Prosegur Security Announces the Launch of Next Generation Suite of RFID Solutions

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (January 16, 2023) – Prosegur Security, a global leader in security technology, is launching a complete suite of next-generation RFID products and solutions, including RFID readers with the highest accuracy available, RFID labels and tags that work in the most challenging environments, and a cloud-based platform with integrated RFID and advertising

“Inventory visibility is critical for retail success across harmonized retail channels,” said Tony D’Onofrio, CEO of Prosegur’s global retail business unit. “The new technologies being announced by Prosegur today address critical challenges brought about by the environments difficult for RFID that are typically found in physical stores. Working with leading retailers over the last several years, we have identified improved technologies that address accuracy, range, cost, and ease of use chainwide.”

Read more in today's Vendor Spotlight column below


Everseen Advances Computer Vision AI Systems for Global Retailers

Expanded partner program and installations bring real-time loss prevention to more than half of the world’s top 15 retailers

CORK, IRELAND -- Everseen, the leader in real-time computer vision AI for retailers, today announced an expanded suite of products to address the retail industry’s $100 billion global annual shrink. The expanded product line delivers end-to-end computer vision AI for retailers from the checkout at the front of the store, through the shop floor, to the back of the store and beyond.  prweb.com

Sensormatic Solutions by Johnson Controls collaborates with Zliide to reimagine self-checkout

Sensormatic Solutions and Zliide together enable merchandise protection, while shoppers enjoy the convenience of self-checkout for a seamless in-store and digital shopping experience

NEUHAUSEN, Switzerland—Sensormatic Solutions, the leading global retail solutions portfolio of Johnson Controls, today announced its collaboration with Zliide, a technology company that seeks to bring physical stores into the next era through convenience and digitalization. The two brands are working in tandem to deliver a new approach to self-checkout that eliminates register queues and streamlines shopper experiences.  sensormatic.com
 

lululemon Partners With Nedap to Advance RFID Technology Across Stores Globally

Nedap iD Cloud will now enhance lululemon's current capabilities to engage customers in new and compelling ways, meeting them where, when, and how they want to shop.

Groenlo, the Netherlands -- Nedap, the global leader in RFID solutions, has been selected by lululemon as their new provider for the deployment of Nedap iD Cloud, which will enhance its omni-guest experience across its 600+ stores globally by optimizing product availability.  globenewswire.com
 

Is Blockchain the Solution to Retail Crime?
Explained: How blockchain might be the answer to retail theft

Over the years, several individuals and companies have tried to find a solution to this menace, but to little avail. However, that could soon change thanks to Lowe’s. The American home improvement giant is working on a solution that combines blockchain and other emerging technologies to deliver the necessary blow to retail thieves. Lowe’s has named this retail theft prevention system “Project Unlock” and it could have massive potential in the future.

Project Unlock — What is it?

Lowe’s Companies Inc has decided to work on a smarter solution — Project Unlock. It uses low-cost Radio Frequency Identity (RFID) chips in combination with the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain technology to create a virtual security system that can prevent the theft of goods within a retail store.

Two interconnected systems are at work here. The first part of the protocol is the Point-of-Sale (PoS) activation system. This system ensures that only goods that are purchased legally will be activated and become operational. Whereas goods that are stolen will not be activated and will not work.

The second component of the protocol employs blockchain technology to maintain a transparent, immutable record of transactions and legal purchases. These transaction details are tamper-proof and accessible to all. Project Unlock will maintain a transparent record where the purchases will be documented without revealing the details of the buyers.

Potential use cases of Project Unlock

Lowe’s believes that Project Unlock can be established as a security measure on a much larger scale and the company sees a world of opportunity with their solution. For starters, the system can be adapted for any product with moving parts or electrical components, such as home appliances, cars, smartphones and other gadgets. It can also be tweaked for other industries and products.

