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Interface
"Ask Our Expert" video series
What Are Video Verified Alarms?
 Sean Foley, SVP Enterprise Security, Interface Systems explains
the benefits of video verified alarms when compared to traditional alarm
monitoring. With video verification of alarm events, enterprises can
secure their locations more effectively and avoid paying false alarm
fines.
To learn more,
read this case study.
CLEAR Taps TalkLP to Execute its Annual Conference
CLEAR has selected TalkLP to execute its National Conference in
Orlando November 8-10, 2022 in Orlando, Florida.
 Nashville,
TN, (January 18, 2022)
– The Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail (CLEAR) selects TalkLP, a
subsidiary of Calibration Group, to execute its 2022 National
Conference. TalkLP will strategize and execute the CLEAR conference
designed to provide a value-packed experience for both the attendees and
solution provider partners. TalkLP responsibilities include coordinating
on-site logistics, production, marketing, promotion, and emceeing the
conference.
“CLEAR has seen incredible growth and success over the last few years
with our Annual Conference,” said Ben Dugan, President of CLEAR. “We
believe TalkLP’s skill in executing superior conference experiences will
take CLEAR to the next level for both our attendees and valuable
solution provider partners.”
Read more here
Visit These
D&D Daily Partners at the NRF Big Show
The U.S. Crime Surge
The Retail Impact
City by City Gun Violence in 2021 Stats
A National View - 1 Big City Every Day
King County Prosecutor: Gun Violence Spike
'Related to the Pandemic' Not Drugs
No single cause for 2021’s surge in gunfire in Seattle
 According to the Times’ data, 36 of 41 homicides in the city were committed with
firearms as of Nov. 29, compared with 32 of 52 homicides in 2020.
Seattle saw
more gun violence in 2021 than
any year in at least a decade
— more people killed by guns, more people hurt by guns, more shots fired.
Reason:
“Not just one specific thing”
Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz sees
no single cause for the recent surge in
gun violence, which is mirrored in many other American communities. In addition,
King County as a whole experienced a spike in gun violence in 2021.
Seattle saw more shots fired in 2021 in every area of the city, in every single
precinct.
Seattle police have seized
more than 1,000 guns and responded to more than 580 shootings, and many of those
are believed to be connected
to drug-trafficking enterprises.
King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg
said current levels of gun violence are
reminiscent of violence seen in the mid-1990s,
when street gangs were battling each other for territory to establish lucrative
crack cocaine markets. While gangs and neighborhood “crews” haven’t disappeared,
he thinks
a lot of the violence is now retaliatory in nature and stems from a
fight-on-sight mentality.
“Today, I don’t think
it’s drugs. Today, I can’t help but think it’s related to
the pandemic — the anxiety and depression and fear
and all of that somehow makes people’s tempers shorter,” Satterberg said. “
“It’s more difficult than what we saw in the mid-1990s because it isn’t just
about the trafficking of crack, it’s about a whole lot of other things.
A lot of these gangs don’t have anything to do with drugs at all but they still
have an ethic where they want to fight when they see each other.”
seattletimes.com
Progressive DA's Facing Challenging Times
Across the Country
Will electing Progressive DA's trend come to an
end?
They're certainly not friends of retail
1/16/22: "Sense of Lawlessness & Lack of Accountability"
Exist in Hennepin Co.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman Takes Heat From Mayors & Police Chiefs on
Progressive Policies
Progressive Prosecutor's last year in office
& he's not running for a 7th term
No Bail For Thefts Under $35,000 in Minneapolis
& 7 Suburbs
Minneapolis police reported a record of more than 600 attempted or successful
carjackings in 2021. The crime spree has
spilled into many suburbs, including Edina, St. Louis Park, Eden Prairie,
Robbinsdale, Roseville, Maplewood and Woodbury.
The crime surge is particularly acute in Minneapolis,
which recorded
soaring numbers of violent
crimes last year as the
police department contends with
a wave of nearly 300 retirements,
resignations and an unpresented level of PTSD claims over the past couple of
years.
Earlier this month,
seven suburban mayors wrote a letter asking Freeman to get
tougher on criminals
and revisit a new policy in which
suspects no longer need to post bail for nearly 20 low-level crimes,
like possessing a small amount of narcotics and
theft under $35,000.
"There is
a sense of lawlessness and lack of accountability
that is stemming from criminals who commit crimes and then are being turned back
to the street in short order — with little or no consequence — and that conduct
is repeated," the letter read.
When he unveiled the change, Freeman said there is
no proof that imposing bail on low-level offenses reduces crime.
He said it merely punishes low-income defendants, who risk losing their jobs and
their homes. Instead of bail, suspects in these crimes now must promise to make
all court appearances and are free until their next court hearing.
