Johnson Controls announces Tyco Software House C●CURE Visit Verified Identity using civic for fast and secure identity verification

C●CURE Visit Verified Identity combines convenience and security for building access management

Johnson Controls has released Tyco Software House C●CURE Visit Verified Identity solution using Civic Secure Identity technology, improving the visitor management process and eliminating the risks and overhead associated with collecting and storing visitor data on site.

"The legal and regulatory burden on organizations in terms of collecting and storing personal information, even for visitor management purposes, has never been greater," said Ashley Tousignant, senior product manager, Johnson Controls. "C●CURE Visit Verified Identity using Civic removes the need for companies to handle this potentially sensitive information and leaves the control over the information in the hands of the individual." johnsoncontrols.com

Axis wins two 2020 Info Security Products Guide Global Excellence Awards

AXIS P5655-E PTZ Network Camera won Gold in Best Security Solution and Axis end customer, Fiserv Forum won gold in the Best Deployments and Customer Success of the Year.

Info Security Products Guide, the industry's leading information security research and advisory guide, announced that Axis Communications won two Gold Global Excellence Awards in the 16th Annual 2020 Info Security PG's Global Excellence Awards. These prestigious global awards recognize cybersecurity and information technology vendors with advanced, ground-breaking products, solutions, and services that are helping set the bar higher for others in all areas of security and technologies. Axis Communications is honored to be selected and recognized for its commitment to a smarter, safer world. axis.com
 

Coronavirus Update

Coronavirus Map: March 6 Update

Tracking the Spread of the Outbreak in the U.S. and Abroad

 
 

Coronavirus Fear & Anxiety Rule the Day
Workplace vs. Coronavirus: 'No One Has a Playbook for This'

The deadly disease has arrived in some offices, and employers are
figuring out how to adapt.

The alarm has now spread through other companies around the world, despite escalating efforts by many of the firms to deal with disruptions from the coronavirus outbreak that started in China. Microsoft, Amazon, Ford Motor, CNN, Citigroup and Twitter have put employees through work-from-home drills, dusted off emergency-response plans and ordered increasingly stringent safety measures to protect their workers.

Even so, the coronavirus has moved faster than their preparations. Amazon said this week that two employees in Europe, who had been in Milan, were infected with the virus and that one employee at its Seattle headquarters had tested positive for it. HSBC said on Thursday that the coronavirus had been diagnosed in an employee at its global headquarters in London. And AT&T said a retail employee at one of its stores in San Diego had tested positive.

The challenges faced by workplaces have become a new front in the battle over the coronavirus, global white-collar companies have rarely grappled with this scale of disruption - or the level of fear that has gripped workers.

Many corporate memos, including those from HSBC and Facebook, now mention deep cleaning of office spaces and self-quarantining. Face-to-face job interviews have been all but banned by some firms, in favor of interviews conducted by teleconference.

The depth of employee anxiety has forced senior executives to take calming measures. Uber sent out a memo to staff on Wednesday saying it had formed an internal task force to handle its response to the virus, according to a copy viewed by The Times.

The measures that companies are taking in response to the virus may shift workplace behavior over the long term. Telecommuting, which has been in and out of favor for decades, may become more ingrained. The use of digital tools for remote collaboration may also rise. nytimes.com

Spreading virus could deal big blow to malls

40% Are Limiting or Avoiding Them Entirely

Now, with the virus spreading in the U.S., it could deal a major blow to the country's over 1,000 malls at time when many are already struggling with a slew of retail bankruptcies. New diagnoses of the disease in several U.S. states have raised the tally of cases to more than 100. Nine people have died, all in Washington state.

Big malls like American Dream and Mall of America and mall owner Taubman Centers Inc. say they're adding hand sanitizer stations, and they've also stepped up disinfecting high-touch areas like doors and handrails. The International Council of Shopping Centers said its members are following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Shopping centers may have to take more extreme precautions, such as temporary closures, said Coye Nokes, a partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants' consumer and retail practice.

"While the brands and retailers can attempt to mitigate the impact via other channels like e-commerce, malls themselves will struggle with traffic under any extended virus scenario," she said.

Among those who have already changed habits, more than four in 10 say they're limiting visits to shopping centers and malls or avoiding them entirely, and more than three in 10 avoid shops in general. A worsening of the outbreak would hit malls disproportionately, the research suggests. Among those likely to change habits if the outbreak worsens, around three-quarters expect to avoid shopping complexes, making this the most-avoided type of location.

