Author Archives: Joyce Wu

About Joyce Wu

Joyce Wu is an intern for Risk Management Monitor and Risk Management magazine. She is currently finishing up her studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, after which she will become very rich and successful.
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Happiness 9 to 5

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Free beer on Fridays, ping pong breaks and knitting clubs.

Sounds like an activity list from a cruise ship, or maybe the schedule pulled out of a retiree’s planner. Nope, these are the perks that some lucky individuals enjoy on the job every day. Fortune magazine recently released their annual list of 100 Best Companies to Work For, compiled using survey information from the employees themselves. The companies are ranked based on worker responses to questions regarding job satisfaction, benefits programs and management.

It’s not just the employees that reap the rewards of “best company” practices, but studies have revealed that keeping the workers happy results in a more profitable business overall. The Happiness Advantage author, Shawn Achor, writes in his book that happy employees outperform their unhappy coworkers in terms of energy, productivity and healthcare costs. The pattern can be seen across industries, with optimistic sales people selling 37% more and upbeat doctors making 50% more accurate diagnoses.

The insurance company, Aflac, made the list with its on-site child care program and generous spa treatments, and Google, a seasoned veteran, supports its laid-back, often whimsical, office culture by saying, “If you infuse fun into the work environment, you will have more engaged employees, greater job satisfaction, increased productivity and a brighter place to be.”

Employers could take a lesson or two from these happy companies. Workers who love their jobs treat customers better and are loyal to their companies. Investors know this, and they invest in companies with pampered employees because the returns are twice as high as other companies. Money may not get you happiness, but happiness sure does get you money.

iBreach

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No one is safe from the slimy tricks of today’s most conniving hackers. Not Rahm Emmanuel. Not Diane Sawyer. Not even New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

These public figures make up only a fraction of the victims in Apple’s worst security breach. This week, FBI agents arrested the two men responsible for stealing the personal information of 120,000 iPad users last summer. Federal officials charged Andrew Auernheimer and Daniel Spitler with fraud and conspiracy to access a computer without authorization, and both face up to ten years behind bars if convicted.

In June of 2010, Auernheimer and Spitler used a script called the “iPad 3G Account Slurper” to attack AT&T customer information and “slurp” up thousands of email addresses, which they attempted to leak to internet spammers. The fiasco has caused AT&T quite a few headaches. The company has already paid $73,000 to clean up the mess, not to mention the blow this incident must have inflicted on AT&T’s exclusive relationship with Apple. (Could this be a contributing factor to the budding alliance between Verizon and the iPhone?)

Stories like these sound familiar, and they gradually change with the times. First there was credit card identity theft. Now we worry about Facebook security. The cyber world is quickly evolving to become more interconnected, and unfortunately, it is increasingly difficult to enjoy the luxury of privacy. With the surging popularity of advanced technology and social media sites, we seem to be trading in our anonymity for easy access. Although avoiding new media doesn’t appear to be an option anymore, small steps like checking privacy settings and watching what material you post on public websites can provide some protection.

Be safe out there.

Bird-Flu-Proof and Delicious

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The Black Death. Smallpox. Cholera.

The names alone are enough to send shivers down spines. There’s just something frightening and sinister about diseases that can spread like wildfire and quietly kill millions. It comes as no surprise, then, that whenever the possibility of a pandemic is even whispered these days, countries are thrown into states of frenzy. Who could forget the SARS scare of 2003 or even the recent concerns about swine flu? The news isn’t all bad though. Scientists in the UK have unveiled new genetically modified (GM) chickens that can’t spread bird flu to their other feathered friends.

H5N1 influenza, more commonly known as bird flu and the subject of a July 2006 Risk Management cover story, has a history of wreaking havoc among people and poultry alike. In the past decade, outbreaks of H5N1 in Southeast Asia have claimed hundreds of human lives. Millions of chicken flocks have also been destroyed as health organizations attempt to stem the spread of the disease. Bird flu, therefore, presents challenges from both economic and health standpoints.

The genetically engineered chickens can ensure greater food security, as well as protect poultry farmers from economic losses, in areas where bird flu is prevalent. Furthermore, eliminating the transmission of H5N1 between birds also reduces the risk of the disease being passed on from chicken to human, thus lowering the risk of flu epidemics. The secret lies in a special decoy molecule in the GM chickens that prevents the virus from replicating and spreading.

Don’t expect GM chicken to be on Sunday night’s dinner menu though. There are a number of political and economic obstacles that must be surpassed before these chickens can be bred on commercial farms, not to mention that the public is still wary about food that has been scientifically tampered with. The British scientists predict that it will cost about $79,000 just to produce a few chickens that can be bred. Although feasible for affluent nations, the price tag is too high for the developing countries that need the most protection from bird flu. The ultimate goal, however, is to engineer a chicken that will be resistant to the H5N1 disease completely.

While prospects look good, don’t count your chickens just yet.