APEX Women Mindshare: The Verdict Is In

by Amber Bradley, Owner & Brand Strategist, Calibration Group, LLC

Well, the feedback is in from last week's APEX Women and here it is, straight from the attendees' keyboard:

● "This is the third or fourth virtual seminar I have listened to this year and APEX Women was by far the best! Others had one or two good sessions, but all of these were fantastic! Well done." - said one attendee.

● "This virtual presentation was a phenomenal opportunity. I am very satisfied with the information that was presented and what I learned. Thank you so much, TalkLP, for engaging with the audience and having such great presenters. I am looking forward to attending the next one!" - said another APEX mindshare fan.

● "I felt like I was sitting in my living room with a group of friends sharing ideas and lending support. What a great environment! Loved every minute!" - said the APEX attendee.

TalkLP's Asset Protection Executive Xchange (APEX) virtual mindshare series executed the only virtual event dedicated to empowering women in the loss prevention and asset protection industry on Oct. 1. The mindshare was also available for men to attend as the agenda covered valuable information for any LP professional.

Missed APEX Women? View the replay on-demand here.

Stay tuned for more upcoming APEX Virtual Mindshare events!

Read the full recap here


The Busy LP Event Season Continues
Four More Virtual Industry Conferences Coming This Week:

ISC West Oct. 5-7, 2020	LPRC IMPACT Oct. 6-7	2020 RH-ISAC Summit Oct. 6-8	Zebra PACT 2020 Oct. 6 & 13

COVID Update

US: Over 7.6M Cases - 214K Dead - 4.8M Recovered
Worldwide: Over 35.5M Cases - 1M Dead - 26.7M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 190   Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 117
*Red indicates change in total deaths

As cold weather arrives, U.S. states see record increases in COVID-19 cases
Nine U.S. states have reported record increases in COVID-19 cases over the last seven days, mostly in the upper Midwest and West where chilly weather is forcing more activities indoors.

On Saturday alone, four states - Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin - saw record increases in new cases and nationally nearly 49,000 new infections were reported, the highest for a Saturday in seven weeks, according to a Reuters analysis. Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota and Wyoming also set new records for cases last week. reuters.com

NYC's First Major Reopening Reversal
Fearing 2nd Wave, N.Y.C. Will Adopt Restrictions in Hard-Hit Areas
For many weeks, public health officials had expressed concern that a second wave of the coronavirus would hit New York City, which until recently had achieved striking success in beating back the outbreak after a devastating spring that left more than 20,000 residents dead. On Sunday, with those fears growing, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an emergency crackdown, saying that he intended to impose new restrictions in 20 hot spots in Brooklyn and Queens that have been experiencing rising positivity rates.

The plan is a major setback for New York City, amounting to the first significant reversal in the reopening and offering further evidence of the challenges in curbing the pandemic. The city over the last month had taken several strides forward, allowing indoor dining for the first time and becoming the first major school district in the country to bring children back into its public schools.

But under the new restrictions, Mr. de Blasio would close all schools - public and private - in nine of the city's 146 ZIP codes, as well as all nonessential businesses. Indoor and outdoor dining in restaurants in those areas will not be allowed. nytimes.com

  NY Gov. Cuomo Orders Schools in NYC Hotspots Closed Tuesday; Nonessential Biz Stays Open

U.S. one step closer to national contact tracing
Covid-19 contact tracing apps can now work across state lines
States are now able to create contact tracing apps that work with those from other states, thanks to a national server that works with the exposure notification tool developed by Apple and Google and stores information about potential exposures from all states that use it. This gives us the potential for a nationwide digital contact tracing system.

Some states - New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware - have teamed up to form a regional alliance of apps with a common codebase. vox.com

Consumers Adjust Holiday Shopping Due to COVID
and Are Willing to Grant Retailers Leeway
A new survey from Convey finds that a significant portion of shoppers recognize the uncertainty that retailers face and are willing to give them some latitude - but in exchange, they want free shipping, clear communication and delivery promises to be kept.

COVID Impact on Holiday Shopping
Even as most stores across the country have reopened, the impact of the global pandemic will continue to be felt. Shoppers are planning to shop earlier and mostly online, and they're conscious of COVID's impact on retailers - even if they aren't willing to commit their dollars accordingly.

● Nearly 4 in 10 consumers (39%) will start holiday shopping earlier this year, while 44% say COVID will have no impact on when they begin their gift-buying.

● 8 in 10 shoppers (82%) will do most of their holiday shopping online - and nearly 1 in 3 (30%) will do ALL of it online.

