Why one company declined cloud-based 'crisis communications system'

Cloud-based services are still often seen as too risky for sensitive information. Take the case at Kingsport, Tenn.-based Eastman Chemical Company, which said "no" to the cloud when designing its new crisis communications system.

Eastman Chemical, which operates chemical manufacturing facilities, decided to put in a new messaging system for interactive early warning notifications to thousands of employees in the event of any kind of emergency. They wanted one that would be IP-based with integration with Microsoft Lync VoIP, Eastman’s Active Directory as well as its legacy corporate pagers and radio systems. They could have chosen a cloud-based option from the vendor they selected, AtHoc. But it was decided the data Eastman Chemical might be sharing from its dispatch center was simply too sensitive to consider using a cloud-based service.

Network World - Cloud-based services are still often seen as too risky for sensitive information. Take the case at Kingsport, Tenn.-based Eastman Chemical Company, which said "no" to the cloud when designing its new crisis communications system.

In its emergency communications system, Eastman Chemical Company said no to the cloud.

Eastman Chemical, which operates chemical manufacturing facilities, decided to put in a new messaging system for interactive early warning notifications to thousands of employees in the event of any kind of emergency. They wanted one that would be IP-based with integration with Microsoft Lync VoIP, Eastman’s Active Directory as well as its legacy corporate pagers and radio systems. They could have chosen a cloud-based option from the vendor they selected, AtHoc. But it was decided the data Eastman Chemical might be sharing from its dispatch center was simply too sensitive to consider using a cloud-based service.

"Eastman retains all messages on the Eastman network," says Keith Bennett, area supervisor, plant protection services, emphasizing that no emergency notification message is allowed to leave the Eastman corporate network, even though a cloud-based notification service for this was possible through AtHoc.

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Through the customized crisis communications system, a central dispatch system is functioning around the clock in order to direct a range of notifications to individual computers, VoIP phones, texting, RSS feeds, as well as e-mail, phones, pagers and two-way radios.

The kind of information that could be sent to thousands of Eastman employees via the IP-based live response system might pertain to anything from tornados, fire, medical and chemical safety to possible terrorism. It’s tailored to send messages to appropriate individuals via VoIP phones, mobile devices and computer pop-ups, allowing them to respond about safety status. “We needed to take advantage of new technologies but we use legacy radios and pagers," Bennett points out.

Because it’s considered “operations critical” messaging, Eastman decided that this was all too sensitive to permit the information to travel outside its private network and into the cloud and it was a requirement that AtHoc had to build the system for Eastman to keep it closed in that way.

Ellen Messmer is senior editor at Network World, an IDG website, where she covers news and technology trends related to information security. Twitter: MessmerE. E-mail: emessmer@nww.com

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Fear is potent risk of Japanese nuclear crisis

When it comes to the nuclear power disaster unfolding in Japan, there is far more to fear than fear itself. But fear is one of the biggest - and could turn out to be the most potent - dangers.

Although radiation escaping from a nuclear power plant catastrophe can increase the risk of many cancers and other health problems, stress, anxiety and fear ended up in many ways being much greater long-term threats to health and well-being after Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and other nuclear accidents, experts said Monday.

"The psychological effects were the biggest health effects of all - by far," said Fred Mettler, a University of New Mexico professor emeritus and one of the world's leading authorities on radiation, who studied Chernobyl for the World Health Organization. "In the end, that's really what affected the most people."

Fears of contamination and anxiety about the health of those exposed and their children led to significantly elevated rates of suicidal thinking and anxiety disorders, and rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression about doubled, Mettler and others said.

"The effect on mental health was hugely important," said Evelyn Bromet, a professor of psychiatry at Stony Brook University who studied the aftermath of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. "People's fears about getting cancer, or their children getting cancer, and family and friends dying from radiation exposure were very intense."

In the unprecedented disaster in Japan, where an earthquake triggered a tsunami that was followed by a major nuclear power plant emergency, all those negative psychological effects are being magnified in ways that no one can predict.

