An ORC Call to Action:

Join us in the Fight against Organized Retail Crime

Join the NRF's ORC Investigators Network of over 1,000 LP Professionals

The National Retail Federation (NRF) Organized Retail Crime (ORC) investigators network is made up of over 1,000 loss prevention professionals including federal, state and local law enforcement officers.

The NRF ORC investigators network is Co-Chaired by Gabe Esposito of Verizon and Jon Shimp of Louis Vuitton North America, and is hosted by Bob Moraca of the NRF.

"The network serves as a force multiplier for loss prevention and law enforcement professionals in the fight against ORC, and provides a great forum through which information can be exchanged and losses mitigated" said Esposito.  

"Regardless if you have been in the security industry 30 days or 30 years, we need everyone to sign up and join us in the fight against ORC, be a part of it and help make a difference", said Shimp.

To join and for more information please contact April O'Brien at programs@nrf.com, call 202-783-7971 or visit the NRF's website at www.nrf.com. 
 

Trump's Declaring War on the Counterfeit Black Market

WSJ: U.S. Signals Crackdown on Counterfeit Goods Sold Online

1st Time We've Seen Presidential Engagement in the Counterfeit Black Market

Trump administration targets e-commerce operators with broader enforcement in effort to compel companies help root out fakes

The Trump administration is moving to curb the sale of imported counterfeit goods over the internet, warning electronic commerce platforms and warehouse operators of greater scrutiny and penalties if they don't help ferret out fakes.

The Department of Homeland Security is set to release a report Friday outlining its immediate actions and longer-term goals for enlisting e-commerce players to combat counterfeit products that officials say undermine U.S. technology and manufacturing, harm bricks-and-mortar retailers and endanger consumers.

The new initiative, led by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the White House, comes the same month as an initial trade agreement with China that requires Beijing to take steps against counterfeiters or risk enforcement actions that could trigger new tariffs.

The Trump administration is seeking to pressure e-commerce giants including Amazon.com Inc., which increasingly hosts lucrative third-party sales on its platform, as well as financial firms, logistics services and other companies that are positioned to help stem the rising tide of counterfeits and pirated goods.

The DHS report, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, says law enforcement will begin identifying cases immediately and "seek all available statutory authorities to pursue civil fines and other penalties against these entities."

It also calls for new laws "to explicitly permit the government to seek injunctive relief against third-party marketplaces and other intermediaries dealing in counterfeit merchandise."


 

Wells Fargo's Millions of Fake-Accounts Scandal Update

Holding CEO's & the C-Level Accountable Trend Continues
With Combined Fines of Over $46M & $136 in Forfeited Pay

Chief Risk Officer & Chief Auditor Held Accountable & Fined Millions
Ex-CEO Gets Lifetime Ban & Fined $17M - Forfeits $70M in Pay

Regulator bars former CEO John Stumpf from banking industry; other execs charged too

The former Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf was also fined him $17.5 million over the firm's fake-accounts scandal. A lifetime ban on a CEO of a big bank is unprecedented.

The firm's former chief administrative officer and chief risk officer settled similar civil charges, and the chief auditor and four other former executives were also charged.

Wells Fargo's reputation was left in tatters after it became public that an aggressive sales culture led employees to open millions of possibly fake accounts.

Mr. Stumpf, was hauled before Congress and sparred with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who called for him to resign. He did shortly afterward. He also forfeited about $70 million in pay.

The OCC on Thursday also settled charges against Wells Fargo's former chief administrative officer and former chief risk officer. They paid a combined $3.5 million. wsj.com
 

Sustainability is the top theme for 2020

And a Few Sr. LP Execs Now Run Their Retailers' Sustainability Programs

Is this a potential new horizon for LP Execs to shoot for?

In 2020, sustainability will be the most important theme discussed in corporate boardrooms worldwide, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData's latest report, 'Sustainability - Thematic Research', states that public anger at the lack of action on climate change, corruption, income inequality, tax avoidance, and other social ills makes it harder for chief executives to ignore sustainability.

The sustainability movement has momentum on its side. Citizens, governments, regulators, and the media are turning the spotlight on corporations and demanding action. Social inequality, corruption, tax avoidance, and a lack of action on climate change are all issues that companies must now address head-on, with full transparency.

