Mass Killings in US Hit New High in 2019

Data compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University shows that there were more mass killings in 2019 than any year dating back to at least the 1970s. In all, there were 41 mass killings, defined as when four or more people are killed excluding the perpetrator. Of those, 33 were mass shootings. More than 210 people were killed.

According to the data:

● The 41 mass killings were the most in a single year since the AP/USA Today and Northeastern database began tracking such events back to 2006, but other research going back to the 1970s shows no other year with as many mass slayings. The second-most killings in a year prior to 2019 was 38 in 2006.

● California, with some of the most strict gun laws in the country, had the most, with eight such mass slayings. But nearly half of U.S. states experienced a mass slaying, from big cities like New York, to tiny towns like Elkmont, Alabama, with a population of just under 475 people.

● Nine mass shootings occurred in a public place. Other mass killings occurred in homes, in the workplace or at a bar. securitymagazine.com usatoday.com

Currently, only journalists and researchers at Associated Press and USA Today have access to the Northeastern University database, but it will soon be available to the public as well, Fox says.

ORC Getting More Press Coverage Than Ever Before
5 Outlets Pick Up NRF ORC Report & Talk to Retailers
Retailers take steps to thwart organized theft as gangs get more aggressive

A recent study from the National Retail Federation has found more than two-thirds of retailers have seen a rise in organized theft in the past year.

Robert Moraca, vice president for loss prevention for the NRF, told the Chicago Tribune companies are pursuing technology that picks up on customers with questionable return patterns, as well as improved camera systems in stores and tags that allow companies to track items.

Retail shrink amounted to $50.6 billion in 2018, with robberies, employee theft and shoplifting or organized retail crime topping the list, per Retail Dive.

Home Depot executives have said the problem could be tied to the opioid crisis, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Carol Tomé, former Home Depot CFO, has said store associates watch members of organized retail crime gangs load carts with merchandise and walk out of the store, knowing they might be armed and could harm customers or employees, reports CNBC.

Home Depot said a rise in shrink hurt its results for the first three quarters of 2019; competitor Lowe's is seeing an increase in shrink, too, per CNBC. bizjournals.com


SIA Applauds NIST Study on Facial Recognition
The Security Industry Association (SIA) released a statement thanking the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for its "thoughtful and diligent" work producing a report evaluating the performance of current facial recognition technology across demographic groups.

SIA says that reports from non-biased organizations like NIST are immensely valuable, and commends NIST for encouraging research organizations to examine this issue comprehensively rather than publish incomplete research in order to generate attention. securityindustry.org

NIST Article: NIST Study Evaluates Effects of Race, Age, Sex on Face Recognition Software

Read Full NIST Study - Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) Part 3: Demographic Effects (NISTIR 8280)
 

New York's New No-Cash Bail Law Goes Into Effect
Why Abolishing Bail for Some Crimes Has Law Enforcement on Edge
Shoplifters Walk Away With Ticket

Democrats are hailing the new law, saying New York's old bail system punished the poor. Critics say it will put criminals back on the streets. It bans imposing bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies.

Summary of Major Components

When Democrats pushed through a law last spring that sharply curtailed cash bail for nonviolent defendants, they hailed it as a landmark measure to stop the poor from being jailed before trial simply because they had few resources.

Now, as the rules take effect on Jan. 1, a backlash has arisen among numerous district attorneys, judges, county legislators and law enforcement officials, who are sounding alarms and raising the specter of dangerous criminals on the loose. Some Republicans are using the issue to paint Democrats as soft on crime.

"Estimates of what's going to happen have ranged from 'Much Ado About Nothing' to something like the panic in the opening scene in 'Escape From New York,'" said Greg Berman, the director of the Center of Court Innovation, a nonprofit group. "There are still a lot of unknowns."

While New Jersey, California, Illinois and other states have limited the use of bail, New York is one of the few states to abolish bail for many crimes without also giving state judges the discretion to consider whether a person poses a threat to public safety in deciding whether to hold them.