"You can imagine: There was an earthquake, and I survived that. And then here comes a tsunami, and I survived that. And then comes a nuclear reactor," said Mettler, the U.S. representative to the United Nations who studied Chernobyl. "With that kind of triple whammy, you can only imagine someone is going to be saying, 'What did I do? What's wrong with me?' "

Survivors of the bombings at Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945, Chernobyl and other nuclear accidents in Japan and Brazil were stigmatized by their societies, which caused discrimination that intensified emotional distress.

"After almost every radiological emergency, anyone or anything seen as or perceived as associated with the emergency came to be seen by others as tainted or something to be feared and even the object of discrimination," said Steven Becker of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Such stigmatization can interfere with victims receiving care and recovering from the event, said Becker, who studied the psychological and social impact of a much less severe nuclear accident in 1999 in Tokaimura, Japan. In that case, people in other parts of Japan refused to buy products from that region, and travelers were turned away from hotels and asked not to use public baths and swimming pools. Similar discrimination occurred after a 1987 radiation exposure event in Goiania, Brazil.

In the long run, such incidents can negatively transform entire cultures. In the areas affected by the 1986 Chernobyl accident, a crippling sense of hopelessness set in and was passed down through generations.

"What we know from experience is the psychological footprint from a nuclear disaster can not only be massive but in many ways greater than the effect of radiation," Becker said. "On an individual level, these range all the way from anxiety disorders, depression and substance abuse to a kind of culture of fatalism and hopelessness that has gripped the population in many areas, and it continues today, decades later."

Among all the threats humans face today, radiation consistently ranks near the top of the list of what people fear and the emotional reaction it produces.

"As soon as we hear anything about 'nuclear,' our brain goes very quickly looking for danger and says, 'Alert?' " said David Ropeik, an instructor at Harvard University who studies risk perception and wrote "How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don't Always Match the Facts." "That's just how we do it psychologically."

There are many reasons why humans fear radiation so intensely. One reason is because radiation is silent, invisible and odorless. Another is because radiation is associated with cancer, which itself is one of the most feared words. Another reason is that in accidents, as opposed to medical treatments, exposure to radiation is involuntary. Other reasons are the searing images of victims of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, a generation raised fearing Cold War-mushroom-cloud annihilation and the way radiation is portrayed by popular culture.

"In the movies and in comic books, people getting exposed to radiation turn into monsters," said John Boice Jr., a radiation expert at the International Epidemiology Unit in Rockville.

In fact, radiation is a far less potent carcinogen than other toxic substances. Studies of more than 80,000 survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts have found that about 9,000 people subsequently died of some form of cancer. But only about 500 of those cases could be attributed to the radiation exposure the people experienced.

The average amount of radiation that victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were exposed to would increase the risk of dying from lung cancer by about 40 percent, Boice said. Smoking a pack of cigarettes a day increases the risk of dying of lung cancer by about 400 percent.

"Radiation is a universal carcinogen, but it's a very weak carcinogen compared to other carcinogens," Boice said. "Even when you are exposed, it's very unlikely you will get an adverse effect. But fear of radiation is very strong."

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Surgeon general says obesity crisis should be addressed together

Since 1980, obesity rates have doubled in adults and more than tripled in children. The problem is even worse among black, Hispanic and Native American children. Nationwide, more than two-thirds of adults and more than one in three children are overweight or obese.

We see the sobering impact of these numbers in the high rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses that are starting to affect our children. A study from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine reported that obese children as young as age 3 show signs of an inflammatory response that has been linked to heart disease later in life.

Everyone has a role to play in the prevention and control of obesity. Mothers, fathers, teachers, business executives, child-care professionals, clinicians, politicians and government and community leaders: we must all commit to changes that promote the health and wellness of our families and our communities.

Change starts with the choices we make each day for ourselves and those around us. At the same time, there is a growing consensus that we, as a nation, need to create communities and environments where the healthy choices are the easy choices and the affordable choices.

"The Surgeon General's Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation" is an attempt to change the national conversation from a negative one about obesity and illness to a positive one about being healthy and being fit. We need to stop bombarding Americans with what they can't do and what they can't eat. We need to begin to talk about what they can do to become healthy and fit.

