$1 Billion a Year Loss - Doubled Last Year
Why Rewards for Loyal Spenders Are 'a Honey Pot for Hackers'
One loyalty-fraud prevention group estimates, conservatively, that $1 billion a year is lost to crime related to the programs. As a share of fraud not involving a physical payment card, such schemes more than doubled between 2017 and 2018.

Some criminals use stolen credentials to impersonate customers, breach loyalty profiles and then tap into separate accounts. Others deplete balances or sell points on dark web marketplaces. One hacked Southwest Airlines rewards account with at least 50,000 miles was advertised for $98.88, according to the cloud security company Armor.

Loyalty programs are "almost a honey pot for hackers," said Kevin Lee, a risk expert for the digital security firm Sift. They tend to be, he said, "the path of least resistance": easy to sign up for, shielded by flimsy passwords and often neglected by users. The programs, and their appetite for data, have grown, but security has not kept pace.

There are at least 3.8 billion rewards memberships in the United States, more than 10 per consumer.
Rewards memberships have become "the single best source of individual customer data relevant to developing personalized marketing." "That's where the ballgame is heading," he said.

As consumers hand over more data, many of them fail to monitor their accounts closely. More than half of the rewards memberships in the United States are inactive, and more than $100 billion a year in rewards points go unredeemed.

Some brands are strengthening their defenses with stricter login requirements like two-factor authentication and facial recognition. Many companies are also hiring digital security firms.

"Fraudsters are collaborating on the dark web about the different ways to exploit loyalty programs," he said. "We're leveling the playing field on the other side." nytimes.com

Is There a Connection Between Undocumented Immigrants and Crime?
It's a widely held perception, but a new analysis finds no evidence to support it.

The Pew Research Center recently released estimates of undocumented populations sorted by metro area, which The Marshall Project has compared with local crime rates published by the F.B.I. For the first time, there is an opportunity for a broader analysis of how unauthorized immigration might have affected crime rates since 2007.

Slight Decrease in Property Crime
Property crime was either entirely unaffected or fell slightly with rising numbers of undocumented immigrants. Below, the changes per 100,000 people, between 2007 and 2016. (Each dot represents a metro area.)

A large majority of the areas recorded decreases in both violent and property crime between 2007 and 2016, consistent with a quarter-century decline in crime across the United States. The analysis found that crime went down at similar rates regardless of whether the undocumented population rose or fell. Areas with more unauthorized migration appeared to have larger drops in crime, although the difference was small and uncertain.

For undocumented immigrants, being arrested for any reason would mean facing eventual deportation - and for some a return to whatever danger or deprivation they'd sought to escape at home.

More research is underway about the potential effects of undocumented immigration on crime. Robert Adelman, a professor at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, whose group's research The Marshall Project and The Upshot have previously documented, is leading a team to expand on the Governing analysis. Early results suggest unauthorized immigration has no effect on violent crime, and is associated with lower property crime, the same as Mr. Maciag found.

Preliminary findings indicate that other socioeconomic factors like unemployment rates, housing instability and measures of economic hardship all predict higher rates of different types of crime, while undocumented immigrant populations do not. nytimes.com

National Police Week
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation which designated May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as Police Week. Currently, tens of thousands of law enforcement officers from around the world converge on Washington, DC to participate in a number of planned events which honor those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

National Police Week draws in between 25,000 to 40,000 attendees. The attendees come from departments throughout the United States as well as from agencies throughout the world. This provides a unique opportunity to meet others who work in law enforcement. In that spirit, the Fraternal Order of Police DC Lodge #1 sponsors receptions each afternoon and evening during Police Week. These events are open to all law enforcement personnel and are an experience unlike any other. policeweek.org

Editor's Note: Consider sending a note of thanks to your local law enforcement partner for their support and commitment, as the collaboration and recognition works both ways. Just a thought.

Amazon Go Runs into Opposition in NYC
Amazon Go faces the NYC's notoriously brusque customers, not to mention its shoplifters
Amazon is back, hoping that a futuristic concept it has tried out in cities such as Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago will thrive in New York, a singular metropolis where customers are notoriously brusque, shoplifting is common and progressive activists, union leaders and small businesses remain skeptical of the company's motives.

Dozens of enthusiastic shoppers lined up at the Brookfield Place mall and office complex in Battery Park City to get a first peek at the high-tech, 1,300-square-foot market.

Bodega owners were particularly concerned that Amazon's deep pockets and legions of engineers could threaten their businesses, according to Fernando Mateo, the spokesman for United Bodegas of America, which represents bodega owners in New York City.

The company's technological and financial resources would likely put it in better position to grapple with problems that plague New York convenience stores, bodega owner Mr. Mateo said.

Chief among those challenges: shoplifting. While the crime is hardly unique to New York, retailers and security experts have long thought of New York City as the country's shoplifting capital.

The New York Police Department said it does not keep track of specific shoplifting incidents, but Mr. Mateo said bodegas face theft daily, making it one of the biggest threats to a store's profit margins.

Mr. Janes said that while Amazon Go had security measures in place, the store's technology was "very accurate," making theft less of a concern. nytimes.com

How to Lean On Your Risk Manager
CFOs are responsible for managing their organization's risks, and that responsibility is only expanding. Business risks are getting more complex and numerous every day, and finance chiefs are increasingly accountable to shareholders and directors.

But as a profession, we're not quite mastering all of our risk management duties. Fewer than one in four CFOs consider their risk management mature or robust, according to a new report by the Poole College of Management at North Carolina State University. Fewer than half of the studied organizations have a risk management policy statement or maintain an enterprise-level risk inventory, the report says.

