LP's Opportunity to Shine as 'Revenue Preservers'
Managing Risk, Business Continuity and Resiliency During a Pandemic

Physical security leaders are being propelled into new roles during the pandemic

Physical security leaders - increasingly mandated to keep facilities safe and operational during the pandemic - are being propelled into a unique position to become revenue preservers for their business. They are seen as first-order strategic, earning their "seat at the table" as revenue preservers alongside cybersecurity leaders - particularly as the gap between physical and cyber narrows.

Revenue Preservation and Remote Employees

To address employee concern about the return to work, many organizations have proactively begun adopting new technology solutions to keep their staff safe. In fact, 45 percent of employees noted their company has already adopted new technology for employee health and safety. Among the technologies that employees believe would make them feel more comfortable returning to a physical workplace, respondents cited touchless sign-in technology (54 percent), which entails not having to touch a sign-in device, kiosk or security access control system upon entering the facility.

"The new standard of population and facilities risk management requires us to think about everyone entering a facility as one universal risk management challenge," says Brian Phillips, director of global security strategy at Traction Guest,  which provides enterprise visitor management. "From how any individual enters a building to how they interact with others on premises, physical security professionals will be tasked with ensuring a safe and secure visit for all."

"I think that now is the time to shine for security executives," Phillips says. "They can show their value proposition by incorporating technologies that not only secure the business but also mitigate new risks caused by COVID-19."

The Risk Manager

"I view myself more as a risk manager than as a security professional. I always have," says Bill Schieder, former FBI agent and current head of global physical security at shipping logistics startup Flexport. "My goal, in every role, is always to understand how to make my security organization a viable business partner to the point where business units reach out to me, versus the other way. And that's when you know that you've gotten people's attention."

Phillips adds, "There shouldn't be any instances where you're just deploying a security system, just because your peers have done it or because it's in a security manual. You should always be evaluating specific risks and the countermeasures that are needed ... Corporate security can be like an insurance plan in a company, where you need to spend a little on security to save a lot, or risk disaster or criminal events. However, it does not have to be that way. Solutions can be tweaked to create different purposes rather than spending more money. That is how the risk manager and security profession works: you have to be able to decipher which tools are the best for your company to avert risk at all levels. That's where you will find success." securitymagazine.com

CEOs to Congress: A lot more small businesses will fail without new aid
The top executives of more than 100 companies - including Starbucks, Microsoft and Mastercard - and trade groups are calling on Congress to backstop small businesses facing economic calamity.

In a letter dated Monday and addressed to congressional leaders of both parties, the executives painted a dire picture: mass business closures as coronavirus cases surge and the recession deepens.

The effort spearheaded by former Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard Schultz calls for federally guaranteed loans to last into 2021; flexibility in how that money is put to use; and at least partial loan forgiveness for the hardest-hit companies. It also said "funds must flow to all small business in need, particularly those run by people of color," who have historically had less access to capital.

More than 4 million businesses have received emergency loans from the Small Business Administration after Congress approved $700 billion to support them in May. The letter said the nation's 30 million small businesses need a more robust and sustained intervention from the federal government. washingtonpost.com

Study: Majority of Women Don't Feel Safe Testing Beauty Products
or Trying on Apparel and Footwear
As more major retailers require customers to wear a mask in-store, a survey by First Insight found that the vast majority of women (80%) feel unsafe trying out beauty products, 68% feel unsafe trying on apparel in dressing rooms and 61% feel unsafe trying on shoes. This represents an uptick compared to First Insight's last study in April when 78% and 65% of women felt unsafe trying on beauty products and apparel, respectively. The study also found that, of the generations, Baby Boomers still feel the least safe returning to the shopping environment overall, while 73% of Baby Boomers surveyed said they would not feel safe trying on clothes in dressing rooms compared to 71% from the last study in April.

The study also found that in considering where to shop, a growing number of consumers feel unsafe in shopping malls, warehouse clubs and big box retailers. According to the survey, 32% of respondents feel unsafe or very unsafe when visiting shopping malls compared to 29% in the last survey. Warehouse clubs saw a similar uptick (20% vs. 18%), with small increases in big box retail (18% vs. 17%).

By comparison, consumers are feeling more safe visiting essential businesses like grocery stores than they did in April (11% vs. 13% saying they feel unsafe or very unsafe) with drug stores holding steady at only 15% feeling unsafe. Worth noting, more consumers are feeling safer visiting local small businesses with those who feel unsafe shopping there dropping to 17% from 21% at the end of April. sdcexec.com

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FBI Sees Rise in Online Shopping Scams

The FBI says that an increasing number of victims are being directed to fraudulent websites via social media platforms and popular online search engines.