Conclusion

The blockchain revolution has only just begun, but it has already managed to revolutionize the way several industries and businesses operate. And while it remains to be seen how Project Unlock unfolds over the coming years and how it can be implemented across other kinds of products in the future, the potential of such a system is undoubted. cnbctv18.com


Shoplifting Epidemic Finally on D.C.'s Radar
Washington D.C. slowly wades into the wave of shoplifting, ORC hitting retailers

The epidemic of shoplifting, smash-and-grab robberies and “flash robs” at businesses across the U.S. has gotten so bad that it caught the attention of leaders in D.C.

Congress is scrambling to fight back. President Biden recently signed a spending bill that included the INFORM Act which forces Amazon and other online marketplaces to gather contact information, tax IDS and other records from high-volume sellers. The hope is it injects enough sunlight into the selling process to ensure online markets do not unwittingly facilitate gangs who fence stolen goods.

“A lot of street crime is actually driven by organized crime,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican and chief co-sponsor of the bill, told The Washington Times. “If you go after these high-volume online sales of stolen goods, you would do something positive as regards to crime in general.”

Retail lobbyists are pushing for more, including a bill that would prod the federal government to team with state and local authorities in identifying and disrupting criminal rings that target stores and shuffle goods around the country.

Organized retail theft is “interstate, not just intra-state. It’s really important for federal law enforcement to work together and share information,” said Michael Hanson, senior vice president for public affairs at the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

Mr. Hanson said organized fencers will enlist people — often those who are down on their luck and easy prey for gangs — to go into stores and slip items into their bags or clothing. The thieves get a cut of the proceeds once they turn the products over to gangs that fence the goods online.

Retail lobbyists say organized theft is a growing problem, and one fed by the ease of setting up a fly-by-night operation online to move goods and then shut down a vendor account without facing accountability from buyers and online marketplaces that facilitate the sales.

Another key effort, the Combatting Organized Retail Crime Act, is championed by lawmakers in both parties but is still pending. It would create a Center to Combat Organized Retail Crime at the Department of Homeland Security to increase federal coordination with state and local law enforcement agencies so they can track and recover goods and disrupt and prosecute illicit gangs that drive retail theft.  washingtontimes.com


DOJ's War on Violent Crime Continues Nationwide
Federal, State, and Local Law Enforcement Join Forces to Disrupt Violent Crime, Firearms, and Drug Trafficking in Multiple Jurisdictions Across the Country
“Today, the Justice Department has taken several significant enforcement actions to disrupt large-scale illegal gun and drug trafficking operations,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “I am grateful to all of the Department’s agents, prosecutors, and staff involved in these actions, as well as to our state and local partners, for their tireless work. The actions taken today represent the work that is being done by this Department every single day to disrupt violent crime, combat gun violence, and get deadly fentanyl out of our communities.”

Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, a seven-count indictment was unsealed charging David Mccann, Tajhai Jones, Raymond Minaya, and Calvin Tabron with allegedly conspiring to illegally traffic more than 50 firearms. This prosecution is the first in New York, and among the first in the country, to charge the gun trafficking provisions of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Congress and the President enacted in June 2022.

Read more about the case here.

In the Northern District of West Virginia today, two Baltimore-based drug trafficking organizations that supplied large amounts of fentanyl to West Virginia and caused at least two deaths have been dismantled by separate federal indictments that were unsealed today. Thirty-four people from Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia were indicted on charges related to the sale of fentanyl, heroin, and other drugs in Hampshire County and Mineral County.

Read more about the case here.

And in the Southern District of Georgia today, 76 defendants are named in a newly unsealed federal indictment describing a massive drug trafficking investigation tied to the Ghost Face Gangsters criminal street gang that includes allegations of multiple deaths from illegal drug overdoses.

Read more about the case here. justice.gov


Will This Hamper NYC Crime-Fighting Efforts?
NYPD scales back releasing graphic videos of crimes meant to drive tips, help nab violent suspects: report

Graphic videos of violent NYC crime amount to 'sensationalism,' deter tourists

The New York City Police Department is reportedly scaling back the number of graphic videos capturing violent crimes it releases to the public – footage that’s routinely publicized in an effort to nab suspects.