So how can a CFO elicit the most risk management help from the risk manager in the shortest time? Extract the right metrics. How do you extract the right metrics? By asking the right questions. Let's take property risk as an example. Here are the questions I ask my risk manager: cfo.com

U.S. official: Executive order not needed to ban Huawei in U.S. 5G networks
The four largest U.S. telecom carriers - Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint - have agreed not to use Huawei in any part of their 5G networks, said Ambassador Robert Strayer, deputy assistant secretary of state for cyber and international communications and information policy.

We have grave concerns about the Chinese vendors because they can be compelled by the National Intelligence Law in China as well as other laws in China to take actions that would not be in the interests of the citizens of other countries around the world. homelandsecuritynewswire.com

New Fingerprint Technology Could Help Unsolved Crimes
A forensic team in the UK is using a new mass spectrometry technology that could help solve unsolved crimes, according to a news report. securitymagazine.com

Former FDA Commissioner Featured Speaker At Food Safety Summit
Stop Foodborne Illness co-chair and former FDA Deputy Commissioner Michael Taylor discussed progress in food safety at the annual Food Safety Summit Conference & Expo in Chicago on May 9.

Taylor discussed the alignment of government, industry and consumers to implement modern practices to prevent foodborne illness without waiting for the next food safety crisis to strike. Thursday's events included a town hall with representatives from FDA, CDC, AFDO and USDA, education sessions and new products in the exhibit hall.

Subjects discussed at the Food Safety Summit included:

● Where Are We Now? FSMA Food Safety Plans in 2019
● Ensuring Effective Food Safety Programs with Your Co-Packer
● Blockchain Technology for Food Safety
● Microbial Interventions What Technical Things Do People Want to Know About?
● The "Who," "What" and "Hows" of the Sanitary Transportation Food Act (STFA)
● FSMA Third Party Audits and Voluntary Qualified Importer Program
● Active Managerial Control in a Foodservice/Retail Setting
● Raw Agriculture Commodity vs. Ready to Eat-Blurred Lines? theshelbyreport.com

Muslim women accuse Amazon of 'harassing and hostile' work conditions
Amazon is being accused of religious discrimination and retaliation by three Muslim workers in Minnesota who say the tech giant denied them time and space to pray and routinely assigned them less favorable work than their white counterparts, according to a federal complaint filed last week. washingtonpost.com

Study: How common is BOPIS?
Retail Has a Long Way to Reach Omni
According to the Omni-2000 study of 753 US retailers from order management software provider OrderDynamics, only 27.5% of respondents currently offer their customers a buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) option. Interestingly, a notably larger percentage of respondents (42%) offer buy-online-return-in-store (BORIS) functionality. Only 0.4% charge a restocking fee for returned items.

Most (86%) respondents offer e-commerce, while 34% offer basic stock visibility. More than six in 10 (63%) retailers offer some form of free shipping, including 6.5% who offer free shipping as a limited-time offer promotion.

The study also examined US retailers' mobile and social capabilities. About three-quarters (74%) of respondents offer mobile-respondent websites, which allow consumers to browse products and categories and make purchases via mobile device. But only 9% offer mobile-optimized sites specifically designed for mobile shopping and checkout. chainstoreage.com

Walmart's 'Great Workplace' Program
Walmart to Try Thinning Store Manager Ranks
In test, some stores have fewer, higher paid managers overseeing teams in an effort to give front-line workers more ownerships over their jobs.

Walmart is testing a new store employee structure, in some cases using fewer midlevel, in-store managers to oversee workers while boosting pay and responsibilities for those roles.

The shift comes as the country's largest employer works to control labor costs, keep workers longer and attract talent, while spending more to raise wages.

Around 100 Walmart stores-mostly Walmart's Neighborhood Markets chain and smaller supercenters-are testing several versions of a new employee structure dubbed "Great Workplace." Under it, Walmart is asking workers now called assistant store managers and department managers to apply for fewer, but higher-paying jobs structured around managing teams of workers. Current managers need to apply for the new roles, often called business leads, team leads and academy trainers.

Walmart executives say the genesis of the new worker structure wasn't cost savings, but rather adapting its workforce to shifting shopping habits online and employee demands. wsj.com

2019 SDM 100: Above Average
While many security dealers on the SDM 100 Report describe 2018 as an "average" year, the numbers show 5 percent growth in RMR and some peculiar market forces at work that may be shifting generalist dealers to become specialists.

Security dealers participating in the 29th annual SDM 100 Report say last year's financial performance was very similar to 2017's. In fact, in some ways they found 2018 to be more stable, following a few years in which dealers experienced a lot of turmoil caused by big-name competition, pricing pressure, technology acceleration, and other disruptive forces. In 2018, the 100 largest security companies, as ranked on the 2019 SDM 100, collectively improved their recurring monthly revenue 2 percent and their gross annual revenue 4 percent, compared with 2017. Ninety-one of the 100 companies expanded their RMR.

The news is better than that, however, when one considers that performance varies each year as ranked companies move on or off the report (either because of acquisition or by declining to participate). A comparison of only the companies ranked in both 2018 and 2019 shows that RMR growth was actually 5 percent - this is a better reflection of RMR performance and a more equitable way to measure the success last year of the 100 largest security companies.

The primary objective of the SDM 100 Report is to measure consumer dollars gained by security companies, in order to present an account of the size of the market captured by the 100 largest providers. sdmmag.com

 

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market