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Agilence Adds Key Hire to Executive Leadership Team

Brian Harvell Named Chief Technology Officer

MOUNT LAUREL, NJ - July 19, 2018 - Agilence, Inc., the leading provider of vertical-focused analytics solutions to the retail, grocery, pharmacy, and restaurant industries, today announced the addition of Brian Harvell as Chief Technology Officer. This key hire brings a wealth of experience and strategic expertise as Agilence continues their acceleration into the next stage of growth.

Harvell brings nearly 30 years of diverse leadership experience in systems architecture, software development, operations infrastructure, and security management. In his new role, he will be responsible for leading all aspects of Agilence's technology development and utilization including management of software development and the overall operational responsibility of technology infrastructure. Prior to joining Agilence, Brian held leadership positions with a number of technology companies including Comcast, SevOne, Katabat, and Prevalent.

"Agilence is making a major impact in retail and restaurant analytics, but as technology continues to evolve it is vital that we stay ahead of the curve," said Harvell. "I am excited to be joining the Agilence team and to be leading its technology strategy."

"I am very pleased that we were able to add such an accomplished leader to our team," said Russ Hawkins, President & CEO, Agilence. "Brian's expertise and skills will help us retain our technology leadership and achieve even more success as we move forward."

Study: Retailers are among cyber criminals' top targets
75% of retailers have now experienced a data breach
More sensitive data being stored in the cloud - with few encrypting it
Despite an encouraging decrease in data breaches last year, cyberattacks are not only on the rise in retail, they are gaining momentum.

Seventy-five percent of retailers have experienced a data breach in the past compared to 52% last year, exceeding the global average, according to the "2018 Thales Data Threat Report, Retail Edition," from critical information systems provider Thales.

Retail data breaches in the United States more than doubled to 50% from 19% in the 2017 survey. This massive increase drove U.S. retail to be the second highest vertical polled to experience a data breach in the last year, ahead of healthcare and financial services, and only slightly behind the U.S. federal government, according to the study.

Despite these intrusions, U.S. retail is increasingly inclined to store sensitive data in the cloud as widespread digital transformation is underway. Yet, only 26% of companies reported implementing encryption - which trails the global average.

Meanwhile, 95% of U.S. retail organizations plan to use sensitive data in an advanced technology environment (such as cloud, big data, IoT and containers) this year. More than half believe that sensitive data use is happening now in these environments without proper security in place. chainstoreage.com

Online shopping sites see hacking increase despite security efforts
It's estimated eight out of 10 Americans have shopped online, entering sensitive personal data. Credit card numbers, passwords and addresses, for example. And that's a gold mine for cyber-criminals that hack into online sites.

San Jose's Thales eSecurity's latest research says half -- 50 percent -- of all medium and large online retailers it surveyed acknowledge they've been hacked. That's two a half times higher than a year ago. Changes in payment systems are making security more challenging.

"Now we have mobile devices, we have digital payments, we have mobile payments, we have person-to-person payments," said Thales chief strategy officer Peter Galvin. "Because of the way those changes have occurred, there really isn't a perimeter. There's no four walls to protect."

This year alone, hackers broke into the retail sites of Adidas, the Dollar Shave Club, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Under Amour, according to the nonprofit group Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

The servers of those and all other retailers store sensitive data. That is leading to increased spending to encrypt that data. Or to add two-factor authentication, where a retailer will send a text message with a code to verify it's you. A single breach can cost retailers hundreds of millions of dollars and can impact customer confidence. abc7news.com

'Credential Stuffing' Attack
Here's What Hackers Do With All Your Stolen Passwords
Over the years, hackers have broken in to some pretty massive databases. Sometimes they make off with millions of records at a time. So what does a hacker do with millions of users' passwords? Shape Security's latest report highlights a kind of cyberattack known as credential stuffing.

In a credential stuffing attack, a hacker loads up a database with as many usernames passwords as he or she can get their hands on. Those login credentials are fed into an automated hacking tool that hammers away at a website. You can think of a hacker's password database as a key ring. The more keys there are, the more likely it is that the attacker will find one that unlocks your account.

These attacks are much more common than you might think. According to Shape Security, around 90% of all login attempts on retail websites aren't shoppers logging in with their own accounts. They're the result of a credential stuffing attack. forbes.com

Human Resources Firm ComplyRight Breached
Cloud-based human resources company ComplyRight said this week that a security breach of its Web site may have jeopardized sensitive consumer information - including names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and Social Security numbers - from tax forms submitted by the company's thousands of clients on behalf of employees.

