How Covid Changed The Way We Work
Remote Work Gives Leaders The Opportunity To Transform Their Thinking
The Covid-19 pandemic changed not only the way people work but our attitudes toward work. In 2021, according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 47 million Americans voluntarily left their jobs. The Great Resignation highlighted workers' dissatisfaction with stagnant wages, limited growth opportunities and feeling disrespected as motivating factors for quitting.

Then there was "quiet quitting," a movement heralded on social media and informed by workers' dissatisfaction with grind culture. According to a Gallup survey in June 2022, at least half the U.S. workforce consider themselves quiet quitters. Not since the second world war, when women started working en masse, have cultural expectations about work and the labor force changed so greatly.

Thinking about remote working from a traditional mindset-one based on synchronous communication styles and top-down authority-is where many founders and CEOS go wrong. After all, innovative thinking is what differentiates an average business owner from a successful leader or entrepreneur, one who understands that yesterday's solutions are all too often tomorrow's problems.

Workers want flexibility, freedom and balance; having come close to it during the pandemic, they're more prone to dissatisfaction than at any other time. Give workers freedom, autonomy and the ability to contribute to their job with more meaning and creativity and you'll see an increase in workplace motivation, job performance and employee well-being. forbes.com


36M Remote Workers by 2025
How companies are keeping remote employees engaged and productive
Zippia reports that 1 in 5 remote workers say isolation is the biggest downside of remote work. Encouraging communication among remote workers is critical for companies to keep production and employee satisfaction high. Companies that embrace instant messaging platforms like Slack allow remote workers to engage with real-time collaboration and feedback.

Communication is a two-way street; companies should ensure remote workers feel empowered to speak up. Some remote workers prefer phone conversations, while others like video calls or instant messaging. Taking to time to recognize which mode of communication works best for each employee can aid management in keeping productivity levels high.

Communicating employee wins and achievements in creative ways, such as having a pizza or cake delivered, is another way for managers to show employee appreciation from afar. tulsaworld.com


Walgreens to shrink HQ as employees work more from home
With more of its employees working from home, Walgreens plans to sell more than half of its headquarters office space. The drugstore giant will shift office workers to the remaining areas.

The COVID public health emergency is ending - but what does that mean?
Who could be hurt hardest by the sunsetting of the emergency? Experts weigh in.

These Entrepreneurs Started Businesses During the Pandemic. How Did They Do?

Facial Recognition Tech Reduces Retail Fraud & Theft
How Digital Technology, Including Facial Recognition, is Transforming Retail

Digital technology is transforming every aspect of the world we live in, and retail stores are one of the primary places consumers are feeling the change.

Rise Of The Robots

Take a trip to any store and you will find self-checkout technology. This is one of the first customer-facing transformations that digital technology has brought to retail spaces. At supermarkets, fashion outlets, and hardware stores, consumers are being encouraged to check out their own items and complete their purchases with little to no staff supervision. The technology is not only more cost-effective to operate, but it is also simple and cheap to buy too. Even small, family-run stores can afford to implement the tech.

Your Phone Is Your Wallet

More and more consumers are now using their smartphones to make their purchases. This comes with many added benefits for both retailers and consumers, the biggest of which is the speed of service. No longer do people need to search for their cards or count their cash during checkouts. With a simple tap of their phone, they can make regular purchases and keep track of their spending all in one place. Some electronic point-of-sale systems can even provide them with an itemized digital receipt.

Making payments with a smartphone using ApplePay or Google's Wallet is not only quick, but it is also more secure. These apps often use biometric features like fingerprint or face recognition to allow payments. This is better for both consumers and retailers as it reduces the chance of fraud or theft. Cash is becoming a less common way to pay in retail, which makes many aspects of running a store quicker and easier.

Engagement Through Apps - Bluetooth Beacons Beckon Shoppers: bbntimes.com


Independent Unions Fueling the Retail Union Push
Worker-Led Organizing Efforts: Independent Unions Explained
Labor organizing was on the rise in 2022-with union election wins reaching a 17-year high-marking a celebratory moment for larger unions battling a decades-long decline in the US workforce.

But a deeper look at the data tells a different story of an undercurrent of activity: More than 24,000 workers joined unions outside the direct reach of the AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation, which includes 60 unions representing more than 12 million workers. This organizing was also separate from wins notched by major non-AFL-CIO unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union.

Many workers opted to create their own independent union, reflecting a growing trend driven by grassroots efforts popping up at retail and food service locations owned by big corporations like Amazon.com Inc., Trader Joe's, Home Depot Inc., Starbucks Corp., Lululemon Athletica Inc., and others, labor experts said in interviews. One of the biggest wins came when Amazon Labor Union, an independent union, organized about 8,000 workers at the online retail giant's Staten Island, N.Y., fulfillment center.