Plymouth Mayor Jeffry Wosje
said he was not happy with Freeman's new policy ending bail for low-level
offenses. His police chief, along with others, was upset that auto theft was
initially included in the offenses
no longer requiring bail.
On Friday, DFL Gov. Tim Walz convened a private call with suburban police chiefs
to discuss the crime surge.
For his part,
Freeman plans to meet with police chiefs this week to hear their concerns.
Maple Grove Police Chief Eric Werner,
who is also president of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, said
the surge in violent crime is a result of policies implemented or influenced by
the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.
startribune.com
Progressive Prosecutors Update - Under Pressure
Nationwide
1/17/22: Baltimore State's Attorney Marlyn Mosby
Indicted By Fed's - fights for her political life, what role does her husband,
the Baltimore City Council president, play?
Publicly silent since Thursday, when
federal prosecutors
charged his wife with
perjury and false statements to withdraw early from a retirement fund and
apply for mortgages to buy homes in Florida, and lied about it when asked by
investigators.
The indictment, which emerged from a
monthslong federal investigation,
has
thrust the already high-profile couple and their personal and political
partnership into an even brighter spotlight.
baltimoresun.com
12/6/21: LA County DA: New Recall Efforts Launched
Against LA County District Attorney George Gascón
Since his time in office began, Gascón has been under fire for his progressive
policies. These policies include refusal to seek the death penalty,
re-evaluation of prisoner sentences that have been withstanding for over 20
years, and the dropping of “sentence-enhancing” allegations in criminal cases.
He has also ended the use of associating gang affiliation in sentencing and
charging juveniles as adults.
latimes.com
11/10/21: San Francisco’s Top Prosecutor Will Face
a Recall Election
Mr. Boudin, like other liberal prosecutors in places such as Philadelphia and
Los Angeles, has faced sharp pushback from conservative activists, as well as
other residents concerned about public safety, who say that he is not taking a
hard enough line on crime and that his policies have made San Francisco less
safe.
nytimes.com
1/12/21: Dallas: GOP candidate for Dallas County DA
vows to end Creuzot’s policy on misdemeanor thefts if elected
Faith Johnson emphatically promised to prosecute all Class B
misdemeanor thefts if elected, reversing is a hallmark of John Creuzot’s first
term.
“As your chief law-enforcement officer of this county, I want you to be able to
count on me,” said Johnson, who was Dallas County’s DA from 2016 to 2018. “I
want the shop owners to be able to count on me. I want the
large grocery chains to be able to count on me.”
Creuzot, who is running for a second term, upset law-enforcement groups and
conservative politicians when he announced his office
would not prosecute misdemeanor theft of personal items worth less than $750
without evidence the crime was for financial gain. He has said the policy aims
to avoid saddling people struggling with poverty with a criminal record.
Last week, Creuzot released a one-page
explainer of his policy,
which shows that misdemeanor thefts are down for the fourth straight year and
Class B misdemeanor thefts specifically are at a six-year low. The number of
cases law enforcement filed has steadily decreased from 2,428 in 2017, when
Johnson was district attorney, to 1,314 in 2021.
dallasmorningnews.com
1/10/22: Manhattan: New York City can expect to see
more brazen crime this year - New Progressive DA Alvin Bragg
On January 3, newly minted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg distributed a
memo setting out a
number of radical changes to the office’s approach to law enforcement.
More serious charges, like robbery and burglary, will be downgraded in many
cases, according to the memo. If someone robs a convenience store with an empty
gun, a Manhattan prosecutor must now charge the offender with petit larceny (a
Class A misdemeanor) instead of robbery in the first degree (a Class B felony).
Never mind that in a situation like that, the clerk, if armed, would be well
within her rights to shoot the crook dead—such conduct is no longer deemed
serious enough to warrant the kind of prison sentence that would normally
accompany a robbery conviction.
foxnews.com
12/25/21: Chicago DA Kim Foxx ripped as soft on
crime following Oakbrook Center mall shooting
12/21/21: Liberal Illinois state's attorney Kim
Foxx facing calls to resign
1/3/22: Philadelphia: State Rep. Martina White
wants to ban Philly DA Larry Krasner from serving a third term in office
Retail Crime & Violence Surge Continues
'Stolen Goods on Steroids'
Online marketplaces enabling smash-and-grab criminals
57% of retailers reported a rise in thefts
during the coronavirus pandemic
 Online
marketplaces have created a black market business model for thieves,
driving the surge in smash-and-grab robberies that have been on the rise
throughout the United States in recent months and years, retail industry leaders
told FOX Business.
Ben Dugan, the head of the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail, estimates
that retail theft is now responsible for $68 billion in annual losses, a number
that has gone up during the coronavirus pandemic.
More than half of retailers nationwide,
57%, said that there has been more organized retail crime since the pandemic
began, according to a
survey conducted last year by the National Retail Federation.
