Homeland Security Investigations & US Attorneys Work With Retailers to Stop ORC

Met with representatives from Walmart, Lowe's, Ulta, Rite-Aid, Walgreens, Safeway, Fred Meyer, and Target
US Attorney Tessa Gorman joins HSI for a roundtable on organized retail crime

Met with representatives from Walmart, Lowe's, Ulta, Rite-Aid, Walgreens, Safeway, Fred Meyer, and Target

Seattle- US Attorney Tessa M. Gorman and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer hosted an organized retail crime roundtable discussion on Thursday, February 29th. US Attorney Tessa Gorman and HSI Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer gave opening remarks to retailers to discuss their work in investigating, disrupting, and prosecuting organized retail crime. Representatives from Walmart, Lowe's, Ulta, Rite-Aid, Walgreens, Safeway, Fred Meyer, and Target were among the attendees at the roundtable.

"We have seen organized retail crime become more and more common in the country, and in Western Washington," said US Attorney Tessa Gorman. "Retail theft impacts retailers of all sizes and communities across our District. It leads to customers feeling unsafe, puts security guards at risks, and causes significant losses to retailers. I am proud to partner with HSI, local law enforcement, and the retailers in Western Washington to put a stop to organized retail crime."

"Organized retail crime does not only impact businesses, it undermines the well-being of our communities while threatening the safety and security of everyday people," said Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer, who oversees HSI operations in the Pacific Northwest. "Those who commit these offenses, regardless of if they are a part of a criminal organization or acting individually, will not be allowed to wreak havoc upon our private sector partners unchecked. This meeting is an important step in what I hope is a continued partnership with businesses throughout the Pacific Northwest to catch and prosecute organized theft groups that are conducting, promoting, and profiting off this dangerous activity."

In March of 2023, the United States Attorney's office indicted a pair for a retail theft scheme, in which both defendants plead guilty to wire fraud. According to the plea agreement, they worked collaboratively to steal more than $800,000 of equipment from a large retailer through the retailer's rental service. They rented the equipment under false identities, and then sold it on secondhand retail sites like OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace. As of Mach 2023, the defendants had rented equipment from over 190 different store locations in 23 states under 150 names. This case was investigated by HSI.

Contact: Press contact for the U.S. Attorney's Office is Communications Director Emily Langlie at (206) 553-4110 or Emily.Langlie@usdoj.gov.   justice.gov


Coast-to-Coast ORC Crackdown
More Retail Crime Busts as Legislation Tightens

Retail crimesters may not be shying away from stealing stock, but law enforcement nationwide has continued to crack down on crime ring participants.

Several states' legislators have expressed their interest in decreasing retail crime rates through legislation, task forces, technology and increased budgets, citing rising crime, fearful retail employees and shoppers turning to online purchases rather than trekking into stores.

As some of the laws begin to go into effect and others make their way through the states' respective legislative processes, police have ramped up their efforts to splinter retail crime rings' aspirations.

Florida

Florida police arrested six Georgia residents accused of stealing about $90,000 of merchandise from various big box retailers in Florida over the course of 18 months. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), the six suspects are allegedly part of an organized retail theft ring responsible for over 70 separate retail thefts. Those incidents occurred at stores in eight different counties in Northeast Florida, police said.

California

California leaders and politicians have been scrambling to solve the retail crime issue its cities face. Several members of the California State Assembly put forth the California Retail Theft Reduction Act, which would punish retail crimesters found with stolen merchandise they intend to sell. In late January, legislators introduced a bill into the California State Assembly that would revise the definitions outlined in Prop 47, in turn bringing harsher penalties against those who commit retail crime.

Oregon

On Jan. 1, a new law went into effect in Oregon, which pledged harsher punishment for those pilfering from shelves in the state. Like a number of other states, including Washington, California and New York, state legislators expressed concern over the ways in which retail crime continues to affect business owners, retail store associates and consumer safety. sourcingjournal.com


New York Governor Calls Out Retail Crime as State's 'Next Challenge'
Hochul touts progress on crime, says retail theft rings are next
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday what she described as significant progress in the fight against crime in New York's Capital Region and across upstate. She also took the opportunity to discuss some items in her executive budget that she hopes the state Legislature will join her in supporting.

The governor also announced that similar efforts to strengthen red flag laws that keep guns away from individuals who may be a danger to themselves or others resulted in 1,385 "red flags" in 2023 and the seizure of 2,549 guns, while highlighting a partnership between the State Police and the Department of Environmental Conservation to seize illegal guns.

