Prosecutors and Retailers Announce New Investment to Combat
Organized Retail Crime

ARLINGTON, VA - Today, the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) and the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) announced a new investment in their partnership to combat organized retail crime. To continue collaboration between the nation's prosecutors and retailers, RILA and NDAA are making a $100,000 investment to develop training materials and a nationwide education curriculum to assist law enforcement, prosecutors, and retailers as they work together to safeguard communities.

"Tackling this problem in silos doesn't work, and hasn't worked," said Lisa LaBruno, RILA's Senior Executive Vice President of Retail Operations. "Organized retail crime has become more sophisticated and more violent, and a partnership between law enforcement and retail is the only way we meet this challenge. The investment in a national 'playbook' is a great step forward in this partnership."

"Organized retail crime isn't one person acting alone. These are professional retail crime rings stealing merchandise - sometimes medications and expired infant formula - and reselling online to unsuspecting consumers," said Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn, President of the National District Attorneys Association. "In addition to the economic cost, consumers face serious health and safety risks when they unknowingly purchase these items."

Law enforcement agencies have also identified a nexus between many of these organized retail crime syndicates and other serious criminal activities such as human trafficking, narcotics trafficking, weapon trafficking and more. Prosecutors and retailers play critical roles in identifying and combatting these organized criminal networks operating in our communities.

To address the continued growth of organized retail crime, RILA and NDAA have committed to additional steps to keep our communities safe, including:

• Develop and implement training on retail crime topics to assist prosecutors and retailers in addressing barriers to tackling retail crime.

• Capture the latest trends in the retail crime space to inform current gaps in information and assistance in the field for addressing retail crime.

• Host a series of educational webinars along with an annual retail crime roundtable discussion for retailers and prosecutors.

• Launch a Retail Crime Advisory Group comprised of retailers and prosecutors.

• Exchange information and collaborate on policy discussions and strategies to highlight emerging trends in the retail crime space.

A 2019 report found the rise of organized retail crime has resulted in $125.7 billion in lost economic activity and 658,375 fewer jobs nationally. Retailers have reported a surge in violence in stores as these crimes escalate from crimes of opportunity to organized events designed to fund criminal enterprises.

The increased partnership between the nation's prosecutors and the nation's retailers will allow for the establishment of open lines of communication to identify common challenges, share information on repeat offenders and work together to identify criminal networks targeting our communities.

The DOJ's Violent Crime Reduction Strategy
Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco Delivers Remarks at the National Public Safety Partnership Violent Crime Reduction Summit
The National Public Safety Partnership - PSP - represents the best of what we can do together when we approach this mission with unity of purpose - and unity of effort.

PSP provides our law enforcement partners with better tools, it puts resources where they are needed most, and it empowers communities to stand together to reduce violent crime.

The Department of Justice has no higher priority than keeping the American people safe.

The latest FBI crime statistics make clear that our efforts - especially when it comes to violent crime - remain urgent.

We saw a record jump in homicides in 2020, and the number of violent crimes is still at an alarmingly high level.

That includes an epidemic of gun violence fueled by illicit trafficking networks.

Today, more than ever, law enforcement is being asked to handle a wide array of challenges while the job itself is getting more dangerous.

Last year, 73 officers were murdered while on the job - the highest number since 9/11. It takes a special kind of public servant to get up every morning and put their lives on the line for a stranger. I want to thank each and every one of you who do and the communities who support them.

At the center of our Violent Crime Reduction Strategy.

Our strategy is built on four pillars:

• Focusing our enforcement efforts on the most significant drivers of violent crime - including gun violence.
• Fostering trust with and earning legitimacy in our communities.
• Investing in community-based prevention and intervention programs.
• And measuring the results of those efforts by impact, through a decrease in violent crime.

Across more than 50 sites in communities nationwide, the Justice Department - through PSP - is deploying data driven, evidence-based strategies tailored to local needs. And that's the key - tailored to local needs.