Neither ComplyRight nor its parent company Taylor Corp. responded to multiple requests for comment this past week. But on Wednesday evening, ComplyRight posted additional facts about the incident on its site, saying a recently completed investigation suggests that fewer than 10 percent of individuals with tax forms prepared on the ComplyRight platform were impacted.

According to ComplyRight's Web site, some 76,000 organizations - many of them small businesses - use its services to prepare tax forms such as 1099s and W2s on behalf of their employees and/or contractors. While the company didn't explicitly say which of its cloud services was impacted by the breach, the Web site which handles its tax preparation business is efile4biz.com. krebsonsecurity.com

Walmart employees using app to get pay advanced
More than 200,000 Walmart employees in the U.S. have used the Even app to gain access to their checks ahead of schedule. The retailer has partnered with Even and another startup PayActiv to help employees better manage their finances. Seventy-five percent of full-time workers in the U.S. live paycheck to paycheck, according to CareerBuilder. bloomberg.com

How US Retail Giant Kroger Is Using AI And Robots To Prepare For The 4th Industrial Revolution

Chinese Shopping App Pinduoduo Sued in U.S. Ahead of I.P.O.

True Stories of Face Recognition and Retail Crime
Case 3: The Philly Fanatic

The third episode of FaceFirst's true retail crime series tells the true story of a notorious organized retail criminal with a clever scheme. He fills an inexpensive cabinet with high-priced items and then uses double-sided tape to ensure that the cabinet stays closed during checkout. Retail shrink is a $46 billion problem each year, but face recognition can reduce retail shrink by up to 34%. By using face recognition, loss prevention pros were able to see that this criminal had been stealing from the store every 1-2 days. How did face recognition save the day? Watch this episode of FaceFirst's True Stories of Face Recognition and Retail Crime to see how this felon was brought to justice.

 Episode Presented By

How Online Retailers can Combat Fraud at Checkout and Beyond
It's imperative for online merchants to have a clear understanding of the trends within the world of online fraud. They need to understand how criminals work, where criminals work, and which types of fraud attacks are most successful. Only then can e-commerce professionals put the right defenses in place and engage with the right partners to stop fraudsters in their tracks.

According to Forter's 2018 Fraud Attack Index, fraudsters are increasing their frequency of attacks. In the past year alone, fraud attacks have surged 13%, with some industries seeing rates over 12X higher than average. But what might be most surprising is that fraud is no longer happening just at checkout. Retailers know that transactional fraud is a point of vulnerability, and they have put defenses in place to counteract these attacks. As such, fraudsters are learning to exploit retailers throughout the customer journey. Fraud professionals need to be aware of the other pain points beyond the point of transaction and how best to prevent them from being exploited.

Account Takeover
With a new breach occurring every day, customers feel vulnerable and expect merchants to protect their accounts, but many merchants do not yet have the security measures in place to guard against fraud throughout the buyer journey (from the moment a shopper logs onto a loyalty account to the point of transaction and beyond). Online retailers should fine-tune their fraud prevention to ensure they can differentiate real account owners from fraudsters who use stolen information to pose as legitimate shoppers.

Identity Manipulation
After gaining access to an individual's account, fraudsters find identity manipulation an appealing fraud method, as it is particularly difficult to detect. Identity manipulation occurs when a fraudster alters account details, such as phone number and shipping address, without ever being flagged as suspicious.

Coupon & Promo Abuse
Customers are savvy. By creating a new account, they can take advantage of promos that would be otherwise unavailable to them as a return customer. But when individuals continuously abuse promotions, businesses suffer a direct financial loss. In some cases, the perpetrator may not even be aware that they're committing fraud.