The reluctance of many CEOs to fully engage with sustainability can be attributed to the age-old view that it will hurt profits. However, the evidence in this report suggests the exact opposite. Companies that embrace all three pillars of sustainability will outperform their peers. CEOs that are too slow to improve their company's approach to sustainability will see an exodus of customers and a drop in profits far sooner than they ever imagined.

In this report, GlobalData sets out a comprehensive sustainability framework - based on environmental, social, and governance issues - to help CEOs identify all potential sustainability risks and implement mitigating actions that can improve their company's ESG performance. globaldata.com

FMI Endorses ReposiTrak Solution For Fixing Out-of-Stocks
FMI-The Food Industry Association and ReposiTrak Inc. jointly announced today that FMI is endorsing ReposiTrak's OOS Management Solution to address the grocery industry's long-term and growing problem of out-of-stocks. FMI brings together a wide range of members across the value chain - from retailers who sell to consumers, to producers who supply the food, as well as the wide-variety of companies providing critical services - to amplify the collective work of the industry. ReposiTrak is the industry leader in solutions for out-of-stock reduction, sourcing, food safety and risk management for the retail supply chain.

FMI, which also partners with ReposiTrak to help implement their traceability compliance programs, is supporting the use of the ReposiTrak OOS Management Solution to help members reduce out-of-stocks by using proven technology and proprietary algorithms that identify out-of-stocks at the store, SKU and route level. businesswire.com
 

Super Bowl Security

Miami Prepares for One of the Biggest National Security Events of the Year

Miami, FL: Super Bowl Security A Top Priority With The Big Game 1 Week Away
With Super Bowl 54 coming to Hard Rock Stadium in less than a month, CBS4's Hank Tester got a look at the security measures being put in place. Security was definitely tight at last year's Super Bowl in Atlanta. But this year in Miami, with the back drop of intense turmoil with Iran and proxy groups just short of war with the United States, security needs to be at its best.

"I can tell you that we are well prepared with security measure here in Miami-Dade County for the Super Bowl," said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.

Greg Terp, a former cop, played a big security role in the 2010 Super Bowl held in Miami. He's now part of the Super Bowl Host Committee. "Since 2010, the threat levels are gonna be up, including cyber threats, drones, but all those things are being looked at," said Terp.

The crowd was told that local and state law enforcement is not going it alone. The feds will be all over South Florida Super Bowl week. "We have a lot of agencies working. Federal agencies from all over coming to Miami - FBI, Secret Service, DEA," said Asst. Chief Ron Papier. "Everybody will be in town making sure Miami is the safest city in the world." cbslocal.com

As Super Bowls heads to Miami, feds on high alert for human traffickers
Just miles from where this year's Super Bowl is set to take place at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., the feds are already in town to train Miami International Airport officials on how to spot human trafficking victims.

"Florida is a state with the third-highest rate of per-capita calls regarding human trafficking, so we thought it was important to teach our employees on the indicators of human trafficking," said Indira Pardillo, a public relations official at the airport.

More than 600 airport employees have spent days training on how to spot human traffickers and human trafficking victims. The airport is expecting a record total of 90,000 passengers to travel out of the airport the day after the game.

Customs and Border Protection agents say that for national security events like the Super Bowl, it's also "game day" for human traffickers. "Any time you have an event that attracts, I would say, high-income participants, it might be prone to situations such as illicit crime, criminal activity and human trafficking," said Michael Silva, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman. foxnews.com

Drone Pilots Better Stay Away From Hard Rock Stadium
It's been so long since the last Super Bowl in South Florida that fast-evolving technology has forced a lot of changes in security preparations for Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium a week from Sunday. In 2010, when the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts and The Who performed at halftime, one of the big concerns from the sky was actually big, slow blimps. Now, it's much smaller, swifter drones. During last year's Super Bowl in Atlanta, for instance, six drones flying too close to the stadium throngs were reportedly confiscated in the days before the games.

Federal and local authorities say they have a plan to combat the new threat if it ever appears but, for security purposes, they aren't willing to share it with the public. But one federal employee familiar with defense and security systems being employed for the Super Bowl said if a drone appears that is perceived in any way as a threat it will be taken care of through "drone mitigation technology." miamiherald.com

Zebra Technologies' RFID Tech Will Track Super Bowl LIV Action
RFID specialist Zebra Technologies Corp. (Nasdaq: ZBRA) will hold a press conference on Jan. 29 to showcase key data collected during the past NFL season, and set the stage for how Super Bowl LIV contestants Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers match up for the big game on Feb. 2.