And this past October, we added six new sites to this network - Albuquerque, Greensboro, Rochester, Sacramento, Tucson and Washington, D.C. justice.gov

'No One Fears Getting Caught'
Retail Crime Needs 'Swift, Uniform, and Severe' Punishment, Experts Say

"Retail theft crimes occur today primarily because no one fears getting caught"

On Thursday, former Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli likened the current and spreading rash of retail theft to the virus that, it could be argued it, caused it.

His alarm was tied to the news coming out of Walmart, which earlier in the week said it may have to close some of its more than 4,000 stores nationwide because the amount and degree of theft. In another incident this week, a pair of suspects in Georgia walked out of a Walmart store without paying for $6,000 worth of merchandise.

It's jarring to hear that the nation's largest retailer would so capitulate to the threat of shoplifting that it would consider such a retreat, but John Hassard, a loss prevention and security expert with Robson Forensic, takes a more pragmatic approach.

"There's basically three kinds of shoplifters-kids who do it for the dare, then regular customers who occasionally swipe something, and the third kind," he said. "The current term for them is organized retail crime and these are people who shoplift as a form of income. They look at it not unlike you and I... They do what they do to make money in the most efficient way possible. They treat it like a job and put some thought and effort into it."

Retailers are so concerned about the rise in sophistication of these professional shoplifting rings that the National Retail Federation declared Oct. 26 to be Fight Retail Crime, a day of collective lobbying for the industry to get Congress to do whatever it can to help.

Some experts believe a tough-on-crime approach, from the federal level on down, is the only way to curb this crimewave that is already forcing businesses to raise prices on all consumers to cover the shrink.

"We need to pass better laws with stiffer penalties and we need all prosecutors to utilize severe penalties for anyone caught committing retail theft," said Dr. Harry Porter, professor at Mississippi College, which offers masters degrees in loss prevention management.  sourcingjournal.com 

   RELATED: Major retail brands threaten to close stores over rampant retail theft

AR-15-Armed Guards: Coming Soon to Big Retail Brands?
Philadelphia AR-15-armed guard eyes Walmart, Wawa after defending 'property, liberty and life' at gas station
After being hired by a North Philadelphia gas station owner following a string of thefts and illegal activity on the property, lead agent and AR-15-toting S.I.T.E Security State Agent Chief Andre Boyer hopes to provide his services to larger retailers like Wawa and Walmart, after crime in the city "hit rock bottom."

"I'm here to protect my clients and the owner and his employees. If someone walks into this store right now with a weapon and threatens to harm any of them, I can open fire, and I will open fire to protect property, liberty and life," Chief Boyer said Friday outside the gas station in an appearance on "Varney & Co."

According to Boyer, who leads a team of armed former law enforcement officers and has lived in Philadelphia "all [his] life," the city's crime crisis has worsened under the watch of the current mayor, district attorney and police commissioner.

"Philadelphia... It hit rock bottom," Boyer told host Stuart Varney. "You have a police commissioner, Danielle Outlaw, who basically believes more in painting her fingernails black than finding a solution to fighting crime. You have a D.A., Larry Krasner, who the street criminals call Uncle Larry Krasner, who's more focused on being a social worker, than what it says on his door - his door when we elected him, says, 'prosecutor.' He's not prosecuting."

Boyer previously told Fox News that his agency has the ability to make arrests and use force on behalf of Pennsylvania State, and criminality has since dropped significantly with his agents patrolling the gas station.

Boyer's goal is to eventually expand operations to larger retail brands such as Wawa and Walmart. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon publicly noted theft and shrinkage concerns this week, and Boyer claimed a local Wawa manager expressed that she wished her store had the S.I.T.E. team present. foxbusiness.com

Title 42 is ending Dec. 21
The Biden administration will revert back to pre-pandemic border policy. But the flow of migrants in the meantime is expected to rise. Border Patrol's El Paso Sector, which includes the city footprint and all of New Mexico, is reporting an average of 2,100 encounters each day in December.