The forces that have led to the increase in thefts were put in place about a
decade ago, according to Jason Brewer, the executive vice president at Retail
Industry Leaders Association.
"The difference between today and 10 years ago is the rise in online
marketplaces and the ease of anonymously selling stolen products," Brewer told
FOX Business. "It has put the problem of stolen goods on steroids and it has
created, unfortunately, a business model for some criminals to steal and very
quickly and anonymously resell stolen products."
The surge in retail theft has prompted some law enforcement agencies to convene
task forces and operations targeting the criminals responsible. Retail industry
leaders said that
the problem won't go away until online marketplaces tighten up security
and transparency around peer-to-peer transactions.
The Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for
Consumers Act
(INFORM Act) has been introduced in both chambers of Congress
with bipartisan co-sponsors.
The bill would require
online platforms to verify the identities of high-volume third-party sellers
and require sellers to give contact information upfront.
foxbusiness.com
In Case You Missed It: Walgreens Shrink Rate Surges
Walgreens executives say the drugstore chain is losing 50% more money due to
loss and theft
Walgreens has lost 50% more income to theft and
damaged items in the last two years.
Roz Brewer, the chief executive of Walgreens Boots Alliance, said the company
has a shrink rate, or the loss of inventory attributed to theft, fraud, and
damage, at about 3.25%.
The shrink rate had
been a little over 2% 10 years ago, she added.
Brewer said the last two years have led to a
40% to 50% increase in shrink, due in large part to organized crime.
"This is not petty theft," Brewer said on a January 6 call with investors. "It's
not somebody who can't afford to eat tomorrow. These are
gangs that actually go
in and empty our stores of beauty products.
And it's a real issue."
Walgreens reported a net earnings from continuing operations of $2 billion in
the 12 months ending August 31. With a shrink rate of 3.25%, the company's could
have
lost $65 million from
its net earnings last year because of theft.
US retailers lost an estimated 1.62% of revenues to shrinkage in 2020, totalling
an record $61.7 billion, according to the
National Retail Federation.
Retailers said the growth of
third-party e-commerce
stores exacerbated retail crime.
Two retail spokespeople told
Insider's Áine Cain anonymous online merchants can make it easier for
thieves to market their loot without drawing suspicion.
Twenty retailers,
including Target, Best Buy, and Kroger, have
asked Congress to pass legislation
to curb illegal business activity by anonymous vendors online.
markets.businessinsider.com
Lenient DAs Fueling Crime?
UCLA grad student fatally stabbed while working at high-end LA furniture store
 A
UCLA grad student was fatally stabbed by a random maniac while she was working
as a consultant at
a high-end furniture store in Los Angeles,
police said.
Brianna Kupfer, 24, was alone and working at
Croft House
on North La Brea Avenue at around 1:50 p.m. on Jan. 13 when a stranger walked in
and knifed her to death, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The
father slammed local politicians as too lenient, saying crime has been rampant.
Over the weekend, LA officials announced a nearly 12 percent jump in homicides
in 2021 from the year prior.
“I think our city leaders need to make smarter decisions about what they do with
criminals and how they incarcerate them,” he told The Post on Monday. “I get it,
there is a lot of racial injustice. But it doesn’t change the fact that
somebody who is doing evil shouldn’t just get a slap on the wrist.
Unfortunately, this is what we are seeing now.”
The
murder rate in Los Angeles has soared in recent years
and violent crime has rocked even the city's wealthiest enclaves.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, a Democrat, won over voters
last year with promises of sweeping criminal justice reforms that
critics say put the interests of criminals before the safety of the community.
nypost.com
foxnews.com
More Line-of-duty Deaths Since the Al Capone &
Prohibition Days - 1930
COVID leading line-of-duty cause of death in police officers in 2021 for 2nd
year
A sobering
study released by the
National Law Enforcement Memorial
and Museum revealed that, for the second consecutive year, COVID-19 sustained on
the job was the leading cause of police officer deaths.
“Preliminary data shows that some
301 officer fatalities have been identified as caused by COVID this year,
and this number appears to increase almost daily.”
The report also notes that
458 total law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2021,
an increase of
65% from the 295 officers killed during the same period last year,
and the highest total line-of-duty officer deaths since 1930 when there were 312
fatalities.
mercurynews.com
&uuid=(email))
COVID Update
526.8M Vaccinations Given
US: 67.6M Cases - 874.3K Dead - 43.1M Recovered
Worldwide:
331.8M Cases - 5.5M Dead - 269.2M Recovered
Former Senior Loss Prevention Executive
Know of any fallen LP exec? Let's remember &
recognize.
Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 343
Law
Enforcement Officer Deaths: 613
*Red indicates change in total deaths
COVID Cases, Hospitalizations
& Deaths
On Vaccine Mandates, The Ball's Back in Retailers' Court
The #1 Topic this week
This week, everyone will be talking about how retailers approach the question of
unvaccinated employees
 Nike
and some other brands have said
they will
fire unvaccinated employees at corporate offices,
but few have required store workers to get shots
Some retailers, including Macy’s and Lululemon, have
reduced store hours
and taken other measures as rising infection rates made finding enough staff a
struggle
The fashion industry helped lead the charge against the mandate, arguing it
would
exacerbate a
retail labour shortage
that has only grown worse as the requirement made its way through the courts.
Now, the ball is in retailers’ court:
some have ordered employees in corporate offices be vaccinated or risk losing
their jobs. Few have extended that requirement to stores.
The rapid spread of the Omicron variant complicates matters further, with some
stores forced to close because so many employees are sick or quarantining.
That’s almost certainly contributing to retailers’ reluctance to require store
workers be vaccinated. The high number of breakthrough cases among the
vaccinated means requiring shots wouldn’t necessarily prevent widespread illness
in the office or at the mall. What it would do is reduce the number of workers
who become seriously ill, or die.
The Bottom Line:
Whether it’s lockdowns, mask requirements or vaccine mandates,
the pandemic has repeatedly forced brands and retailers to weigh the health of
their businesses against the health of their employees.
Often, the fashion industry has chosen the former over the latter. That need not
always be true; when retailers first objected to the mandate in November, some
executives said they would be more open to requiring vaccines
after the holiday rush.
They had their day in court and won.
Will they now move ahead with mandates on their own, or come up with new
excuses?
businessoffashion.com
USSG: "The Next Few Weeks Will Be Tough"
US Surgeon General warns ‘next few weeks will be tough’ as Omicron spreads
 US
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned Sunday that the
“next few weeks will be tough”
as COVID-19 infections driven by the Omicron variant
continue to surge.
Murthy said that the country is
still pushing around 800,000 new cases per day,
though some regions, such as New York, have begun to see a plateau in
infections.
“The challenge is that
not the entire country is moving at the same pace.
The Omicron wave started later in other parts of the country,” Murthy said on
CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding, “the
next few weeks will be tough.”
nypost.com
California surpasses 7 million coronavirus cases, adding 1 million in one week
California has
recorded more than
7 million coronavirus cases, after its fastest accumulation of reported
infections in the history of the pandemic.
The unprecedented count, recorded in California’s databases late Monday, comes
one week after the state tallied its
6 millionth coronavirus case.
The stunning speed of new infections is a testament to the Omicron variant’s
transmissibility, believed to be two to four times more contagious than the
Delta variant, which in turn was more infectious than earlier strains that
pummeled California last winter.
California’s daily
COVID-19 death rate has also risen dramatically. For the seven-day period
that ended Sunday, the state was recording 103 deaths a day; that’s roughly
double the last week of 2021, when 55 deaths a day were tallied. L.A. County’s
peak death rate last year was about 240 deaths a day.
latimes.com
Biggest Concern: Preserving Your Company Culture
in Hybrid or Remote Offices
Corporate America is coming around to remote work. But more big changes lie
ahead.
Flexible work is here to stay. But the shape it
will take is up for debate in virtual board rooms around the world.
Corporate leaders attempting to coax employees back to the office have largely
accepted the inevitability of the hybrid work model — a strategy buttressed by
the reality of raging
coronavirus rates, a tight labor market and the nation’s more than 10
million job openings. Now they are learning to leverage its benefits, according
to Adam Galinsky, a professor of leadership and ethics at Columbia Business
School in New York.
That includes more flexibility and less time commuting for employees, and lower
real estate and operating costs for companies.
“We are fundamentally not going to go back to what we had before,” he said. The
ability to do their jobs remotely has changed when people work, what they wear,
and what tasks they save for the office and do at home.
But the downside of remote work — particularly the deleterious effects on
mentorship and person-to-person interactions that shape company culture
— still trouble corporate leaders. More than a third of the executives polled in
Deloitte’s 2021 Return to Workplaces
survey said the
biggest concern about hybrid or remote work was preserving company culture.
Maintaining performance and collaboration also were top concerns.
The tension between the demand for flexibility and the costs of committing to it
entirely is likely to grow.
Fewer than 28 percent of those employed in the nation’s 10 biggest business
districts, including
Washington, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, were at the office the first week
of January, according to
data from Kastle Systems. And
55 percent of remote workers would consider quitting if their companies tried to
force their return to offices,
according to
research
this month from Morning Consult.
“The days of the 9 to
5, Monday through Friday workweek, those are gone,”
Johnny C. Taylor Jr., chief executive of the Society for Human Resource
Management, told The Post.
“Remote is permanent,” according to Marc Cenedella, chief executive of Ladders.
