Latest news with #Neidert
NBC News
01-07-2025
- Health
- NBC News
What is Innotox? People on social media are self-injecting 'Korean botox' at home
Marie Neidert, 43, first started getting Botox about three years ago as a way to manage her migraines, but enjoyed the cosmetic side effects too. When the medspa she goes to switched to a different neurotoxin, she didn't see the same level of tightening of her 11 lines and laugh lines, says Neidert, who lives in St. James, Missouri. The new product was now only lasting 'like a month and a half, two months,' Neidert tells 'And price-wise, I was like, this is ridiculous.' She was paying about $600-700 for toxin every few months. Neidert had seen other people on TikTok post about getting 'great results' from self-injecting Innotox, a Korean injectable containing the same active ingredient as Botox. 'So I went down that rabbit hole,' she says, even asking her TikTok followers what they thought before she ordered. She ended up ordering a bottle of Innotox for $210 from a supplier who previously sent her unregulated 'fat dissolver' products, she says. She had an aesthetician friend test the product and supervise her while she injected 30 units into her face at home. Within just three days, Neidert noticed her 'frowny faces' tightening up. Neidert has heard stories of people buying counterfeit toxins, though not specifically Innotox, and says she's aware 'it's always a risk because it's not regulated. But at this point in the game,' she isn't worried, she adds. Kelly Keene, 41, of Grifton, North Carolina, feels similarly. 'I really didn't care about the risks — not one bit,' Keene tells 'Especially because, going on TikTok, you see so many other people doing it.' Already a regular Botox user, she was up late one night scrolling through TikTok and decided to order Innotox online. During the two weeks she waited for it to arrive, 'all I did was study how to inject myself,' she says. She was shaking with nerves while injecting herself and was full of anxiety that night. 'I was scared. I was like, what if this thing kills me?' she recalls. But she's done it a few times now and says she's 'definitely happy with the results.' She adds that she only injects around her eyebrows because she's 'too nervous' to do her 'full face.' Neidert and Keene are part of a larger trend of people purchasing Innotox — made by a Korean company and also referred to as 'Korean Botox' or 'K-Botox' — from third-party retailers online in an effort to smooth crow's feet and brow lines on a budget. Armed with information sourced from online videos and social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram, they're injecting an imported, unregulated pharmaceutical product meant only for professional use into their own faces — and experts are shocked. 'It's just really not something that you could learn comprehensively yourself online, as a layperson,' Molly O'Rourke, a registered nurse and nurse injector at 207 Laser, a medical spa in Portland, Maine, tells 'My fear is just for the general public to buy into this.' My fear is just for the general public to buy into this -Molly O'Rourke, a registered nurse and nurse injector at 207 Laser In one video O'Rourke saw, the user showed where she was going to inject the product along the neckline. 'They're showing injection points over your thyroid and over the muscles that help you breathe,' she says. 'If you go too deep, they're going to affect your breathing. ... That sort of thing really freaks me out.' Eventually, O'Rourke saw so many red flags online that she posted a video of her own warning people not to follow the trend. 'Don't inject yourself with fake Botox products from the internet, I beg of you,' O'Rourke says in the Instagram video. 'Just leave it to the professionals. We know what we're doing. It's deeper than you think. It's harder than you think.' 'I'm all for wanting to learn to do something yourself, but this isn't one of those things.' The rise of self-injecting via social media Cosmetic self-injections aren't an entirely new phenomenon, but they are 'terrifying,' Dr. Michelle Henry, a board-certified dermatologist, tells 'This is something that I see, the use of unregulated aesthetic products. It's scary and it's dangerous,' Henry says, adding that she's had 'patients come in with self-injected filler that they've gotten online ... and ended up with infections and bumps.' Self-injection of filler and Botox-like products has picked up in recent years primarily due to cost and lack of trust in providers, research suggests. There has also been a significant increase in overall demand for cosmetic injectables. While Innotox is approved for use in other countries, it is not approved for any use in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration. And, experts say, any product like this should be administered by a trained professional. Medytox, the maker of Innotox, tells in a statement that it 'only sells prescription products to authorized medical providers and medical distribution companies. Medytox is unaware that some of the product is being offered online in unapproved countries or available to consumers.' 'Medytox certainly does not endorse the self-injection of botulinum toxins by consumers,' the company says. In at least a portion of social media videos, 'people were looking at some of the right areas when they were doing their injections,' says Dr. Evan Rieder, who is board-certified in both dermatology and psychiatry. 