When it comes to the highest rates of violent crime, U.S. News reports Alaska ranks the highest, with 838 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. Louisiana experienced the highest numbers of property crime, with 2,884 crimes per 100,000 residents. ksn.com
 

Crime Doesn't Care About Politics - It's Rising Everywhere
The View from the Left: High Crime in Non-Progressive Cities Fueled by Guns, Inequality

Republicans have criticized progressive policies for fueling crime, but cities without those policies are also seeing high rates of crime.

Republican mayors rejected progressive criminal justice reforms embraced by their Democratic counterparts, but factors such as inequality and guns are still driving crime in larger conservative cities, experts told Newsweek.

The GOP has seized on Democrats' support for criminal justice reform in recent election cycles, arguing these policies lead to higher crime rates in large cities. Instead, Republicans have offered "tough on crime" and pro-police positions that have proved salient, helping them secure control of Congress during the 2022 midterm elections.

However, a city's partisan lean generally does not necessarily correlate with its crime rate, according to data compiled by Newsweek. While cities like Chicago and Philadelphia indeed have higher crime rates than other cities, places like New York City or Los Angeles, frequently cast as crime-ridden by Republicans, have crime rates on par or lower than many cities led by Republicans.

New York City has particularly faced scrutiny following former President Donald Trump's indictment in April. Republicans have sought to accuse Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of ignoring crime in the city while engaging in a politically motivated prosecution. However, tough-on-crime cities like Jacksonville, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Miami all reported higher crime rates in 2021. newsweek.com


Another Progressive City Looks to Beef Up Police Amid Crime Surge
Washington DC mayor considers adding cops to deal with crime surge: reports

Washington, DC mayor Muriel Bowser plans to host a Public Safety Summit on Wednesday to get input from the public on solving rising crime

The mayor of Washington, D.C. is turning to the public for a solution on how to solve the rising crime problem, which may include hiring more police officers, according to reports.

According to DC News Now, Mayor Muriel Bowser will be hosting a Public Safety Summit on Wednesday to give the public a chance to weigh in on how to fix crime in the district. Violent crime in the nation's capital is up 10% from the same time last year, which includes a 15% rise in homicides.

Also on the rise in Washington, D.C. are violent crimes committed by juveniles, which has sparked concern by some residents who want to see juveniles prosecuted as rigorously as adults.

The mayor, according to DC News Now, said one solution could be to hire more police officers.

"MPD is at a historic low in terms of staffing," Bowser said. Currently, MPD has 3,350 police officers, outgoing chief Robert Contee told the news outlet. He also said another 200 plan to leave by the end of fiscal year '24. foxnews.com


Texas mall shooter's 8 weapons were legally obtained

1 year after Buffalo store shooting, residents feel they're left to save themselves

Momentum Continues to Swing Back in Favor of Facial Recognition Tech
Cities are backing away from total bans & embracing thoughtful, measured use of facial recognition

US city ends facial recognition moratorium, considers new rules for police
A pair of bills in Baltimore have been introduced that would prohibit the purchase of biometric software and hardware without first holding a public hearing and getting the City's Council's permission. The legislation also would create a surveillance systems commission to co-regulate their operation.

It also would create a regulatory framework, including reports to the council, to oversee police use of the algorithms, according to reporting by local news publisher The Baltimore Banner.

The changes come when debate over if and how law enforcement across the United States should use facial recognition swings from bans and moratoriums to unilateral deployments.

Baltimore had passed a facial recognition surveillance moratorium that ended last year. It prohibited most public and private use of surveillance, except for the police. Proposed language for the bill would bar police use of algorithms at political protests and rallies, and other large gatherings. biometricupdate.com


Self-Checkout Technology Making More Headlines
This time it's not about theft

Tipping at Self-Checkout Has Customers Crying 'Emotional Blackmail'

Consumers already bristling at higher prices question where the money goes when interaction with an employee was nonexistent

Zero interaction with employees during a transaction no longer guarantees freedom from the moral quandary of how much to tip.

Prompts to leave 20% at self-checkout machines at airports, stadiums, cookie shops and cafes across the country are rankling consumers already inundated by the proliferation of tip screens. Business owners say the automated cues can significantly increase gratuities and boost staff pay. But the unmanned prompts are leading more customers to question what, exactly, the tips are for.