Methods:
According to complaints received by the FBI, an increasing number of victims have not received items they purchased from websites offering low prices on items such as gym equipment, small appliances, tools and furniture. Victims reported they were led to these websites via ads on social media platforms or while searching for specific items on online search engines' "shopping" pages. Victims purchased items from these websites because prices were consistently lower than those offered by other online retail stores.

Complainants indicated the following:
● Disposable face masks shipped from China were received regardless of what was ordered.
● Payment was made using an online money transfer service.
● The retail websites provided valid but unassociated U.S. addresses and telephone numbers under a "Contact Us" link, misleading victims to believe the retailer was located within the U.S.
● Many of the websites used content copied from legitimate sites; in addition, the same unassociated addresses and telephone numbers were listed for multiple retailers.

Some victims who complained to the vendor about their shipments were offered partial reimbursement and told to keep the face masks as compensation. Others were told to return the items to China in order to be reimbursed, which would result in the victim paying high postage fees, or agree to a partial reimbursement of the product ordered without returning the items received. All attempts made by the victims to be fully reimbursed, or receive the actual items ordered, were unsuccessful. ic3.gov
 

Protests

Defund the police, COVID-19 lead to biggest police budget cuts in decade
Facing the dual forces of the coronavirus pandemic and the national movement to "defund the police," law enforcement agencies across the country are bracing for budget reductions not seen in more than a decade.

Nearly half of 258 agencies surveyed this month are reporting that funding has already been slashed or is expected to be reduced, according to a report slated for release this week by the Police Executive Research Forum, a non-partisan research organization.

Much of the funding is being pulled from equipment, hiring and training accounts, even as a number of cities also are tracking abrupt spikes in violent crime, the report concluded.

Few agencies, regardless of size, are being spared. Deep reductions have been ordered or proposed in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Baltimore County, Maryland, Tempe, Arizona, and Eureka, California. usatoday.com

After protests near her home, Seattle police chief asks City Council for intervention; activists dispute claims of 'illegal behavior'
A debate unfolded online Sunday night over whether protests against police brutality should include visits to public officials' homes - and whether such a discussion distracts from the fight for Black lives - after Seattle police Chief Carmen Best implored the City Council to "forcefully call for the end of these tactics."

Best wrote a letter to the council Sunday after protesters showed up outside her Snohomish County home Saturday night, the latest in a series of visits the demonstrations have paid to those who hold public power in Seattle, including City Council members and Mayor Jenny Durkan. seattletimes.com

Lawsuit alleges Black Lives Matter protesters are being priced out of civil rights; cost of protective clothing too high
A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle alleges that protesters in the Black Lives Matter movement are being priced out of their civil rights by the prohibitive costs of defending themselves against police violence. The five plaintiffs in the lawsuit allege that the purchase of helmets, gas masks, protective clothing, goggles, gloves, boots, umbrellas and other gear they say are needed to fend off police pepper spray, less-lethal projectiles and other crowd-dispersal tools has impinged on their civil right to peacefully protest. seattletimes.com

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Why the E-Commerce Boom May Already Be Over

Digital sales boomed from March through May, but in June, sales dropped $7B

In the months since the pandemic slammed the brakes on all of our normal shopping routines, e-commerce has roughly doubled from just over 15% of U.S. retail sales to about 33%, according to McKinsey.

In its June 2020 Digital Economy Index, Adobe offers further granularity to this news. The software company says that the e-commerce sales surge - an uptick thus far totaling about $77 billion - amounts to half of what is usually spent online in the entire end-of-year holiday season, the biggest selling time of the year.

Consider the context: Since Covid-19, apart from grocery stores and Home Depot, much of the physical retail world has either been entirely closed in lockdown or shunned by pandemic-panicked consumers. Yet even with all that advantage - the rough equivalent of tying a basketball player's legs together and one arm behind their back - e-commerce has managed to capture only a third of total retail sales. There is every reason right now to buy entirely online, yet Americans have largely stuck with tried-and-true brick and mortar.

What gives? While Covid-19 has fast-forwarded trends like surveillance technology, video conferencing, and automation, online shopping seems to already be slowing down. Digital sales boomed from March through May, but in June, sales dropped $7 billion from May. July figures will be out soon, but the trend line at the start of the month was already downward. This includes groceries and apparel, which fell 18% and 15% in June, respectively.

One reason for the dip may be that online goods are no longer as cheap as they once were: "Consumers are now purchasing an online basket of goods for $1.01 that was worth $1.00 in June 2019," Adobe said. Although online prices were down through the first few months of the pandemic, last month they began to creep back up. medium.com

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