Cyber Research Ethics Decision Support (CREDS) Tool.

ABSTRACTThis work introduces an applied research and development project, the Cyber Research Ethics Decision Support (CREDS) tool. This effort is motivated to operationalize a decision support methodology, conceptual framework, and an interactive online tool to identify, reason, and manage ethical and legal issues related to cyber-based research (e.g., network and system security). The objectives of the tool are to facilitate research that minimizes potential harm while enabling innovation, and to advance the collective dialogue between and among researchers, oversight entities and policymakers about research ethics principles and practices. The functional goals include: estimating and communicating ethical risk; identifying potential impacts of technology; and measuring and improving judgment and reasoning. The methodology involves deriving principles and practices from established law, ethics and best practices, and then using that output to drive the underlying logic of the tool. The CREDS tool is intended to be a resource for the entire community to engage repeatable and transparent decision making in an effort to prevent unattended harm, diminished public trust, and reputational blowback by association arising from undifferentiated comparisons to public or private surveillance and cyber opportunism.