Illinois' First-Ever Statewide Task Force to Tackle ORC
Attorney General Raoul Meets With Law Enforcement and Retailers to Discuss Organized Retail Crime

Raoul's Organized Retail Crime Task Force Works with Federal, State and Local Law Enforcement to Investigate Organized Retail Crimes Statewide

Attorney General Kwame Raoul convened a meeting with representatives of law enforcement agencies and the retail industry to discuss collaborations to strengthen investigations and prosecutions of individuals and enterprises involved in organized retail crime.

Attorney General Raoul visited Carbondale, Illinois to host the latest in a series of statewide meetings Raoul is convening as head of the Organized Retail Crime Task Force. Raoul established the task force to enhance cooperation among retailers, online marketplaces, law enforcement agencies and state's attorneys. Participants in the meeting included the Attorney General's chief of investigations and prosecutors from the office, Carbondale Police Chief Stan Reno, Marion Police Chief David Fitts, Metropolis Police Chief Harry Masse and representatives of the Illinois State Police, Jackson County State's Attorney's office, Williamson County State's Attorney's office and the retail industry. Raoul is also leading a national working group of attorneys general on the issue of organized retail crime.

The Attorney General's Organized Retail Crime Task Force is comprised of career investigators and prosecutors from the Attorney General's Criminal Enforcement Division working in concert with the U.S. Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security, the Illinois State Police, the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, the Illinois Association of State's Attorneys, and local law enforcement agencies throughout Illinois.

Organized retail crime and retail fraud can be mistaken for isolated incidents committed by low-level offenders; however, organized crime rings are often behind these incidents. Crime rings connected to the drug trade, human trafficking and other forms of crime target big box stores, pharmacies, hardware stores, auto dealerships and other retailers to carry out sophisticated theft operations and operate across county and state borders. Rings coordinate the theft of large amounts of merchandise - using boosters and mules including people who are homeless, vulnerable or addicted to drugs - that are resold below market value using online marketplaces.

The Attorney General's Organized Retail Crime Task Force is the first statewide, public-private collaboration of its kind in Illinois. thesouthlandjournal.com

Another City Cracks Down on Shoplifting
Spokane Police Targeting Shoplifters Amid Washington State Shoplifting Surge

Last year, Washington state stores lost $2.7 billion in merchandise to shoplifting.

That's why several times a year, the Spokane Police Department's Stolen Property Enforcement and Recovery Unit runs special shoplifting sting operations.

"This is the kind of opportunity where we come out, in plain clothes, we work with the loss prevention employees at all these stores. So we have 14 stores that we're in communication with right now," Eckersley said as he sat inside his unmarked car at Walmart in north Spokane.

"So that we can kinda make a dent, and hopefully, change the attitude and behavior of those suspects who are coming out here. Because the ones we grab out here in the parking lot, who don't expect it, that word is going to spread," predicted Eckersley.

Detectives say it's open season for shoplifting in Spokane, and retailers statewide are working on solutions they can bring to the legislature to fix the growing problem.

Spokane police and members of the SPEAR unit are working with in-store loss prevention officers, who are limited in what they can do, to force shoplifters into thinking twice about their take.

Spokane police are also holding shoplifters more accountable by aggregating their series of related crimes. "Now that we've caught him doing something today, let's look back in what he was a suspect in yesterday. Or two weeks ago, or three months ago. We can add those charges up. We can add up each of those incidents and make it a felony which it, rightly so, is," emphasized Eckersley."  my.spokanecity.org

Safeway Shooter Was Former Employee
Oregon Safeway shooter wrote manifesto planning 'national tragedy'
The deranged mass shooter who killed two men in an Oregon supermarket appears to have written a disturbing online manifesto bragging about his plans to commit a "national tragedy" - initially planning a school slaughter "inspired" by Columbine.

Ethan Blair Miller, 20, was named by police Monday as the gunman who killed an 84-year-old customer as well as a heroic 66-year-old employee who tackled him as he sprayed shots through the Safeway in Bend late Sunday.

Miller - who was carrying an AR-15 and a shotgun and had weapons and bombs in his car - shot himself dead before he could be arrested, police said. He previously worked at the store, but had no known criminal record, and police said they had no evidence of prior contact with him.