Under the new law, judges will no longer be able to set bail for a long list of misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, including stalking, assault without serious injury, burglary, many drug offenses, and even some kinds of arson and robbery.

Thousands of people currently in jail awaiting trial across the state will be automatically released, and about 90 percent of new defendants each year in New York will remain free as their cases move through the courts. Most cities and counties will rely on supervised release programs - in which officials stay in touch with defendants through phone calls or meetings - to ensure people show up to court.

In New York City alone, 20,000 more people would have been released in 2018 under the law, according to a report from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

In recent weeks, courts around the state have begun releasing batches of defendants from jails under the new rules to avoid a rush as the new year starts, and the law's opponents have pounced on recent cases in which people out on bail committed crimes as harbingers of the future.

Some states, like New Jersey, that have abolished or curtailed the use of cash bail have established a system for assessing the risk that a defendant might commit another crime, and allow judges to hold people to protect public safety. But New York simply eliminated bail for most nonviolent crimes. nytimes.com


National Returns Day: Is your package one of UPS's 1.9 million returns?
The National Retail Federation said more than half (55%) of shoppers plan to return or exchange any unwanted gifts within a month of receiving them.

United Parcel Service is anticipating a record number of shipped returns. UPS said it expects to process 1.9 million return packages on Thursday, what the shipper calls "National Returns Day," when it expects peak gift returns. That's up 26% from a year ago. usatoday.com

Are return rates out of control?
UPS expects a whopping 26 percent year-over-year surge in the number of returns it processes on January 2, National Returns Day. Those levels would represent the seventh consecutive record number of returns.

The surging rate of returns is occurring largely due to strong online growth. Estimates for returns of online purchases range from 15 to over 30 percent, with items such as apparel and footwear at the high end of that range. The return rate for physical stores ranges from three to 10 percent.

Some retailers are seeking to offset the cost of online returns by choosing not to provide prepaid mailing labels, requiring a receipt unless an unwanted item is carried to a store and threatening to ban serial returners. The trend overall, however, has been toward less strict return policies that engender goodwill.

"The problem is that in this kind of competitive environment they have to make life easy," Neil Saunders, retail managing director at GlobalData and a RetailWire Braintrust panelist, told the Financial Times. "The consumer is almost being trained to be wasteful." retailwire.com

● UPS Predicts Record-Breaking National Returns Day - UPS
● Retailers grapple with $100bn returns problem - Financial Times
● Retailers Brace for Bigger Holiday Returns Season - The Wall Street Journal
● Retailers gave you free returns and you ruined it - Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times
● More online sales mean retailers need to solve a $50 billion returns problem this holiday season - CNBC
● CBRE Forecasts Online Returns Could Total As Much As $41.6 Billion This Holiday Season - CBRE
● Many Unhappy Returns - The Globe And Mail
● Amazon gets more free with free returns - RetailWire
● The holiday season promises many unhappy returns for retailers - RetailWire
 

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market

Loss Prevention & Inventory Control Director for Cart Mart in San Diego
Cart Mart, Inc. is an award winning, leading dealer of the world's finest golf, commercial and Low Speed Vehicles. We proudly represent Club Car, Carryall, Onward, Garia, Polaris GEM, Taylor-Dunn, and Yamaha brands. Since 1959, Cart Mart has grown into one of the largest (and oldest) dealerships in the world. With five locations in Southern California.

In this role, you'll focus on assessing key security and shrink related gaps within Cart Mart's retail and service environment to design a scalable loss prevention program from the ground up. Through your efforts, you'll get shrinkage below 1% and keep it there. indeed.com

Vice President, Risk Management for Delaware North in Buffalo, N.Y.
The Vice President of Risk Management is responsible for planning, directing and managing the Corporate Risk Management Department's personnel and activities regarding insurance programs including self-insurance, risk management, safety, and risk control, both domestically and internationally.

