Interface Recognized as One of the Best Places to Work in the US for the Second Year in a Row

Interface Earns 2025 Great Place to Work Certification™.

St. Louis, MO - February 25, 2025 - Interface Systems, a leading managed service provider of business security, actionable insights, and purpose-built networks for multi-location businesses, is pleased to announce that it has been Certified™ by Great Place to Work® for the second year in a row. The prestigious award is based on what current employees say about their experience working at Interface.

Interface employees reported year-over-year improvements across all survey categories, with the most significant gains in company culture, community, camaraderie, and overall support.

Great Place To Work® is the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and leadership behaviors proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention, and increased innovation.

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38 AGs of Both Parties Demand Action Against ORC
Bipartisan Coalition Urges Congress to Take Action Against Rise in ORC
Washington, D.C. -The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) sent a letter on behalf of a bipartisan coalition of 38 state and territory attorneys general urging Congress to take action to address the rise in organized retail crime across the country.

Organized retail crime has contributed to financial losses totaling over $121 billion in the U.S., and 76 percent of retail asset protection managers report their employees have suffered from violence at the hands of an organized retail criminal. Cargo theft remains a primary component of organized retail crime nationwide, disrupting supply chains and acting as inflationary pressure on the price of everything from baby formula to clothing.

During the 118th Congress, the House and Senate introduced H.R.895/S.140-Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2023 and S. 139-Organized Retail Crime Center Authorization Act of 2023. This legislation would provide the necessary resources at the state and federal levels to bring the organizations and individuals behind this nationwide problem to justice. Now, the coalition is urging the 119th Congress to re-introduce this bill to include increased federal penalties for supply chain thefts to act as a strong deterrent against the organized theft of goods in transit.

Several attorneys general have formed task forces and created prosecution units to combat this growing problem. In their letter, the coalition notes that legislation proposed in the 118th Congress would expand upon and synchronize state and federal efforts with the creation of an Organized Retail Crime Coordination Center at the Department of Homeland Security, facilitating the information sharing necessary to address the complex cross-border nature of organized retail crime.

The attorneys general from Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, and South Carolina co-led the letter to Congress.

Joining them are the attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, U.S. Virgin Islands, Washington, and West Virginia. naag.org

   The D&D Daily first reported on this coalition in the Feb. 26th edition of the newsletter


Shoppers Want Action to Boost Store Safety & Reduce Crime
Nearly half (45%) of consumers favor using technology to combat organized retail crime, with support rising to 52% in major metro areas.

Study: Concerns about retail crime pushes shoppers online
Retail crime has some consumers opting for online shopping instead of in-store visits.

Approximately one-third of consumers view retail crime as a serious issue, according to a survey from technology solution company Flock Safety and government technology company Zencity. Nearly six-in-10 (58%) shoppers prefer online shopping due to crime concerns, and 63% who have witnessed retail crime are more likely to shop online.

Efforts by retailers to secure merchandise are being noticed. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of consumers have noticed locked shelves or items behind a counter, while 59% have observed video cameras inside or outside stores. Just over half (51%) of consumers report waiting over five minutes to access items in stores with locked merchandise.

Overall, consumers support stronger security measures to deter crime. Nearly half (45%) of consumers favor using technology to combat organized retail crime, with support rising to 52% in major metro areas. More than half (54%) say license plate recognition (LPR) cameras can help deter retail theft, and 62% believe recorded security video increases store safety.

Between 2022 and 2023, shoplifting incidents increased by 26%, according to the National Retail Federation, with 42% of these cases involving acts of violence. Retail theft resulted in store losses of over $121 billion in 2023, and projections suggest it could surpass $150 billion by 2026, according to data from Capital One.

“The data shows that people don't just want to talk about safety, they want action,” said Michael Simon, chief strategy officer at Zencity. "American consumers want to feel safe while shopping, and are eager for retailers to adopt new technology to restore a safer, more welcoming, and more convenient shopping experience. It stands to reason that retailers who recognize this trend in public opinion and take action will be better positioned to encourage more in-store shopping from their customers.” chainstoreage.com

   RELATED: 45% of Shoppers Say They Support Using Tech to Curb Retail Crime


Live-Saving Facial Recognition
Washington Post op-ed: Facial recognition technology is not foolproof, but our research shows it can save lives
Facial recognition technology (FRT) is a tool powered by artificial intelligence that matches faces to images stored in a database, using machine-learning algorithms to recognize patterns. By 2016, one in four local state or local police departments had access to the technology. Today, that number is probably much higher.