One source said the video of a recent attack amounted to "sensationalism." And in recent months, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has contended that the perception of Big Apple’s subway crime, for example, is greater than actuality.

Experts who spoke to the Daily News, however, said that the graphic videos of the crime itself are the ones necessary to inspire tipsters who would normally remain quiet to give information or a name to police. Outrage over the violence itself also drives clicks online, leading to more eyeballs on the videos.

"If you look back at the George Floyd murder, many communities were very much traumatized, especially communities of color, by the footage of that event," Jelgic said. "It also really started a movement. It got people to recognize a social problem and caused them to act. So there’s a balancing of what is being shown and for what purpose."

In a statement, the NYPD press office said it released 3,614 requests for media attention in 2022 – an increase from 3,565 in 2021. On Jan. 5, the NYPD announced citywide crime statistics for December. Overall index crime in New York City decreased for the second straight month, declining by 11.6% compared with December 2021. foxnews.com


Opinion: Crime is only the biggest obvious omission in NYC Mayor Adams' new budget
The 2024 budget draft projects $103.4 billion in total spending, including $77 billion funded by city taxpayers. That $77 billion would represent a 2.6% decline over this year’s spending, even before accounting for high inflation.

Federal gun prosecutions surge in response to New Orleans crime

Businesses in Hazle Township to increase security after deadly shooting

New Haven mayor names city’s first-ever violence prevention coordinator
 

US: 103.5M Cases - 1.1M Dead - 100.4M Recovered
Worldwide: 671.4M Cases - 6.7M Dead - 642.7M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 828

New COVID Wave is a Bigger Risk Than People Think
‘People aren’t taking this seriously’: experts say US Covid surge is big risk

Fewer precautions, recent holidays and subvariants have driven rise but boosters, masks and other precautions are still effective

New sub-variants are causing concern for their increased transmissibility and ability to evade some antibodies, but the same tools continue to curtail the spread of Covid, especially bivalent boosters, masks, ventilation, antivirals and other precautions, experts said.

Yet booster uptake has been “pitiful”, said Neil Sehgal, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. Antiviral uptake has been low, and few mandates on masking, vaccination and testing have resumed in the face of the winter surge, which is once again putting pressure on health systems.

New Covid hospital admissions are now at the fourth-highest rate of the pandemic, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Covid hospitalizations declined somewhat after the summer wave, but never dropped to the low levels seen after previous spikes, persisting through the fall and rising again with the winter holidays. theguardian.com


The Rise of the 'Chief Remote Officer'
COVID spurred on working from home. With the rise of the 'Chief Remote Officer,' is it here to stay?
The evidence is certainly mounting for companies to invest in heads of remote. A study of 95 technology companies by real estate and workplace advisory T3 revealed that the proportion with a designated leader for remote work jumped from 2 per cent to 15 per cent between August 2020 and February 2021.

Companies like Facebook, Okta, LinkedIn, LogMeIn, and more have recently hired specific leadership for remote working. The role is expanding beyond the technology sector too. Companies such as Unilever, Nationwide, Procter & Gamble, and Deloitte have created their own version of the role.

But they’re leaning towards titles like "VP of future of work," recognising that businesses that don’t operate exclusively in the knowledge industry, and/or are creating hybrid models rather than exclusively remote, still need leadership to guide this new way of working.

The job title might sound intangible to some, but it demonstrates how companies understand how making a remote work experience a good one doesn’t just happen by couriering a laptop and desk to somebody’s house and expecting them to get on with it. uk.finance.yahoo.com


Here's a list of major companies requiring employees to return to the office
Starbucks and Disney are two behemoths that issued return-to-office mandates in January.