But are the independents truly on their own? And are they here to stay? news.bloomberglaw.com


Burning $500M Worth of Shoes?
Adidas has $500 million worth of Kanye West sneakers and no good options
Months after cutting ties with rapper and fashion designer Kanye West over his flagrant antisemitism, the German company on Feb. 9 warned it was looking at massive losses if it couldn't sell its inventory, raising questions about its options for the now-tainted brand, including literally burning the shoes.

That's a significant shift from its outlook in November, when officials said they could recoup the "vast majority" of losses by rebranding the distinctive shoes - which retail from roughly $200 to nearly $600 - and selling them at a discount.

The predicament offers a glimpse of what happens when a fashion line meets a sudden end. And experts say the decision, which Adidas has said is still months away, will be especially challenging because the company faces ethical and financial tripwires at every turn. finance.yahoo.com


What the Economy Means for Retailers
Can't figure out this economy? Walmart, Home Depot are having trouble, too

The latest inflation and retail sales data show consumer spending to be stronger than economists forecast.

If you think the economy is confusing right now, consider how baffling it must look to Home Depot and Walmart. Last week, the two big retailers sent cautious signals about the health of the U.S. consumer.

In a nutshell: Walmart said U.S. consumer spending started the year strong, but that it expect households to back off through the year. Home Depot said consumer spending is holding up, but that it expects a flat sales-growth year overall, with declining profits. cnbc.com


The running list of major retail bankruptcies
From Toys R Us to J.C. Penney, many retailers have filed over the past few years. Here's who has fallen victim since 2017.

U.S. retailers' ocean shipping price woes ending, but new delays threaten
Collapsing ocean shipping rates would seem to be good news for U.S. retailers, but they are now bracing for delays as some carriers try to prop up prices by cancelling voyages.

List of Over 800 Retail Chain Stores Scheduled to Close in 2023

Louis Vuitton parent company to buy Tiffany for $16.2 billion

Vows by many big U.S. companies to back out of Russia hold firm a year later

Holding Software Companies Accountable for Americans' Cybersecurity
CISA director urges tech sector to stop shipping unsafe products

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said the cybersecurity burden should no longer be placed on consumers.

Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, called on technology companies to take greater responsibility when it comes to the cybersecurity of their products that "are embedded into the very foundations of our society."

The remarks at a Carnegie Mellon University event on Monday echo a recent call to action from CISA for tech companies to "fundamentally shift" product design to one that embraces cybersecurity as a safety and product design issue. "As we've integrated technology into nearly every facet in our lives, we've unwittingly come to accept as normal that such technology is dangerous by design," Easterly said.

The CISA director's push to hold software makers more accountable for Americans' cybersecurity comes as the Biden administration is considering moves to compel the tech sector to shoulder more responsibility for the digital safety of critical U.S. industries. The forthcoming national cybersecurity strategy is widely expected to demand greater investments in security from industries that prop up sectors such as energy, water and health care.

Indeed, the technology that underlines critical services are often rife with vulnerabilities and are difficult to manage due to the need for constant uptime that limits patching. Additionally, the increasing digitization of critical infrastructure is adding more vectors of attack if not properly configured.

Easterly also pointed to the added burden to the American consumer who has to consider complex topics when buying a new device such as a phone or a computer. "The American people have accepted the fact that they're constantly going to have to update their software," she said. "The burden is placed on you as the user and that's what we have to collectively stop."

Easterly continued: "We've normalized the fact that the cybersecurity burden is placed disproportionately on the shoulders of consumers and small organizations who are often least aware of the threat and least capable of protecting themselves." cyberscoop.com


New Wave of Destructive Malware Wiping Out Systems
Rise of 'system wipers' poses new threats to organizations
A new wave of destructive malware capable of wiping out systems, not just data, appears to be gaining significant momentum heading into 2023, according to the latest research from FortiGuard Labs and its chief security strategist, Derek Manky.

The rise of "system wipers" in the second half of 2022 was one of several developments that stood out to Manky in FortiGuard's most recent survey of organizations about the cyber threats they are encountering. There was a 16% increase in reports of system wipers between the first half and the second half of 2022, he said, but a 53% surge between the third quarter and the fourth quarter, he said in a new interview for CyberScoop.

The number of different types of system wipers is also growing. The FortiGuard Labs research identified 16 types, or families, of system wiper malware being used by hackers. "We only saw maybe one of these the year before. It truly was unprecedented," he said.

Manky said the latest findings presented both good news and bad news.

"The bad news is, there are close to 200,000 vulnerabilities now that attackers are going after - that's the entire attack surface. The good news is that we looked at what we call active attack surface - what holes are open in organizations and what attackers are actually going after. And that accounted for only 1% of that 200,000," he said. That suggests attackers are shifting techniques and becoming more targeted using "weapons of choice."

Manky also highlighted other momentum-building techniques, including "drive-by-downloads," where hackers lure users to a website and can quickly compromise a user's system without interaction.

"We're also seeing a lot of older threats now that are being retrofitted," he said, explaining how portions of old code are being recompiled into new code that is then used in new attack techniques.