'But there's so many issues,' he tells 'One, what is this product? Where is it coming from, and what's in it?' In several of the social media videos reviewed by users direct their followers to purchase from third-party retailers. And some social media users, who appear to have no professional training or licensing in the use of injectables, promote affiliate marketing codes for those retailers as well. Medytox tells in a statement that it 'was not previously aware' of people purchasing its products through third-party retailers and that it planned to 'investigate this unauthorized activity. ... Only medical providers in countries that have approved Medytox products should be using our brands.' The FDA is aware of people selling these types of products and has taken some enforcement actions in the past, an agency spokesperson tells And while the FDA is 'concerned about websites that may be misleading or fraudulent,' it does not comment on potential or ongoing investigations. TikTok tells that because Innotox is not FDA approved, any content showing Innotox being used or marketing it is against community guidelines and will be removed. TikTok says it has already taken steps against some accounts and videos. According to Meta, Instagram prohibits ads for drugs, products or supplements that are, as they described, potentially unsafe, and only qualified advertisers can post ads for prescription drugs. Meta also prohibits content selling prescription drugs (except in certain circumstances) and limits content mentioning cosmetic procedures to users over 18. Some of the Instagram posts promoting Innotox violated Meta's policy and were removed, a spokesperson tells Unregulated products and health risks Both Henry and Rieder raise concerns about unregulated products that purport to contain botulinum toxin, the active ingredient in Botox, Innotox and many other products on the market. There have been previous cases of fake products leading to life-threatening side effects, they note. But even if the Innotox that people are self-injecting is the real deal, there are still plenty of safety concerns, the experts say. Botulinum toxin is a neurotoxin that works by preventing the release of a neurotransmitter, which then prevents muscle contraction. When used in appropriate doses and injected carefully, it can be an effective way to manage some signs of aging, as well as a few other medical issues. 'It takes a long time to understand these muscles. And while it looks like on Instagram you put a dot and you inject, you really need to know exactly where the muscle is,' Henry explains. The facial maps and videos shared on social media make it seem like a 'paint-by-numbers' process, Rieder adds, 'but not every map that's written out about the facial muscles is accurate for everyone's face.' Henry says she always tells her patients, 'It looks easy when I do it because it took me 20 years to make it look easy. In that minute that you think I'm just pushing my finger, I'm considering your allergies, your medications, what you're going to do tomorrow, how you're lying down and the angle of my needle.' 'There are ways that I won't even inject myself,' she adds. Neither Rieder nor O'Rourke feel comfortable injecting themselves, either, even with their years of experience. On the milder end of side effects, 'if you have real neurotoxin there and you're just injecting it into the wrong places, you could have facial muscle weakness or facial muscle paralysis,' which can last for months, Rieder says. Because the effects of botulinum toxin products can take up to 14 days to become noticeable, O'Rourke notes, 'you could think that you're in the clear and then all of a sudden, you can't open one of your eyes and you don't know what to do.' At the more severe end, 'if you have too much botulinum toxin (in your body), you get flaccid paralysis, meaning all of your muscles stop working and contracting, including the muscles you need to breathe, and that's how patients die,' Henry says. There are sterility concerns as well. '(The product) could be improperly stored or they can be contaminated,' O'Rourke says. And while the fact that Innotox is pre-mixed is often a selling point to inexperienced folks, it's actually an added challenge. Most neurotoxins in the U.S. come as a powder, which gets diluted with saline before injection, Rieder explains. But experienced providers tend to change the dilution amount based on the area of injection due to the risk of side effects or migration with too much fluid. 'If you don't know what you're doing, it's probably easier,' he adds. 'But for those of us who are looking at the nuances and the subtleties and doing different dilutions for different indications, it's not an advantage.' Of course, not everyone who self-injects these products will have a problem, Rieder notes. But if something does go wrong, people at home may not have the knowledge to treat it appropriately or recognize when it's time to get medical attention, the experts say. If you're having eye issues after an injection, for example, 'we can prescribe you eyedrops, or we can try and reverse it by flooding the area with saline,' O'Rourke says. 'There's so many ways to combat adverse effects that I don't think people at home even know exist.' What seems cheap may end up very expensive The urge to buy unregulated cosmetic products and inject them at home is driven partly by cost concerns, the experts say. In the U.S., Botox costs $10 to $14 per unit, and with a minimum of about 10 units between the brows, 'even at the cheaper end, you're still going to be spending $200 every three to four months,' O'Rourke says. Meanwhile, a bottle of 100 units of Innotox is advertised at prices from around $60-100 on third-party sites. 