As the Official On-Field Player-Tracking Provider for the NFL, Zebra will be represented by John Pollard, vice president of business development for Zebra Sports. He will take attendees inside the best-in-class player and ball tracking technology behind the NFL's Next Gen Stats. Matt Swenson, vice president of emerging products and technology for the NFL, will also speak about how the data benefits the league, teams, broadcasters and fans.

This past summer, Zebra inked a renewal of its partnership with the NFL, which extended the company's role through the 2021 season. To enable the data collection, Zebra attaches RFID tags in player equipment and footballs, transmitting real-time location data to receivers positioned around the stadium that gather metrics such as player speed, distance traveled, orientation and acceleration.

For the 2019-2020 season, Zebra tagged 2,880 players plus all the officials during the pre-season, with nearly 1,700 players tagged during the regular season.

The press conference will be live streamed at Facebook.com/ZebraTechnologiesGlobal on Jan. 29, 3:30 to 4 p.m. ET. It will take place at Super Bowl LIV Media Center in the Miami Beach Convention Center. securitysales.com

2020 Super Bowl: Consumers to spend $17.2 billion
The latest consumer spending data from NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics' 2020 Super Bowl survey suggests this may be one of the strongest Super Bowls yet, with nearly 194 million adults saying they have plans for the big game. Those watching the event expect to spend an average $88.65 on food and beverages, merchandise and party supplies, for a total $17.2 billion nationwide.

As the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to face off, here's how consumers are getting ready. See the data in the infographic below and explore NRF's Super Bowl Dashboard for historical data and trends: nrf.com

Super Bowl Shouldn't Be a Super Headache for Employers
In the days leading up to the big game, and in the days following it, you might see some impact on your workplace. There's no need for the Super Bowl to create a super headache, however. Following some simple suggestions and spending just a few minutes now to proactively prepare for these issues will ensure that you can kick back and enjoy the game without worrying about legal compliance issues.

Before the Game: Gambling in the Workplace - Days Leading Up to the Game: Productivity & Dress Code Concerns - The Week After the Game: Monday Morning Absences & Championship Parade shrm.org
 

Jewelers Mutual Ups Midwest Surveillance Because of Suspicious Activity
Jewelers Mutual has arranged additional surveillance for commercial lines policyholders in an unnamed state in the Midwest because of what it terms suspicious activity. This is the second time in the past few months that the company has had to do so. In October 2019, Jewelers Mutual provided extra security surveillance to policyholders in California during widespread power outages. The company has also urged jewelers to review its list of what to do during a jewelry store robbery. The advice includes not calling the police, pressing a hold-up alarm or panic button. Not making eye contact with robbers or pursuing them after they leave. Jewelers Mutual said it will continue to monitor developing criminal situations and deploy additional targeted loss prevention services to protect commercial lines policyholders and the jewelry industry when possible. idexonline.com

Rapid City, SD: Police responded to nearly 1,700 shoplifting cases
- Retailers taking Action
Starting in February, both Walmart stores that are currently open 24 hours a day in Rapid City will be closed from 1 am to 6 am. One local Walmart employee told KOTA Territory, one reason for the hour change: shoplifting. With theft costing one local Walmart store nearly $2.5 million dollars last year. Tara Aston, Walmart Senior Manager, reached out to KOTA Territory and said: "Based on a recent review of shopping patterns at our Rapid City stores, we adjusted hours and reallocated resources to better serve our customers during peak shopping hours," stated Aston. kotatv.com

UK Retailers Making the Same Moves As U.S. Retailers
Morrisons supermarket axes 3,000 managers in huge shake-up
Morrisons is axing 3,000 management roles as part of a huge restructuring to create more shop floor jobs. The firm says it is also creating 7,000 new hourly-paid roles at its 500 stores, meaning a net 4,000 new posts.

The new jobs will be in customer-facing roles, such as more butchers, bakers, fishmongers, the supermarket said. The company says those in managerial jobs who want to remain working at Morrisons can stay. However, their new offer will be at the shop floor level. Front-line store staff at Morrisons earn £9 an hour or $11.76 U.S. an hour. bbc.com
 
NYC Council Bans Cashless Retail
New York is set to join Philadelphia and San Francisco on the list of cities to ban cashless businesses. Massachusetts and New Jersey have statewide prohibitions on businesses refusing hard currency. Going cashless has been a popular option for fast-casual restaurant brands, which prefer to cycle through customers quickly during busy lunch hours.