Does it work? As criminal justice scholars — one of us a former cop — we wanted to find out. We examined 268 U.S. cities from 1997 to 2020. Only about 9 percent used the technology. But after adopting it, violent crime decreased over time in those cities, even after accounting for factors such as local economic and population changes. The biggest impact was on homicide rates, which fell by an average of 14 percent across all cities from their initial adoption of facial recognition to 2020. The longer cities used the technology, the more crime fell.

Facing staff shortages and low clearance rates, many law enforcement agencies are turning to FRT to help solve crimes faster. Cities such as New York and Los Angeles pair it with street cameras and license plate readers. In Chicago, police use smart-video analytics to link body cameras with the technology for real-time monitoring. Police credit this high-tech system with helping to catch dangerous criminals, including violent gang members in Maryland...

Because the technology gives a probability of a match, not a guarantee, higher accuracy standards for “similarity scores” are needed to prevent false accusations. Training is also critical. Officers must understand that FRT is only a tool, not a verdict. They should always follow up with solid investigative work to avoid mistakes caused by overreliance on AI.

No single tool will stop crime. But if we balance FRT with strong rules, independent oversight, and community investments, we can harness its lifesaving potential while protecting our rights. washingtonpost.com


Security Firm Not Responsible for Deadly Shopping Mall Shooting
Review Commission Vacates OSHA Citation in Boise Mall Shooting
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission vacated an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) General Duty Clause citation of a security firm following a mass shooting at a Boise, Idaho, shopping mall. In the February 5 decision, a review commission administrative law judge (ALJ) concluded that the Department of Labor (DOL) didn't establish the necessary evidence for a violation under the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act.

The ALJ's decision became a final order of the commission.

During the mass shooting on October 25, 2021, at Boise Towne Square Mall, a mall patron shot and killed two people, including a mall security guard employed by Professional Security Consultants, Inc. (PSC), and injured several others. An OSHA compliance safety and health officer (CSHO) began an investigation the next day.

OSHA cites employers using its authority under the General Duty Clause when no established federal standard applies. There's no federal standard for workplace violence.

The DOL's citation hinged on the employer's identifying the individual patron as a recognized hazard. The ALJ concluded that based on earlier encounters with the man, PSC couldn't have known he would become violent. ehsdailyadvisor.blr.com
 

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69% Expect Cybersecurity Expenses to Rise Over Next Year
DeepSeek's AI shake-up could boost cybersecurity risks, spending: report

The cybersecurity market could grow to $338 billion in value by 2033, driven in part by expanding AI risks, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts said.

Global cybersecurity spending is projected to surge in coming years as artificial intelligence tools like chatbots and agents proliferate, creating new risks that force enterprises to shore up their information technology defenses, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts.

Enterprise-wide deployment of generative AI is poised to accelerate through the first half of this year, in part due to the recent rise of Chinese tech startup DeepSeek, which will likely help to lower the cost of adoption, the analysts said in a Thursday research note. This in turn could increase the need for cybersecurity investments, they wrote.

“DeepSeek drives proliferation of open-source LLMs [large language models], creating vulnerabilities such as prompt injection attacks, which will result in companies boosting their cybersecurity defenses,” Mandeep Singh, global head of technology research at Bloomberg Intelligence and a lead analyst behind the report, said via email.

The rapid adoption of generative AI in recent years has made CFOs determined to commit substantial investments toward cybersecurity upgrades, a recent Grant Thornton survey found.

Sixty-nine percent of respondents expected cybersecurity expenses to increase over the next 12 months - a 16-quarter high and an increase of 16 percentage points over the third quarter. cybersecuritydive.com
 

Over 240M Emails & Passwords Compromised
Is your email or password among the 240+ million compromised by infostealers?
For the second time since the start of 2025, a huge number of login credentials extracted from infostealer logs has been added to the database powering the HaveIBeenPwned (HIBP) site and breach notification service.

In January 2025, HIBP's creator Troy Hunt added 71 million email addresses to the database.

This time around, Hunt has loaded 284 million unique email addresses, alongside the websites they were entered into and the passwords used, as well as 244 million never-before-seen passwords to the Pwned Passwords database.

Launched some eleven years ago, HaveIBeenPwned has become one of the services individuals and organizations turn to to check whether their private information or login credentials have been compromised in a data breach and/or leaked.

Hunt has been adding verified database dumps received from various sources to the HIBP database for years. With the explosion of infostealer infections in 2024, he has also begun adding account credentials scraped from infostealer logs and shared on Telegram. helpnetsecurity.com


Rogue State Actors Outsourcing to Non-State Actors
State-linked threat groups collaborating with hacktivists, other actors to target infrastructure

Rogue state actors are increasingly outsourcing their intel and hacking tools to attack key industries, a report by Dragos shows.

