Genetec Shares Top Physical Security Predictions for 2020

Genetec Inc., a technology provider of unified security, public safety, operations and business intelligence, shared its top five predictions for the physical security industry in 2020.

AI: Separating Facts From Fiction While machines are making huge steps forward, they are not capable of thinking or acting like humans. What they are really good at, however, is combing through a huge amount of data to provide deeper insights to help humans make informed decisions more quickly and efficiently. In 2020, Genetec says we can expect machine learning to continue to make huge strides in the security sector, helping cities and law enforcement deploy their physical resources more efficiently based on predicted trends in crime. Genetec says machine learning will also be instrumental in helping Automated License Plate Recognition systems become better than ever at reading characters, rejecting bad reads, recognizing a license plate's state of origin and more.

Read Genetec's Five Predictions


Johnson Controls releases EntraPass v8.20 with seamless configuration and enhanced user functionality
Johnson Controls is announcing the new EntraPass v8.20, which further simplifies how users remotely access the EntraPass go Mobile App. With EntraPass v8.20, EntraPass go Pass Mobile App users gain improved search capabilities and other efficient upgrades to deliver remote and real-time access. EntraPass go Pass requests will no longer be attached to a selected SmartLink, eliminating the need to configure every connection. Users will now be able to access any inbound connection with little to no obstacles. kantech.com
 

Chris Hackler, VP of AP, Signet Jewelers, Wins JSA's Industry Service Award

The Jewelers' Security Alliance (JSA) awarded its 15th Annual Industry Service Award to Christina (Chris) Hackler, vice president of Asset Protection - Global for Signet Jewelers at its annual luncheon.

This marks the first time the award has been presented to a woman.

"Chris has been a close partner of JSA for many years, and has served on JSA's Board of Directors since 2017," said JSA president John Kennedy. "It is particularly impressive that as a woman Chris has been able to rise to the highest corporate ranks of loss prevention and security in an overwhelmingly male field. There are very few women in such a leadership position in the US in any firm or in any industry."

Kennedy continued, "Chris has worked closely with FBI and local police throughout the U.S., and is highly respected by law enforcement and her peers in other jewelry firms, as well as in other industries through her leadership role in loss prevention at the National Retail Federation. There is no individual in the private sector who provides more assistance and information to JSA than Chris."

Three FBI special agents from Detroit were also honored for their contributions to the safety and security of the jewelry industry. Matthew C. Schuff, of the FBI's Oakland County Resident Agency and Michael Baumgartner and Bryan Toltzis of the FBI Detroit Violent Crimes Task Force were given the 21st Annual James B. White Award for their successful investigation of a Detroit-based smash and grab robbery gang that terrorized jewelry retailers in Michigan, New Hampshire and Louisiana.

JSA says violent smash and grab robberies are the number one crime problem for U.S. jewelers. idexonline.com
 

ASAP-to-PSAP: The New Gold Standard for Alarm Monitoring

The Monitoring Association's ASAP-to-PSAP service could revolutionize the way your monitoring center operates

Vector Security Helped Develop the Standards for Third-Party Integration

Nine years after its 2011 launch, The Monitoring Association's (TMA) Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP) service is slowly - but surely - creeping into monitoring centers everywhere. As the most efficient way to process information from alarm monitoring stations needing emergency dispatch, it won't be long before it becomes the standard for the industry, according to those already using it.

"From a central station's perspective, ASAP-to-PSAP is a game-changing technology - from a customer service perspective, a 9-1-1 dispatch partner relationship development perspective, and from a central station perspective - because you're delivering emergency services to people more carefully, you're saving lives and property more quickly and you're saving so much time,"

Using the ASAP service, critical information about life safety events is delivered digitally directly to the Central Alarm Dispatch (CAD) system in seconds through the NLETS nationwide public safety network. The use of data communications virtually eliminates errors that are inherent in voice communications, ensuring that accurate information is being transmitted to the Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs).

