7/30/21

LP, AP & IT Security's #1 News Source

Auror appointed Mike Lamb to Advisory Board
Barnes & Noble College promoted Tim Ruggiero to Director of Loss Prevention
Cherokee Federal named Brian Sawyer Security Operation Center Director
Duluth Trading Company promoted Reid Rominger to Asset Protection & Safety Analyst
Fendi named Anthony Rodriguez Director of Asset Protection, Retail
Luxottica promoted Millie Kresevich LPC to Senior Director - Asset Protection
Nordstrom promoted Maurice Cloutier to District Operations/Asset Protection
OpenEye names Angelo Salvatore VP of International Business Development
Prosegur Security named Greg Aucamp Senior Vice President of Sales for Retail Solutions
Public Storage named Kyle Witten Senior Manager, Physical Security and Technology
Saks OFF 5TH promoted Patrick McEvoy to VP, Risk and Fraud
Sekura Global named Ben Perreau Global R&D Director
Whole Foods Market promoted Mike Limauro, LPC to Vice President, Global Asset Protection

Government & Industry Partnership is Key
How We Can Start Winning the War Against Cyber Terrorists

Government and industry must work hand-in-hand to execute a winning game plan against cyber terrorists.

While the stakes are increasingly high for individuals, governments, and commerce, it's helpful to think of cybersecurity as a global contest. We have to know the players and the roles they play. And we must balance defense with offense.

Defense: The responsibility for defense lies squarely with critical infrastructure companies. They have all the motivation required to protect their assets and have made significant strides improving the defense of their systems, but more work needs to be done.

While companies have put so much focus in recent years on preventing and detecting infiltration, we still must assume that breaches will happen, regardless of how many layers of defense a company may have. A good defensive strategy must also include three key plans: incident response, mitigating and minimizing the attack's consequences, and business continuity.

Offense: This should be in the government's hands.

Companies are not in the business of taking countermeasures to disincentivize or punish attackers. Doing so can cause collateral damage in cyberspace that just causes further harm to more people. It is the responsibility of the government to establish laws and prosecute cyberattackers, as well as to answer attacks. The FBI clawing back illicit earnings from the Colonial Pipeline incident was a start, but we could go further.

Our society needs both private enterprise and the public sector to operate at high levels. Our government must send a strong message to the rogue elements and the governments that enable or ignore their activities that we consider cyberattacks on our critical infrastructure to be a threat to national security.

Cyber is the new frontier of international conflict, and we can win. Government and industry must work hand-in-hand, offense and defense, to execute a winning game plan. The future is at stake. darkreading.com

'Access-for-Sale' Ads on the Dark Web
Dark web ads offering corporate network access increase seven-fold
In its latest research, security specialist Positive Technologies documents how the market enabling initial access to corporate networks has evolved through 2020 and into early 2021, and reveals that the number of 'access-for-sale' ads on the dark web has increased seven-fold compared with previous years.

The cybercriminal profile is changing
The company's researchers believe the cybercriminal profile is changing in multiple ways; the profile of an external intruder who gains initial access to a corporate network is different from the criminal who follows through with the attack once inside-most importantly, the two have different skillsets.

The person who hacks the perimeter can range from novice to pro, even a specialist with very specific technical abilities. The attack on the local network, on the other hand, will be conducted by skilled hackers or cyber-thieves who purchase the access on a dark web forum. Once they have the resources needed, the criminal activities can be initiated. These range from theft of funds to lasting disruption of business operations.

New offers on dark web forums
Positive Technologies researchers note that ads promising access on dark web forums increased with each quarter throughout the observed period. As many as 590 new offers were identified in the first quarter of 2021 alone, representing 83% of all offers in 2020.

In the first quarter of 2021, the number of users who placed ads for buying and selling access and also for seeking hacking partners tripled compared to Q1 2020.

Corporate network access is sold on the dark web
Positive Technologies estimates that about $600,000 worth of corporate network access is sold on the dark web on a quarterly basis. Interestingly, the share of expensive access lots priced above $5,000 almost halved. This may reflect mass entry into the market by novice cybercriminals. helpnetsecurity.com

Record Cost of Data Breaches
Data Breach Cost Hits Record High of $4.24M

The per-breach cost represents a 10% increase from the average cost per incident recorded one year prior, IBM reports.

Data breach costs have reached a new record high of $4.24 million per incident, representing a 10% increase from the year prior - the largest single year cost increase in the last seven years.

IBM and the Ponemon Institute have been analyzing the cost of data breaches for more than a decade, and the past year saw dollar amounts substantially increase as organizations pivoted to remote work and accelerated their transition to the cloud amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. Both of these factors, among others, drove the average cost per breach to a new record high.