Today, Delaware North manages and provides food and beverage concessions, premium dining, entertainment, lodging, and retail at many large venues and special places. These include sports stadiums, entertainment complexes, national and state parks, airports, and casinos. delawarenorth.com

Wawa Faces Lawsuits After Data Breach
Wawa has said it reported its large-scale data breach to the FBI and doesn't know who launched the cyberattack.

Wawa, which operates more than 850 convenience stores in six states and Washington, DC, is facing at least six lawsuits claiming the company failed to protect consumers from a recent data breach that exposed credit and debit card information, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The lawsuits accuse Wawa of negligence, breach of contract and violations of state consumer protection laws, according to The Inquirer. The suits seek unspecified damages and lawyers fees, but all agree the issue involves more than $5 million.

Wawa found malware on its payment processing servers on Dec. 10 and contained it by Dec. 12, the company said. The malware had been running on its systems since March 4 and was on most of its store systems by April 22, CEO Chris Gheysens said in a statement. The information is limited to payment card information, including debit and credit card numbers, expiration dates and cardholder names, but does not include PINs or CVV2 numbers.

A detailed notice and open letter to customers from Wawa's CEO notifying potentially affected individuals about the incident is available at www.wawa.com/alerts/data-security. cstoredecisions.com

Hospitality Company Landry's Inc. Identifies Malware On Payment System
Headquartered in Houston, Texas. Landry's, Inc. owns and operates more than 600 restaurants, hotels, casinos and entertainment destinations in 35 states and the District of Columbia. The company also owns and operates numerous international locations. securitymagazine.com

Historic California data privacy measure leaves companies scrambling
Fines Could Be Retroactive
California will become the first state in the country to have a comprehensive data privacy law on Wednesday when the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) goes into effect.

Companies are scrambling to figure out how to handle the law, which is expected to require major firms to disclose the personal information they collect from consumers and what they do with it.

Much about the law, which will not be enforceable until six months after either July 1 or the date a final rule is released, remains unclear.

The bill is expected to allow Californians to view the information that companies have collected about them, and to opt out of that collection. The law is expected to forbid companies from discriminating against users who opt out of data collection.

While the law is not enforceable for now, California has hinted that companies could be sanctioned retroactively if they disregard the new rules on Jan. 1.

The CCPA technically applies to businesses with online traffic in California that have annual revenues over $25 million, collect data on 50,000 consumers or receive 50 percent of their revenue from selling data, according to the draft regulation.

Some experts are recommending businesses avoid extending protections to non-California residents to avoid unnecessary liability.

"In California if you don't respond to a request to delete or a request to know adequately the enforcement mechanism is the attorney general's office, but if you've voluntarily extended those rights to somebody outside California what's to say you can't be sued for consumer fraud?" thehill.com

Read Full CCPA Bill Here

Ready for the New York SHIELD Act?
Defines "Reasonable Security Measures"
While California's Consumer Privacy Act has gotten the lion's share of headlines over the past several months when it comes to state privacy laws, enterprises should also pay close attention to New York's Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security (SHIELD) Act, which is bound to have far-reaching implications for CISOs from Wall Street to Upstate.

The law, signed by New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo on July 25, will go into full effect on March 21, 2020. The bill updates the state's current cybersecurity laws when it comes to breaches and notifications to residents. In addition, the bill provides more protections for consumers who have had their personal data compromised.

The SHIELD Act also gives the New York Attorney General's Office greater oversight when it comes to data breaches that affect the state's residents and how victims are notified. "This bill is an important step forward providing greater protection for consumer's private information and holding companies accountable for securing that data," Attorney General Letitia James noted when the bill passed in July.

The New York AG's office also played a lead role in the Equifax settlement announced in July. An analysis by PwC finds that New York's AG has already issued over $600 million in fines related to breach and other cyber incidents as of August of this year. That's a number that will likely to go up once the SHIELD Act goes into full effect in March.

In addition to covering data such as Social Security numbers, the law now includes a driver's license number, credit or debit card number, financial account number - with or without security code - and username or e-mail address with a password that permits access to an online account as part of that expanded definition of private information.

