store to disable or remove that app. Additionally, ANZ spokeswoman said that their bank was continuously supervising the fake apps and security scams.

By reading the selected article, it can be evaluated that the customers of these banks have faced the ethical issues which are related to the personal information leakage and security breach (Crane and Matten, 2016). In this new article, the major arguments are that both of the banks are under controversy because both the apps asked their over thousands of customers about their log-in and credit card details. The major goal of fake applications is to get sensitive data from unsuspecting customers. One of the major arguments in this case is that the banks were not able to identify the issues which the customers were facing. In the reply of this allegation, the banks made an argument that they are very much concerned about the security of customers’ information. The bank argued that it offers the advantages from its 100% Security Guarantee over unauthorized transactions where the people are not at mistake. In this context, ANZ stated that in June 2018, the bank become aware about fraudulent application through a customer. This app was named as ANZ PayOnGo that was being marketed on Google Play. After that, the bank worked with the team of Google Play Store to remove the app in a few hours (Chung, 2018).

In addition to this, it is found out that the applications with less functionality are considered less risky and provided fake bank apps which only asked the customers to log in and asked for their log in and credit card details, they looked to have fallen through. These apps utilize obfuscation that may contribute to them tripping into store unnoticed (Ni and Van Wart, 2015). This scam comes outside the Notifiable Data Breaches Act launched in January as these banks were imitated not hacked. The article shows that somewhere the banks were not able to follow the laws and principles of security and privacy. Due to this, both of the banks were gone under investigation as it is supposed that they breached Data Protection Laws.

Consideration of Different Alternatives

In this way, CBA and ANZ were failed to maintain the confidential data of its customers. This business ethics issue is relevant to corporate social responsibility as it has affected the trust and integrity between banks and their customers (Kolk, 2016). It is the moral responsibility of banks to secure the data of its customers but customers lost their personal information from these fake apps. This is the reason that CBA and ANZ need to make more efforts to secure the customers data. They need to be updated by the information and these types of frauds. Indirectly, these banks were unable to meet their responsibilities towards its customers.

To respond this ethical issue, the banks underwent an investigation where it is found that it is the not the fault of banks. The firms have made some specific decisions to overcome this issue and retain customers (Weiss, 2014). Both of the banks have issued the guidelines and contact numbers for the customers who have faced the problems due to fake banking apps. The below-given suggestions are given by both of the banks:

• The customers of CBA can report about suspicious mobile applications on 13 2221.
• Customers of ANZ should contact with their bank instantly if they think that they have downloaded a fake application on 1800 033 844 (Hendy, 2018).
• Additionally, customers should immediately change the pin codes of their credit card, net banking passwords and check the accounts for the doubtful activity. If they find any strange transactions contact the nearest bank branch.

In addition to this, the banks have issued a guideline that guides that how the customers can avoid falling victim to phishing and fake banking applications. From the analysis, it can be stated a good decision but it could be better if banks have taken some actions against the fraudsters. They need to make the customers understand that customers’ information is one of the most important assets to safeguard. It is their first priority to protect the log in credentials and credit card details of customers (Chung, 2018). Moreover, the banks could improve its decisions by issuing the privacy and security standards and principles so that no one can impersonate its services and authorized information.

Previously, there are various examples from real world companies that have confronted the similar business ethics dilemmas. In this context, the most current case is of Facebook Company which also confronted the problem of privacy theft of its 50 million users. To eliminate this ethical problem, the company has issued security principles and limited the use of applications developers. Same as Facebook, Sony Company has been penalized with £250 after it found guilty of not complying with industry’s data protection act. The organization was not able to utilize its security software properly (Trevino and Nelson, 2016). In order to resolve this problem, Sony has adopted strict privacy standards to protect itself from this type of issues.

Decision-making Using Moral Philosophy

To overcome the above ethical issue, a systematic ethical decision making process can be used. This decision making process includes different steps including ethical and moral philosophy that both banks can adopt to take decisions on above-mentioned business ethics issue (Ferrell and Fraedrich, 2015).  This ethical decision making procedure is given below:

Identification of Business Ethics Issue

This is the first step to recognize the business issue that is faced by the organization. In the above case, it has been revealed that CBA and ANZ have faced the issues of fake banking applications. The banks have lost the public trust and integrity in the services of financial institutions. Fake CBA and ANZ bank apps have been found on Google Play Store and it has left the people susceptible to wicked activity (Chung, 2018).

Collection of Relevant Information

After recognizing the issue, an investigation is conducted when the customers informed that some fraud apps are gaining their personal information and log in credentials. At this step, it is found that both the banks were impersonated not hacked. This data is used to approach the most suitable decision.

Evaluation of Collected Information

The collected information is evaluated with the support of regulators, information security department and legislators (Saha, 2015). It assists the banks understand the reason about the major reason behind fraudulent activities.

Consideration of Different Alternatives

The case was discussed with the IT experts and the management team of CBA and ANZ banks (Hartman, DesJardins and MacDonald, 2014). This stage assists in establishing the privacy and security principles and publishing the guidelines regarding the usage of banking apps.

Decision making using Moral Philosophy

After analyzing all the above alternatives, the banks will analyze all the alternatives and choose the most suitable decision under this step. Under this step, the organizations can use the ethical philosophy of deontology (Broad, 2014). It is a moral concept which showcases the normative stage and determines goodness of the procedure considering the applied regulations and rules. It can be described as a commitment which connects the entity to its roles and duties. According to this theory, it is the responsibility of CBA and ANZ to protect the private data of its customers. The organizations need to follow the laws and principles of data protection (Monteverde, 2014).

Conclusion

From the above analysis, it can be concluded that modern organizations need to emphasize on following all the regulations and rules which are implemented on the business. This essay assesses the business ethics issue which is confronted by the customers of CBA and ANZ in Australia. In the above case, the customers have faced the issue of losing their log in and credit card credentials. It is found that both the banks should make more efforts to increase security measures so that they can store customers’ data safely. The private data of banks should be kept privately so that fake apps cannot imitate it.

References

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Chung. (2018) CommBank, ANZ hit with scam apps. Available from https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/banking/commbank-anz-hit-with-scam-apps/news-story/3823b667c1acbd138e9c12c29ef9adfe [Accessed on 28 Sep. 18].

Crane, A. and Matten, D., (2016) Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. US: Oxford University Press.

Ferrell, O. C., and Fraedrich, J. (2015) Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Canada: Nelson Education.

Hartman, L.P., DesJardins, J.R. and MacDonald, C., (2014) Business ethics: Decision making for personal integrity and social responsibility. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hendy, N. (2018) CBA and ANZ caught in fake banking apps scam. Available from https://www.smh.com.au/money/banking/cba-and-anz-caught-in-fake-banking-apps-scam-20180919-p504si.html [Accessed on 28 Sep. 18].

Iphofen, R., (2016) Ethical decision making in social research: A practical guide. Springer.

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Ni, A. and Van Wart, M., (2015) Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing Well and Doing Good. In Building Business-Government Relations (pp. 175-196). Routledge.

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Shaw, W.H., (2016) Business ethics: A textbook with cases. Nelson Education.

Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., (2016) Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley & Sons.

Weiss, J. W. (2014) Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.