For years now, we have encouraged Americans to eat more nutritiously, exercise regularly and maintain healthier lifestyles. But for people to do these things, Americans need to live and work in environments that support their efforts.

For example, children should be playing and having fun. However, we have to provide safe environments for them, such as clean and well-lighted parks, recreational facilities, community centers, and walking and bike paths. Healthy foods should be affordable and accessible. Increased consumer knowledge and awareness about healthy nutrition and physical activity will foster a growing demand for healthy food products and exercise options, dramatically influencing marketing trends.

We should remember that individuals are more likely to change their behavior if they have a meaningful reward - something more than reaching a certain weight or dress size. The reward has to be something that each person can feel, can enjoy and can celebrate.

The real reward is optimal health, which allows people to embrace each day and live their lives to the fullest - without disease, disability or lost productivity.

We have an opportunity to make a difference in this public-health crisis of obesity and overweight. Working together, we can become a healthy and fit nation. Today I would like to ask for your help.

Benjamin, a family physician, is the surgeon general of the United States.

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Biodiversity crisis: The impacts of socio-economic pressures on natural floras and faunas

This shows an endangered species: Trifolium saxatile - clover. Copyright: Stefan Dullinger

A new study on extinction risk has shown that proportions of plant and animal species being classified as threatened on national Red Lists are more closely related to socioeconomic pressure levels from the beginning than from the end of the 20th century. Stefan Dullinger of the University of Vienna and Franz Essl from the Austrian Environment Agency together with an international group of researchers reports this new finding in the current issue of PNAS.

It is well understood that the survival of a substantial and increasing number of species is put at risk by human activity via e.g. habitat destruction, environmental pollution or introduction of alien species. Accordingly, the most recent global IUCN Red List classifies 31% of the 65,518 plant and animal species assessed as endangered. However, the temporal scale of cause-effect relationships is little explored. If extended time lags between human pressure and population decline are common, then the full impact of current high levels of anthropogenic pressures on biodiversity will only be realized decades into the future.

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This shows Spermophilus citellus - European ground squirrel. Copyright: Wolfgang Rabitsch

Historical legacy of species' population losses

Taking an historical approach, the new study provides circumstantial evidence that such time-lags are indeed substantial. The researchers demonstrate that proportions of vascular plants, bryophytes, mammals, reptiles, dragonflies and grasshoppers facing medium to high extinction risks are more closely matched to country-specific indicators of socio-economic pressures (i.e. human population density, per capita GDP, land use intensity) from the early or mid rather than the late 20th century. Accordingly, their results suggest a considerable historical legacy of species' population losses. In a related analysis they also show that current spending on environmental conservation only has a weak mitigating effect. This finding implies that current conservation actions are effective, but inadequate in scale, to halt species losses.

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This is Onosma helvetica ssp. austriaca. Copyright: Franz Essl

"The broad taxonomic and geographic coverage indicates that a so-called 'extinction debt' is a widespread phenomenon", says Stefan Dullinger from the University of Vienna. "This inertia is worrying as it implies that albeit numbers of species classified as threatened on Red Lists are increasing continuously and worldwide, these assessments might still underestimate true extinction risks", explains Franz Essl from the Austrian Environment Agency.

Increase in global conservation effort is urgently needed

Therefore, the scientists write "mitigating extinction risks might be an even greater challenge if temporal delays mean many threatened species might already be destined towards extinction". They expect that minimizing the magnitude of the current extinction crisis might be an even greater challenge when temporal delays are taken into account. Therefore a substantial increase in global conservation effort is urgently needed to conserve species diversity for future generations, warns Dullinger.

More information: Stefan Dullinger, Franz Essl, Wolfgang Rabitsch, Karl-Heinz Erb, Simone Gringrich, Helmut Haberl, Karl Hülber, Vojtech Jarošík, Fridolin Krausmann, Ingolf Kühn, Jan Pergl, Petr Pyšek, & Philip E. Hulme 2013: Europe's other debt crisis caused by the long legacy of future extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), April 15, 2013. DOI: www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1216303110

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Provided by University of Vienna

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