The first casualty was North Star Mall in San Antonio, Texas, which closed for 24 hours this week after local health officials notified it that a patient who tested positive for the new virus visited over the weekend. A spokeswoman at the mall's owner, Brookfield Properties, said in an email to The Associated Press that the mall has been cleaned several times using products recommended by the CDC and there is a ''low risk to the public." abcnews.go.com

Coronavirus Fallout Poses Challenges for Most Vulnerable U.S. Retailers

Neiman Marcus, Jo-Ann Stores and other retailers depend on
Chinese manufacturers for inventory

The weakest U.S. retailers face the biggest risks from the coronavirus epidemic if Chinese factories overseas remain understaffed and customers at home stay away from bricks-and-mortar stores, according to lenders and analysts.

Luxury chain Neiman Marcus Group Ltd., fabric and craft supplies chain Jo-Ann Stores Inc., and apparel seller J.Crew Group Inc. are among the junk-rated retailers exposed to the potential fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, they said.

U.S. retailers have varied exposure to the manufacturing contraction, depending on how much of their inventory comes from China or other affected regions.

Economists say it is too soon to know how much the virus might affect consumer spending but that it could upend supply chains and cause some product shortages, especially as retailers run out of Chinese-made goods already stocked in warehouses. The biggest risk facing weaker retailers is a possible pullback in demand as the virus spreads in the U.S., spooking consumers

But if production in China doesn't return to normal levels by late April, U.S. retailers also could face challenges stocking up in time for the back-to-school and holiday shopping season. wsj.com

What the CFO's are Reading
Did Your Contract Anticipate the Arrival of Coronavirus?

As the virus spreads, there will likely be an increase in contractual defaults. Here's a look at the related legal ramifications and remedies.

For CFOs, anticipating the "known unknowns," or unforeseen events that could impact business performance, is a fact of life. In a global economy, where organizations are dependent on their overseas suppliers, these events now include diseases and quarantines, such as the coronavirus.

As the virus spreads, and suppliers fail to ship products, we are likely to see a rise in contractual defaults as counterparties are unable to perform their obligations on a timely basis.

Did your supply chain colleagues anticipate the arrival of a coronavirus in their contracts? Does a global pandemic excuse your performance? Let's look at how the law might answer these questions.

Force Majeure: A Contractual Excuse? - Impossibility: A Legal Excuse? - Planning for What Comes Next cfo.com

There's 'no historical precedent' for working from home amid coronavirus fears
There's little employees of U.S. companies can do, legally, to force their employers to pay their wages or to hold their jobs if they insist on either skipping work or working from home over fears of contracting the illness, at least under COVID-19's current risk level.

"There's really no historical precedent for the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], or working with OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration], telling employers that they have to do this or that," Aaron Goldstein, a partner with the Seattle law firm Dorsey & Whitney, told Yahoo Finance. "And I think it's unlikely that they will, given the reaction that we're seeing to coronavirus, which is employers preemptively going well beyond what OSHA would ever require."

Still, employers must comply with federal, state, and local laws that require certain worker safety precautions, though there's no U.S. law directly setting boundaries for worker attendance during viral outbreaks. U.S. policy stands in sharp contrast with France where workers have already exercised their legally protected right to walk off the job due to coronavirus fears. finance.yahoo.com

7-Eleven Cancels Speedway Acquisition Plans Amid economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus, Seven & I Holdings Co. ends bid for Speedway over valuation concerns. cstoredecisions.com

'Almost Without Precedent': Airlines Hit Hard by Coronavirus
The effects could wipe out up to $113 billion in worldwide revenues this year

RILA's Retail Resources for Coronavirus

Kroger establishes internal task force activating pandemic preparedness plan focused on customers, associates and supply chain

2,773 People Are Under Quarantines in New York City

Amazon's third-party sellers are facing massive inventory shortages due to the coronavirus

Multiple states have declared a 'state of emergency' over coronavirus
- an expert explains what that means

Silicon Valley's top investing firm has a stark message on coronavirus: Prepare for the worst

These cleaners kill coronavirus: Lysol, Clorox, Purell products make EPA's disinfectants list

UK: 24% of retailers hit by severe supply disruption amid coronavirus fears

Millennials are the 'worried' generation & changing spending habits most amid coronavirus outbreak, study shows
 

ISC West 2020 Postponed to July 2020 Due to Coronavirus

ISC West, originally scheduled to take place March 17-20, has been postponed to July 2020.

