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Stolen laptop contains cancer research data

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Re: Stolen laptop contains cancer research data

#41

Post by doron »

sophacles wrote: post #36
edw519 wrote: post #21

Sorry guys, but most of the comments in this thread remind me of why we IT people have so much bad PR to overcome. We're blaming the user for our mistake. That's like blaming the cow for leaving the pasture because one of us forgot to lock the gate. The simple fact is that this user should have never been able to be in a position for this to happen. Where were the IT security policies and procedures? Why was mission…

I'm sick of this attitude of "Always be super nice and make sure you over mother your users" crap. You know what: If my car engine seizes because I haven't changed the oil, no one tells the car makers or the mechanics they didn't do thier job right. If I leave the oven on all night and get CO poisoning, no one blames the oven maker for it. If someone doesn't buy renter's insurance we don't blame the apartment owner f…

You need a license to operate your car, not so with your PC.

{edit}

Some of your users might well be incompetent computer users and wont pass the "test".

I have often thought about why people dont do backups even when the new tools are easy for most to handle. I think the reason is psychological in nature.

Backup implies that you are at least cognizant of the impending disaster scenario. many people avoid even thinking about this, why think of bad news?. Engineers are accustomed to this way of thinking, its a different mental makeup, we shouldn't assume the general public shares this point of view, especially since most of the time they are led through their computing experiences by "wizards" and "guides" might as well be priests.

Re: Stolen laptop contains cancer research data

#43

Post by kylec »

stevoski wrote: post #20
lkrubner wrote: post #16

The reward is only $1,000. While their research may have offered some interesting insights into cancer, they clearly didn't have an absolute cure (for prostate cancer, which is mentioned in the article). If they had a real cure, then around this moment Merk would step in and offer a $10,000,000 reward for the return of the laptop, in exchange for the right to commercialize the technology. I've several friends who hav…

The idea that a "cure" for any type of cancer would only be on one laptop is absurd. It may work in a movie plot, but in real life, no way. At best it would have info on how to possibly, vaguely minimise the suffering in some situations. Cancer is not something that one brilliant researcher can "cure" alone.

Besides, a researcher smart enough to cure cancer is smart enough to back up their computer.

Re: Stolen laptop contains cancer research data

#44

Post by radioactive21 »

I work for a University and I laugh so hard every time I hear this.

For the people that say this should be an IT policy issue let me explain to you how academic people work.

Professors and researchers are KINGS and QUEENS. You CANNOT tell them what to do, nor can you force ANYTHING on them.

The only exception are the engineering professors for obvious reasons they have their shit together. Other faculty are just plain morons and think they can do everything on their own.

Professors and researchers get to buy and chose their own laptops, and they can do whatever they want. Unless they fall under the administration side, IT cannot tell them what to put on or do with the laptop.

Just to get off my chess I'll tell you one of many stories. A faculty member brought in his school paid laptop, and he obviously used it for personal reasons. This is his main work laptop with all his data (again we can't force them to follow our policy since they are not administration), so he has no backups or any antivirus scans.

His laptop had over 5000 viruses when I ran a virus scan. This is no joke, I have the screen shot somewhere. I refuse to clean and told him I will rebuild it. Which I did and put all this files back. I explain to him exactly what I did in an email, what he would lose (software etc) and he was okay with it, remember I have this in email. Only when he agreed did I go ahead with the rebuild.

He comes back and writes an email to the department chair that I had broke his laptop and had to rebuild it. Then I lost his software which he paid for and wants the school to pay for it back.

I almost kicked him in he face even if it got me fired. Luckily my boss stepped in and took care of it.

Re: Stolen laptop contains cancer research data

#45

Post by randomwalker »

edw519 wrote: post #21

Sorry guys, but most of the comments in this thread remind me of why we IT people have so much bad PR to overcome. We're blaming the user for our mistake. That's like blaming the cow for leaving the pasture because one of us forgot to lock the gate. The simple fact is that this user should have never been able to be in a position for this to happen. Where were the IT security policies and procedures? Why was mission…

What you say makes perfect sense, but as an academic I have to say it is extremely unlikely that the policies and procedures you mention can be carried over from corporations to academia in a straightforward way.

Academics react extremely badly to being told to follow procedures as part of their daily workflow, especially ones they don't understand the importance of. In fact, a big part of the reason that they're in academia in the first place is that they're not able to handle the mundane requirements that are usually in place in the "real world."

For example, someone I work with complains incessantly about the fact that department IT forced him to upgrade from pine — pine, in 2010 — because it is no longer supported. If the IT folks tried to institute rigorous procedures, they would be instantly vilified (and ignored). Unlike in a company where there's a hierarchy, professors don't have anyone above giving them orders, and aren't used to the concept.

Of course, scientific protocols themselves often require lots of procedures, but this is very different because it comes from within and is well-motivated from the point of view of the scientist.

Let me clarify: I do think it is very important that what happened here doesn't happen again, but ensuring that is much harder than someone not familiar with the system might assume. It probably needs to be a mixture of carrots and sticks; I'd say a lot more carrots than sticks.

Re: Stolen laptop contains cancer research data

#49

Post by dholowiski »

This kind of thing makes me wonder... how long until backups are mandatory. I mean, in Windows 10 or OS 11 (aka: IOS 5), will it just come with 10 or 20gb of online storage that's automatically backed up, without the user's input (and is difficult to disable)?

We already have crazy easy backup solutions like mozy, carbonite, backblaze etc but the majority of people don't use them. What happens when the OS makers force you to back up?

And yes... it is totally the IT people's fault for not forcing backups on their users. Sorry but as an IT guy (I am one) it's your responsibility to make sure your users don't get into this kind of a situation!

Re: Stolen laptop contains cancer research data

#50

Post by reemrevnivek »

sophacles wrote: post #36
edw519 wrote: post #21

Sorry guys, but most of the comments in this thread remind me of why we IT people have so much bad PR to overcome. We're blaming the user for our mistake. That's like blaming the cow for leaving the pasture because one of us forgot to lock the gate. The simple fact is that this user should have never been able to be in a position for this to happen. Where were the IT security policies and procedures? Why was mission…

I'm sick of this attitude of "Always be super nice and make sure you over mother your users" crap. You know what: If my car engine seizes because I haven't changed the oil, no one tells the car makers or the mechanics they didn't do thier job right. If I leave the oven on all night and get CO poisoning, no one blames the oven maker for it. If someone doesn't buy renter's insurance we don't blame the apartment owner f…

The problem with those analogies is that they're due to physical properties which the designers of those cars, ovens, and apartments couldn't control.

Oil can't be regenerated. When gas burns, it emits CO. Catastrophes that might hit an apartment are usually out of the architect's control. There are protection schemes, but they're only protection, and they're often expensive.

In contrast, software authors are working in a world where they define the laws of the equivalent of physics. It's hard to define them so that nothing bad can happen, and they may be expensive in terms of memory or time, but there's still a big difference between problems in software and problems in the real world.

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