Why Regional?
Inside ADT's Mergers And Acquisitions Of US Security Integrators

ADT Inc.'s planned acquisition of Red Hawk Fire & Security, Boca Raton, Fla., is the latest move in ADT Commercial's strategy to buy up security integrator firms around the country and grow their footprint.

In addition to the Red Hawk acquisition, announced in mid-October, ADT has acquired more than a half-dozen security system integration firms in the last year or so.

Here's a quick rundown of integrator companies acquired by ADT:

● Protec, a Pacific Northwest commercial integrator (Aug. 2017)

● MSE Security, the USA's 27th largest commercial integrator (Sept 2017)

● Gaston Security, founded in 1994 as a video surveillance integration company and whose services have since expanded to include intrusion, access control, and perimeter protection (Oct. 2017)

● Aronson Security Group (ASG), which delivers risk and security program consultants and offers advanced integration services, consulting and design engineers and a National Program Management team (March 2018)

● Acme Security Systems, among the largest privately held security systems integrators in the Bay Area, focusing on electronic security systems, access control, video networks and more (March 2018)

● Access Security Integration, a regional systems integrator specializing in design, delivery, installation and servicing of electronic security systems including enterprise-level access control, video and visitor management solutions, perimeter security and security operation command centers (Aug. 2018)

In addition to their moves in the commercial integrator space, ADT has also sought to expand their presence in cybersecurity with the following two acquisitions:

● Datashield, specializing in Managed Detection and Response Services (Nov 2017)

● Secure Designs, Inc., specializing in design, implementation, monitoring, and managing network defense systems, including firewall services and intrusion prevention, to protect small business networks from a diverse and challenging set of global cyber threats (Aug. 2018).

For additional insights into ADT's game plan and the strategy behind these acquisitions, read an interview with Chris BenVau, ADT's Senior Vice President of Enterprise Solutions, here: securityinformed.com
 

Re-Imagining Retail Crime Reporting
We're yet to meet a retailer that finds it easy to report, solve & prevent crime in-stores

By Tom Batterbury, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Auror

We've spoken with retailers from around the world, some of whom are literally reporting hundreds of thousands of incidents a year. They do their best to connect the dots and build cases in an attempt to keep these unwanted "shoppers" out of their stores. But the consensus is that it is time-consuming and harder than it needs to be.

We've spent the last five years working on solving this problem. We've learned a lot through trial and error in partnership with our pioneering customers. In the last 12 months, they've reduced loss by an average of 20% and told us reporting crime, and stopping prolific offenders from targeting their stores has never been easier.

Despite these great results our customers are having, earlier this year we made the decision to completely rebuild our platform from the ground up. So why rebuild you might wonder? We want to successfully partner with retailers today and tomorrow, and globally, not just in Australia and New Zealand. We know our platform can be so much better to support retailers to stop crime in their stores.

This post covers the journey we've gone on re-imagining how reporting retail crime should work so that store teams, support office, and law enforcement can collaborate and connect the dots easily. The ultimate goal is to stop crime in stores because reporting crime without outcomes is just another cost of doing business.

Read more here.
 

WEBINAR Presented By Stanley Security and LPF:
Protect Your Company from Missing Video Evidence & Cyber Targeting

Did you know missing video evidence due to device failure is a growing epidemic in the Security industry? By detecting system deterioration and diagnosing health problems, STANLEY IntelAssure, Powered by Viakoo can help you troubleshoot issues before they're exposed as vulnerabilities.

You're invited to join STANLEY Security for an important webinar about defense strategies you can execute to increase the Service Assurance of your security network. You'll gain new product development insights from our thought leaders on the needs of the Security community and how to empower your team to become troubleshooting experts in IoT device, hardware and software health.

This webinar takes place Dec. 13th at 1 pm EST.  Register today!
 

Huawei Exec's Arrest Just The Beginning, Attys Say
"You wouldn't go after the CFO of a company & not go after the company itself"
The revelation this week that a high-level Huawei Technologies executive was arrested in Canada on U.S. charges was a bold move that likely bodes a major enforcement action against the Chinese telecommunications juggernaut, trade sanctions attorneys said.

Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested over the weekend on unspecified charges brought by federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York. The company itself has been under scrutiny for suspected sanctions violations, particularly after fellow telecom manufacturer ZTE Corp. has drawn similar attention. If Huawei's CFO has been charged with sanctions violations, attorneys say it would make for a highly unusual case.

The U.S. does charge individuals over export sanctions, but it's "extraordinary" for the foreign executive of a Fortune 500 company to land among them, said Foley & Lardner LLP partner Gregory Husisian. He said Huawei itself is likely to face enforcement action sooner or later, given Meng's place in the C-suite.

"You wouldn't go after the CFO of the company and not go after the company itself. It is going to be part of something much bigger," Husisian said. law360.com

   Getting Huawei's CFO to the U.S. After Canada Arrest Could Take Years

What is corporate espionage? Inside the murky world of private spying
Companies gather intelligence on their rivals just like nation-states do. Sometimes it's legal, but industrial espionage can easily slip over the line into criminality.

Corporate espionage - sometimes also called industrial espionage, economic espionage or corporate spying - is the practice of using espionage techniques for commercial or financial purposes. We usually think of "espionage" in terms of spies working on behalf of one government trying to get information about another. But in fact, many of the same techniques - and even many of the same spies - work in both realms.