Officials are bracing for an initial influx of thousands of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border when the Trump administration-era Title 42 restriction is scheduled to end later this month.

Immigration experts say the move could trigger a sudden surge in asylum-seeking migrants being released by federal immigration authorities in communities in border states.

The Biden administration Wednesday appealed U.S. District Judge Sullivan's order vacating Title 42, focusing on the authority of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue orders regulating migration. It appeared the government was still planning to meet the Dec. 21 deadline to end the use of Title 42.

Border Patrol 'unprepared' for surge of migrants

The number of migrants Border Patrol agents must process will “likely be double or greater” once Title 42 is lifted, placing further strain on the agency, according to a September U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report. usatoday.com

Philadelphia is expected to make its 10 p.m. curfew for teenagers permanent as crime rises
Philadelphia appears poised to make a 10 p.m. curfew for people under age 18 permanent, and there’s some talk of again fining the parents of children who violate it.

The city enforced the 10 p.m. rule — which had previously been at midnight — through much of the summer, but legislation greenlighting the earlier curfew expired at the end of September.

Supporters of the curfew say it’s aimed at keeping young people safe from historic rates of gunfire in the city.

Here's how Philly's new 10 p.m. curfew for teens would work

Under the legislation, teenagers 14 to 17 must be home by 10 p.m., and children ages 13 and younger must be home by 9:30. There are a handful of exceptions, including for children and teenagers who have jobs or are attending school or religious activities.

A spokesperson for Mayor Jim Kenney would not say if the mayor intends to sign the bill, saying only that he would “review the legislation if it is passed.”

“There are too many young people who have been involved in crime or criminal incidents simply because they have been out late at night,” said Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson.

The curfew was put in place because more crime is committed under the cover of darkness. The curfew itself should be seen as a tacit admission that Philadelphia is simply too dangerous and the government is unable to keep its residents safe. Moving to make the curfew permanent is essentially another admission that they can’t (or won’t) do anything about it and things won’t be getting better any time soon.

You didn’t need a rocket scientist to figure this out. Wawa has been shutting down its stores in Philadelphia because they are robbed too often to be profitable and their employees are not safe while working there. Much of the blame is properly being placed on the shoulders of Philly’s soft-on-crime DA, Larry Krasner. That would be the same District Attorney who was recently impeached by the state legislature. Of course, Krasner continues to insist that none of this is his responsibility, despite the fact that he released a convicted murderer last year who is now wanted for yet another murder.

Of course Philadelphia is ridiculously dangerous. cnsnews.com  msn.com

WCSO: Stores see 'prolific' increase in shoplifting

Survivors of mass shootings are left with lifelong wounds - and mounting bills

Amazon's Security Chief Keeps Focus on Recruiting and Retaining Talent

Amid a broader hiring freeze and news of job cuts at the company, Amazon's security team is still hiring, says Stephen Schmidt

Amazon. com Inc. is relying on a combination of internal training and active recruitment to help navigate a worldwide cyber talent shortage, said Chief Security Officer Stephen Schmidt.

Amazon recently announced a companywide hiring pause and expects to lay off up to 10,000 workers, but Mr. Schmidt said he plans to boost Amazon's security team.

"We as an industry are short hundreds of thousands of security professionals, and even in this very tight hiring environment, we are still hiring security professionals at Amazon this year," he said.

Mr. Schmidt, a former senior executive at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a decade-plus Amazon veteran, said he was promoted to Amazon's top security post in January in part to grow the security team and address retention. He oversees information security, personnel security and physical security, and was previously chief information security officer of Amazon's cloud unit Amazon Web Services.

One way Mr. Schmidt is filling the cybersecurity talent pipeline is from within Amazon itself.

Amazon's customer-service department serves as a "great feeder" for cybersecurity talent, Mr. Schmidt said, because those individuals have an existing focus on solving customer needs. The same mindset is applicable when working with software developers to build products securely, he said.