"They're cutting labor costs by doing self-checkout. So what's the point of asking for a tip? And where is it going?" says Ishita Jamar, a senior at American University in Washington, D.C., who has noticed more self-serve tip cues at restaurants she frequents.

Tipping researchers and labor advocates say so-called tip creep is a way for employers to put the onus for employee pay onto consumers, rather than raising wages themselves. Companies say tips are an optional thanks for a job well done. wsj.com


Overworked & Fatigued Employees Jeopardize Workplace Safety
How Worker Fatigue Harms the Bottom Line

Studies show that an overworked and overtired workforce will ultimately cost the company money.

As a safety professional, you need to be aware of the dangers of workplace fatigue and warn company management to consider the economic impact of driving workers too hard. But you'll need solid evidence to support your argument.

There are two studies published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM) you can use: one is on the relationship between fatigue and health-related lost productive time, and the other links weekly work schedules of 60 or more hours to health and safety problems.

Fatigue in the Workforce

Workers suffering from fatigue-physical and mental-are not only less productive and more prone to illness but also more distracted and thus more likely to be involved in a safety incident. For example, studies show that fatigued workers are more than twice as likely to experience health-related lost productive time. One study found that 37.9% of U.S. workers experience fatigue, costing companies approximately $136 billion in lost productivity.

Fatigue clearly impairs work ability. Studies have shown that workers with fatigue are significantly more likely to miss work and experience long-term work absences than workers without fatigue. But there were no studies on the prevalence of fatigue within the workforce (at least in the U.S.) and how fatigue affected productive work time. ehstoday.com


Unionized Employees Accuse Starbucks of 'Illegal Union-Busting Campaign'
Buffalo Starbucks workers helped spark the chain's labor union movement. Now, one of the stores has filed to decertify its union.

Workers United cited an "illegal union-busting campaign" at the store, while Starbucks denies it.

One of the first Starbucks stores to vote to unionize has filed a petition to end its union. The store, located in downtown Buffalo, New York, would remove Workers United as its representative in negotiations with Starbucks, Bloomberg Law reported. Before that can happen, workers at the store must vote in an election to approve the action.

The store voted 18-to-1 for a union in April 2022, Quartz reported. It was among the first Starbucks stores in the country where employees voted to have union representation. A spokesperson for Workers United told TV station WGRZ that Starbucks had launched an "illegal union-busting campaign" at the store.

"Almost every union leader at the store was fired or forced out because of the environment of intimidation and fear that Starbucks management created," the spokesperson said. "In fact, the company is currently being prosecuted for the discriminatory treatment of workers at the Del-Chip store."

A Starbucks spokesperson told Insider: "The allegations are false. Starbucks policy strictly prohibits any retaliatory behavior directed toward partners who are interested in a union."  businessinsider.com


LinkedIn is the latest company to slash jobs amid a layoff wave
LinkedIn employees are the latest to be hit by a wave of layoffs, as the company cuts 716 jobs. Over the past few months, layoffs have expanded outside of tech, media, and finance as Gap and Whole Foods announced cuts.

Party City is planning to close over 30 stores across the country

Tempur Sealy to acquire Mattress Firm in $4 billion deal

How Walmart turned Sam's Club's into Costco's biggest rival

CPI Report Shows Inflation Eased to 4.9% in April

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Securing Infrastructure, Protecting Consumer Privacy & Preventing Breaches
3 Core Cybersecurity Priorities for Retailers and How to Address Them

Security expert Richard Purizaca offers advice on securing infrastructure, protecting consumer privacy and preventing breaches.

Cybercriminals have been increasing their attacks on retail businesses. That's why 70 percent of industry CISOs say they expect their budgets to increase for the third year in a row in 2023, according to the Retail & Hospitality ISAC.

We spoke to Richard Purizaca, a senior field security solution architect with CDW who specializes in cybersecurity, about the challenges faced by modern retailers. He said that shrewd retailers understand that there are three core priorities they must confront when it comes to cybersecurity and offered guidance on how they should address each one.

BIZTECH: Can you talk a bit about the three core security issues that retailers must address?

