Very Nice, Now Do That Thing You Do

A good way to come up with cartoons is to force yourself into a problem that you need to solve.

For example, I was looking for another Halloween themed cartoon, but, drawing a blank (no pun intended), I drew a vampire in a meeting to see what might happen.

Are they in the red? Is it blood red? Is the meeting in the middle of the night? Are garlic sales down? Up? Are the Twilight movies helping?

In the end, I decided that if I were in a meeting with an honest to goodness vampire, I'd be less interested in our sales numbers and more interested in seeing that “turn into a bat thing” they can do, so I went with that.

Stoke council fined £120,000 over child data breach

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has been fined £120,000 by regulators after unencrypted sensitive child protection data was emailed to the wrong person.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) fined the council after one of its solicitors sent 11 emails about a child protection legal case, in error, to an unknown recipient.

"If this data had been encrypted then the information would have stayed secure," ICO head of enforcement Stephen Eckersley said in a statement on Thursday. "Instead, the authority has received a significant penalty for failing to adopt what is a simple and widely used security measure."

The breach occurred on 14 December 2011 when a council solicitor sent the emails, some of which contained data about a child's non-accidental injuries, plus medical information about two adults and two children.

The solicitor had been given a new computer by the council's IT department which did not have stored contact details, according to an ICO monetary penalty notice.

In trying to send the documents to counsel, the solicitor made two typographic errors when copying the counsel's work email address from a paper file, erroneously sending the emails to a live address.

The security breach did not affect the legal proceedings, but the judge presiding over the case was informed of the data disclosure.

The solicitor should have used the government secure intranet (GCSx) or encrypted the emails, said the ICO. She was not disciplined because the council was aware its legal department did not have access to encryption software, and staff had to send emails outside the GCSx network. In addition, employees had not been trained on information policy.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council was fined for breaching the Data Protection Act. The ICO took into account a previous undertaking signed by the council after sensitive childcare data was lost on an unencrypted memory stick in 2010.

The ICO said organisations should encrypt sensitive data at rest and in transit.

Microsoft Launches Windows 8, Now Available on 1,000 Plus Devices

Microsoft launched its long awaited Windows 8 yesterday. Over the years, the operating system has been a boon for businesses, spurring innovation and increasing productivity. Today there are many other tech tools that can make your business run better and more efficiently. We'll start with a look at the new Windows 8, then check out other tech you may want to consider investing in soon.

The Big Guns

Have a peek. The new Windows comes in a variety of flavors, including Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows Enterprise for larger organizations, and Windows RT for mobile devices. The new family of Windows products features what Microsoft calls a “fast and fluid” start screen, giving one-click access to applications and other content. The software will be available beginning today. Microsoft News Center

Come in, we're open. You can use the new Windows versions on a huge number of devices. Microsoft says more than 1000 PCs are certified to operate with Windows 8. The launch of the new Windows also corresponds with the opening of a new online Windows Store, offering downloads of Microsoft apps and a Windows 8 user interface. Tech Crunch

More Biz Tech

Smarter than the average business. If you're a smart small business owner, you'll create a brainier business too. Here are some of the tools you'll need. Guest blogger Carole Bennett provides us with an incredible list of goodies. Some of these tools may be familiar to you and others may be new, but all will help you do more with less. The Work at Home Woman

Improve your social life. HootSuite, a service mentioned in the previous link, is only one example of the tools available to manage your social media efforts and improve your productivity. Social media can be a time sink, as we all know. Management tools help you plan ahead and schedule social media campaigns, but they also help you monitor feedback on multiple channels. TodayMade

Share and share alike. Cool mobile tools are also giving merchants a whole new way of sharing their products. Qwiqq is one such tool. The app combines mobile capabilities with social sharing, allowing businesses to share their products with a social audience. But that's not all. Qwiqq also creates a virtual of “word of mouth” by letting customers share the products they love with friends. WebSuccessTeam

Other Cool Tools

The key to success. Social media tools aren't the only marketing resources available for promoting your business online. There are tools to help you find the proper keywords to use in your blog posts, as John Paul explains here. Just be careful when doing keyword research that you don't create content only a search engine could love. Quality posts are for readers too, not just for Google. John Paul Aguiar

Waste not want not. Productive entrepreneurs and small business owners all have one thing in common: They hate to waste time. But sometimes it can be hard to be productive when running errands or waiting in line. Fortunately, technology has come along to help us get things done even during these periods away from the workplace. Timo Kiander has created a video demonstrating one of them. Productive Superdad