I've found that there isn't a lot of discussion or research around this subject. Shoutout to engprax, a compliance company, for clearly approaching the issue.

Is it actually an issue though? Software engineers by design (?) are not capital "P" professionals. There's no certification or board underwriting our work. Software engineering/developers have had the latitude to "move fast" and represent the only "professional" trade that has the ability to "try again" (with a deployment) versus a structural engineer for example.

> Dr Junade Ali CEng FIET, the Principal Investigator of the study, said: “Recent developments demonstrate the fundamental importance of software engineers being free to raise the alarm when they become aware of potential wrongdoing; unfortunately our research has highlighted that software engineers are not sufficiently protected when they need to do so. From software engineers facing mass retaliation for speaking up and banned gagging clauses still being used, to ‘industry-standard’ software development metrics not considering the public’s risk appetite; this investigation has highlighted systematic and profound issues with society-wide impact, given how integral computers are to all our lives.

With the ubiquitous nature of software in modern society are we at the point were we need certification? The development and certification of "industry-standards"? This theme, balancing innovation with responsibility, is throughout the the Biden Administration's Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (Order).

Who is really responsible though? The developers who wrote the code? Or the executive who ordered the change?

There's are plenty of examples of this in recent history. Where engineers/developers released code they knew was harmful/fraudulent but did so anyway under fear of retaliation.

> FTX (Nishad Singh) https://www.reuters.com/technology/how-secret-software-chang...

> Pollen https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/pollen/#:~:text=Later%2C%....

I wonder where this is going to go.