While it might be easy to compare the SHIELD Act to CCPA, the New York law actually focuses more on data security, while the California bill is more concerned with consumer privacy, which is a distinction that businesses and security professionals should know, says Ronald Raether of the law firm Troutman Sanders.

Raether adds that New York is now one of only a few states to define what it means for companies to have "reasonable security measures", which can then help CISOs better define what measures they need to take to ensure compliance. govinfosecurity.com

How AI and Cybersecurity Will Intersect in 2020
So much of the discussion about cybersecurity's relationship with artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) revolves around how AI and ML can improve security product functionality. However, that is actually only one dimension of a much broader collision between cybersecurity and AI.

As applied use of AI/ML starts to advance and spread throughout a plethora of business and technology use cases, security experts are going to need to help their colleagues in the business start to address new risks, new threat models, new domains of expertise, and, yes, sometimes new security solutions.

Heading into 2020, business and technology analysts expect to see solid applications of AI and ML accelerate. This means that CISOs and security professionals will need to quickly get up to speed on AI-driven enterprise risks. Here are some thoughts from security veterans on what to expect from AI and cybersecurity in 2020.

AI/ML Data Poisoning and Sabotage
Deepfake Audio Takes BEC Attacks into a New Arena
AI-Powered Malware Evasion
Biometric's Cat-and-Mouse Game
Differential Privacy Gains Steam to Protect Analytics Data
Hard Lessons About AI Ethics and Fairness darkreading.com

Europol: 2nd Largest Counterfeit Currency Gang Busted
On Dark Web in 7 Member States - 11 Arrested
Law enforcement authorities from seven EU Member States carried out 36 house searches, detained 44 suspects for questioning, 11 of whom have been arrested, and seized 26,000 counterfeit euro banknotes, drugs, weapons, doping substances, illegally procured medicines, forged documents and virtual currency. A clandestine documents print shop was also dismantled in Germany. Germany carried out 27 house searches and 9 other raids were done in Austria, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg and Spain. europol.eu

Senior Job - Director of Security for Online Merchant Spiraledge in Campbell, CA
Spiraledge (@spiraledge.com) is a company founded on one essential principle: to help people live healthier lives through sports and fitness! As the parent company of fast growing ecommerce sites SwimOutlet.com & YogaOutlet.com, Spiraledge Inc. has been recognized as a GoldLevel FitFriendly Worksite at its headquarters in Campbell, CA. Both SwimOutlet.com and YogaOutlet.com have been named an Internet Retailer Hot 100 Company. SwimOutlet.com has been named an Internet Retailer Hot 100 Company and received Apparel Magazine 2019 Top Innovator Award!

At Spiraledge, we take the responsibility of managing our customer and enterprise data seriously. This position will report to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and work closely with Product Owners, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Legal to drive our security strategy. This role will encompass technology, policy and security operations across the enterprise.

The Director of Security must possess deep technical knowledge, strong awareness of cyber security trends, experience with PCI compliance and the ability to work in a highly matrixed work environment with strong communication and influencing skills. dice.com

Ring and Amazon Faced With Federal Lawsuit Claiming They Failed to Secure Cameras Against Hackers

54 Technology Trends to Watch in 2020

Mastercard SpendingPulse:
E-Commerce Takes Biggest Piece of Holiday Pie Ever
- Getting 14.6% Of Total Retail
According to Mastercard SpendingPulse, holiday retail sales increased 3.4% (excluding auto sales) with online sales growing 18.8%, compared to 2018.

The report found that e-commerce took a bigger piece of the holiday pie this year, making up 14.6% of total retail. Specialty apparel led the way in year-over-year e-commerce growth by category, rising 17%, followed by electronics, at 10.7%. Jewelry online sales rose 8.8% over last year, and department stores were up 6.9%.

Total apparel saw a gain, posting 1% growth year over year. e-commerce growth, up 17% compared to 2018.