However, officials confirmed they were examining disturbing information "posted on social media or other outlets" ahead of the shooting. It later emerged that the gunman had for two months written a since-deleted online manifesto called "The Downward Spiral Of 'Ethan Miller.'"

"If you're reading this then I'm definitely DEAD and have just committed a 'NATIONAL TRAGEDY,'" he opened the online rantings on June 29. In his rantings, he blamed the isolation of COVID-19 lockdowns as well as feuds with his family and frustrations at being unable to find a girlfriend.

He gunned down customer Glenn Edward Bennett, 84, at the store's entrance before moving through the aisles "spraying shots" from the assault rifle, police said. An employee, Army veteran Donald Ray Surrett Jr., 66, then "engaged with the shooter, attempted to disarm him and may very well have prevented further deaths," a police spokesperson said.

Police entered the supermarket from the front and rear as shots were still being fired. Miller was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot, four minutes after the initial 911 call, officials said. nypost.com

AI Predicts Future Crimes with 90% Accuracy
An algorithm can predict future crimes with 90% accuracy

The AI model was tested across eight cities in the US and predicts future crimes with 80 to 90 per cent accuracy, without falling foul of bias.

Prof Ishanu Chattopadhyay leads the ZeD Lab at the University of Chicago, where he studies algorithms and data. He tells us about the AI he has developed that can forecast crimes being committed days before they actually occur.

Your algorithm successfully predicted crime in US cities a week before they happened. How did you build the algorithm?

The city of Chicago and the seven other cities that we looked at have started putting out crime event logs in the public domain. In Chicago, these are actually updated daily with a week's delay. These event logs contain information about what happened, what type of crime it was, where it happened, the latitude, longitude, and a timestamp. In Chicago, we also have information about if there were any arrests made when there were interactions with the police officers.

What our algorithm does is look at these coevolving time series, then figures out how they are dependent on one another and how they're constraining one another - so how they're shaping one another. That brings up a really complex model. You can then make predictions on what's going to happen, say, a week in advance at a particular tile, plus or minus one day. In Chicago, for example, today is Wednesday. Using our algorithm, you can say that next Wednesday, on the intersection of 37th Street and Southwestern Avenue, there would be homicide.

How do you envisage the ways your algorithm could be used?

What we would like to do is enable a kind of policy optimisation. My cohorts and I have been very vocal that we don't want this to be used as a purely predictive policy tool. We want policy optimisation to be the main use of it. We have to enable that, as just putting out a paper and having the algorithm there isn't enough. We want the mayor or administrators to use the model generated to do simulations and inform policy.

Previous algorithms of this kind have been heavily criticised for producing bias, in terms of racial profiles, for example. How do you account for this?

We are trying to start only from the event logs. There are no humans sitting down figuring out what the features are, or what attributes are important. There's very little manual input going on, other than the event log that is coming in. We have tried to reduce bias as much as possible. That's how our model is different from other models that have come before.  sciencefocus.com

Police upping security in downtown Albuquerque amid theft surge
Albuquerque Police have arrested 16 alleged repeat offenders in the last three days, all for shoplifting. They also recovered $4,500 total in merchandise that was stolen from businesses.

Thrift store in NE Portland to close due to crime in neighborhood

Law enforcement warning of dangerous gun modification for mass shootings

US: 96M Cases - 1M Dead - 91.7M Recovered
Worldwide: 606.7M Cases - 6.4M Dead - 582.6M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362   Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 794
*Red indicates change in total deaths

COVID Cases, Hospitalizations & Deaths

Post-Labor Day Return to Office?
Workers Face Pressure As Top Companies Push Post-Labor Day Return to Office
During the more than two years that the COVID-19 pandemic blanketed the U.S. economic landscape, millions of workers were able to work in remote or hybrid arrangements. But now, as the COVID pall has lifted, some Fortune 100 companies - including Disney, Apple, and Tesla - are expecting their employees to work more days in the office after the Labor Day holiday weekend concludes.

This move is creating controversy in corporate boardrooms, with company executives debating the actual value and effect of the remote and hybrid models that have become the norm.