Amazon Momentum Grows
During shelter-in-place orders this spring, consumers learned how to buy everything from groceries to clothing to furniture online - and in many cases, that meant shopping at Amazon. Heading into the holiday season, the online giant is poised to dominate like never before, despite some consumers' misgivings about its impact on retail as a whole.

● Amazon is the number one choice for holiday shopping with 61% of respondents planning to shop there this holiday.

● A distant second choice are big box retailers (Walmart, Target and Best Buy), where 16% of respondents plan to find gifts. businesswire.com

3 Ways to Motivate Your Team Through an Extended Crisis
As we flip our calendars to yet another month of our large-scale Covid-19 remote-work experiment, it's no wonder that motivation, performance and well-being are flagging for many. Months in, managers need new tools to reenergize their teams, to accurately identify and diagnose recurring struggles and to empathetically help employees address their problems.

Using a well-established theory of motivation called self-determination theory, or SDT, we have identified three main psychological needs that leaders can meet to help their employees stay engaged, confident and motivated.

1. Relatedness - 2. Competence - 3. Autonomy shrm.org

SHRM: Answers to the Most Common Coronavirus Questions

Oregon OSHA Releases Near Final Draft of its COVID-19 Standard

Economists says COVID-19 and lack of stimulus endanger growth
 

Legal Perspective of CDC Workplace Violence Guidelines
In Case You Missed It

Preventing Physical and Verbal Covid-19 Workplace Violence
Employers should take a 360-degree view of Covid-19 workplace violence prevention, as threats to employee safety can come from customers, co-workers, and even from an employee's own internal stresses. Epstein Becker Green attorneys look at CDC guidelines and recommend clear written policies and procedures, training, and ongoing empathetic employer communications.

Scores of stories are recounting shootings, assaults, and other workplace violence against employees by customers across a variety of work environments-most often because of a customer's refusal to abide by mask-wearing guidelines. Employees have been screamed at, spit on, slapped, and, in a few tragic worst-cases, killed simply for trying to enforce mask-wearing rules.

Aware of the negative and, sadly, sometimes violent reactions that mask-wearing and social distancing guidelines have provoked, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released guidance, "Limiting Workplace Violence Associated with COVID-19 Prevention Policies in Retail and Services Businesses."

Included in its workplace violence definition are the obvious physical assaults along with threats and "verbal assault," defined broadly to include words intended to cause "negative emotions of the person being assaulted."

CDC Looks at Physical and Verbal Assaults - Co-Worker Stress Can Spark Violence - Training, Clear Prevention Policies, Communication bloomberglaw.com

Global Perspective of Cargo Theft
Criminals Eye Stalled Supply Chains for Weak Links
Cargo theft was on the rise in 2019. The National Retail Federation's Organized Retail Crime Report found that 73 percent of retailers surveyed in the United States suffered cargo thefts in 2019, compared with just 30 percent in 2018. According to the Cargo Theft Report 2020 from BSI and TT Club, 2019 saw an average of eight global cargo thefts per day, with 87 percent of attacks targeting trucks.

Despite these slower than usual rates of cargo theft in the first few months of the pandemic, TAPA warns that transportation organizations should expect a spike in crime as regions reopen and criminals seek to make up lost revenue.

The association is already seeing an uptick in attacks. TAPA EMEA recorded 118 cargo thefts in June, according to preliminary data, including nine major thefts with loss values of 100,000 euros ($117,000) or more.

COVID-19 uncovered a lack of preparedness along supply chains that criminals can exploit, says Thorsten Neumann, president and CEO of TAPA for the EMEA region.

From organized crime to PPE, drug cartels, the shutdown impact, to 70 percent of supply chain and cargo theft is associated with insider involvement, whether intentional or accidental, this is a great detailed overview of the current state of what's driving cargo theft and the global trends. asisonline.org

California Governor signs new "rest period" for private security officer bill
AB 1512 provides some relief - through January 1, 2027 - from rest period laws for the security industry, possibly paving the way for later legislation benefitting other industries. AB 1512 authorizes registered private patrol operator employers to require certain security officer employees (those registered under the Private Security Services Act) to remain on the premises during rest periods, to remain on call, and to carry and monitor a communication device. The security officer must be permitted to restart a rest period anew as soon as practicable if the rest period is interrupted. This later, uninterrupted rest period would qualify as a compliant rest period. If a security officer cannot take an uninterrupted rest period of at least 10 minutes for every four hours worked (or major fraction thereof), the officer must be paid one additional hour of pay at the base hourly rate. AB 1512 went into effect immediately upon the Governor's approval on September 30, 2020, but does not apply to cases filed before January 1, 2021. calpeculiarities.com

Survey: 3/4 Shoppers Want Stores To Close on Thanksgiving
Three-quarters (76%) of the more than 1,500 U.S. consumers surveyed said they want retailers to close on Thanksgiving Day, according to the Accenture Holiday Shopping Survey. Slightly more than half of those cited the desire to give workers a well-deserved day off, with the remainder saying retail workers should spend the holiday with their families.