Vector Security, Warrendale, Pa., was probably the most involved of all of these "guinea pigs," engaging with TMA in its progress since the program's inception. Vector was a part of the working group that, in conjunction with APCO and the IJIS Institute, worked to develop a standard for third-party integration with 9-1-1 centers, or Emergency Communication Centers (ECC), formerly referred to as PSAPs. As an early adopter, the team at Vector has been able to assist onboarding efforts for new ECCs, software providers and alarm companies.

"ASAP is all about utilizing today's technology to share information with speed and accuracy," says Vector Security President and CEO Pam Petrow. "ASAP passes relevant data and updates on alarm activity to the ECCs, eliminating the need for human interaction. The result is a better use of resources for the 9-1-1 center, accurate information because communications errors are eliminated, and a faster response to the constituents in a community. The time the automation saves is very impactful, especially for fire and medical situations." sdmmag.com
 

New in-store technologies took center stage at the NRF's annual Big Show
At the National Retail Federation's (NRF's) annual Big Show, Business Insider Intelligence analysts in attendance saw how merchants and technology providers are working to improve retail's performance, particularly in-store.

Multiple companies debuted in-store technologies that have the potential to boost stores' operations and performances going forward.

As stores gain new technological capabilities, it's important that merchants keep their store associates in mind since they're a key advantage for brick-and-mortar over e-commerce, and the new technologies can even aid them. These technologies can handle tasks in lieu of associates - and while that creates an opportunity for merchants to save on labor costs, retailers could also allow store employees to carry out other tasks, optimizing their productivity. businessinsider.com

NRF Big Show: Positive outlook for 2020
The economy is positioned for steady growth this year. That's according to the National Retail Federation, which reported that despite the economic and political uncertainty that fueled 2019, consumers continued to spend - and plan to continue to doing so. While the economy slowed to an expected 2% pace of growth in the final quarter of the year, the U.S. economy continued to set a record of consecutive months of growth. chainstoreage.com

NRF Day 1: Top 5 Takeaways

NRF Day 2: 5 Trends From the Innovation Lab

NRF Day 3: Parting Thoughts From the Big Show
 

What the CFO's Are Reading
Survey of Risk Experts: Cyber Incidents Ranked as No. 1 Business Risk
According to the Allianz Risk Barometer for 2020, 39% of respondents to its ninth annual survey of risk experts identified cyber incidents as their main concern, pushing business interruption events (37%) out of the top spot it had occupied for seven years.

Seven years ago, cyber ranked 15th with just 6% of responses.

The survey also showed climate change moving up to the No. 7 ranking (17% of responses), joining changes in regulation and legislation (No. 3 with 27% of responses) as the biggest climbers.

In the U.S., cyber risk took the top spot followed by business interruption and natural catastrophes. Allianz noted that a mega data breach, involving more than one million compromised records, now costs on average $42 million, up 8% year on year.

"If corporate boards and risk managers fail to address cyber and climate change risks, this will likely have a critical impact on their companies' operational performance, financial results and reputation with key stakeholders," he warned. cfo.com

Bay Area Fencing Operations Flourishing
Multi-Million $$$ Asian Black Market Driving Laptop Theft Epidemic in Bay Area
Years of headlines of Apple Store smash-and-grabs, UPS truck robberies, thousands of car break-ins and thieves snatching laptops from cafes have pointed to a thriving black market in the Bay Area.

"What we know is that overall in the Bay Area there's an extremely lucrative multi-million dollar market for stolen electronics," said Marisa McKeown, supervising deputy district attorney in Santa Clara County and head of the Crime Strategies Unit.

The unit is responsible for identifying trends and patterns in criminal activity, to better understand the criminals and how law enforcement agents can "collectively be smarter about fighting crime."