The jewelry sector experienced 1.8% growth in total retail sales, with online sales growing 8.8%.

Department stores saw overall sales decline 1.8% and online sales growth of 6.9%.

Electronics and appliances were up 4.6%, while the home furniture and furnishings category grew 1.3%.

E-commerce sales grew 18.8% this holiday season compared to 2018. This is up from the 18.4% growth rate last year.

E-commerce share of overall retail spend for Black Friday was 15.4%. chainstoreage.com

Amazon threatens to fire critics who are outspoken on its environmental policies
Amazon tells workers to pipe down or risk being fired
Emails sent to at least two workers by Amazon.com have warned them against publicly criticizing the company over its environmental policies. The communications sent to the employees assert that they could be terminated for violating Amazon's external communications policy.

A lawyer in the e-commerce giant's employee-relations group sent a letter to two workers quoted in an October Washington Post report, accusing them of violating the company's external communications policy. An email sent to Maren Costa, a principal user-experience designer at the company, and reviewed by The Post warned that future infractions could "result in formal corrective action, up to and including termination of your employment with Amazon."

"It was scary to be called into a meeting like that, and then to be given a follow-up email saying that if I continued to speak up, I could be fired," Costa said via email, referring to Amazon's warnings to her. "But I spoke up because I'm terrified by the harm the climate crisis is already causing, and I fear for my children's future." "I've had colleagues, many of them very senior and tenured, say how disappointed they are - that this isn't the company they thought they were working for," Costa wrote. washingtonpost.com

Amazon policy manifesto responds to environmental, workplace and data-privacy critics

Good return policy impacts bottom line
Fifty-two percent of consumers have abandoned an online purchase out of fear of a difficult return process.

The Splitit survey revealed that nearly 60% of consumers have returned an online purchase, with 38% having returned up to 10% of all online purchases they have made. Twelve percent of respondents returned a purchase within the past month, 11% within the last six months, and 18% did so within the last year. Splitit also discovered that 48% of respondents have purchased multiple variations of an item with the intention of returning one or more items, the process known as "bracketing."

The survey demonstrates that a retailer's return policy weighs heavily on web conversion, with returns top of mind for consumers when deciding whether to make a purchase. The survey found that 52% of consumers have abandoned an online purchase out of fear of a difficult return process. This number increases to 67% for millennial respondents (ages 25-34), highlighting the heightened importance of a smooth return process for those who grew up accustomed to online shopping. And with 10% of consumers dissatisfied in some way with their last return experience, the survey results serve as a warning to retailers that returns are high stakes - with customer experience and overall sales at risk.

Splitit's survey also revealed the top qualities consumers look for in a return policy:

● 20% of respondents said a return shipping fee would make them less likely to purchase from a given retailer.
● 39% of respondents ranked "free shipping" as the overall most important feature of a good return policy.
● 30% of respondents ranked "no questions asked" as the most important feature of a good return policy. chainstoreage.com

Europol: 30,506 internet domain names shut down for intellectual property infringement; 3 Arrested & 26,000 Luxury Products Seized
Law enforcement authorities from 18 EU Member States1 and third parties in a joint investigation with Europol and the US National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Centre 2, facilitated by Eurojust and INTERPOL, have seized over 30 506 domain names that distributed counterfeit and pirated items over the internet during operation IOS X. During the investigation, officials arrested 3 suspects, seized 26 000 luxury products (clothes, perfumes), 363 litres of alcoholic beverages, and many hardware devices. They identified and froze more than (EURO) 150 000 in several bank accounts and online payment platforms.

To raise awareness of this growing threat, Europol's IPC³ launched the Don't F***(ake) Up campaign. The campaign aims to inform citizens of the risks of buying fake products online and give advice to help identify illicit websites selling counterfeit goods, as well as other means used by counterfeiters, such as fake social media accounts and fake apps. europol.com

Mattress Direct Office Manager Gets 42 Months Fed. Prison for $1.2M Embezzlement