Businesses who refuse to accept physical currency could face fines between $1,000 and $1,500 for each offense. The bill would allow businesses to house machines that convert cash into pre-paid cards, an option popular at laundries. The businesses would not be allowed to impose fees on the transactions. crainsnewyork.com

Job Re-Posted on Linkedin:
Director of Asset Protection & Risk Management - CKE Restaurants - Franklin, TN

Coresight: Week 4: 2020 YTD Closures - 1,211 / 2020 YTD Openings - 1,718

7-Eleven Tops 70,000 Stores in 17 Countries - 11,800 in North America

Coach Suddenly Folds Up Ginormous Manhattan Madison Ave Store
 

Malicious files regularly bypass today's leading email security products
- Leaving your inbox vulnerable

Email security industry miss rates when encountering threats are higher than 20%

Email security miss rates are definitely a huge issue. Malicious files regularly bypass all of today's leading email security products, leaving enterprises vulnerable to email-based attacks including ransomware, phishing and data breaches, according to BitDam, which conducted an empirical study to measure leading email security products' ability to detect unknown threats at first encounter

According to the study's findings, for Office ATP, the miss rate over seven weeks in late 2019 was about 23% and the TTD average was about 48 hours. About 20% of missed unknown threats took four or more days to be detected. Office 365 ATP was 'blind' to selected unknown threats it did not detect at first encounter. For G Suite, the miss rate was 35.5% over four weeks in late 2019.

The Time To Detect (TTD) average was about 26 hours with about 10% of missed unknown threats taking three days or more to be detected. helpnetsecurity.com

Advanced technologies, behavioral biometrics and layering for strong authentication
The right approach, David Britton, VP of industry solutions of global fraud and identity at Experian told Biometric Update, is to have layers of device recognition, device intelligence, behavioral and traditional biometrics. Identity verification is a critical piece to the solution.

Behavioral biometrics is the perfect example of how powerful, advanced technologies can de leveraged to recognize consumers, he adds. A user can now be identified from the way they're using the mobile phone to navigate through an app. There are methods to capture and analyze the data to detect if it is a genuine user or a bot or a scripted attack. Based on the genuine user's interaction with the device, there would be specific characteristics of thumb pressure and finger gestures that a bot cannot replicate, for example.

What is important to remember, Britton insists, is that fraudsters are very intelligent, creative individuals that will likely not go down the same path twice. Because we're dealing with a dynamic market, it's critical for companies to roll out systems that will instantly adapt to new threats and vulnerabilities if they want to successfully stop fraudulent attacks.

"A business may spend a tremendous amount of money deploying a single solution that solves the problem today, but it may have a shelf life that doesn't solve the threat attack that comes tomorrow," Britton says.

"So one of the big things that we've realized, and it all goes back to the idea of layering, is if you can invest in a platform that has dynamic capabilities to take in more data, leveraging new capabilities as new technologies come about, and not have to rip and replace your systems every time, that's going to be a tremendous value for businesses in their fight against fraud and the challenges that come online." biometricupdate.com

Five cyber risks that will define 2020
2019 was a bad year for data security. By virtually every metric, it was the worst ever. According to the Ponemon Institute's 2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach reached $3.92 million, the highest amount on record. At the same time, the number of data breaches will reach an all-time high this year. The number of data breaches increased by 54% in the first half of 2019, with nearly 4,000 publicly disclosed breaches during that time. In total, more than 4.1 billion records have been exposed this year.

Increasingly, consumers and regulatory bodies are holding companies accountable for data breaches. An October 2019 survey found that 81% of consumers would stop engaging with a brand online after a data breach, which means the brand erosion and reputational damage that accompanies a breach is likely to add to the costs of a data security incident. Moreover, regulatory oversight like GDPR and CCPA are indicative of a growing regulatory trend that collectively raises the importance of data security in the year ahead.

For those charged with protecting company data, today's expansive threat landscape can feel overwhelming, leading to increased levels of exhaustion and burnout. However, not all threats are equally prescient, as some are more likely and ominous than others.

Here are five cyber risks that will endanger company data in 2020:

Insider threats - Phishing scams - Exposed databases - Fatigued IT admins - Wrong priorities
helpnetsecurity.com

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