"Our next challenge is retail theft, something that many would think should be left to the locals, except just like gun seizures and car thefts, sometimes our locals need extra help and expertise," she said.

As part of her executive budget, the governor proposed using similar tactics to create a joint operation to crack down on organized retail theft rings while increasing penalties for those who assault retail workers.

She emphasized that she needs the support of lawmakers to move it forward. "I need my colleagues in the state Legislature to support this when we start our budget negotiations in the next couple of weeks," she said.

Spectrum News 1 asked state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie if the increased penalties specifically are something the Assembly could get behind. "We'll deal with some of the fiscal sides of the things the governor proposed in terms of helping out the retail industry, but as a standard practice we do not put policy in our one-house budgets," he said.

Republican state Assemblymember Mike Reilly meanwhile told Spectrum News 1 he introduced a bill last session that would have increased penalties for retail theft but it never made it to the floor.  nystateofpolitics.com

   RELATED: Hochul shares promising news about crime in Western New York


New California Law Could 'Turn Many Felons Free'
WSJ Opinion: California Finds a New Way to Be Soft on Crime

The California Legislature creates a new 'systemic racism' defense that risks turning many felons free.

What would happen if lawmakers reinvented the criminal-justice system to target "systemic racism" instead of crime? California is about to find out. Thanks to a 2020 law called the California Racial Justice Act, every felon serving time in the state's prisons and jails can now retroactively challenge his conviction and sentencing on the ground of systemic bias.

To prevail, the incarcerated prisoner need not show that the police officers, prosecutors, judge or jurors in his case were motivated by racism or that his proceedings were unfair. If he can demonstrate that in the past, criminal suspects of his race were arrested, prosecuted or sentenced more often or more severely than members of other racial groups, he will be entitled to a new trial or sentence.

California's criminal-defense bar is lining up an onslaught of litigation. The 2020 law initially applied only to new prosecutions, and even before the onset of retroactivity at the start of 2024, defense lawyers were demanding that district attorneys provide decades' worth of records, no matter how tangential to their case, to create statistical claims of bias.

Advocates are tutoring prisoners to file new claims under the law. A lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California recently told a conference at Berkeley Law School: "We have the potential for something grand: to unravel an unjust system. We are celebrating the dawn of a new era." The act's author, Assemblyman Ash Kalra, predicted that other states would follow California's lead and that variants would be enacted in such domains as healthcare and family court. "The possibilities are endless, because racism is so pervasive," Mr. Kalra told the conference.

Many of the largest California counties have leftist district attorneys who cheer the new law. Some are setting up Racial Justice Act units; it is unclear which side those units are on. Alameda County's Pamela Price has already banned almost all sentencing enhancements on grounds of disparate racial impact. Oakland, the county's principal city, had a 21% increase in violent crime last year, a 45% increase in car theft, and a 23% increase in carjackings and burglaries. The incidence of some crimes has tripled since 2019. As California courts apply the Racial Justice Act, the rest of the state will look more and more like Oakland. wsj.com


Safeway Worker Fired for Trying to Stop Shoplifter
Judge ruled 'there was no misconduct on her part' despite Safeway firing her

Judge rules in favor of Safeway worker fired after trying to stop shoplifter
A California judge has ruled in favor of a longtime Safeway employee who was fired after she attempted to stop a shoplifter from stealing more than $500 worth of groceries, her attorney said.

Last year, the grocery retail chain terminated Antoinette Baez from her job at a Safeway in San Mateo, claiming she violated the company's shoplifting policy. The policy, according to lawyer Neil Eisenberg, prohibits employees from chasing, touching, or pursuing a suspected thief.

The termination stemmed from an incident in which Baez intervened during an alleged shoplifting attempt on Feb. 2, 2023.

Baez was nearing the end of her shift as a cashier manager when she noticed a woman with a packed shopping cart acting suspiciously in the self-checkout area. She radioed the store supervisor, David Arevalos, and confronted the woman.

Baez said she attempted to redirect the woman back to the checkout lane, being careful not to touch her, and only keep her hands on the bags that the suspected shoplifter was holding. The former manager said she was very aware of Safeway's policy regarding handling shoplifting cases and that led to how she conducted herself.

The situation got more heated when the woman got physical and tried to punch Baez, Arevalos recalled. That's when he stepped in to try and block the woman in an effort to protect his fellow employee.

The woman eventually left the store, without any of the items she allegedly tried to steal.

After a review of her case, a state EDD judge initially upheld Safeway's termination. But Baez continued to fight back and appealed. Then last week, an EDD administrative law judge issued and finalized a new ruling in favor of Baez, concluding that there was no misconduct on her part.