In the coming weeks and months, employers and their employees will have to make decisions that will have significant implications on the future of work, said Roger Martin, business analyst and former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

"You had this great, natural experiment, where everybody had to work from home," Martin told Newsweek. "Now a bunch of people who would have never chosen to work remotely not only got used to it, but even started to like it." He sees this as the greatest shift in the American workforce since the U.S. entered the Second World War. newsweek.com

Long-Term Violent Fallout of COVID Lockdowns
Will Mass Shootings Be Affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic?

It's unclear what the effect of pandemic lockdowns and missed schooling will be on the incidence of mass shootings.

Will the coronavirus pandemic increase or decrease the likelihood of mass shootings? There is an array of background risk factors, life experiences, psychological traits, and behaviors that mass shooters have in common. What may happen to these as the coronavirus pandemic reveals its fallout on our youth?

The coronavirus pandemic may worsen the constellation of factors that lead to mass shootings. This might happen for several reasons. The pandemic has diminished social interaction, so crucial to adolescent development. Isolation has worsened due to school shutdowns and reliance on online instruction.

Classroom structure has disappeared as have student-teacher interactions in the flesh. There are more school dropouts. There is an increase in stress, depression, anxiety and family difficulties--job losses, death of family members from coronavirus infections, financial difficulties, substance abuse, lessened adult supervision of children and youth. Together these may create the perfect storm for more emotional suffering in youth that can lead to mass shootings. psychologytoday.com

The Debate Over COVID Lockdowns
How dare anyone demand an apology for Covid lockdowns - have they forgotten the terrors of early 2020?
The myth is being perpetuated that lockdowns actually caused more deaths than lives saved. It is a ridiculous suggestion, but a seductive one, and one that is gaining currency, on social media and among folk who should know better.

Have we forgotten the terrors of early 2020? A completely unfamiliar, poorly understood but highly infectious and potentially deadly coronavirus was ripping through populations in China and Europe, causing deaths and serious illness. Health services in Italy couldn't cope with the demand.

So the opposite was - and is - the truth. Without social distancing, restrictions on gatherings, mask wearing, hygiene regimes and self-isolation, even more cases would have overcrowded surgeries, ambulances and hospital wards, and left even fewer resources available to treat other urgent cases. independent.co.uk

Will pre-pandemic office life ever make a comeback?

Omicron-targeting COVID boosters expected this week

Is Cyber Insurance Even Worth It for Businesses?
Cyber-Insurance Firms Limit Payouts, Risk Obsolescence

Businesses need to re-evaluate their cyber-insurance policies as firms like Lloyd's of London continue to add restrictions

In the latest limits on cyber policies, insurance marketplace Lloyd's of London issued a notice on Aug. 16 to its member insurers, or syndicates, requiring that they exclude coverage for state-backed cyberattacks. The motive for the additional restrictions is to protect insurance companies and their underwriters from catastrophic loss, and help manage systemic risk that could overwhelm insurers, Lloyd's market bulletin stated.

Is Cyber Insurance Still Worth It?

While the insurers' position is understandable, businesses - which have already seen their premiums skyrocket over the past three years - should question whether insurance still mitigates risk effectively, says Pankaj Goyal, senior vice president of data science and cyber insurance at Safe Security, a cyber-risk analysis firm.

Insurance firms have also focused on limiting their liability. In 2021, global insurance firm AXA decided to stop paying ransoms to cybercriminals. And over the past two years, insurance companies have added act-of-war exclusions to their policies.

In its market bulletin (PDF), Lloyd's argued that the risk posed by cyberattacks continues to evolve and its members need to adapt to the threats posed by large or widely distributed attacks. While wartime risks are often excluded, Lloyd's requires that syndicates go further and ensure that certain policies have "a suitable clause excluding liability for losses arising from any state-backed cyberattack."

"Signs point to continued breaches and hacks, resulting in a longer claims process, and more litigations," says Goyal. "Unless the industry can collectively fix the way cyber insurance policies are understood, written and priced, ensuring that they are based on actual data and individual organizational risk - one size does not fit all - there is no end to the challenges and mistrust in cyber insurance."

Too Broad an Exclusion | Time to Beef Up Cyberdefenses: darkreading.com

Retail Ransomware Attacks on the Rise
Barracuda threat report reveals spike in ransomware to 1.2M+ per month

New fourth-annual research report analyzes ransomware attack patterns that occurred between August 2021 and July 2022

For the 106 highly publicized attacks our researchers analyzed, the dominant targets are still five key industries: education (15%), municipalities (12%), healthcare (12%), infrastructure (8%), and financial (6%).