PURIZACA: Yes, let's take each one at a time. Retailers' No. 1 priority must be to secure retail infrastructure communications. Retailers need to have a solid understanding of all the assets that exist within their network infrastructure. This requires having clear visibility of those assets to make sure they are monitoring them properly.

BIZTECH: What's the second core issue?

PURIZACA: The next thing is that retailers must ensure they're keeping consumer data private, so they have to handle consumer data properly. For credit card information or any type of consumer information, they need to have the proper security and encryption levels in place to make sure that line of communication is secure. Any retailer who manages consumer traffic and consumer data should have these security guardrails in place.

BIZTECH: That brings us to the third core issue: preventing network breaches. How do these security measures enable that?

PURIZACA: Preventing network breaches means monitoring employees and having an extra layer of visibility. You start with a solid fundamental security program, with monitoring and other tools. You also have a firewall, intrusion detection, URL filtering, endpoint protection and identity and access management. A lot of these tools work together to establish the proper security posture for businesses to avoid any type of network breaches, or at least to lessen the risk in terms of them being exposed to a network hack. biztechmagazine.com


DOJ's Cybercrime Crackdown Continues
Justice Department Targets 13 Websites Linked to DDoS-for-Hire

Ten of the domains targeted today were "reincarnations" of services seized in December 2022.

On May 8, the Justice Department announced a court-authorized seizure of 13 Internet domains linked to stressor or booter platforms, more formally known as DDoS-for-hire services.

This is the third wave of US law enforcement action against these kinds of services that allow users to pay for distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS), which overload targeted machines with an onslaught of information and disrupt operations, including accessing the Internet. Not only this, but DDoS attacks can "completely sever Internet connections for other customers serviced by the same Internet service provider." Thousands of users pay for these services to launch millions of attacks against countless organizations, including schools, universities, government websites, and financial institutions, the Justice Department said in the release.

In December 2022, nearly 50 booter services were targeted and seized by US law enforcement and 10 of the 13 that were targeted today are "reincarnations of services that were seized" during the sweep in December. As the Justice Department cracks down on operators, they stress that investigations into these services will continue.

"Victims who are attacked by such services, or those providing Internet services to the victims, often have to 'overprovision,' that is, pay for increased Internet bandwidth in order to absorb the attacks, or subscribe to DDoS protection services, or purchase specialized hardware designed to mitigate the effects of DDoS attacks," stated the affidavit supporting the seizure warrants. "The prices of such overprovision or DDoS protection services are usually significantly more expensive than the cost of a given booter service." darkreading.com


DOJ Disarms Malware Network
FBI Disarms Russian FSB 'Snake' Malware Network

Operation "Medusa" disabled Turla's Snake malware with an FBI-created tool called Perseus.

The US Department of Justice announced it has pulled off a joint operation code-named Medusa that decimated a long-standing malware operation run by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB).

For nearly 20 years, threat group Turla, operating inside the FSB's notorious Center 16, used Snake malware to steal secrets from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-member governments, according to an announcement from the US Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York.

Following compromise of target government systems, Turla would exfiltrate sensitive data through a network of compromised machines spread throughout the US and beyond to make detection harder, the DoJ said.

The FBI developed a tool named Perseus, which was able to successfully command components of the Snake malware to overwrite itself on compromised systems, the DoJ added. darkreading.com


New Ransomware Operation Targets 'Large Commercial Entities'
New Cactus ransomware encrypts itself to evade antivirus
A new ransomware operation called Cactus has been exploiting vulnerabilities in VPN appliances for initial access to networks of "large commercial entities."

The Cactus ransomware operation has been active since at least March and is looking for big payouts from its victims. While the new threat actor adopted the usual tactics seen in ransomware attacks - file encryption and data theft - it added its own touch to avoid detection.

Researchers at Kroll corporate investigation and risk consulting firm believe that Cactus obtains initial access into the victim network by exploiting known vulnerabilities in Fortinet VPN appliances.

Extensive details about the Cactus operation, the victims they target, and if the hackers keep their word and provide a reliable decryptor if paid, are not available at this time.

What is clear is that the hackers' incursions so far likely leveraged vulnerabilities in the Fortinet VPN appliance and follow the standard double-extortion approach by stealing data before encrypting it.