A $3.75 million grant from Assemblymember Kansen Chu, doled out to various law enforcement agencies within Assembly District 25, has funded the creation of "Regional Fencing Initiatives," comprised of local districts in Fremont, Newark, Santa Clara, San Jose and Milpitas and formed to specifically target "fencing operations" that purchase the stolen devices.

"The Bay Area is outpacing the rest of the state in our increase in these types of offenses. We think that is due to very lucrative fencing market that makes it very easy for our criminals to offload their product," said McKeown.



Weis Markets steps up self-checkout
Weis Markets partnered with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions and systems integrator Pomeroy to bring self-checkout to its shoppers.

Sunbury, Pa.-based Weis Markets now has Toshiba's latest self-checkout solutions in "the vast majority" of its 198 Mid-Atlantic stores, Toshiba said Tuesday. Plans call for Toshiba and Pomeroy to deploy additional Self-Checkout System 6 lanes across the regional grocery chain's physical footprint in 2020. The retailer has stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia.

Including both cash and cashless systems. supermarketnews.com

Frictionless retail can help Ahold Delhaize USA go where it hasn't gone before
'Lunchbox' cashierless store concept could become new service offering

Since a late 2019 U.S. pilot of its "lunchbox" frictionless retail concept, Ahold Delhaize USA sees possibilities for the technology that stretch beyond its own stores, facilities and geographic market to other venues and users.

Offering a curated selection of food and beverages and other groceries, lunchbox enables shoppers to make purchases by scanning in via an RBS (Ahold's Retail Business Services) mobile app as they enter, selecting items and then walking out. Customers register ahead of time to set up an account to tally transactions and make payment, either through a credit/debit card or digital wallet. Shoppers receive a receipt on their smartphone immediately after exiting the store, which runs 24/7. supermarketnews.com

It's All About Omni to Be Successful
NPD Group: General merchandise holiday sales fall flat
That's according to The NPD Group, which reported that general merchandise sales rose only 0.2% throughout the holiday season 2019 compared to 2018. Although the final holiday shopping week, which included Christmas and Hanukkah, showed robust growth and sales volumes across the apparel, toys, technology, small appliance, athletic footwear and prestige beauty industries, overall season results were still flat.

"There were some clear winners during Holiday 2019, and strong execution of an omnichannel strategy proved critical for stores to stay in the game during a season where e-commerce drove the growth," added Cohen. "Lessons learned from this unique season around the integration of digital and in-store traffic, and where the consumer focus really is, will be critical to retail success in 2020." chainstoreage.com

Retailers Fail to Fill Holiday Jobs
They Just Weren't There & Won't Be Next Year Either
Only 33% of Retail Hiring Managers had Adequate Headcount
According to the "2019 Retail Holiday Hiring Pulse Survey" commissioned by Kronos Inc. and conducted by The Harris Poll. The study was conducted among 300 U.S. retail hiring managers, with 94% saying their company faced hiring challenges around the 2019 holiday season.

Less than half of retail hiring managers (45%) felt they fully met their seasonal hiring goals, and 27% agreed that meeting their seasonal hiring goals was more difficult this year than last. Almost nine out of 10 retail hiring managers (87%) were confident they hired the right people in their stores for the 2019 holiday season. A majority also said seasonal staff were instrumental in helping their organization reach sales goals (88%) and positively impacted the customer experience (87%) - however, nearly half (47%) had difficulty retaining the seasonal staff they hired.

58% observed that attendance issues were more prominent with seasonal staff; 22% said unplanned employee absence led store(s) to pay more in overtime expenses than expected.

Nearly three in four said returning seasonal associates ("boomerang employees") were their highest performers during the 2019 holiday season.

The report also offered retailers hiring advice for 2020, including streamlining talent acquisition, embracing 'boomerang' employees, extending employee wellness benefits to seasonal staff and hiring sooner.