China’s bid to leave covid behind could determine global economy’s fate

WHO appeals to China to release more COVID-19 information

Business Continuity & Disaster Planning from a Security Perspective
Security Planning: Ask What Could Go Wrong

Are you asking the right questions about potential scenarios when thinking about disaster recovery and business continuity?

Rather than approach security from a reactive perspective, we should always be planning for the future by asking the question: What could go wrong?

When Planning, Ask: What If?

But what if a country invaded yours? What if there was a completely unprovoked attack? How would you operate if your cloud instance was hosted in the aggressor's country? How would you be sure that your system would have the security resilience to survive such a scenario? Are these questions included in your disaster recovery and business continuity plans?

The war in Ukraine has served as an exemplar of worst-case scenarios for any country in the world today. There was a great deal of "what if" planning for various wartime situations long before the Russians ever crossed the border into Ukraine. The world needs to take note and start answering these questions.

This line of thinking may seem extreme, but it's far more realistic than preparing for a meteor strike, let alone queuing up at the local electronics shop to buy laptops, along with hundreds of other companies.

If a cloud provider was cut off from the Internet for whatever reason, what would be your contingency plan to weather the storm? We have to be vigilant in the face of threats ranging from pickup trucks hitting power lines, to chip fabrication plants needing to move to other countries due to ever-shifting political issues.

Building out our strategies to reduce risk and increase our security resilience will go a long way to help address the clear and present dangers we face in this modern age. darkreading.com


The Debate Over How to Handle Returns
Why companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Target are letting customers keep some returns, even after issuing refunds

Walmart, Target, and Amazon are some of the major retailers offering so-called returnless refunds.

If this phenomenon has happened to you at some point in the past few years, you're not alone: some of America's largest retailers have started issuing refunds while telling customers to keep or donate the unwanted goods.

Walmart, Target, and Amazon have started offering so-called returnless refunds on certain items, but we're not talking about free TVs and computers — the policy is applied in situations where the product is unlikely to be resold and where the cost of processing the return is equal to or greater than the cost of the product itself. It's intended for lower-cost items, and reserved for customers with purchase history at a given retailer.

It's a relatively recent trend in retail, and one that accelerated with the onset of the pandemic, when retailers were navigating a surge in online shopping, according to Nathan Smith, senior vice president of products at Appriss Retail, a retail software firm. businessinsider.com


Home Depot to Pay Hourly Associates to Nearest Minute of Punch Out

Scraping the controversial 'timesheet rounding' to the nearest 15 minutes.

The move comes after employees filed lawsuits accusing Home Depot of depriving them of pay.

Like many retailers, the company has rounded the total time of a shift up or down to the nearest 15 minutes to determine how much to pay employees. But after several employees filed lawsuits in recent years accusing the company of purposefully rounding down their pay, the company is changing course.

Timesheet rounding, or rounding up or down based off time worked, has been used by many restaurants and retailers for years. And it is considered legal under federal laws, so long as it is neutral and favorable to employees and it does not exceed a 15-minute increment. businessinsider.com


California Storms Continue
Bay Area storm: Overnight downpours cause damage throughout region as forecasts clear for remainder of the week
One of the wettest periods in the Bay Area’s recorded history began winding to a close this week with a lashing of rain that caused hillsides to buckle in the Berkeley and Oakland hills and several highways to close across Northern California. Yet even as emergency crews scrambled to red-tag houses and clear storm drains, California water and climate officials voiced relief at mostly sunny forecasts for the foreseeable future. mercurynews.com


Bed, Bath & Beyond considers sale of Buy Buy Baby, other assets
As part of contingencies for a potential bankruptcy, Bed Bath & Beyond is reportedly speaking to private equity firm Sycamore Partners about selling off some of its more valuable assets, including the Buy Buy Baby chain of stores.

Target opened 23 stores in 2023 — here is strategy behind them and the locations

Saks Fifth Avenue proposes casino at NYC flagship


Last week's #1 article --

Shoplifters or Security Guards: What's the bigger financial burden?