The company's internal training program begins with rotations in teams such as applications and software security, followed by on-call rotations, where employees work in shifts to ensure around-the-clock incident response, Mr. Schmidt said.

He said part of the reason his security organization has such latitude is because Mr. Schmidt reports to Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy, who is focused on security. "That does actually make my job easier," Mr. Schmidt said. "Andy has never turned me down for something that I said is necessary to do the job." wsj.com

Hackers Accessed 3rd-Party's Amazon AWS Cloud Backup Server
Uber suffers new data breach after attack on vendor, info leaked online
Uber has suffered a new data breach after a threat actor leaked employee email addresses, corporate reports, and IT asset information stolen from a third-party vendor in a cybersecurity incident.

Early Saturday morning, a threat actor named 'UberLeaks' began leaking data they claimed was stolen from Uber and Uber Eats on a hacking forum known for publishing data breaches.

The leaked data includes numerous archives claiming to be source code associated with mobile device management platforms (MDM) used by Uber and Uber Eats and third-party vendor services.

The threat actor created four separate topics, allegedly for Uber MDM at uberhub.uberinternal.com and Uber Eats MDM, and the third-party Teqtivity MDM and TripActions MDM platforms.

Cerritos, Calif.-based Teqtivity Inc., the partner, which helps companies track technology assets, said Monday its Amazon AWS cloud backup server was accessed by "a malicious third party," resulting in the compromise of data about Uber and other customers. bleepingcomputer.com cmail19.com

Whack-A-Mole Continues
Rash of New Ransomware Variants Springs Up in the Wild

Vohuk, ScareCrow, and AESRT add to the ransomware chaos that organizations have to contend with on a daily basis.

Enterprise security teams can add three more ransomware variants to the constantly growing list of ransomware threats for which they need to monitor.

The three variants - Vohuk, ScareCrow, and AESRT - like most ransomware tools, target Windows systems and appear to be proliferating relatively rapidly on systems belonging to users in multiple countries. Security researchers at Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs who are tracking the threats this week described the ransomware samples as gaining traction within the company's ransomware database.

Fortinet's analysis of the three threats showed them to be standard ransomware tools of the sort that nevertheless have been very effective at encrypting data on compromised systems. Fortinet's alert did not identify how the operators of the new ransomware samples are distributing their malware, but it noted that phishing email has typically been the most common vector for ransomware infections.

"If the growth of ransomware in 2022 indicates what the future holds, security teams everywhere should expect to see this attack vector become even more popular in 2023," says Fred Gutierrez, senior security engineer, at Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs. darkreading.com

TikTok Banned on Govt. Devices; Will Private Sector Follow Suit?
Texas and Maryland this week joined three other states in prohibiting accessing the popular social media app from state-owned devices.

Over concerns about the social media app harvesting sensitive data from user devices and potentially making it available to the Chinese government.

The question now is whether private companies will implement similar restrictions on use of the popular social media app on devices that employees use to access enterprise data and applications. darkreading.com

Rash of New Ransomware Variants Springs Up in the Wild

Franklin, TN: 4 Arrested After Attempted Smash & Grab Jewelry Robbery
Four suspects have been arrested in Tennessee after attempting to steal jewelry from a JCPenney and could also be connected to several other robberies. According to the Franklin Police Department, Quintaurus Harris (33), Dunterious Taylor (29), Keisean Elliott (35), and Marcanzo Banks (29) have been charged with aggravated robbery, felony vandalism, and evading arrest after a violent smash-and-grab jewelry robbery. Taylor faces an additional charge of assault on a first responder. Just before 8 p.m. on Dec. 3, a suspect went into a Jared Jewelers store in the Thoroughbred Village Shop Center, police said. He was wearing a hat, hoodie, surgical mask, and sunglasses, even though it was dark out, so a Jared employee called the police. Nearby undercover cops spotted the suspect and followed him after he left the area in a van occupied by others. A few minutes later the van pulled into the fire lane in front of JCPenney at the CoolSprings Galleria. Four masked suspects jumped out of the van and ran into the store; the Franklin Police Officers quickly followed them. The getaway driver was arrested as he waited in the van for the other suspects, who immediately started using sledgehammers to smash glass cases and steal diamond jewelry. One suspect pepper-sprayed an employee during the attempted robbery. Another fought one of the police officers and tried to grab his gun. The police department said it's working with detectives from other agencies to figure out if these suspects were involved in five similar recent smash-and-grab robberies in Tennessee and Arkansas, resulting in losses totaling $1.5 million.  nationaljeweler.com