LegalMatch outlines a number of techniques that fall under the umbrella of industrial espionage:

● Trespassing onto a competitor's property or accessing their files without permission
● Posing as a competitor's employee in order to learn company trade secrets or other confidential information
● Wiretapping a competitor
● Hacking into a competitor's computers
● Attacking a competitor's website with malware

But not all corporate espionage is so dramatic. Much of it can take the simple form of an insider transferring trade secrets from one company to another - a disgruntled employee, for instance, or an employee who has been hired away by a competitor and takes information with them that they shouldn't. csoonline.com

7-Second Counterfeiting
How Sham Tricks Sam: Methods of Concealing Counterfeit in America
In 2015, criminals smuggled into the United States counterfeit and pirated goods worth between $58 billion and $118 billion, according to a report update by the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property. A full 87 percent of counterfeit goods seized in the United States come from one country - China, according to the report.

The report says that China now produces more goods in general than the U.S. and is still the world's principal IP (intellectual property) infringer.

According to the report, China is committed to policies that include reaping foreign technology and information, and these policies that have contributed to greater IP theft.

Methods to Avoid Detection

Detective James Ricaurte talked about some of the sneaky methods counterfeiters currently use. For example, counterfeiters often set up businesses that sell generic products to insulate themselves from police.

"So everybody's seen the generic handbag stores along Broadway in the 30s [30-40 streets] where you walk by a store and you have all these pocketbooks that are similar to that of a brand name or color scheme, so you've got to think to yourself, 'How many bags do they have to sell, and how popular are those bags, to justify how many containers of shipments of those type of bags coming in?'" Ricaurte said.

He said those generic bags are used when someone goes into a store and asks for a name brand handbag. The counterfeit seller then take the brand label and attaches it to the generic handbag.

"And it now becomes a brand name counterfeit," he said.

Ricaurte said it takes about seven seconds for that seller to take a label from a secret hiding spot, place it onto the bag, then sell it to you for $75 versus $20 or $25 without the label. theepochtimes.com

Retailers push for 24/7 pay system
A group of companies - including Walmart and Target - are asking the Federal Reserve to help them get paid faster. The companies want the Fed to create a 24/7 system for interbank transfers that would eliminate the dayslong delay between debit cards being swiped and when businesses receive the funds. Card networks - like Visa and Mastercard - and debit card-issuing banks could take a hit if such a payment system took off, however. The Fed announced in October that it was seeking feedback on such a system. wsj.com

NRF: Retail jobs grew 18,600 in November
Accounted for 12% of nationwide job growth
Retail industry employment in November increased by 18,600 jobs seasonally adjusted from October, accounting for 12 percent of the 155,000-job increase reported by the Labor Department for the economy overall, the National Retail Federation said today. Year-over-year, retail employment was down by 16,300 jobs unadjusted as a tight labor market made it difficult to fill positions. nrf.com

7 Retailers Recognized for Workplace Diversity
Global people analytics and consulting firm Great Place to Work® and Fortune have unveiled their annual ranking of the country's 100 Best Workplaces for Diversity. Here are the pure-play retailers who made the list:
 

3. Publix Supermarkets 4. Wegmans Food Markets 29. CarMax 43. Foot Locker

44. Burlington Stores 82. Nugget Market 89. Old Navy greatplacetowork.com

Target Inks $7.4M Deal Over Calif. Waste Disposal Claims
Target Corp. on Wednesday agreed to shell out $7.4 million to resolve claims that the retail giant violated California state law by improperly dumping hazardous waste, some of which allegedly included customers' confidential medical information, piling on to an earlier $22.5 million deal over similar claims in 2011.

Wednesday's agreement calls for Target to pay $3.2 million in civil penalties, spend at least $3 million on annual inspections and audits of its facilities, pay $900,000 in attorneys' fees and give $300,000 to other environmental projects in California, according to the judgment filed Wednesday. law360.com

Six Detroit-area doctors charged in $500M opioid fraud scheme
Six doctors were charged in an unsealed indictment Thursday with cheating Medicare and Medicaid out of almost $500 million and fueling the nation's opioid epidemic by illegally prescribing more than 13 million doses of prescription pain medication. The dollars and drugs involved make the alleged health care fraud conspiracy one of the largest in Michigan history, and one of the largest nationwide. detroitnews.com
 

Amazon targets airports for checkout-free store expansion

Measure to ban cashless stores advances in New Jersey

Panama City Mall staying closed for 'foreseeable future'; Hurricane Michael blamed

Walgreens Launches Next-Day Prescription Home Delivery With FedEx

Walmart, Target and others gain from Toys 'R' Us' absence

RLPSA eBook: 'Be Prepared for the Holidays'


Quarterly Results

Lands' End Q3 comp's up 11.8%, net revenue up 4.9%
The Children's Place Q3 comp's up 9.5%, net sales up 6.6%
Ulta Beauty Q3 comp's up 7.8%, net sales up 16.2%
lululemon athletica Q3 comp's up 6%, net revenue up 21%
At Home Q3 comp's up 5.2%, net sales up 25.5%
Big Lots Q3 comp's up 3.4%, net sales up 3.6%
Dollarama Q3 comp's up 3.1%, sales up 6.6%
Neiman Marcus Q1 comparable revenue up 2.8%
Ingles Markets Q4 comp's up 2.3%, net sales down 2.8%; full-year comp's up 2%, net sales up 2.3%
Sears Hometown & Outlet Stores Q3 comp's up 0.2%