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Cindy Cohn writes at EFF that when a criminal started lacing Tylenol capsules with cyanide in 1982, Johnson & Johnson quickly sprang into action to ensure consumer safety. It increased its internal production controls, recalled the capsules, offered an exchange for tablets, and within two months started using triple-seal tamper-resistant packaging. Congress ultimately passed an anti-tampering law but the focus of the response from both the private and the public sector was on ensuring that consumers remained safe and secure, rather than on catching the perpetrator. Indeed, the person who did the tampering was never caught.
According to Cohn the story of the Tylenol murders comes to mind as Congress considers the latest cybersecurity and data breach bills. To folks who understand computer security and networks, it's plain that the key problem are our vulnerable infrastructure and weak computer security, much like the vulnerabilities in Johnson & Johnson's supply chain in the 1980s. As then, the failure to secure our networks, the services we rely upon, and our individual computers makes it easy for bad actors to step in and "poison" our information. The way forward is clear: We need better incentives for companies who store our data to keep it secure. "Yet none of the proposals now in Congress are aimed at actually increasing the safety of our data. Instead, the focus is on "information sharing," a euphemism for more surveillance of users and networks," writes Cohn. "These bills are not only wrongheaded, they seem to be a cynical ploy to use the very real problems of cybersecurity to advance a surveillance agenda, rather than to actually take steps to make people safer." Congress could step in and encourage real security for users—by creating incentives for greater security, a greater downside for companies that fail to do so and by rewarding those companies who make the effort to develop stronger security. "It's as if the answer for Americans after the Tylenol incident was not to put on tamper-evident seals, or increase the security of the supply chain, but only to require Tylenol to "share" its customer lists with the government and with the folks over at Bayer aspirin," concludes Cohn. "We wouldn't have stood for such a wrongheaded response in 1982, and we shouldn't do so now."
(Score: 3, Funny) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday June 02 2015, @05:32AM
I have a close friend who has a professional civil engineering license. While he has to work hard to stay current on his license, the requirements are quite reasonable considering the loss of life that would result were he to screw up. But the bar is not raised so high he cannot reach it.
It's quite difficult to get a medical license but even so it is not impossible.
I've met numerous mentally ill mental health professionals.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Troll) by frojack on Tuesday June 02 2015, @05:53AM
I've met numerous mentally ill mental health professionals.
And they all seem to be with you posting in this thread.....!
Quick, Michael, back on your meds before the place is overrun!
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2015, @06:00AM
Oh no I mixed too much homemade laxative. Don't make me spam the shit onto your fucking precious thread.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday June 03 2015, @02:02AM
Filter error: Comment too short
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday June 03 2015, @01:13AM
this has been well-documented for decades. The easy way to demonstrate this is to look at the incidence of suicide by profession; psychologists commit suicide far out of proportion to the general public.
I've met two psychiatric hospital patients who were also practicing psychotherapists - that I know about. Perhaps there were others who didn't tell me the nature of their jobs.
The reasons behind this phenomenon were first elucidated by Swiss Child Psychologist Alice Miller in The Drama of the Gifted Child. I once mentioned the book to a therapist; she replied "I cried all the way through it".
tl;dr: The best shrink are commonly the survivors of profound child abuse.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday June 03 2015, @08:01PM
Dentists have one of the highest suicide rate of any profession.
No doubt due to childhood cavities.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2015, @05:53AM
Jesus Christ! "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
(Score: 4, Funny) by tibman on Tuesday June 02 2015, @06:05AM
Sounds contagious.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday June 03 2015, @01:24AM
not by spreading germs through the air. Ever heard the expression "break the cycle"? It is quite common for mental illnesses to run in families, for the most part due to the children of child abusers going on the abuse their own children.
It's also well documented that some mental illnesses are genetically inherited; this can be shown from studies of twins who have been adopted to different families.
There is a correllation between adult schizophrenia and exposure to cats as a child. While not proven this is thought to be due to the same cat feces parasite as causes toxoplasmosis among pregnant women. there is also some reason to believe that adult schizophrenia can result from one's mother contracting influenza during one's gestation.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]