"To attract and retain the types of employees you want representing your brand during peak seasons - whether the winter holidays, back to school, or summertime - focus on creating an employee experience differentiated by flexible and predictable schedules, the ability to easily swap or pick up extra shifts, opportunities for post-season employment, and, of course, fair treatment and competitive pay. chainstoreage.com

Struggling Sears settles lawsuit with retailer's bankrupt estate for $18M,
but still faces layoffs, store closures
The estate of bankrupt Sears Holdings has agreed to settle a lawsuit over the $5.2 billion sale of its Sears and Kmart chains to former chairman and CEO Edward Lampert for about $18.3 million.

Lampert and his hedge fund formed a new company, Transform Holdco, to buy most of Sears' remaining assets, including 425 stores, last year. Disputes between Sears and Transform over certain terms of the sale "arose before the ink even dried on the contract," according to a motion filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York on Friday.

The iconic Hoffman Estates-based retailer sought bankruptcy protection in October 2018 and has continued to struggle since its sale to Transform. The company announced plans to close about a third of its remaining Sears and Kmart stores in November and told the state it planned to lay off 195 employees in its headquarters and other field offices by Jan. 25, according to the filing with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. There were 278 Sears and Kmart stores at the start of the holiday season, but 96 are expected to close by February. chicagotribune.com

Amazon Lifts Ban on FedEx Ground for Third-Party Prime Shipments
The online retailer on Tuesday notified its third-party merchants that they could once again use FedEx's Ground network to ship orders placed under Amazon's Prime membership program, nearly a month after imposing a ban on the service because of performance issues.

The move ends a standoff between Amazon and onetime shipping partner FedEx, whose Ground network was blocked for the final rush before Christmas and several weeks thereafter. wsj.com

Express cuts 10% of corporate workforce

CVS Health to convert 'hundreds' of stores in 2020 to new concept

Top Security Products From CES 2020

NASA: Smoke from Australia's fires will make 'full circuit' around the world

Why Amazon's donation to the Australian wildfires provoked a backlash - but Facebook's didn't


Holiday Sales Results
Target's Nov/Dec comp's up 1.4%

NRF Podcast: Inside Walmart's Intelligent Retail Lab
While most of the industry is just starting to understand the possibilities of quickly evolving technologies like artificial intelligence and its applications for retail, Walmart is sprinting ahead with projects like its Intelligent Retail Lab, a fully operating store with an in-store AI lab. Mike Hanrahan, CEO of Walmart's Intelligent Retail Lab, joined the podcast after his appearance at the NRF Foundation Student Program to share more about the lab and what it means for the future of retail.

The Intelligent Retail Lab, IRL, is a place where Walmart is going to learn to build the products, tools, services in the AI field that we think will be transformative to Walmart's retail needs in the coming years," Hanrahan says. "So, you can think of it [as] an artificial intelligence factory. It's the place where we're going to do the discovery, do the learning, productionizing things. And then, from there, hopefully, roll them out the chain across Walmart, improve the lives of our customers, our associates, and improve how we run the business."

Listen to the full episode to hear what Hanrahan and his team are creating in the Intelligent Retail Lab, and pay attention to the podcast feed over the next few weeks as we share some of the best conversations happening from NRF 2020 Vision: Retail's Big Show.


Travel and Hospitality Industries Create Larger ISAC Sharing Community
The Travel & Hospitality Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) and Retail & Hospitality ISAC (RH-ISAC) announce their agreement to strengthen the travel and hospitality industries by moving the Travel & Hospitality ISAC within the RH-ISAC.

The Travel & Hospitality ISAC, formed in 2018 by Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) at the request of a group of hospitality chief information security officers, is now part of the RH-ISAC community as of January 1, 2020.

The announcement comes in response to increasing efforts to defend customers, staff, and assets against the constantly evolving threat landscape affecting the global travel and hospitality industries by strengthening collaboration and information sharing within one community. rhisac.org

Attackers Increasingly Focus on Business Disruption
Network intruders are staying undetected for an average of 95 days, enabling them to target critical systems and more completely disrupt business.