Cenedella said. “It’s
here to stay, it’s accelerating, and it’s the largest change to American living
and working arrangements since World War II.”
“If you want the opportunity to grow your business in 2022, if you want to hire,
it turns out that you have to hire out of office,” he told The Post.
washingtonpost.com
Hallucinations and headaches: Seven ways COVID can affect your brain
Covid testing: How to get free at-home rapid test kits
Massive Winter Storm - The Retail Impact
Nearly 20 States Impacted by Major Winter Storm
Winter Storm Warnings for 19 States - Izzy Brings Up to 20 Inches of Snow
 Winter
storm warnings for Sunday were issued
for 19 states, with up to 20 inches of snow forecast in places
and travel expected to be near impossible in some areas. National Weather
Service (NWS) issued a series of ongoing warnings early Sunday morning ahead of
expected heavy snow, ice accumulations and gusty winds during Storm Izzy.
States where winter storm warnings were issued at the time of publication were:
New York, Ohio, Vermont, Virginia, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Arkansas, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, West
Virginia, Maryland, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and the District of Columbia.
Total snow
accumulations of up to 20 inches
are expected in the Chautauqua Ridge and Boston Hills areas of New York, and in
parts of the Blue Ridge Escarpment mountain range in South Carolina and Georgia.
newsweek.com
Winter Storm Hits at Worst Possible Time for
Supermarkets
Massive winter storm could keep grocery shelves empty even longer
 Grocery
stores had already been struggling to keep their shelves stocked because of
supply chain delays and
Omicron sickening workers. Now, markets across America are bracing for a
major winter storm that could keep store shelves empty even longer.
A
significant winter storm headed toward the Midwest, South and East Coast
over the long holiday weekend is poised to deliver another blow to grocery
sellers
struggling to keep enough supplies
of everyday essentials — milk, juice, produce, soups and meats — in stock.
Severe weather events are notorious for triggering grocery stockpiling by
consumers, said Miguel Gomez, Robert G. Tobin professor of food marketing at
Cornell University's Dyson School of Applied Economics.
"These winter storms are unfortunately going to add delays to an already
strained supply chain," he said. "I do think shoppers will see out-of-stocks in
stores for certain grocery products."
The timing of the storms couldn't be worse for supermarkets.
In recent days, consumers around the country have unleashed their frustration on
social media, posting photos on Twitter of bare shelves at Trader Joe's
locations, Giant Foods and Publix stores, among many others.
cnn.com
Businesses Close Over Winter Storm
Extreme winter weather causing business closures and closing Cleveland's
COVID-19 testing site
Following an overnight winter storm that dumped
more than 10 inches of snow in many cities across Northeast Ohio,
businesses, parks and institutions announced closures on Martin Luther King Jr.
Day due to major snowfall and winter weather.
Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio
says it will close all retail locations and attended donation centers for
Monday, January 17, 2022. All locations will reopen Tuesday, January 18, 2022.
Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio operates 22
retail stores, eight attended donation centers and two warehouses across our
10-county footprint.
All Northeast Ohio Heinen's stores
will close early on Monday due to the inclement weather. Stores will close at 5
p.m., the chain announced.
news5cleveland.com
'We've mastered that program': Waffle House prepared for bad weather
Winter storm turns deadly, creating travel nightmares & thousands of power
outages
Winter storm prompts city to declare state of emergency
Here we go again? 2 more winter storms could be brewing
&uuid=(email))
Rail Theft Gaining National Attention
‘It’s ugly out there’: Rail thefts leave tracks littered with pilfered packages
Organized Groups Halting Trains & Recruiting the Homeless to Ransack Cars
 Thieves
are pilfering railroad cars in a crime that harks back to the days of
horseback-riding bandits, but is fueled by a host of modern realities, including
the rise of e-commerce and Southern California’s role as a hub for the movement
of goods.
The images have generated national attention and
revealed tension among rail operators, government officials and authorities over
what can be done to reduce the thefts.
A bottleneck in the supply chain and the presence of homeless encampments near
rail lines have contributed to the thefts, officials said.
“Organized and
opportunistic criminal rail theft
... impacts our employees, our customers in the overall supply chain industry,”
said Adrian Guerrero, a director of public affairs for Union Pacific.
Guerrero estimates that about 90 cargo containers a day are
compromised, sometimes by an organized group that has halted trains and
recruited people living on the street to ransack the containers.
Union Pacific is deploying more drones, has brought in extra security and
enlisted the Los Angeles Police Department, California Highway Patrol and the
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to combat the thefts, Guerrero said.
