I don't understand my essay prompt and need help starting out.

Well I'm not really sure about how to start my essay. This is what my professor gave us.

Under the course documents section, you will find a copy of a news article on "Data theft from firms topped a trillion dollars in 2008: study".

You will write a paper analyzing the factual basis for the material in the above mentioned news items. Your analysis will include consideration of the following points:

1. An explanation of which formal ethical systems could justify the actions reported in the news item. Be careful in your analysis; the most obvious ethical system consistent with this behavior is not the only one that is possible.

2. Are these behaviors allowed by or consistent with either the ACM or IEEE codes of ethics? A yes/no answer is NOT sufficient; explain your reasoning with actual quotes from the relevant sections of the codes.

3. Are these behaviors consistent with issues of privacy or intellectual property?

Am I really not arguing anything here?

honestly, i do not understand what you want to deliver for us.

Intoduction : this section consists of general information which mentions thesis statement
Body : thesis statement will be explained in this section
Conclusion : summary of your statement (you can creat paraphasing from introduction)

Well I know how to write an essay but let me ask this in a more detailed way.

Is it ok if I start my essay by defining data and explaining who it hurts and how and then going into answering the questions?

And what does it mean to analyze the factual basis of an article?

Question one sort of throws me off. Do you think I am supposed to justify data theft through ethics or the fact that stealing is right or wrong?

In my eyes, I cannot mention that it is a criminal or no. Some people argue that as long as the data is used to give contribution a journal, it is fair to use it. Standing in contrast, scientific journal is an authentic intellectual asset which is covered by law. As a result, I deliberate that we can adopt the main idea, so we can paraphrase base on own words and give additional information.