The number of ransomware attacks increased year-over-year across each of these five industry verticals, and attacks against other industries more than doubled compared to last year's report.

This year, Barracuda researchers dug in deeper on these highly publicized attacks to see which other industries are starting to be targeted. Service providers were hit the most, and ransomware attacks on automobile, hospitality, media, retail, software, and technology organizations all increased as well.

Most ransomware attacks don't make headlines, though. Many victims choose not to disclose when they get hit, and the attacks are often sophisticated and extremely hard to handle for small businesses. prnewswire.com

IT leaders struggling to address identity sprawl
Identity sprawl is the rapid growth of enterprise identity silos, and the explosion of user information, attributes, and credentials that accompanies it. This acceleration results in greater security and compliance risks, as identity information spreads across a complex web of legacy, hybrid, and multi-cloud systems.

The lack of visibility and control across all these systems creates the opportunity for identity-driven cyber-attacks-offering more opportunities for misuse or negligence by individuals (employees, former employees, contractors, partners) and opening the door for cybercriminals to take advantage and move laterally throughout an organization.

An alarming 67% of respondents know they have identity sprawl, but don't know how to fully address it. And although 58% rated identity management of vital importance, 61% stated that their business views identity management as too time-intensive and costly to manage effectively on an ongoing basis. Respondents reported the most common negative impacts as increased technical debt (66%) and negative productivity and morale (64%) among employees. helpnetsecurity.com

700K Open Cybersecurity Positions
Video: Creating cyber career opportunities during the talent shortage
With roughly 700,000 cybersecurity positions open, businesses across America are feeling the direct impact of the cyber talent shortage. As ransomware attacks and data breaches continue to make headlines, it's clear that threat actors aren't backing off, and employees are now holding down the line in the face of cyberattacks.

In this Help Net Security video, Mark Manglicmot, SVP of Security Services at Arctic Wolf, talks about creating cyber career opportunities during the talent shortage. helpnetsecurity.com

PCI DSS v4.0: Is the Customized Approach Right For Your Organization?
This blog is the second in a series of articles on the customized approach. The first article provided a high-level overview of the customized approach and explored the difference between compensating controls and the customized approach. This article focuses on considerations for entities thinking about implementing a customized approach, and includes the customized approach resources provided in PCI DSS for the assessed entity and in the PCI DSS Report on Compliance Template for the assessor. blog.pcisecuritystandards.org

FTC sues data broker over selling location data that can reveal abortion clinic visits

RH-ISAC Cyber Intelligence Summit Announces Splunk as Title Sponsor

Fraudster Forced Victims & Amazon to "Play Whac-A-Mole"
Amazon would shut one down & He'd began anew with another

Hacienda Heights Gets 18 Months Federal Prison for Stealing $1.3 Million from Amazon Through Refund Scam
LOS ANGELES - A third-party seller on Amazon.com was sentenced today to 18 months in federal prison for gaming the online retailer's payment system in a scheme that defrauded the company out of more than $1.3 million.

Ting Hong Yeung, 40, of Hacienda Heights, was sentenced by United States District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, who also ordered him to pay $1,302,954 in restitution.

Yeung operated as an Amazon third-party vendor using business names including "Speedy Checkout," "Special SaleS" and "California Red Trading Inc." After enough time passed to allow his businesses to appear to be reputable vendors, Yeung would list expensive merchandise, such as furniture and home décor, at cut-rate prices to drive a spike in sales.

However, instead of shipping purchased items to the customers, Yeung provided Amazon with bogus tracking numbers. When customers complained about not receiving their purchases, Yeung delayed customer refund requests long enough to ensure that Amazon would disburse funds into his businesses' bank accounts. As a result, Yeung collected payment for items that were never shipped and relied on Amazon to issue refunds to his disgruntled customers under its "A-to-z Guarantee."

On occasion, Yeung provided goods to his customers that he obtained through his own fraudulent purchases from Amazon, which he made using credit cards in the names of other people and fictitious identities. After the goods were delivered to his customers, Yeung requested refunds for the goods from Amazon. Yeung often falsely claimed that he was entitled to a refund because the product was "Different from what was ordered," and then returned lower-value items rather than the merchandise he had originally ordered. As a result, Yeung received both the refund and the proceeds of the original sale to his own customer.