But Union Pacific is partly to blame for not deploying more security, said Los
Angeles Police Capt. German Hurtado, who works in the Hollenbeck Division.
latimes.com
Railroad Asking Progressive LA County DA to
Reverse Policy
UP wants help combating 160% spike in thefts in LA
Railroad says if criminals aren’t prosecuted it will consider ‘significant
changes’ to operations
Union Pacific is pressing local
and state officials to help it with a spike of robberies occurring on the
railroad’s property in Los Angeles. The thefts involve trespassers climbing onto
trains and breaking into cargo containers.
UP said Sunday that it asked Los Angeles County District Attorney George
Gascón last month to reconsider local persecution policies so that trespassers
are held accountable.
The situation has gotten so bad that customers such as UPS and FedEx have been
“seeking to divert rail business away to other areas in the hope of avoiding the
organized and opportunistic criminal theft that has impacted their own business
and customers,” Guerrero said.
UP continued in the letter that it was “contemplating
serious changes” to its
operating plans to avoid Los Angeles County, which the railroad acknowledged
could significantly impact local, state and national supply chain systems.
Besides seeking help to modify policies on criminal penalties, UP said it is
partnering and engaging with other elected leaders and government agencies,
including the office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, to curb criminal activity.
For its part,
UP has beefed up its security force
and is working with local law enforcement, and the railroad has deployed
technology such as the use of drones, trespass detection systems and specialized
fencing. While these efforts have resulted in hundreds of arrests, UP says that
less than half of the trespassers are booked and some are released in less than
24 hours.
Although
local media reports have been relaying a UP cargo theft spike in recent
days, the railroad was grappling with container theft in Southern California
last fall,
FreightWaves reported. Slower speeds and longer dwell times as a result of
the supply chain congestion have contributed to making intermodal trains an
attractive target for theft.
UP has experienced a more than
160% increase in criminal rail theft in Los Angeles County,
according to its December letter. In three months in the fall during intermodal
peak season, UP said over
90 containers were compromised per day on average and over 100 arrests were made
between local law enforcement and UP. But of those arrests, UP has not been
contacted for any court proceedings.
UP estimated in December that criminal activity over the previous 12 months
totaled approximately $5 million in claims, losses and damages to UP.
freightwaves.com
Backlogged Logistics Infrastructure Targeted By
Organized Crime
Cargo theft up 35.8% as thieves take advantage of increased traffic, idled
shipments
Record container backlogs at U.S. ports and overstressed supply chains are
creating conditions ripe for cargo theft, according to experts.
“The backlog across all logistics infrastructure is causing containers and
shipments to sit idle, not just in the ports but outside the ports, increasing
opportunities for them to be
targeted by criminals,”
Ron Greene, vice president of business development at Overhaul, told
FreightWaves.
Cargo that finally makes its way out of backlogged ports is being
aggressively targeted by criminals
eyeing containers filled with everything from home appliances and electronic
goods to apparel and more.
“Especially right now
at places like the Port of Los Angeles,
the trains come to the port and they take containers off of the ship and put
them on the train, then those containers are sitting for days on end and not
moving,” Coughlin said.
Not only does idle freight create more opportunities for thieves, it also
complicates trying to protect freight in transit, according to Scott Cornell,
transportation lead, crime and theft specialist at
Travelers.
CargoNet reported
1,502 total theft events last year when the pandemic began disrupting supply
chains. Up 35.8% from 2019.
That compared with 1,106 total theft events in 2019 and 1,181 in 2018.
freightwaves.com
FYI -Those With Truck Fleets: 2nd Top Article
This Week in Freight Waves
Truckers using cocaine more than marijuana, study finds
Mandatory hair testing needed to correct DOT
underreporting, according to truckload carrier group
A
new study reveals
that the U.S. Department of Transportation
may be underreporting cocaine abuse by truck drivers,
a finding that could put more pressure on federal regulators to allow hair
testing as an alternative to urine testing for preemployment drug screening by
trucking companies.
Because the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Drug & Alcohol
Clearinghouse does not allow hair test results to be included in the database,
DOT “is seriously underreporting the actual use of harder drugs by truck
drivers, such as cocaine and illegal opioids,”
said Doug Voss, a professor of logistics and supply chain management at the
University of Central Arkansas (UCA).
Since FMCSA began publishing clearinghouse data in 2020,
marijuana has far outranked other illegal drugs in positive test results,
with cocaine and methamphetamines coming in a distant second and third,
respectively.
However, 2020 data collected by UCA comparing preemployment urine and hair drug
test results from major truckload carriers with urine tests in the federal
clearinghouse found that
an additional 58,910 drivers
reporting into the federal clearinghouse
would have failed preemployment drug tests had they submitted to hair testing.
The study found that cocaine and opioids were the most commonly identified
substances in positive hair tests from the truckload carriers, with 16.2% more
cocaine users and 14.34% more opioid users than were found in federal
clearinghouse urine tests.
freightwaves.com
Only 9 Retailers Made Top 100 Best Places to Work
By Employees' Choice
Lululemon tops as best U.S. retail company to work for in 2022
Athletic apparel retailer the only retailer to
crack top 25 in Glassdoor's annual ranking of the best companies to work for.
