The ‘stress test’, scheduled for 8th and 9th May 2012, aims to simulate conditions during the London 2012 Games, when many businesses will employ alternative working arrangements such as flexible hours to alleviate disruption to their operations.

Businesses of all sizes and their employees are encouraged to implement their ‘Games-time’ alternative working arrangements on 8th and 9th May and simultaneously conduct a simple and confidential online survey provided by Deloitte. The survey results will help organizations’ evaluate their plans and provide an overall industry view of the measures being adopted. Registration and participation in the survey is free to all businesses.

The Stress Test organizers aim to ensure that London has the right information to remain open for business during the Games, and in particular that employees can still access their workplaces and use telecommunications.

The initiative is being led and promoted by Canary Wharf Group plc and Deloitte working in partnership with the Government Olympic Executive, Transport for London, The Greater London Authority, City of London Corporation, the Financial Services Authority and the London First Cross-sector Safety and Security Communications Group (CSSC). A number of Canary Wharf and the City’s largest employers are already committed to the scheme.

Organizations that wish to participate are required to register at www.deloitte.co.uk/stresstest

“Traditionally, privacy has been a major concern when it comes to the use of CCTV. However, it now looks like the British public are becoming more accepting of it and see it as an effective deterrent,” said Adrian Edwards, Consumer Solutions Manager at D-Link UK & Ireland. “Clearly the general public are more worried about their property and possessions these days, which is highlighted by 87% survey respondents wanting more police on the streets. Consequently, many people are looking at ways they can better protect their property and possessions themselves. From the research it appears that some people would like to take ‘neighbourhood watch’ quite literally!”

The research revealed that the majority (60%) of people did admit to being worried about the safety of their property and possessions while on holiday or away on business. However, it also showed that more than three-quarters (80%) of people thought the overall cost of home security was too expensive, when it came to purchasing, installing and maintaining systems.

Croydon Council has been handed a penalty of £100,000 after a bag containing papers relating to the care of a child sex abuse victim was stolen from a London pub.

In addition, the ICO states that Norfolk County Council has been served with an £80,000 penalty for disclosing information about allegations against a parent and the welfare of their child to the wrong recipient.

These latest penalties bring the total amount served by the ICO to organisations found in serious breach of the Data Protection Act to over one million pounds.

Stephen Eckersley, the ICO’s head of enforcement, said: “We appreciate that people working in roles where they handle sensitive information will – like all of us – sometimes have their bags stolen. However, this highly personal information needn’t have been compromised at all if Croydon Council had appropriate security measures in place.”

Eckersley added: “One of the most basic rules when disclosing highly sensitive information is to check and then double-check that it’s going to the right recipient. Norfolk County Council failed to have a system for this and also did not monitor whether staff had completed data protection training.”

The ICO’s representative concluded: “While both councils acted swiftly to inform the people involved and have since taken remedial action, this does not excuse the fact that vulnerable children and their families should never have been put in this situation.”

Fine details of the breaches

The Croydon Council breach – which happened in April 2011 – occurred when an unlocked bag belonging to a social worker was stolen from a London pub.

The worker was taking papers (including information about the sexual abuse of a child and six other people connected to a court hearing) home for use at a meeting the following day. The bag and its contents have never been recovered.

The ICO’s investigation found that, while Croydon Council did have data protection guidance available at the time of the theft, it was not actively communicated to staff and the organisation had failed to monitor whether it had been read and understood.

Croydon Council’s policy on data security was also inadequate, and did not stipulate how sensitive information should be kept secure when taken outside of the office.

The Norfolk County Council breach occurred in the same month when a social worker inadvertently wrote the wrong address on a report and hand delivered it to the intended recipient’s next door neighbour.

The report contained confidential and highly sensitive personal data about a child’s emotional and physical well-being together with other personal information.

The ICO’s investigation found that the social worker had not completed mandatory data protection training and that Norfolk County Council did not have a system in place for checking whether training had been completed.

In addition, Norfolk County Council did not have a peer-checking process to ensure that sensitive information was being sent to the correct recipient.

Both organisations have taken remedial action as a result of the breaches and will now ensure that effective data protection measures are put in place.

Councils must take data protection seriously

Five councils breached the Data Protection Act by failing to keep people’s personal information secure, Information Commissioner Christopher Graham has stated.

“At a time when councils are increasingly working with community partners, when data is shared it’s vital that they uphold their legal responsibilities under the Data Protection Act,” he said. “Failures not only put local residents’ privacy at risk, but also mean that councils could be in line for a sizeable monetary penalty.”

Graham added: “We must also consider the detrimental impact these breaches continue to have on the individuals affected. Disclosing details about someone’s social housing status can be upsetting and damaging for those affected. To help tackle this issue I’ve submitted a business case to the Government asking for them to extend my compulsory audit powers.”

The five data breaches at local authorities all relate to incidents where the councils failed to take appropriate steps to ensure that personal information was kept secure.

• Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council breached the Data Protection Act on four separate occasions during a two-month period last year. The breaches included an incident in May when an individual was mistakenly sent information relating to 29 people who were living in supported housing. The Borough Council has now signed an undertaking committing it to take action to address the problems highlighted in each incident. This includes introducing appropriate checks to make sure personal information is handled in compliance with the Data Protection Act.
• Meanwhile, in July 2011, an employee of Brighton and Hove Council e-mailed the details of another member of staff’s personal data to 2,821 council workers. A third party also informed the ICO of a historic breach which occurred in May 2009 when an unencrypted laptop was stolen from the home of a temporary employee. The Council has now committed to ensuring that the personal information it processes is secure, including making sure that all portable devices used to store personal data are encrypted.
• Further undertakings have also been signed by Dacorum Borough Council, Bolton Council and Craven District Council while an enforcement notice has been issued to Staffordshire County Council over its mishandling of a subject access request.

As well as the five local authorities, undertakings for youth charity Fairbridge and healthcare provider Turning Point have also been published.

The motives behind Google offering a store around its Apps offerings is two-fold: First, it would likely increase adoption of Google Apps, and second, it would act as a differentiator between Google and its two chief business productivity application rivals, Microsoft and IBM, both of which offer hosted versions of their collaboration and communications applications in the cloud.

The store could launch as soon as March, according to a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday quoting sources briefed on the Google App Store plan.

Google, however, is remaining tight lipped on its Google Apps Store plan. Instead, Google pointed to its Google Solutions Marketplace, a Web storefront that links customers to vendors that create solutions that integrate and extend Google’s communication, collaboration and enterprise search products. Google quietly launched the Solutions Marketplace in April 2008. The Solutions Marketplace links Google Apps users to a host of add-ons, tools and support services.

“The Google Solutions Marketplace makes it easy for our customers to connect with an ecosystem of products and professional services,” a Google spokesperson told Channelweb.com on Tuesday. “We’re constantly working with our partners to deliver more solutions to businesses, but we have nothing to announce at this time.”

According to the WSJ report, however, a Google Apps Store could be either an extension of or a retooling of the Solutions Marketplace that will let third-party developers sell software that ties into the Google Apps suite of SaaS-based applications like Gmail, Google Docs, calendars, spreadsheets and others.

An application store for Google Apps would let users access applications through menus contained in Gmail or Docs

Like the application store model popularized by Apple and its iTunes-based App Store for the Apple iPhone, a Google Apps Store would let developers make and sell applications and Google would split the profits with the developers.

A Google Apps market could also take a similar approach as Salesforce.com’s Force.com platform, which lets outside developers create add-ons that integrate into Salesforce.com and are hosted in Salesforce’s cloud infrastructure; or Salesforce.com’s AppExchange platform, a directory of applications that third-party developers build for Salesforce that users can purchase and add to their Salesforce solutions.

According to recent estimates, Google Apps has roughly 20 million users.

While Google has a strong following in the cloud-based productivity application space, it competes against market leaders Microsoft, which offers its Business Productivity Online Suite, a segment of Microsoft Online Services that offers its enterprise-class communications and collaboration software like Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Microsoft Office Live Meeting; and IBM with its LotusLive portfolio that puts Lots collaboration and communications application into the cloud.

The company also said that there will be more than 7 billion mobile devices globally by 2015, and that a greater use of video will mean total internet traffic will more than quadruple by 2014.

BCAW 2012 will provide the opportunity to engage with experts from around the world, to learn about the importance of dealing effectively with incidents on varying scales and how to make an organisation more resilient.

The theme for BCAW 2012 is all about time, linking to the old saying that “no crisis improves with age”. Many businesses feel that a crisis can be managed as and when it arises. However, time is not on your side in a crisis.

People are making decisions under pressure, options are reduced and media scrutiny is at its greatest, exposing the business to unnecessary risk.

Highlights of the week

• New research: the BCI and its partners will be publishing new research through the week. Webcasts will provide an opportunity to engage with the authors of these reports.
• New webcasts: 30-plus webcast programme will run throughout the week. View them live and ask questions or watch recordings.
• BCAW Forum: a LinkedIn Forum for newcomers to ask questions of the business continuity community and for more experienced practitioners to debate the hot topics in the industry.
• BC24: groundbreaking, multi-role, online incident simulation game to test your organisation’s crisis management skills, and informally benchmark with businesses across the world.

For our white paper or discuss with our technical team please email sale@infiniti-e.com or call us direct

A report from Modis International has found that over half of decision makers are being held back in terms of IT plans because of a lack of available funds. The same survey also stated that 43% of firms are looking for time and efficiency savings through IT – a 4% increase on last year’s figure.

Investment in technology can save time costs and bring huge benefits to company in making them more competitive and available.

We have a serious of free introduction talks and demonstrations about cloud computing and keeping the business running 24/7  running from our conference centre starting in March 2012 watch the website for details.

http://blog.cloudantivirus.com/2011/11/30/antivirus-performance-tests/