The ruling now means she will receive unemployment benefits going back about a year, to the point of termination. yahoo.com


Violent Crime Nationwide is Down - But 'Disorder' Still Crippling Some Cities
Law enforcement community leader gives Biden reality check on crime

Fraternal Order of Police National Vice President Joe Gamaldi accused President Biden of living in an 'alternate reality'

President Biden countered rhetoric from multiple law enforcement sources during a White House speech last week with his own claims that violent crime reached 50-year lows under his administration, prompting one member of the law enforcement community to cry foul on Monday.

Gamaldi, weighing in on the crime issue, told host Maria Bartiromo that Biden could simply look outside his front door to see what's going on in the nation's capital, where, like many major U.S. cities, crime has devastated the public in recent years.

"Murders are up 38%. Washington, D.C. carjackings are up 100% and, when you look nationwide, we've had over 20,000 homicides in the last three years. We haven't seen those numbers in 30 years," he continued.

"Retail theft is over $100 billion. There's businesses closing left and right. There's crime and disorder everywhere you look, so if President Biden really wants to help, how about he tell rogue DAs and activist judges who support these revolving door criminal justice policies to grow a spine and actually do their job? While he's at it, why doesn't he convince the rest of his party to stop treating cops like crap in America?" foxbusiness.com
 

Baltimore may spend another $2.1 million on a new, three-year ShotSpotter gunshot detection contract
Baltimore is poised to consider a $2.1 million contract for the gunshot detection technology known as ShotSpotter, which has come under fire in cities across the country and was recently ended by Chicago's skeptical mayor. baltimoresun.com


Moderates want voters to end progressive control of San Francisco Democratic Party

San Francisco Proposition B, police staffing measure, fails
 

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market

Director, Loss Prevention job posted for Petco in San Diego, CA
Direct all Loss Prevention efforts at Petco (Petco stores, support (non-store) functions including Distribution Centers, ecommerce and on-line fraud monitoring, data analytics/fraud investigations, NSC/SSC LP operations and building security, and business continuity with emphasis on shrink reduction, cash controls, safety, protection of company assets, fraud monitoring, and partner security. Deliver results as they relate to shrink budgets, cash shortage goals, cost/loss avoidance goals, safety metrics, etc. careers.petco.com
 

'Booby-Trapped Email Attachments'
Hundreds of orgs targeted with emails aimed at stealing NTLM authentication hashes
A threat actor specializing in establishing initial access to target organizations' computer systems and networks is using booby-trapped email attachments to steal employees' NTLM hashes.

Why are they after NTLM hashes?

NT LAN Manager (NTLM) hashes contain users' (encoded) passwords. "User authentication in Windows is used to prove to a remote system that a user is who they say they are. NTLM does this by proving knowledge of a password during a challenge and response exchange without revealing the password to anyone."

Varonis Threat Labs researchers have recently documented alternative tricks attackers use to grab NTLM password hashes.

How a phishing email allows them to steal NTLM hashes?

According to the researchers, in late February 2024 the threat actor (marked as TA577) sent out tens of thousands of emails targeting employees of hundreds of organizations around the world. The emails looked like they were replies to previous emails, and directed the potential victims to download and open the attached ZIP archive file.

"When opened, the HTML file triggered a system connection attempt to a Server Message Block (SMB) server via a meta refresh to a file scheme URI ending in .txt. That is, the file would automatically contact an external SMB resource owned by the threat actor," the researchers explained. helpnetsecurity.com


Why cyber maturity assessment should become standard practice
Understanding risk is one thing, but how do you know if your organization has what it takes to withstand those risks being realized? Establishing cyber maturity can help determine resilience, where the strengths and weaknesses lie, and what needs to happen to improve those security processes.

In its recent The State of Cybersecurity 2023 report, ISACA describes cyber maturity as a work in progress. The reference is not just a nod to the fact that assessments should be carried out periodically but to the fact that uptake is not as high as it should be. The number carrying out regular assessments (65%) has not moved over the past two years, revealing adoption has stalled.

This seems surprising given that the demand for verifying the level of cyber maturity within the organization has never been higher. In the face of escalating risks leading to more claims, cyber insurance providers are now pushing for cyber maturity assessments to determine their risk exposure when quoting for policies, for example. The likelihood is that such demands will become the norm as these providers seek to increase market penetration in the face of escalating threats (currently increasing premiums, dampening uptake). helpnetsecurity.com


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