'In this economy, people are looking at their budget and saying, OK, where can I cut corners?' O'Rourke says. She calls Botox 'a luxury service' and tells clients that it's 'expensive because it's not necessary.' She likens it to the culture around trendy fast-fashion and consumers thinking, 'I don't care where it comes from, as long as it comes to me and it's cheap.' Ultimately, though, 'cheap is very expensive,' Henry says. 'These are novice people injecting their faces using a toxin that lasts 10 months. When you mess up, you have 10 months of looking this way, and what you're going to pay for a doctor to try to fix that is going to be double what you paid for the toxin.' Self-injecting is simply not worth the risks, even if you think it's saving you money, the experts agree. If you're considering using an online pharmacy or website to buy pharmaceutical drugs such as Innotox, check out the FDA's additional safety tips. And you can report unlawful sales to the FDA if you think a site may be selling medication illegally. You should also first chat with a licensed medical professional about your options, the experts agree. 'We have a lot on the market now that gives us all a little bit more flexibility in pricing,' Henry says. 'But we really shouldn't make decisions about our beauty and health around cost that way, especially for elective things.' While Neidert feels comfortable continuing to inject the Innotox she purchased, she says she worries 'about the people who come across the TikTok page of a WhatsApp number ... and they just send their money to these people. They don't know what they're truly getting.' O'Rourke adds: 'You might save a few bucks ... and it might seem like a beauty shortcut, but it could end in permanent damage.'
Harvard Business Review
24-06-2025
- Business
- Harvard Business Review
Create a Company Culture That Takes Cybersecurity Seriously
In the U.S. alone, the annual damage from cybercrime has increased by 33%, rising to $16 billion in 2024. The vast majority of these breaches are down to human failure, such as misconfiguration of systems and appliances, mishandling of information or storage devices, and manipulation by bad actors. But if the human factor is the weakest link in information security, it's also the area where the right solution can have the biggest impact. Human-centered security approaches offer significant potential for sustainable information security within organizations. It can encourage, for instance, every employee being concerned about secure passwords, suspicious and attentive about possible email threats, sure not to leave their computers unlocked, and careful not to talk about sensitive business issues in public. To achieve this human-driven security culture, companies have to address several challenges. First, awareness alone does not automatically lead to desired behavior. While building awareness is an important step, companies also need to measure actual security behavior and nudge correct behavior, and work toward making collective security behavior part of company culture. Second, while executives play a crucial role in modeling security behavior, chief information security officers who we interviewed expressed difficulty in persuading other senior executives of the value of information security investments and initiatives. And third, an effective information security culture requires a process of continuous improvement and re-evaluation. Without widespread buy-in, that's difficult to achieve. The good news is that there are well-studied behavioral strategies to influence people to act in more prudent and responsible ways. Over the years, we have focused on understanding how individual behaviors, organizational culture, and psychological factors influence cybersecurity practices and decision-making. In this article, we apply Neidert's Core Motives Model (which one of us developed) to guide leaders on positively impacting information security behavior in their organizations through a process of interpersonal influence. It is a psychological framework that ties Cialdini's principles of influence (which another of us developed) to psychological motives and deepens the understanding of why these principles are effective to drive human behavior. Using Influence to Create a More Secure Culture Moving people in a desired direction—and doing so ethically, as well as effectively—hinges on building trust and convincing others of the merits of one's request. That often means overcoming three common hurdles: convincing them it's worth listening to you, that following your request is more beneficial than inaction (or another person's proposal), and that they should act now instead of later. At first blush, getting employees to comply by using psychological, behavioral-based strategies may feel manipulative. But there's an important distinction between ethical influence and manipulation: Leadership is about influencing people to reach common goals and shared purposes via their own volition, rather than through force or coercion. This model is about getting people to act on their own volition. Neidert's Core Motives Model entails three stages to motivate people to reach the