Critical infrastructure providers are under threat of more frequent and sophisticated attacks as state-linked threat groups are increasingly collaborating with non-state actors to launch attacks against key sectors, a report released Tuesday by Dragos, a firm that provides industrial cyber services.

State-supported threat groups are sharing intelligence and infrastructure with other hackers to help them launch attacks against industrial sectors, which serve the objectives of rogue nations, but then provide the cover of deniability, according to Dragos.

Lee warned that non-state actors tend to engage in more opportunistic attacks, but if state actors can transfer much of their knowledge and capabilities to hacktivists and other groups, then there will be more widespread and damaging attacks against important infrastructure providers. cybersecuritydive.com
 

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Palm Beach County, FLL 4 men accused in $500K T-Mobile cellphone theft ring
Four men are facing charges in connection with the theft of more than $500,000 worth of cellphones and other electronics that were supposed to be delivered to T-Mobile stores in South Florida. Beginning in at least July of 2024, UPS shipments that were en route to the stores were stolen by the theft ring, which operated in Broward, Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties, authorities said. According to the office of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, the four suspects - Giffton St. Abuyn White, Sheldon Beswick Brown, Christopher Palmer, and Samuel Drummond - stole the items then sold them to a third party for profit. T-Mobile launched an internal investigation that traced the stolen goods to California, and by October of 2024 the losses amounted to over $500,000, authorities said. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office detectives began an investigation in October and discovered 16 thefts had occurred at a UPS hub in Riviera Beach. Investigators also discovered a fencing operation that was being run out of a recording studio and phone repair shop in Lantana, the sheriff's office said. Detectives arrested White, Brown and Palmer, and recovered some stolen property. Drummond fled the state and has an active warrant, authorities said. The suspects face charges that include conspiracy to commit racketeering, organized scheme to defraud, dealing in stolen property, unlawful use of a two-way communications device, and grand theft.  nbcmiami.com


North Haven, CT: Serial Retail Thief Tied to $365K in Stolen Goods Busted
David Pasquariello, 39, of Connecticut, was arrested Tuesday after police say he stole nearly $1,800 worth of electrical outlets from a home supply store in North Haven, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. According to investigators, Pasquariello has been linked to more than 200 thefts or attempted thefts across the region, with the total value of stolen goods exceeding $365,000. Detectives say he would enter stores, and grab items like wires, light fixtures, and tools, before running out to a waiting getaway car. Authorities say Pasquariello tried to outsmart them by changing his clothes and swapping out license plates on his vehicle. But that wasn't enough to keep him from getting caught. On Tuesday, Feb. 25, around 3:40 p.m., a Connecticut State Police received a tip that Pasquariello was at the North Haven store again. Surveillance footage showed him walking out with eight boxes of electrical outlets worth $1,791.36, police said. Detectives, working with New Haven Police, tracked down the getaway car - a silver Honda Accord - and pulled it over in a grocery store parking lot. Police say Pasquariello was in the passenger seat, and his alleged accomplice, Aileen Johnson, 40, was driving. Inside the car, police found the stolen outlets and, noticed drug paraphernalia in plain view, investigators said.  dailyvoice.com


Los Angeles County, CA: Teens Arrested for Executing Smash-and-Grab at Kay's Jewelers, Kevin Jeweler's
Two juveniles were arrested Wednesday in connection to recent smash-and-grab robberies at the Antelope Valley Mall, authorities said. The first robbery was reported on Feb 6. at Kay's Jewelers and the second was on Feb. 21 at Kevin Jewelers, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Both robberies were estimated to have resulted in thousands of dollars in damages and theft. Deputies conducted search warrant operations at two locations Wednesday and allegedly found evidence from the homes of the two juveniles.  mynewsla.com


College Place, WA: Police arrest Walmart jewelry theft suspects
Two alleged jewelry thieves were arrested Tuesday after stealing nearly $400 of jewelry from a Walmart in College Place, with one being allegedly connected to several other thefts across the Pacific Northwest. On Feb. 14, officers were called to the store for a reported jewelry theft. Security footage found a suspect breaking into a jewelry case and leaving in a pickup truck. Officers used several resources to track the vehicle, eventually finding a perfect match of the pickup truck in the same Walmart parking lot on Tuesday. Upon contact, officers found a woman sitting in the passenger seat and narcotics paraphernalia inside the truck.  nbcrightnow.com