More cyberattackers are targeting large companies with stealthier attacks, aiming to significantly disrupt businesses and force them to pay higher ransoms, according to a report summarizing more than 300 breach investigations.

The "CrowdStrike Services Cyber Front Lines Report" found that 36% of incidents aimed to disrupt business or operations. While companies are getting better at detecting attacks using their own people and systems -79% of attackers were discovered internally, the highest rate in three years - the number of days attackers went undetected increased to 95, up from 85 days in 2018, CrowdStrike found.

The result is that malicious attackers have more time to attack operations and cause more disruption, says Thomas Etheridge, vce president of services at CrowdStrike.

"Not all of these threat actors are deploying ransomware, but they were really focused on disrupting the business' ability to perform business," he says. "That disruption was behind higher ransom amounts and the decision to often pay the ransom." darkreading.com

Survey: Higher Percentage of Companies Targeted by Nation-State Hackers
A report has found that more than one in four respondents attribute attacks against their organization to cyberwarfare or nation-state activity. In 2018, 19% of organizations believed they were attacked by a nation-state.

The 2019-2020 Global Application & Network Security Report by Radware says that figure increased to 27% in 2019. Companies in North America were more likely to report nation-state attribution, at 36%.

According to the report, the findings come at a time of heightened anxiety for security managers. Organizations are increasingly turning to microservices, serverless architectures, and a mix of multiple cloud environments. Two in five managers reported using a hybrid environment that included cloud and on-premises data centers, and two in five said they relied on more than one public cloud environment. However, only 10% of respondents felt that their data was more secure in public cloud environments. securitymagazine.com

United States Is 4th Worst Country When It Comes to Securing Biometric Data

Microsoft and NSA say a security bug affects millions of Windows 10 computers

Cambridge, Mass. Bans Facial Recognition

Amazon says this browser extension is a major security risk
Amazon has warned users to exercise caution when using a popular online shopping browser extension.

Honey, which helps consumers search for coupons that get them deals or money off when shopping online, has been flagged by the retail giant as a security threat following fears it may be tracking user browsing habits. The tool is available as a free browser extension across Chrome, Firefox, Safari and other popular browsers, and counts millions of users across the world.

Tracking
Amazon's warning, which was first spotted by Politico editor Ryan Hutchins, says that Honey "tracks your private shopping behavior, collects data...and can read or change any of your data on any website you visit." It goes on to advise users that, "to keep your data private and secure, uninstall this extension immediately."

The warning allegedly began appearing on Amazon's site on December 20th, in the peak of the holiday shopping season, leading many commentators to question the sudden change in Amazon's tone, given that Honey has been compatible with Amazon for years.

"We only use data in ways that directly benefit Honey members - helping people save money and time - and in ways they would expect," a Honey spokesperson told Wired, adding it had a "commitment" to privacy, and that it works with security firms to ensure it doesn't cross any lines. techradar.com

Visa Says Tokenized Transactions Hit $1T Mark, Sets Click-to-Pay Transition
Visa said on Tuesday (Jan. 14) that participants in its Visa Token Service have processed eCommerce volumes of $1 trillion since the service's debut in 2014, and that its transition of Visa Checkout merchants to click-to-pay will begin on Jan. 21 in the U.S.

The click-to-pay option will replace Visa Checkout, the company said.

As reported last year, the major networks - including American Express, Visa, Mastercard and Discover - said they would implement the EMV Secure Remote Commerce standard, with click-to-pay technology, with wide availability beginning in 2020.

Click-to-pay has been billed as a simpler, more secure way to shop online - especially for guest checkouts - as it requires consumers to enter card details just one time, rather than on a per-transaction basis, or through setting up accounts with individual merchants.

As many as 60 percent of digital transactions are card on file, which leaves 40 percent that may not have a relationship with the retailer, Visa noted at the event. pymnts.com