"[Yeung] perpetrated his fraud over the course of roughly seven years, collecting more than $1.3 million." justice.gov

Montgomery County, TX: Nearly 500 items stolen in Apple store Burglary at The Woodlands Mall
Apple store Burglary. On August 29, 2022, at around 08:00 a.m., the Montgomery County Sheriff Office Deputies were dispatched to a burglary at the Apple Store in The Woodlands Mall. Through the course of the investigation, it was determined that four individuals wearing head and face coverings made forced entry into the Apple Store after hours. A large quantity of merchandise was stolen from the store including over 200 Apple watches, over 50 Airpods, and over 220 phones. hellowoodlands.com

Castle Rock police search for shoplifting suspects who took $90,000 worth of beauty products
Police in Castle Rock want to find some shoplifting suspects who are responsible for stealing $90,000 worth of beauty products. Police said the thieves usually wear masks but they do have distinct tattoos. The shoplifting suspects have targeted businesses along the Front Range and in Castle Rock. Anyone who recognizes the suspects is asked to call the Castle Rock Police Department (303) 663-6100.  cbsnews.com

Nashville, TN: Home Depot employee stole $21989.50 in just 42 days
18-year-old Monterious Gaines faces a Class C felony theft charge after Home Depot on Powell Ave. hired him as an associate, and in the span of 42 days, he stole $21,989.50 from the business. Officers responded to the business on August 17th after employee Brian Hellwig advised that a tip from another associate revealed that Monterious Gaines had stolen merchandise from the company on eleven known occasions. During each incident, store security video showed Gaines walking out of the store with merchandise and loading it into either a black truck or a light-colored sedan. Gains was booked into the Metro Nashville Jail on August 26th, charged with felony theft of over $10,000. He is free on a $10,000 bond.  scoopnashville.com

Tulsa, OK: Police Search For 2 People Suspected Of Shoplifting From Stores in Tulsa, Catoosa and Glenpool
Tulsa police are looking for two people suspected of shoplifting from a store near 111th and Memorial. Tulsa police shared photos of the individuals in a Facebook post on Monday. Investigators believe the suspects took several items from the store without paying on August 15th. Authorities say the pair may have also stolen items from stores in Catoosa and Glenpool. news9.com

Update: DuPage County, IL: Twin brothers get 4 years in prison for thefts, ordered to repay $933,000 to Home Depot
Two brothers were sentenced Monday to four years in prison for stealing from Home Depot stores throughout the suburbs, in many cases by making fraudulent returns of items. Twins John Miotke and Michael Miotke, 45, both of Round Lake, pleaded guilty in June to the charge of a continuing financial crimes enterprise. Charges of theft, retail theft and burglary were dropped as part of the plea agreement.

The Miotkes also were ordered Monday to repay $933,666 to Home Depot. That's the amount Home Depot investigators believe the Miotkes may have taken from the company's stores in 24 states. The Miotkes were charged in October 2019 in DuPage County with stealing from a Home Depot in Downers Grove after Home Depot security workers, investigating thefts in multiple states, notified Downers Grove police. They were indicted a month later on that and more charges that they stole from Home Depot stores in Downers Grove, Carol Stream, Woodridge, Glendale Heights, Oak Lawn, Schaumburg, Bartlett, Mount Prospect, Naperville, Northlake, Niles, Mundelein, Oakbrook Terrace, Oswego, Ingleside, Lake Zurich, Gurnee, Alsip, Elgin, Calumet City, Countryside, Shorewood, Homer Glen and Elk Grove Village.

The continuing financial crimes enterprise indictment said the crimes happened from August through November 2018. The indictments alleged John Miotke stole a DeWalt pressure washer, LED lights, vinyl flooring and Honda lawn mowers. Michael Miotke was accused of taking DeWalt pressure washers, Toro snowblowers, Honda lawn mowers, laminate flooring, vinyl flooring, lights, laser projectors and a Weber grill. The Miotkes had two ways of stealing. They would buy items, take them to their vehicle, go back into the store, select identical items and "return" them using the receipt from the purchase. They also would walk out with the second item and, if stopped by store workers, would show the purchase receipt, court documents show. dailyherald.com