How Military Service Can Prepare Professionals to Be Workplace Safety Leaders
Safety Professionals Share Lessons Learned from Their Time in the Military

This Veterans Day, EHS professionals reflected on how military service prepared them to be workplace safety leaders.

The military runs drills for many likely and unlikely scenarios. Officers might not use words like OSHA or regulations or compliance, but they are essentially intense training programs.

Ben Andrew, Ed.D, MBA, CSP, and chief of Occupational Health & Safety at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, spent nearly a decade in the Navy working on a nuclear aircraft carrier. It was the vary definition of a hazardous workplace: there was aircraft, there was ammunition, there was bombs. He was deployed in parts of the world that saw temperatures of 110 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit.

Andrew found while interviewing for safety jobs as a civilian, he was overqualified for some positions because of his extensive training in the military.

And, even when the hazards are the same, the military offers extra intensity. Take fire drills, for example. Organizations will have evacuation plans and other materials posted throughout the facilities. Employees are taught to have rally or muster points to meet in the event of an evacuation. Organizations run drills a couple of times a year, on average.

Andrew says that civilian employees might not heed the drills or ask when they can get back to work. ehstoday.com


Taking on Walmart & Kroger
Amazon tests mixing and matching its grocery operations

By combining its Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh fulfillment networks, Amazon tries for better footing against giants like Walmart and Kroger.

Amazon's next ideas for growing its grocery business could blur the lines between Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh by enmeshing the two businesses' fulfillment networks in a new set of experiments, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Amazon has reportedly started shipping Whole Foods products from 26 Amazon Fresh fulfillment centers and plans to build a microfulfillment center at a Pennsylvania Whole Foods Market and stocking it with Amazon Fresh household goods and groceries. Another part of the plan includes an experimental "Amazon Grocery" inside a Chicago Whole Foods that offers brands and groceries that the upscale store wouldn't normally carry, according to WSJ.

The goal of the tests is to give Amazon customers a way to buy products "ranging from organic produce to Tide detergent and Cheez-It crackers" from one source, rather than multiple stores, the Journal writes. Doing that could give its grocery businesses "greater scale with online customers" as it tries to drive deeper into a market dominated by companies like Walmart and Kroger, which already distribute orders from their many brick-and-mortar stores. theverge.com


Holiday Retail Sales To 'Remain Steady'
'Contradictions and mixed signals' in the economy won't affect holiday sales growth: NRF

The trade organization is maintaining its holiday forecast for the year, stating that households are in decent financial shape.

Holiday season sales growth will remain steady despite some contradictions in the latest federal economic and jobs data, the National Retail Federation said Thursday. The NRF is maintaining its retail sales projections of a 2.5% to 3.5% year-over-year increase, according to Jack Kleinhenz, the organization's chief economist.

A recent dip in jobs numbers and the slowed growth of the gross domestic product in the third quarter are likely due to the impact of Hurricanes Helene and Milton and labor union strikes. Overall, the NRF said, employment gained 104,000 jobs on a three month average and GDP growth was strong, continuing 10 consecutive quarters of increases.

Salaries and wages were up 3.9% from a year ago as of September, as measured by the federal Employment Cost Index. While that's the slowest growth since late 2021, Kleinhenz said it's above inflation. The Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, fell to a year-over-year increase of 2.1% in September, just above the federal government's 2% target and the lowest it's been since 2021, the NRF said. retaildive.com


Election Results Fueling 'Doom Spending'?
Americans are feeling anxious - so they're 'doom spending'
Doom spending, or the practice of spending money to soothe fears about broader issues like politics or the economy, shows up everywhere from YouTube and TikTok videos to Reddit to personal finance discussions and data in surveys.

Gen Z and millennial consumers are also more likely to say it is better to treat themselves now rather than hold off for a future "that feels like it could change at any moment," according to an Axios Vibes survey in June conducted by The Harris Poll.

While this kind of catharsis might work to temporarily allay worries, experts say doom spending poses a danger to consumers' long-term financial health.