desired endpoint: Connect Reduce Uncertainty Inspire Action Each of these help you get past the hurdles of convincing them that you're worth listening to, that following your request is beneficial for them, and that it's important to act now. This approach has been successfully used for over a decade in various organizations of the military and law enforcement in countering cybercrime and terrorism. Its logic aligns closely with observed behaviors of employees in the cybersecurity domain, revealing untapped potential for more intentional application. In a cybersecurity context, the goals are to establish an organization-wide culture of collective security behavior. That means that in order to accomplish compliance in exemplary security behavior, leaders need to be able to build lasting rapport with their workforce and make them feel confident to follow the lead. 1. Connect Before you can credibly lead, you have to connect. In general, people are more likely to follow your requests once (a) they feel they know that you like them, and like you in return, (b) they genuinely consider you as part of their group, and (c) you have provided favors that create a sense of obligation in them. Set the right tone Others say 'yes' when they like you and believe that you like them. When you display openness and approachability, they often mirror it back. For example, researchers found that when managers in sales are likeable and invest in building rapport, their teams perform better and are more likely to hit their targets. In cybersecurity, building rapport through likability and shared understanding with employees across all departments is essential for fostering cooperation and effectively driving organization-wide security initiatives. Consider an experience we had with a client. We were working with two managers, each responsible for different departments, both of whom were trying to get a specific cybersecurity program adopted. One was extremely warm, had a welcoming smile, and, when the program was presented for the first time, allowed time for the audience to ask questions. The other was cold and talked about adopting the program as a fate that none of his department members had control over. There was far greater adoption in the first manager's department than in the second. Encourage unity We're more likely to go the extra mile for someone we consider to be part of our group—and that's true for information security behaviors, too. Of course, building security culture is a shared effort. But it's up to managers to create a sense of being united. One client with whom we worked took a day to gamify the information security education within their team—think of tabletop exercises and escape room games. They used this interactive learning format to simultaneously convey knowledge and bond the employees together. The team left the day not only with more knowledge about how to build a stronger security culture but also with stronger team camaraderie. Build reciprocity There is a pervasive social norm that dictates that if someone gives us something, we feel obliged to give something in return. This norm, called reciprocity, helps build trust and connection. One accepted definition of trust is the willingness to be vulnerable with another party. The rule of reciprocity is especially powerful if the gift is meaningful, unexpected, customized to the recipient, and unrelated to the request you will make from them in the future. Besides favors, the rule also works for concessions that activate a feeling of indebtedness. This means that reducing the severity of one's initial request can also lead people to be more likely to reciprocate in an intended direction. First ask employees to meet an extreme goal and then concede by following it up with a smaller, more achievable goal. For example, initially asking your employees to correctly spot-test phishing e-mails 100% of the time, then making a concession to allow for a lower false hit rate per period, will likely lead to higher average hit rates than asking for the lower rate at the outset. 2. Reduce Uncertainty A firmly established interpersonal connection will convince many people, but not everyone. Some will hesitate because they're unsure about the requested behavior. These people will often look for assurance that a request is reasonable. In some cases, that means looking to those with credible authority for cues on how to think and act. In other cases, it means looking to their peers. Leaders can take two steps to help reduce such uncertainty: use your credible authority and have them see others do it. Use your credible authority You may or may not be an expert in cybersecurity, but you can demonstrate and lean into your credibility. When you as a leader personally instruct your workforce to comply with corporate information security —or even better, participate yourself—you will be more likely to get the desired outcome. For example, in an organization that we advised, the chairman of the board actively participated in a cyber crisis simulation, demonstrating the relevance and seriousness of the matter. His attendance led to more focused behavior by employees during the simulation and sustained behavior afterwards. Have them see others doing it When people are uncertain, they look around them for cues on how to think and act. Leaders can harness this natural response by demonstrating good security behavior themselves, as well as shining a light on how relevant others have adopted these behaviors. For example, instead of only reporting the results of phishing tests to leadership, companies can promote responsible actions by sharing the results across the organization. We recommend focusing on the positive, desired behavior of others, how many did it, and how they achieved it, as a positive reference point is more effective than a negative reference point. 