Health, safety and the livelihood of store employees are also on consumers' minds, with 61% saying they plan to minimize in-store shopping to reduce health risks to essential workers. The same number said they'd be inspired to shop with retailers that demonstrate visibly high commitments to health, safety and hygiene practices. retailleader.com

Regal Cinemas Suspending Operations at All U.S. Locations

17 retailers that could go bankrupt as the COVID-19 era wears on

Walmart provides interactive drug safety site

California exceeds 4 million acres burned by wildfires in 2020


 

Retailer Hit with 2nd Largest GDPR Fine Ever
H&M fined $41 million for staff privacy breaches in Germany
H&M has been fined 35 million euros ($41.1 million) after monitoring "several hundred employees," including recording extensive information about family issues, religious beliefs, and illnesses.

This is the second-largest fine levied against a single company over data breaches after the EU introduced new General Data Protection Regulation laws in 2018. The largest was against Google in France in 2019 when it was fined 50 million Euros over how it collected and handled user data for the purpose of personalizing ads.

A German watchdog issued the fine for data protection violations on Thursday after a year-long investigation into what it called a "particularly intensive encroachment on employees' civil rights" at the company's service center in Nuremberg.

Since at least 2014, the Swedish fashion retailer, Europe's second-largest after Spain's Inditex, has recorded details about employees, the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HmbBfDI), where the company's German headquarters sits, reported.

This includes extensive information held when staff had time off work, including notes on vacation details and medical symptoms and diagnoses.

Some supervisors also kept notes on employees' private lives that they had heard through workplace conversations, including family issues and religious beliefs. Supervisors stored some of these details online - making them partly readable by up to 50 other managers, the HmbBfDI found in its investigations. Some of these notes were highly detailed, and supervisors updated them as the issues developed. businessinsider.com

COVID-19 sparks upward trend in cybercrime
Europol's 2020 cybercrime report updates on the latest trends and the current impact of cybercrime within the EU and beyond
So much has changed since Europol published last year's Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA). The global COVID-19 pandemic that hit every corner of the world forced us to reimagine our societies and reinvent the way we work and live. During the lockdown, we turned to the internet for a sense of normality: shopping, working and learning online at a scale never seen before. It is in this new normal that Europol publishes its 7th annual IOCTA. The IOCTA seeks to map the cybercrime threat landscape and understand how law enforcement responds to it. Although the COVID-19 crisis showed us how criminals actively take advantage of society at its most vulnerable, this opportunistic behaviour of criminals should not overshadow the overall threat landscape. In many cases, COVID-19 has enhanced existing problems.

Cross-cutting crime | Malware reigns supreme | Payment fraud: SIM swapping a new trend | Criminal abuse of the dark web europol.europa.eu

  INTERNET ORGANISED CRIME THREAT ASSESSMENT (IOCTA) 2020

The IOCTA is Europol's flagship strategic product highlighting the dynamic and evolving threats from cybercrime. It provides a unique law enforcement focused assessment of emerging challenges and key developments in the area of cybercrime. We are grateful for the many contributions from our colleagues within European law enforcement community and to our partners in the private industry for their input to the report. Combining law enforcement and private sector insights allows us to present this comprehensive overview of the threat landscape.

The data collection for the IOCTA 2020 took place during the lockdown implemented as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the pandemic prompted significant change and criminal innovation in the area of cybercrime. Criminals devised both new modi operandi and adapted existing ones to exploit the situation, new attack vectors and new groups of victims. Download the report here.

NIST CYBERSECURITY and PRIVACY PROGRAM

Securing Data Integrity Against Ransomware Attacks: Paper Available for Comment

A new draft paper, Securing Data Integrity Against Ransomware Attacks: Using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guides, is now available for public comment. The objective of this document is to provide an overview of these Data Integrity projects, provide a high-level explanation of the architecture and capabilities, and explain how these projects can be brought together into one comprehensive data integrity solution.

The public comment period is open through November 13, 2020. See the publication details for a copy of the draft and instructions for submitting comments. Also see the NCCoE's Data Security page for related information. govdelivery.com

Department of Treasury Releases Advisory on Potential Sanctions Risks for Facilitating Ransomware Payments

'Father of Identity Theft' Sentenced to 207 Months

Former Walmart Exec Joins Retail AI Firm Everseen