4 Louisiana women arrested with more than $17K worth of merchandise stolen from Best Buy, Ulta
Four women from Baton Rouge have been arrested after allegedly stealing more than $17K worth of merchandise from Best Buy and Ulta in Madison, Mississippi. It happened on Dec. 7, according to Madison Police, when officers were called to a local shopping area regarding two women seen concealing items. While police were in the store, they noticed another pair of women allegedly leaving Best Buy with stolen items and heading to their vehicle in the parking lot. Both women were then seen going into Ulta where they stole more merchandise, police said. The women were pulled over after attempting to flee the area with over $1K in merchandise from Best Buy and Ulta Beauty. While at the traffic stop, police say, two other women left Best Buy concealing a large quantity of merchandise in the trunk of a vehicle in the parking lot. They were also detained by police who recovered several items worth $1K. Police say they recovered a total of $17,129 in merchandise and returned all of the items to the stores. klfy.com

Oklahoma City, OK: Man, woman steal over $3,000 in merchandise from Ulta store
The Oklahoma City Police Department is asking the public for their help in identifying these two people who stole merchandise from an Ulta. Police say this duo stole over $3,000 in merchandise from the Ulta store near Memorial and Penn. They were captured fleeing the scene in a gray Chevy SUV. okcfox.com

San Bernardino County, CA: Four suspects are arrested after they allegedly fled store in Victoria Gardens with more than $1,600 worth of merchandise
Four suspects, including two juveniles, were apprehended after they allegedly fled a store in Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga with more than $1,600 worth of merchandise, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. On Dec. 10 at about 5:36 p.m., deputies assigned to the mall responded to a report of a theft in progress at the Men's Macy's. Macy's asset protection reported four male suspects walked out of the department store without paying for merchandise. After leaving the store, the suspects entered a Toyota Camry. fontanaheraldnews.com

Arlington, VA: Woman flees police in U-Haul after significant theft of clothing and beauty products
The theft happened just before 4 p.m. at or near the Pentagon Row shopping center. The suspect, a woman, reportedly stole a large quantity of clothing and beauty items before fleeing in a rental truck driven by second suspect, a man. An Arlington sheriff's deputy then spotted the truck stopped near Virginia Highlands Park and took the driver into custody, at which time the female suspect allegedly started driving off. Arlington officers followed the truck onto I-395 but did not give chase. Virginia State Police appear to have caught up to the truck as it traveled south in the I-395 Express Lanes, based on traffic camera feeds viewed by ARLnow at the time, but it is unclear what happened after that. arlnow.com

Bowling Green, OH: Two Dearborn men arrested in Ohio for felony shoplifting
Two Dearborn men were arrested in Bowling Green, Ohio for allegedly shoplifting from a Home Depot. Six Dewalt Atomic Tool Kits and two Dewalt Lithium-Ion tool kits worth $4,732 were taken according to police. pressandguide.com

Menomonee Falls, WI: TJ Maxx theft; 3 sought
The Menomonee Falls Police Department is investigating a retail theft that occurred at the T.J. Maxx store located on Falls Parkway. It happened on Dec. 10. Police say three female suspects left TJ Maxx with unpaid merchandise.  fox6now.com

Lancaster, PA: Police seeking 2 suspects in $700 Polo/ Ralph Lauren theft

Oregon City, OR: Police arrest 4 in retail theft operation

Jasper, TX: Woman steals $400.00 worth of DVD's stolen from Walmart