Return Abuse
Customer expectations have shifted. Flexible return policies are no longer the exception, they are the rule. But return abuse is a growing problem for online merchants. Repeat abusers will frequently return goods for a full refund after already using the merchandise. Sophisticated abusers set up multiple accounts and leverage alternative payment methods to hide their identities. As this abuse continues to grow, merchants often struggle with the operational costs of fulfilling fraudulent orders, processing returns, restocking merchandise and reassessing the worth of the returned items. paymentsjournal.com

SmartMetric Announces New Biometric Credit Card Designed To Make Online Transactions Safer is Now Being Manufactured by SmartMetric
After many months of secret product development, SmartMetric has now under manufacture its new Biometric Credit Card designed to fight the burgeoning threat of online fraud. Without revealing the specifics of the new biometric credit card that is expected to be unveiled in the next few weeks, SmartMetric says it has developed a new way to protect online transactions building on the company's advanced, "inside-the-card" miniature fingerprint scanner. nasdaq.com

Kount to review fraud survey results in exclusive webinar
Join Kount and Mobile Payments Today on Wednesday, July 25 at 2 p.m. EST for a webinar that will review the findings of the most recent survey.

Attend this webinar and you'll learn findings related to:

● Chargeback rates and the most common sources
● Impact of manual reviews and false positives
● Mobile channel challenges and share of revenue
● Overall fraud prevention performance and strategies utilized mobilepaymentstoday.com

IBM seeks $167 million from Groupon in e‑commerce patent suit

Adobe Predicts Labor Day Online Sales Will Reach $2 Billion In 2018

FreshDirect Debuts State-of-the-Art South Bronx Campus

EBay grows its customer accounts but struggles to compete with Amazon

'E-commerce industry to surpass $1 billion mark by year-end'

Anderson County, SC: 3 arrested in connection with Organized Retail Thefts, 'Operation Turning Tables'
Investigators worked since June to identify shoplifters who stole large amounts of merchandise from retail stores in Anderson. The shoplifters would sell stolen merchandise for a fraction of its retail value to others, referred to as fences. These people would then resell the stolen merchandise at flea markets for a profit, according to a press release form the Sheriff's Office. Troy Fowler, 75, of Piedmont; William "Billy" O'Leary, 44, of Anderson; and Peggy O'Leary, 41, of Anderson were identified by deputies as suspected fences, arrested and charged with organized retail theft. Search warrants were executed at the suspects' properties where an estimated $121,997 of stolen merchandise was recovered. The arrests were made as a part of "Operation Turning Tables" that included investigators from the Anderson County Sheriff's Office, Home Depot, CVS, T.J. Maxx, Belk and Publix. independentmail.com

Palo Alto, CA: Police arrest 4 in Stanford Shopping Center heists at Urban Outfitter and Victoria's Secret
Palo Alto police announced yesterday they have arrested four suspects in connection with two separate thefts in the last 10 days at Stanford Shopping Center. On July 10 at 2:45 p.m., got a call about a theft that had just occurred at Urban Outfitters. An employee saw two women loading numerous articles of clothing into bags and running away from the store. Through follow up investigation, detectives were able to identify one of the suspects as Tonisha Harris, 26, of Fremont. Detectives arrested Harris in Hayward on Monday (July 16) and booked her into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on charges of felony commercial burglary and a violation of probation. The other suspect has not yet been identified and is outstanding. On Tuesday at about 2:30 p.m., an officer on patrol at the shopping center saw two women taking numerous items of clothing from Victoria's Secret. Both women were taken into custody outside the store without incident, while a third suspect was located and arrested in a nearby parked vehicle. padailypost.com

Trumbull, CT: Forever 21 Associate busted; scheme to steal around $7,000 worth of merchandise
Officers arrested a Bridgeport woman who was involved in a conspiracy to commit around $7,000 in internal theft from Forever 21. Corporate Loss Prevention reported in November 2017 that merchandise was stolen and that several employees were involved. Employees took sensors off of merchandise and a manager pretended to ring up items for sale. The items were put in a bag and left near the back door. Shameen Thomas, 33, of Bridgeport was charged with criminal attempt at third-degree larceny and conspiracy. She was arrested July 16. More arrests are expected. patch.com


Peachtree City, GA: 5 Shoplifters grab $6K in merchandise from Victoria's Secret
A group of five people on July 17 targeted Victoria's Secret at The Avenue in Peachtree City, and walked away with approximately $6,000 in merchandise. Peachtree City Police Department spokesperson Odilia Bergh said the five individuals entered the store carrying reusable shopping bags, later leaving the store with a reported $6,000 in store merchandise. Bergh said one of the suspects left the store and came back a second time. thecitizen.com

Bolingbrook, IL: 4 Men Arrested for Baby Formula theft; stealing over $300 of product from Meijer
 

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