Consider remote work: The average cost of a breach in which remote work was cited as a factor was $1.07 million more than incidents in which remote work wasn't a factor. Of the companies that reported a breach in the last year, 17.5% said remote work was a factor. Those with more than 50% of employees working remotely took 58 days longer to identify and contain breaches.

"For organizations that had significant remote work operations ... they had to stand up new infrastructure and new capabilities very, very quickly," says Charles DeBeck, senior cyber-threat intelligence strategic analyst at IBM Security.

The shift posed a challenge to many breach victims. Networks that were quickly assembled and had security gaps as a result created a higher risk for breaches to expand beyond the initial attack area, he adds. Intruders could move quickly and effectively across target environments.

This doesn't mean remote work is bad or inherently insecure, continues DeBeck. The problem, in many cases, was the speed with which organizations set up their remote infrastructure. Businesses that want to support remote employees in the long term should do so carefully and securely. darkreading.com

US president nominates new head of NIST
Laurie E. Locascio is nominated by U.S. President Joe Biden as the Commerce Department's next Undersecretary for Standards and Technology, according to a White House Release, a role that includes leadership of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Currently the vice president for Research at the University of Maryland's College Park and Baltimore campuses, she oversees its research and innovation enterprise which bring in $1.1 billion in external research funding each year.

Locascio already has almost thirty years of experience at NIST, according to the Federal News Network. Locascio began her time at the institute, which oversees testing standards in biometric technologies, in 1993, making her way to director of the Material Measurement Laboratory.

NIST recently published a proposal on identifying and managing bias in artificial intelligence as part of a greater piece of work into developing trust in AI and conducts tests into the accuracy of biometric technologies such as facial recognition including rankings. biometricupdate.com

Europol's New & Updated: 'No More Ransom' Repository - Check it Out
Unhacked: 121 tools against ransomware on a single website

In its five years of existence, No More Ransom has helped prevent almost a billion euros from ending up in criminals' pockets

Locked? Check the No More Ransom website for a key

The decryptors available in the No More Ransom repository have helped more than six million people to recover their files for free. This prevented criminals from earning almost a billion euros through ransomware attacks. Currently offering 121 free tools able to decrypt 151 ransomware families, it unites 170 partners from the public and private sector. The portal is available in 37 languages.

Editor's Note: With most of the ransomware originating in Eastern Europe and the Russian states Europol's tools and keys might possibly work on any ransomware you may encounter here in North America. So you may want to utilize their sites tools.

A new No More Ransom website has been launched to mark the project's fifth year. Modern and more user-friendly, the new home of the Crypto Sheriff offers updated information on ransomware, as well as advice on how to prevent a ransomware infection.

No More Ransomware/ Fact & Figures 2021
See the list of tools, Ransomware Families and websites Europol has acquired

NSA Releases Guidance on Securing Wireless Devices While in Public
CISA encourages organization leaders, administrators, and users to review NSA's guidance on Securing Wireless Devices in Public Settings and CISA's Security Tip on Privacy and Mobile Device Apps for information on protecting devices and data. us-cert.cisa.gov

How Salesforce finds and upskills AI talent

Mitigating the Risks of Multi-Cloud Environments
 

Register Now for the 2021 RH-ISAC Summit - September 28-29

Hey LP/AP senior: If your retailer is a member you might want to consider attending yourself or sending one of your team members who works with cybersecurity on investigations or e-commerce fraud.

Especially now with the increased ransomware attacks and data beaches and the corresponding increased attention from law enforcement. Cross pollinating and building those relationships could pay off long term.  Register here

Breaking Up Amazon?
Amazon is everywhere. Here's how the US could break it up
On any given day, you might receive a package you ordered from Amazon, log onto a website hosted by Amazon, ask an Amazon device about the weather and grab groceries at a Whole Foods owned by Amazon. Amazon is more than just the "everything store." It's become something of an "everything company" that touches nearly every corner of our lives and the economy.

That growing reach - and, in some cases, dominance - has increasingly made Amazon, like its Big Tech peers, a target for regulators and lawmakers. But its vast size and impact also creates a challenge for regulators who want to rein in or break up the company without harming the consumers and businesses that rely on it.

Last month, a bipartisan group of US House lawmakers introduced a slate of bills aimed at addressing the power of dominant tech firms - namely, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google. Each of these companies has been accused by regulators in the United States and Europe of engaging in anticompetitive practices, and the proposed US legislation could help pave the way for one or more of them to be broken up, among other possible remedies.

Of the big four, Amazon has given the clearest picture yet of how its business might change if the proposed bills become law. And the first piece of its empire to go might be its massive third-party marketplace.

The company recently suggested that it could be forced to stop operating its marketplace for third-party sellers and return to the days when it simply sold all the goods on its site itself. Such a move could have huge implications for the millions of sellers who rely on it to run their businesses and upend the shopping experience for consumers accustomed to getting basically anything they want in one place.