Manky also discusses the types of threats organizations can expect to see more of in the coming year and how to prepare for them. cyberscoop.com


Consumers Scams Surge 30%
FTC reveals alarming increase in scam activity, costing consumers billions
Newly released Federal Trade Commission (FTC) data shows that consumers reported losing nearly $8.8 billion to fraud in 2022, an increase of more than 30 percent over the previous year.

Losing money to investment and imposter scams

Consumers reported losing more money to investment scams - more than $3.8 billion-than any other category in 2022. That amount more than doubles the amount reported lost in 2021. The second-highest reported loss amount came from imposter scams, with losses of $2.6 billion reported, up from $2.4 billion in 2021.

The FTC received fraud reports from 2.4 million consumers last year, with the most commonly reported being imposter scams, followed by online shopping scams. Prizes, sweepstakes, and lotteries; investment-related reports; and business and job opportunities rounded out the top five fraud categories.

FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network

Sentinel received more than 5.1 million reports in 2022; these include the fraud reports detailed above, as well as identity theft reports and complaints related to other consumer issues, such as problems with credit bureaus and banks and lenders. In 2022, there were over 1.1 million reports of identity theft received through the FTC's IdentityTheft.gov website. helpnetsecurity.com


Pitting Cybercriminals Against Each Other
How the Ukraine War Opened a Fault Line in Cybercrime, Possibly Forever

Infighting, conscription, emigration. The war in Ukraine has pitted cybercriminals against one another like no other event before it.

Russia's war in Ukraine has shaken cyberspace at every level, from nation-state advanced persistent threats (APTs) on down to low-grade carders on Dark Web forums.

A new report from Recorded Future highlights the many effects that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, now one year past, has had in cyberspace. Threat actors have been pulled away from their computers. Allies have become enemies. Cybercrime activity has shifted and power structures have been reorganized, not least because people have been physically moving.

It all amounts to a kind of grand, multifaceted dissolution. A breakdown of the cybercrime state of affairs. Will the digital underworld ever be the same again?  darkreading.com


Dish Network Hit With Multi-Day Outage, Suspected Ransomware Attack
The satellite-TV provider's websites, apps, and internal systems have been down since Thursday, leaving employees unable to work and customers prevented from paying Dish bills.

In Latest Round of Job Cuts, Twitter Is Said to Lay Off at Least 200 Employees

Mobile Banking Trojans Surge, Doubling in Volume

Newport Beach, CA: Thieves crash into Newport Beach Louis Vuitton store, steal $100,000 worth of merchandise
A man and woman were arrested for allegedly driving multiple vehicles into a Louis Vuitton store Saturday and stealing $100,000 worth of merchandise, according to the Newport Beach Police Department. It happened around 3:46 a.m. at the Louis Vuitton store in the 600 block of Newport Center Drive. According to the authorities, the suspects smashed through the store windows and stole the merchandise. Officers said they responded to the scene and witnessed the alleged thieves getting into a third vehicle. The suspects sped onto the freeway, and the California Highway Patrol took over the pursuit. During the pursuit, the suspects were reportedly throwing merchandise out the door. The chase ended when four people bailed out of the car. Two people were arrested, Ahmad Rahmaan, 26, of Los Angeles, and Tylishe Bell, 28, of Los Angeles. Officers said they are facing the possible charges of commercial burglary, conspiracy, and felony evading. Two other people are outstanding. There is no suspect description at this time. cbsnews.com


Clackamas County, OR: Feb. 24 Retail-theft Operation leads to 20 arrests
On Friday, Feb. 24, the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office led a multi-agency retail theft operation at multiple Clackamas-area retailers. The eight-and-a-half-hour shoplifting detail included CCSO Patrol deputies and detectives working alongside investigators from the Tigard, Milwaukie, Lake Oswego, and Canby Police Departments. It led to 20 arrests on multiple charges and the recovery of over $3,700 in stolen items, as well as the clearance of six outstanding arrest warrants. During the operation, law enforcement worked closely with loss-prevention officers at participating retail partners, including DICK'S Sporting Goods and REI. Law enforcement contacted retail theft suspects ranging in age from 24 to 56 as they exited stores with unpaid merchandise.  clackamas.us


Elizabethtown, PA: Worker at Nordstrom fulfillment center in Lancaster County accused of trying to steal $14,000 in merchandise
A worker at a fulfillment center in Lancaster County tried to steal more than $14,000 in merchandise, according to police. Northwest Regional police said Anthony Best, 46, tried to take 12 watches and other clothing items from the Nordstrom on Distribution Drive in West Donegal Township on Friday. According to court records, Best is charged with theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property. He is in Lancaster County Prison.  wgal.com


Secaucus, NJ: Police nab 2 of 3 Calvin Klein shoplifters; suspects fled, but K-9 Officer makes the stop

Fresno, CA: Police searching for 2 theft suspects in Fresno's Hobby Lobby

Columbus, OH: Columbus Police looking for 'habitual shoplifter' after Dollar store theft

Humble, TX: Woman allegedly left child while fleeing $600 theft scene at Dillard's in Deerbrook Mall