We at ISC West want to express our concern for everyone impacted by the COVID-19 coronavirus. Based on their close monitoring of ongoing developments with the Coronavirus, recent reports from public health officials and extensive consultation with their partners in the global security community, the organizers of ISC West decided to postpone the show to July 2020 (dates will be announced soon). iscwest.com

For further media information, please contact: Diffusion PR for ISC West (Reed Exhibitions) (646) 571-0120 reed@diffusionpr.com


Retail Product Safety and Compliance Leaders Meet
On February 18, a record setting 90 product safety and compliance leaders from 32 retailers met for RILA's Consumer Products Committee (CPC) 2020 Spring Meeting held in Orlando, Florida - in conjunction with the annual International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization (ICPHSO) Conference. The packed meeting agenda included educational presentations from industry thought leaders as well as robust peer-to-peer benchmarking discussions.

Read more about the event here: rila.org


A Comprehensive Review of Facial Recognition
Biometrics industry lobbies for responsible facial recognition regulation

Experts from NEC, FaceFirst, IBIA, Identity Strategy Partners, DHS on countering misinformation and addressing concerns

What constitutes appropriate use of biometric facial recognition technology is the subject of Congressional hearings, draft legislation at the federal and state levels, debates and partial moratoriums in cities across the U.S. New rules are being considered in the EU and elsewhere, and the biometrics industry is increasingly locked into a debate that all agree is critical.

Beyond that, the terms of the debate and the facts of the matter often seem at issue.

The stakes are high, because legislation at the local and state levels has already complicated the market for businesses, and the civil liberties claimed to be under threat are foundational to the U.S. and many other nations. Legislation, therefore, is coming.

Facial recognition policy will eventually have to deal with technologies, use cases and situations which do not involve the same concerns. Real-time CCTV deployments by law enforcement are just one in a galaxy of ways organizations are currently working to leverage the technology, most of which are both less controversial and closer to fruition. Facial biometrics are about to disrupt several different sectors of the economy, FaceFirst CEO Peter Trepp predicts in an interview.

"In a few years, that's going to be the norm. Credit cards are going away, and ATM cards are going away, and lines are going away," Trepp says. "We can board a plane now in half the time using facial recognition; guess what, people don't want to stand in line, of course they're going to do that. There are going to be questions. Amazon Go is coming out, three thousand stores and no cashiers, no checkout lines, and every retailer that we're dealing with recognizes that we don't want to have lineups. There's a convenience to customers but also customers see companies like that, as taking care of their customers." biometricupdate.com

'The New Rules of Consumer Privacy'
by FaceFirst CEO Peter Trepp

In The New Rules of Consumer Privacy: Building Loyalty with Connected Consumers in the Age of Face Recognition and AI, FaceFirst CEO and author Peter Trepp has devised a set of rules that will help companies uphold consumers' privacy without sacrificing their security and convenience. By following these rules, brands can create a win-win scenario that will maximize revenue, reduce crime, provide consumers with the best experience possible and ensure that consumers' privacy is reasonably protected. Learn more about the book here
Or order it here!



58.4M Americans Spent $44.9B On 'Drunk' Purchases in Last 12 Months
According to Finder's latest Drunk Shopping survey nearly a quarter (22.9%) of Americans admit to shopping under the influence. Although the percentage of Americans that admitted to buying under the influence decreased from 26.4% to 22.9% over the past year, the amount consumers are spending increased by 13.9%. The average drunk shopper is spending an average of $768.58 on drunk purchases this year, compared to $674.96 in 2019.

Not surprisingly, food is the most common drunk purchase. Nearly 60% of Americans admit to purchasing food while drunk, followed by more alcohol at 51.7% and shoes, clothes or accessories at 36.9%.

The Northeast had the highest percentage of drunk shoppers (25.82%) as well as the highest average spend ($1,195.13), Midwest (23.54%), the West (23.50%) and the South (20.32%), according to the survey.

Just over a quarter (26.9%) of men admit to drunk shopping.

Less women (19.1%) admitted to drunk shopping than men, spending an average of $799.61 on their purchases during the past year.