Longtime Amazon watchers are torn on whether Amazon would actually follow through with this plan if the legislation is passed - which itself is probably a long way off - because it could harm the company's bottom line. But the possibility demonstrates the challenges lawmakers face as they seek to temper the power of Amazon and its fellow tech giants.

"Breaking up companies is very, very hard," said Joel Mitnick, a partner in the antitrust group at law firm Cadwalader. "Breaking up companies that consumers love is even harder." cnn.com

Right out of the box - Amazon Leads With Safety & Bezo's Pet Project - MSDs
Amazon Sales Up 27% - A Letdown from peak pandemic performance
Amazon charted $113.1 billion in revenue in the three months from April to June, a 27% increase over the same period last year.

The company reported earnings of $7.8 billion, a 48.6% increase from the same period last year, and $15.12 in earnings per share. The figure blew past analysts' expectations of $12.22 per share. Since the start of the pandemic, Amazon earnings have doubled nearly every quarter, compared to the same periods a year earlier. In the January-to-March quarter, they more than tripled.

Highlights

Investing in Employee Safety and Providing Good Jobs

● Amazon announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with the National Safety Council, a 100-year-old nonprofit that protects workers on and off the job, to invent new ways of preventing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), the most common workplace injury in the U.S. The five-year effort aims to reduce MSDs across a variety of industries by engaging key stakeholders, conducting new research, inventing technology and processes, and scaling the results. Amazon is investing over $300 million into safety projects in 2021, including redesigning and retrofitting workstations, re-engineering cross-dock operations and powered-industrial-truck barriers, and implementing new safety control systems.

● Amazon introduced a new mental health benefit for all of its 950,000 U.S. employees, their families, and household members, which provides free access to personalized support, including one-on-one counseling and 24/7 crisis support.

● For the fourth year in a row, Amazon was included on the Disability Equality Index's Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion.  seattletimes.com

E-Commerce Hits Twitter
Twitter launches US e-commerce pilot that lets users shop from profiles
Twitter this morning will launch a pilot in the U.S. aimed at testing the potential for e-commerce on its platform. The company is introducing a new "Shop Module" that offers brands, businesses and other retailers the ability to showcase their products to Twitter users directly on the business' profile.

Users will then be able to scroll through a carousel of product images in the module and tap through on a product they're interested in purchasing. This opens up the business's website inside the Twitter app itself, where the customer can learn more about the product in question and opt to make a purchase.

The Shop Module will appear in a new, dedicated space at the top of a supported Twitter profile, which can be seen by U.S. users in English on iOS devices. techcrunch.com

Newegg to Become First Major E-Retailer to Accept Litecoin on BitPay

Inflation hits e-commerce after years of lower online prices: data

Austin, TX: Suspects arrested in connection to deadly shooting at NE Austin convenience store
A man and a woman suspected of killing a person outside a convenience store in Northeast Austin have been arrested, the Travis County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. Deputies said Ronald Glen Falkquay II, 31, and Sista Christina Fabian, 33, allegedly shot and killed a man just outside the Dessau Mini Mart on July 18. Falkquay II is facing a felony murder charge and Fabian is charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. Witnesses at the scene reported Fabian was a passenger in the getaway vehicle. cbsaustin.com

Hartford, CT: Man killed after shooting outside C-Store, crashing on drive to nearby hospital
A Hartford man was killed in broad daylight Thursday morning in the North End, where he was shot outside a corner store and died after crashing his car while trying to rush to a nearby hospital. Desmond Wray's murder is the 22nd in Hartford so far this year - just two shy of the total number of murders recorded in the capital city in all of 2020 as law enforcement grapples with the local iteration of a nationwide trend of increasing shootings and gun homicides in communities large and small across the country. courant.com

Talladega County, AL: Second teen charged in shooting death of Alpine store owner
A second arrest has been made in the June 29 shooting death of 73-year-old William Gerry Taylor, owner of Four Way Grocery in Alpine, according to the Talladega County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office said a 16-year-old, also from Alpine, was arrested and charged with Capital Murder on Thursday, July 29. abc3340.com

Update: Buffalo, NY: Accused Gunman Indicted for Killing Man Inside C-store
Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 26-year-old Rickey L. Bryant of Buffalo was arraigned this morning before Erie County Court Judge Kenneth Case on an indictment charging him with one count of Murder in the Second Degree (Class "A-I" felony) and one count of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree (Class "C" violent felony). It is alleged that on January 19, 2021, at approximately 2:00 p.m., the defendant intentionally shot 35-year-old Tony D. Rookard multiple times with an illegal firearm inside of a convenience store on Doat Street in the City of Buffalo. The victim died from his injuries at the scene. www2.erie.gov