"We're not always rational when it comes to our emotions, when it comes to our money," said Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma. "It's really easy to bury our heads in the sand and look for those quick dopamine hits when we're feeling anxious or stressed." cnn.com


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Another Responsibility for CISOs
Who should be in the room when purchasing cyber insurance?

Cyber exposure should be treated just as seriously as a fire event, each with a high potential to disrupt business for extended periods of time, Peter Hedberg of Corvus Insurance writes.

When it comes to assessing policies and applying for cyber insurance, the questions and considerations become more complex. It's imperative that companies have the right people in the room when evaluating cyber insurance.

Increased cyber risk drives need to assess coverage

We've seen increases in the frequency and severity of ransomware attacks, data breaches and other cybersecurity incidents, which puts a focus on cyber insurance.

Coverage is designed to help an organization mitigate exposure through risk transfer, and it does this by helping cover costs associated with data recovery, business interruptions and other losses after a cyber-related incident. It differs from general liability insurance, which generally excludes cyber events.

Put simply, cyber exposure should be treated just as seriously as a fire event, each with a high potential to disrupt business for extended periods of time.

A 2023 Forrester Research report found that 83% of enterprise security decision makers say that their firm has some form of cyber insurance coverage, yet only 26% of organizations had a standalone cyber policy.

One explanation for this lower uptake may be a lack of knowledge about these policies. Common misconceptions include companies thinking they have adequate protection through their business liability or business owner policy (BOP), attacks only happen to large companies or failing to understand the true costs of a breach when weighing the cost benefits.

That's why chief information security officers and those in charge of cybersecurity should take the lead when evaluating cyber insurance. cybersecuritydive.com


Veterans Make Excellent Cybersecurity Employees
4 reasons why veterans thrive as cybersecurity professionals
Tapping veterans for cybersecurity roles can mutually benefit their business and the individuals they hire. Below, I'll explain four reasons veterans make excellent cybersecurity company employees.

Fighting apex attackers

Dealing with such high-level adversaries requires defenders who are trained specifically to combat their techniques. Many veterans are trained extensively in red team attack simulations, in which they pose as an attacker and attempt to breach an organization's systems to assess vulnerabilities and boost the organization's security posture. This training is used to combat nation-state attackers, with military members engaging in monthly or multi-year attack simulations.

Constant security exercise

Maintaining security requires a distinct mentality where your approach meets the dedication of the threat actor trying to hack into your system. Veterans can become skilled in specialized areas like hunting for advanced adversaries within security systems. They know that adversaries can be relentless in their attempts and can be adept in providing relentless defense.

Mission-focused amid uncertainty

Veterans can instinctively troubleshoot, determine the cause of a problem and map out a plan for resolution. Their experience makes them naturally proactive and driven to solve problems without excessive supervision or direction.

Always in the fight

Cybersecurity shares a similar mission with most military branches, which many veterans recognize. They want to stop the bad guys, serve the public good and make the world a safer place. To be effective in combatting cyberthreats, defenders must believe in what they're doing, just as soldiers must when executing their mission. helpnetsecurity.com


Strategies for CISOs navigating hybrid and multi-cloud security
In this Help Net Security interview, Alex Freedland, CEO at Mirantis, discusses the cloud security challenges that CISOs need to tackle as multi-cloud and hybrid environments become the norm. He points out the expanded attack surfaces, the importance of consistent security policies, and the need for automated compliance solutions.

What are the most pressing cloud security challenges that CISOs should prioritize, especially as multi-cloud and hybrid environments grow more complex?

With the increasing adoption of hybrid and multi-cloud environments, one of the most pressing challenges is the significantly expanded attack surface. Additionally, unified incident detection and response times are crucial due to the complexity of managing disparate security tools across multiple platforms, which can slow down incident response.

Also, inconsistent security policies across different environments heighten the risk of vulnerabilities. Implementing standardized security frameworks and automated enforcement can significantly reduce both the number and severity of security incidents. helpnetsecurity.com


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