3. Inspire Action Even with an established relationship and reduced uncertainty, people still require nudges to actually act on a request. In order to encourage individuals to leave their comfort zones, they need to be reminded that they have committed to information security behaviors in the past. Therefore, leaders should harness the power of employees' past commitments, like having them accept and sign a corporate information security policy, as a way of obtaining consistent security behaviors in the future. Also, motivators that focus on what is at risk if they don't act and what could be lost when not acting in a timely manner are very effective. Highlight what they might lose (or gain) Opportunities gain value when they are less available or time bounded. This process is further enhanced when individuals see themselves in competition with others, loss-framing has been applied, or they consider the opportunity as being exclusive. For example, Swiss health insurer Helsana used loss-framing by terminating contracts with employees who three times in a row failed to detect the quarterly phishing email awareness tests. Helsana reduced the rate of employee failure from 15% to 3% within five months. This extreme approach, while effective, could be replaced with a gentler, more forgiving one. We recommend installing a security champion program. On a regular basis, employees with a certain information security score are eligible for exclusive recognition, like financial or fringe benefits. Those who do not achieve those scores lose the opportunity for these benefits. Elicit public commitment People want to be consistent. Once they have taken a position or committed themselves to a certain course of action, they tend to live up to it and feel inwardly obliged to behave accordingly. They feel even more behaviorally bound if they have actively, publicly, and voluntarily committed themselves to it. We recommend adding a sentence like, 'I will not click on any suspicious links' or 'I will continuously show alert behavior around phishing' at the end of a cybersecurity training. And regularly remind these employees of their commitment to the organization's information security endeavors by doing something like posting a relevant sticker on their desks or doors. Another idea is to annually have employees sign a code of conduct, preferably in front of bosses and peers, that outlines how to protect the company's information property and assets. . . . Information security practices benefit organizations and all their employees. Organizational cultures have one thing in common: They propose shared values that elicit a sense of belonging together. They give an organization and their workforce an ideological direction with which everybody can identify. Information security is part of a healthy organizational culture. A functioning information security culture will leverage spillover effects of the information security 'we-ness' that keep the culture intact when employees join and also when key personnel leave. To achieve this, a systematic approach to social influence can be used to foster security-compliant behavior and an organizational information security culture that benefits everyone.
CBS News
14-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
Historic Livingston County organ receives $30,000 in repairs thanks to community fundraising
An organ in Hartland, Michigan, has received about $30,000 in repairs and restoration in recent years, thanks in large part to significant fundraising. "It's a chorus of angels," said Don Thompson, who has served as caretaker of the organ for the last 30 years. Thompson has been taking care of the Hartland Music Hall project by project, mostly on his own. "The acoustics in the building are just about perfect," he said. It's a Kilgen organ that sits inside the hallowed music hall. It was made in St. Louis in 1932, and Thompson calls it a jewel. "The organ console is here, and in the back of the stage, there's a room with 780 pipes in it," he said. It isn't difficult to imagine just how much upkeep an instrument like this needs. Back in 2022, the organist who services Hartland's organ began recommending some repairs. "We asked him for a quote, what would it cost, and they gave us a number of $30,000, which we didn't have budgeted and is a large number for something that we wanted to keep going," said Sarah Neidert, director of Cromaine Library. That kicked off multiple phases of fundraising. First, a grant from the Hardland Consolidated Schools Foundation. "[Then] a concert as a fundraiser, and it was a wild success. We raised $12,000 to fund the second phase of repair," Neidert said. In that second phase of restoration, parts of the organ were removed from the building. "The whole front was taken off, repaired, taken off-site, oiled and lubricated," Neidert said. The hope now, Neidert said, is that any repairs in the future will be smaller and the organ will continue to sing her song. "Hopefully, it will be something we can fundraise for on a lower level to keep maintenance up," Neidert said.