Lululemon took the ninth spot in Glassdoor’s 14th annual
Employees’ Choice Awards honoring the 100 Best Places to Work in 2022 (among
employers with 1,000 or more employees) across the United States.
In total,
nine retailers made this year’s list.
In addition to Lululemon, the other retailers recognized were:
Trader Joe’s (#32); H-E-B (#33); eBay (#55); Wegmans Food Markets (#80);
Madewell (#88); Scheels (#93); Costco (#93); and REI (#95).
glassdoor.com
Wakefern to Test Frictionless Stores with Israel-based computer vision company
Trigo to deploy AI-based checkout tech
Frictionless Gains Ground in Europe as Trigo's "Pick&Go" Partners With Major
Food Retailers
Senior LP & AP Jobs
Market
Assets Protection Director, Global Supply Chain & Logistics job posted for
Target in Midlothian, TX
 As
an AP Director supporting Global Supply Chain & Logistics, you will develop and
communicate AP strategies and priorities, including tactical plans and
expectations, to your team, peers and leadership across multiple teams. You will
be financially accountable by prioritizing and driving continuous improvement.
You will experience leading a large remote team in Assets Protection through
multiple layers, across multiple markets and establish a culture of
accountability through hiring, setting clear expectations, talent & development
strategies and performance management.
jobs.target.com
Last week's #1 article --
Bed Bath & Beyond is closing 34 stores in 2022. Here's a map of locations
|
|
Is This a Game Changer? Or Russian Ploy?
Then again what's a bunch of cybercriminals vs. an entire country?
World Politics & Cybersecurity - Russia Currying
Favor From the West?
Russia Takes Down REvil Ransomware Operation, Arrests Key Members
Moscow and White House sharing intelligence now Via White House-Kremlin
Experts Group
 Russia's
Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested members of the prolific REvil
ransomware group at the US government's request in a significant development
that is being received with some skepticism given its timing in the middle of
brewing geopolitical tensions between the two nations.
REvil, aka Sodinokibi, has been
one of the most notorious ransomware operations
in recent years,
amassing more than $200 million in illicit profits,
according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The FSB said that the arrests were made in part thanks to
intelligence shared by the U.S. government.
The Biden administration Friday said that it's been
continuing to share intelligence with Moscow via the White House-Kremlin Experts
Group set up last June.
In a statement, the FSB said it had
detained 14 members of the REvil gang
and searched 25 addresses associated with them in an operation that resulted in
the seizure of numerous assets belonging to the group. This included the
equivalent of some
$6.8 million in various currencies
including cryptocurrency; 20 premium vehicles; computer equipment; and
cryptocurrency wallets the REvil group used in its operations.
The FSB described its investigation as a complex and coordinated effort that
resulted in the REvil operation being taken down and its criminal infrastructure
being neutralized. The investigation and takedown were launched at the behest of
US authorities, who identified REvil's ringleader to the FSB and provided
detailed information of the gang's ransomware activities targeting foreign
entities, the
FSB said. US authorities have been provided full details of the operation,
it added.
It's not clear for how long the FSB might have been monitoring the suspects
before arresting them. But chatter on the cybercrime underground has revealed
the FSB exerting increasing pressure
on some ransomware operations - including
Avaddon, Darkside, Hive and BlackMatter
- since at least spring 2021, says Advanced Intelligence's Boguslavskiy.
Skepticism Over True Motives
Several security experts Friday welcomed the FSB's action and described it as an
overall good thing.
 However,
there is some
skepticism of the true motives behind this action, considering it comes amid
growing tensions between the US and Russia over concerns that the latter is
preparing to invade Ukraine.
Talks between the two countries to deescalate the situation in Ukraine have so
far led nowhere and there's growing concern that conflict in the region could
lead to a major disruption in US-Russian relationships.
This is Russian ransomware diplomacy. It is a signal to the United States:
If you don't enact severe sanctions against us for invasion of Ukraine, we will
continue to cooperate with you on ransomware investigations,"
tweets
Dmitri Alperovitch, chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator, who
previously served as the CTO of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. "I suspect the
U.S. government will not bite," he adds.
"They couldn't care less about these guys," Alperovitch says. "They are not
members of the security services. They are not oligarchs. They are not close to
Putin.
They are pawns to be used and discarded."
"Taking REvil down serves Russia well during talks with the United States and
helps to curry favor from Western countries that may be likely to interfere in
the conflict with Ukraine," says Josh Lospinoso, CEO, and co-founder of Shift5
and founding member of US Cyber Command. "This
public display also gives Russia plausible deniability [that] REvil was
responsible for the JBS cyberattack, where they received $11 million in ransom."
