Confucius and the formation of information security culture in the context of the digital economy development (The new is what has been forgotten)

Abstract

The issues of information security are the most acute in the development of the modern information society. At the same time, as the experience of introducing information technologies into almost all spheres of life shows, the key here is the formation of an information culture and, above all, an information security culture. This provision is repeatedly emphasized in the Doctrine of Information Security of the Russian Federation. It is known the basis of this process are the ethical norms and rules of society. Given that the concept of ethics has a thousand-year long history, the approaches used for its development at different stages of human existence are of particular interest. The main purpose of this study is to analyze some of the main components of ethical norms and rules formed several millennia ago within the framework of one of the major directions of ancient philosophy - Confucianism. As Confucius has said, «To live according to the ethic rules is to be aware of your belonging to the world to the same extent as you are aware of your difference from other people» In this regard, we examine several quotes from the legacy of the classical Chinese scientist Confucius and analyze its importance for the formation of the information society ethics. Based on this analysis, an attempt is made to propose some particular steps in order to address the ethical issues arising today.

Keywords

• information society, information security, information culture, ethics of the information society, confucian ethics.