On par with last year's trend, millennials were the generation most prone to drunk shopping (42.1%), followed by Gen Z (35.4%), Gen X (22.2%) and baby boomers (10.1%). chainstoreage.com

CEO Drops "Bombshell" on Quarterly Analyst Call
Burlington Stores to Wind Down e-Commerce Operations

Off-Pricer to Focus on Bricks & Mortar Stores - Opening 80 in 2020

"In our business, which is a moderate off-price business, the nature of the treasure hunt and the average price point that we operate at mean that bricks-and-mortar stores have a significant competitive and economic advantage over e-commerce," CEO Michael O'Sullivan told analysts. "We intend to focus our energy and resources on driving profitable sales growth in our bricks-and-mortar stores. We will also continue to aggressively expand and upgrade this store network through our new store opening and remodel programs." chainstoreage.com

Panel Discussion: How Machine Learning Can Strengthen Insider Threat Detection
To mitigate insider threats, experts suggest that enterprises develop their own risk algorithms by coupling machine learning capabilities with behavioral analytics to understand discrepancies in employee activities.

Companies can use human resources data to help create these new algorithms, said Dawn Cappelli, CISO of Rockwell Automation. "The key is having HR data. You can build your risk models by taking the contextual employee data along with their online activity and create risk algorithms."

But the real challenge is refining and contextualizing this data in order to correctly identify potential threats, said Solomon Adote, CISO for the state of Delaware. "Data without context might not tell you the full story," Adote said. "It has to be about identifying what is abnormal about a particular activity." govinfosecurity.com

3 Data Breaches Disclosed This Week: J.Crew, T-Mobile, and Carnival
A series of enterprise data breaches disclosed this week underscores how criminals target various industries to steal and monetize data. The breaches at J.Crew, T-Mobile, and two units of cruise-line operator Carnival Corp., show that millions of customers can feel the effect of even the simplest exploit.

In its disclosure letter to customers, J.Crew said that customers' email addresses and passwords were obtained by an unauthorized third party and that significant additional personal information could have been accessed in the April 2019 incident. No information was provided on the number of customers affected, but the notification noted that the breached accounts had been de-activated pending a customer telephone call and password re-set.

T-Mobile disclosed a breach affecting an unknown number of customers, though gaining that information is complicated because of the path taken to the customer information: Employee data was breached, some of which contained customer information. In a notification document, the wireless carrier said, "Information accessed illegally may have included names and addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, rate plans and features, and billing information."

Finally, Holland America Line and Princess Cruises, two units of Carnival Corp, disclosed a breach from May 2019 in which personal information including mail accounts, names, Social Security numbers, and credit card information of some employees and customers were illegally accessed. While no numbers were given regarding victims, a notice with the California Attorney General's office indicates that more than 500 individuals were affected. Carnival said that when the breach was discovered, it acted quickly to shut down the unauthorized access. darkreading.com

Hackers Target Companies With Coronavirus Scams
Criminals are using concerns about the coronavirus epidemic to spread infections of their own. They are forging emails mentioning the outbreak that appear to be from business partners or public institutions in an effort to get users to open the messages, unleashing malware.

The number of malicious emails mentioning the coronavirus has increased significantly since the end of January, according to cybersecurity firm Proofpoint Inc., which is monitoring the activity. Proofpoint analysts now see multiple email campaigns mentioning the coronavirus every workday.

The dearth of information about the epidemic, along with plenty of conflicting claims, provides an opening for criminals. Email doctored to look like a company's purchase order for face masks or other supplies could trick an employee into wiring payments to a fraudulent account. Individuals could provide personal details in response to a phishing attempt that promises information about a company's remote-work plan. wsj.com

Why Ethical Hacking? (The What and Why of Ethical Hacking)
When people hear the term hacking, they often think of someone infecting their computer with a virus, crashing a network and stealing money, or holding a company hostage from their daily operations with ransomware. Most people do not know that ethical hackers are people who are hired to think like a hacker or bad actor. They meticulously probe a company's systems to find any weaknesses and bring them to the attention of the business before the bad actors exploit them. Ethical hacking is an investment that companies in the modern world can't afford to do without. securitymagazine.com

Attackers Distributing Malware Under Guise of Security Certificate Updates
Cybercriminals can be an innovative bunch when it comes to finding new ways to distribute malware. The latest example is a new campaign involving the use of a fake digital certificate "update" to try and infect systems of visitors to previously compromised websites. darkreading.com

Senate Passes Bill Requiring 5G Security Review

Cisco 2020 CISO Benchmark Report: Average Company Uses 20 Security Technologies

New Book Available on CISO Strategy, Tactics and Leadership