Indianapolis, IN: Shots fired inside south Indianapolis Walmart
Police are on the scene of a reported incident of shots fired inside a south Indianapolis Walmart. Officers responded to the Walmart on US 31 just south of Southport Road around 7 p.m. Thursday. Police do not believe anyone was injured in the shooting at this time. Police are interviewing three "persons of interest" in the incident, according to a department spokesperson. IMPD says the store was closed while officers investigated the incident. wthr.com

Hoboken, NJ: Bullet Narrowly Misses Store Employee In Drive-By Shooting, 2 In Custody
 

Robberies, Incidents & Thefts

Cleveland, OH: Home Depot Employee's theft totals over $6,700 before her arrest
A Home Depot employee was charged with theft at the store July 23. The South Euclid woman, 62, had been suspected of voiding transactions and collecting money for herself. Loss prevention said there were 12 incidents of theft over a month, and they totaled $6,704. cleveland.com

Florence County, SC: 2 arrested by deputies in connection to McD's theft
Authorities have made two arrests in a case after asking the public to identify a suspect accused of stealing from multiple McDonald's locations. Crinshawn Tyreik McCrea, 20, of Florence, was arrested Tuesday and charged with a violation of the Computer Crime Act, simple larceny of $2,000 or less and criminal conspiracy. Aaliyah Makayla Green, 19, of Elgin, was also arrested and charged with simple larceny of $2,000 or less, along with criminal conspiracy. On Monday, the two entered the McDonald's at 2961 N. Williston Road in Florence, stood at the cash register as if they were going to place an order, and then took money from a register when the clerk stepped away to help another customer, according to the Florence County Sheriff's Office. Authorities said that one suspect got access to the computerized register, and then both drove off with an undisclosed amount of cash. wbtw.com

Chattanooga, TN: Shop owner calls on city to address uptick in property crimes after break-in at his store

Boston, MA: Man Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Armed Robbery of Brockton Cell Phone Store

Urbana, IL: Man gets 114 months for brandishing a firearm during Casey General hold-up

Scranton, PA: New York Woman Sentenced To 10 Months' Imprisonment For Counterfeit Currency

Submit Your New Hires/Promotions or New Position

Featured Job Spotlights
 

Help Your Colleagues By Referring the Best Refer the Best & Build the Best
	Area Loss Prevention Manager Pittsburgh, PA and/or Cleveland, OH - posted July 30 Our Area Loss Prevention Managers ensure safe and secure stores through the objective identification of loss and risk opportunities. Our Area Loss Prevention Managers plan and prioritize to provide an optimal customer experience to their portfolio of stores. They thrive on supporting and building high performance teams that execute with excellence...
	District Loss Prevention Manager Chicago South / Illinois Central - posted July 28 The District Loss Prevention Manager develops and implements the Loss Prevention program for 6 -15 selling locations. The DLPM is responsible for driving results through achievement of goals related to inventory shortage, budget lines, cash variance and operational compliance...
	Regional Manager LP, Audit & Firearms Compliance Indianapolis, IN - posted July 21 The Central Regional Loss Prevention Manager is responsible for the control and reduction of shrinkage at the stores in their Territory and the company's Distribution Centers. Investigate and resolves all matters that jeopardize or cause a loss to the company's assets...
	Senior AP Operations Manager, Supply Chain Albany, OR - posted July 14 As a Senior Assets Protection Operations Manager (SAPOM), you'll manage a multi-level team comprised of both exempt AP leaders and non-exempt AP Security Specialists responsible for the execution of Assets Protection routines and initiatives to support secure environments and protect Target's profitability...
	Field Loss Prevention Manager Chicago, IL - posted July 9 Manages and coordinates Loss Prevention and Safety Programs intended to protect Staples assets and ensure a safe work environment within Staples Retail locations. Conducts investigations in conjunction with Human resources involving Workplace violence and Ethics...
	Asset Protection Coordinator Rochester, NH - posted June 17 Preventing and deterring theft and limiting the loss of company assets in the stores through best-in-class service, healthy business partnerships, profit analysis, and investigations. Oversee and complete Asset Protection Department responsibilities including but not limited to internal theft investigations, external theft investigations, and physical security...
	Asset Protection Coordinator York, ME - posted June 17 Preventing and deterring theft and limiting the loss of company assets in the stores through best-in-class service, healthy business partnerships, profit analysis, and investigations. Oversee and complete Asset Protection Department responsibilities including but not limited to internal theft investigations, external theft investigations, and physical security...
	Asset Protection Coordinator Dover, NH - posted June 17 Preventing and deterring theft and limiting the loss of company assets in the stores through best-in-class service, healthy business partnerships, profit analysis, and investigations. Oversee and complete Asset Protection Department responsibilities including but not limited to internal theft investigations, external theft investigations, and physical security...

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