Applying the latest software updates from the vendor, monitoring the network for large data exfiltration tasks, and responding quickly should protect from the final and most damaging stages of a ransomware attack. bleepingcomputer.com


Microsoft Patches 2 Zero-Day Vulnerabilities

To enable ethical hackers, a law reform is needed

Albuquerque, NM: 'Operation Sticky Fingers' Nearly three dozen people arrested in APD retail crime operation
Albuquerque Police says a recent retail crime operation lead to the recovery of thousands of dollars in merchandise and the arrest of nearly three dozen suspects. The department highlighted the results of the work at a news conference Tuesday while also promising more operations targeting the problem throughout the summer.

Calling it "Operation Sticky Fingers," APD says teams of officers arrested 31 offenders, cleared 29 warrants and recovered nearly $7,000 in stolen merchandise in the recent sting. The operation took place the first week of May at several big box stores in the Coronado and Cottonwood shopping areas. "We're going out, we're interfacing directly with the stores and their loss prevention and their employees, and creating zero tolerance zones for any kind of theft that's occurring inside those businesses while we're there," said APD Acting Commander Kyle Hartsock, who oversees the department's Investigative Enhancement Division. "It's one thing that we all know someone's stealing, but we also wanted to better track how they're getting to these businesses."

Of the 31 people arrested in the recent operation, APD says 29 of those individuals were either using city buses or walking on foot to and from the target businesses. Hartsock qualified some of the suspects behavior as "very bold and brazen thefts with no real fear of enforcement." The highest alleged theft was at a Kohl's. APD arrested Wayne Toya, who was accused of walking out with $691.46 in merchandise. APD say Toya was compliant with police after being confronted.  krqe.com


Port St Lucie, FL: Shoplifters Caught, $15K in Stolen Merchandise Recovered
27-year-old Asia Philmore and 26-year-old Jacquilla Morris, both of South Florida, have been arrested on shoplifting charges after Port St. Lucie Police (PSLPD) recovered over $15,000 of medicine, beauty products and toiletries in the suspect's stolen rental vehicle PSLPD Officers responded to a reported retail theft at the Walgreens on SW Prima Vista Blvd in Port St. Lucie where the pair were apprehended "in the store while still in the act," according to a release from PSLPD. The suspects had already filled up their tote bags once with stolen merchandise, and they had returned to the store for more when they were caught inside. They merchandise recovered had been stolen from multiple Walgreens and CVS locations throughout the Treasure Coast. Philmore and Morris were jailed on two counts of felony grand theft and two counts of felony retail theft.  wqcs.org


Smithfield, NC: Update: 3 sought after thefts from designer handbag store at North Carolina outlet shops
Police in Johnston County say they are looking for three women who stole items from a store in the Carolina Premium Outlets in the last week. Three photos were released of women who the Smithfield Police Department said were involved in the thefts at 1227 Outlet Center Drive in Smithfield on Monday, May 1. The women entered the Michael Kors Outlet Store and later walked out - without paying - with various "totes and other merchandise," police said in a news release. Michael Kors describes its stores as selling "jet set luxury: designer handbags, watches, shoes, clothing."  myfox8.com


Washington, DC: Suspects caught on camera smashing store window, stealing sunglasses; Same store hit in April for $140,000
Detectives with the Metropolitan Police Department have released surveillance video in hopes of identifying the suspects of an overnight robbery in Southwest D.C. On Friday, surveillance video shows suspects smash the window of an eyeglass store located in the 600 block of Water Street, Southwest at 3:50 a.m. Once inside the store, the suspects took property before fleeing the scene in a vehicle. The suspects and their vehicle were captured by a nearby surveillance camera. wusa9.com 


Lafayette, LA: Woman accused of 'distraction-style' theft at southside stores
Lafayette Police and Crime Stoppers are asking the community for help identifying a woman they say is linked to multiple cases of "distraction-style' theft at stores on Lafayette's southside. Police said the women, in her mid 20's, distracts shoppers in the store by sparking up a conversation while a man reaches into the shopper's cart and steals the wallet from the purse. The couple then leaves the store immediately, police said, and max out the victim's credit and debit cards at local Walmart's and Sam's Club buying thousands of dollars' worth of prepaid cards.  klfy.com