By taking down REvil, Russia sends the message they are taking the onslaught of
cyberattacks against critical infrastructure seriously. However, ransomware
groups, particularly those working directly or indirectly with Putin’s regime,
have a history of bouncing back, Lospinoso says. It is quite likely that another
group will emerge to replace REvil, he said.
darkreading.com
govinfosecurity.com
Editor's Note:
If Russia & Putin truly build a cooperative law enforcement group that stops and
apprehends these cybercriminals this could make a huge dent in cybercrime and
remove some of the pressure and losses from corporate America. Let's hope it is
a genuine effort. But history has shown there are no coincidents. - Gus Downing
Ransomware Mayhem Over Money?
Ransomware isn’t always about gangs making money. Sometimes it’s about nations
manufacturing mayhem.
Ransomware is fundamentally about reaping massive profits from victims —
payments were on pace to cross the billion-dollar threshold in 2021, according
to the U.S. government — but there are signs
foreign
government-connected groups are increasingly moving into a territory dominated
by criminal gangs, and
for an entirely different motive: namely,
causing chaos.
Research that Microsoft and
cybersecurity company CrowdStrike recently publicized separately concluded
that Iranian hackers tied to Tehran had been conducting ransomware attacks that
weren’t about making
money, but instead disrupting their enemies.
It
echoed research from last spring and summer by FlashPoint and SentinelOne,
respectively.
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disruptive ransomware pays off, those who have studied the phenomenon say, it
can embarrass victims. It can be used to steal data and leak sensitive
information the public. It can lock up systems, disabling targets. And given the
prominence of
ransomware,
it’s another method that foreign intelligence and military agencies can use to
hide in the shadows,
wreak havoc and make it
look like the work of others.
If the tactic spreads, it could lead to even more companies and other targets
fending off ransomware in the line of nation-state cyberwarfare and
cyber-espionage. Like any other malware, ransomware is built to break things.
Who cares about the money?
Suspected Chinese hackers last March were behind a strain of ransomware that
claimed victims in the U.S., Germany, Indonesia and elsewhere that some
intelligence analysts say was possibly
motivated less by money
than havoc. Threat
intelligence firm Recorded Future says the hackers behind it showed little sign
that actually cared whether they got paid — suggesting another intent, possibly
disruptive in nature.
“I think it’s a trend,” said Allan Liska, director of threat intel at Recorded
Future. “If that
continues to breed success, you’ll see more of that.”
What’s more, given that multiple Iranian groups appear to have adopted the
tactic,
it might not be long
before disruptive Iranian ransomware claims U.S. victims,
predicted Adam Meyers, senior vice president of intelligence for CrowdStrike.
“As we watch the ongoing dissolution of relations with Iran and the U.S. and the
international community, I think this is a marker … of what they may look to do
when the gloves come off,” Meyers said.
cyberscoop.com
Remember If It's Free - You Probably Have a
Problem
Ransomware warning: Cyber criminals are mailing out USB drives that install
malware
Don't insert USB drives from unknown sources, even if they're addressed to you
in the post.
A cybercrime group has been mailing out USB thumb drives in the hope that
recipients will plug them into their PCs and install ransomware on their
networks,
according to the FBI.
The USB drives contain so-called 'BadUSB' attacks. They were sent in the mail
through the United States Postal Service and United Parcel Service. One type
contained a message impersonating the US Department of Health and Human Services
and claimed to be a COVID-19 warning. Other malicious USBs were sent in the post
with a gift card claiming to be from Amazon.
While BadUSB attacks aren't common,
cyber criminals in 2020 posted BadUSB drives to targets in the post with a
message
claiming to be from BestBuy
that urged recipients to insert a malicious USB thumb drive into a computer in
order view products that could be redeemed from a supposed gift card. That
attack was attributed to the FIN7 group, which is also believed to be behind
this attack.
zdnet.com
Zero-trust security market to reach $64.4B by 2027 |
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Mark
Stinde has accepted the role of Senior Vice President Operations- Retail and
Compliance for The Integritus Group, where he is responsible for supporting the
retail and compliance practice. Mark brings with him an MBA from Southern
Methodist University and over 35 years of experience in the retail world, having
worked for major national retail organizations. He most recently served as the
Vice President of Asset Protection for Kroger, heading their entire US retail
operation. 
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DALLAS
– Twenty-nine members of a large-scale theft ring operating from northeastern
Oklahoma were charged by federal and state prosecutors for their roles in an
organization whose operations crossed state lines, resulting in more than $10
million in losses to retailers, announced acting Special Agent in Charge
Christopher Miller, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland
Security Investigations (HSI) Dallas, U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson of the
Northern District Oklahoma and Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor.
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