My paycheck depends on reconciling myself to it. Should I quit possibly my last job before retirement in a bleak job market to protest my manager's decision to protect her job and mine by putting revenue before protecting jane@doe.com's login from being stolen for the Nth time? Am I the bad guy?
It's not my place to define your ethics for you. I'm pointing out so any other readers can be innoculated from accidentally stumbling into this ethical minefield.
I'm not telling you stealing bread so your family doesn't starve is unethical, I'm pointing out it's stealing.
No idea if you're the bad guy, but you're not the ~~good guy~~ hero, no.
I'm a participant in sub-criminal negligence rather than stealing. I'd call that a lesser offense. And it's a failure I have mitigated by working to protect the data. I can't claim innocence, but I sleep OK.
It's also not about bread, because that was just an analogy.
I would sleep ok too, until something bad happened and people I had a responsibility to protect got hurt. Then I wouldn't sleep so well... Turns out humans are really bad at risk calculations.
I couldn't act ethically because I had to make money.