Coronavirus Update
 

Tracking Every Coronavirus Case in the U.S.: Full Map
The number of known coronavirus cases in the United States continues to grow quickly. As of Wednesday morning, at least 129 patients with the illness had been treated in 16 states, according to a New York Times database. nytimes.com

Coronavirus Spread: Preparing for 'The Long Haul'

Pandemic Expert Answers Urgent Questions About Staffing, Travel and Business Continuity (22 min)

The numbers are staggering, and the news updates are overwhelming. So far, there have been 92,000 reported cases of coronavirus globally, with 3,200 deaths. Global markets have been rocked, and major employers are revisiting their plans for staffing, travel and conferences. What do the numbers and trends mean? Pandemic expert Regina Phelps analyzes the latest developments.

Phelps, the founder of Emergency Management & Safety Solutions, is warning organizations to be prepared for "the long haul" - a sustained health crisis that could extend for as long as 12 months, she believes, with impacts on everything from global supply chains and regional economies to individual organizations' work-at-home practices (and the cybersecurity concerns that accompany them).

"This will touch every aspect of your life," Phelps says. "That's the big takeaway."

In an interview with Information Security Media Group touching on the major business continuity concerns related to the coronavirus outbreak, Phelps discusses:

•  The latest coronavirus statistics and what they mean;
•  Global impacts on economies, business travel and staffing;
•  Business continuity gaps that many organizations overlook. govinfosecurity.com

Will a lack of paid sick leave cost retailers as the coronavirus outbreak spreads?

Coming to Work Sick? Can't Afford Not To

It’s common in the retailing and the foodservice industries that chain employers do not extend paid sick time benefits to part-time workers. Such benefits are even rarer in mom and pop operations. While it has been commonly accepted that this practice saves businesses money, it also has a potential downside when employees who are not feeling well show up for work to avoid losing a day’s pay.

What the research turned up is that the spread of the flu plummeted by up to 40 percent in areas where sick leave was mandated.

In the U.S. at least 118 cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) with nine deaths have been reported in 12 states so far, and globally there have been over 90,000 confirmed cases and around 3,100 deaths. retailwire.com

Amazon confirms Seattle employee has contracted coronavirus
Halts ALL Nonessential Travel

The affected employee is in quarantine.

An Amazon employee in Seattle has tested positive for the coronavirus, known as COVID-19, the company has confirmed.

It is the first confirmed COVID-19 case among Amazon's workforce in the United States.

"The employee went home feeling unwell on Tuesday, February 25 and has not entered Amazon offices since that time," the email reportedly said.

Earlier this week, Amazon confirmed that two of its employees in Italy had contracted COVID-19 and were placed in quarantine. The company has also asked all of its 798,000 employees to stop all nonessential travel, both domestic and internationally, amid fears surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak

The United States has begun to see fatalities due to the virus, with nine dead in Washington state at the time of writing. zdnet.com

Amazon, Walmart and others battle price gouging on coronavirus-related products
With many products sold out in stores, shoppers are racing to online retailers to order face masks, hand sanitizer, hazmat suits and other items to protect against the coronavirus.

The surge in demand has created an opening for third-party sellers on various e-commerce sites like Amazon, Walmart, eBay and Etsy to offer products that are otherwise sold out at traditional retailers. But in doing so, some merchants have flooded online marketplaces with overpriced goods and items that make dubious medical marketing claims. CNBC found products like face masks with markups as high as 582%.

Meanwhile, online retailers are playing a game of whack-a-mole to remove listings making misleading claims about the coronavirus or overcharging for products that have spiked in demand. Amazon, for example, said last week that it removed more than 1 million products for violating its policies related to price gouging and coronavirus claims. But plenty of listings still show up across various online shopping sites. cnbc.com

UK Retailers battling supply chain disruption caused by coronavirus
More than half of retailers have already experienced supply chain issues as a result of the coronavirus, new research reveals.

24% of retailers surveyed say that supply chain disruption is having a significant impact on their business. Yet only 7% of them have flexible enough supply chains to be able to switch suppliers.

However, retailers are most concerned about the damage the virus could have on consumer confidence, the research reveals. Almost half (45%) of retailers surveyed have seen a negative impact on sales already, while 75% of them expect a negative impact on sales if the virus persists. talkingretail.com

Lawmakers clinch deal for $7.76 billion to combat coronavirus

The ‘stranded employee’ is a coronavirus problem the work world has never seen
 

Online Payment Fraud Surged 73% in 2019
Attempted online payment fraud increased 73% in 2019, well exceeding the growth of digital payments overall. According to the inaugural Digital Trust & Safety Index from digital security platform Sift, more than half (51%) of the payment fraud attempted in 2019 was performed via mobile devices. However, only 52% of e-commerce retailers report tracking fraud on mobile channels.

Looking at payment fraud attempts by operating system during 2019, the index found that Windows accounted for the largest share (37.73%), followed by iOS (27.75%), Android (22.9%), MacOS (7.9%), Unix (2.6%), and other (1.12%).

According to the index, the top 10 payment types for attempted online fraud during 2019 were:

The index also ranked the top 10 verticals most likely to be victimized by online payment fraudsters. Of particular interest to retailers are physical e-commerce (No. 1), digital e-commerce (No. 2), business services (such as shipping services and commerce platforms - No. 3), ticketing and events (No. 4), travel and transportation (#8), and on-demand services (such as food delivery and ride share - No. 10). chainstoreage.com

PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2020
Fraud and economic crime rates remain at record highs, impacting companies in more ways than ever. PwC's bi-annual survey of business crime reports that fraud committed by customers tops the list of all crimes experienced (at 35%), up from 29% in 2018. Businesses report that customer fraud and cybercrime are the most disruptive of all the crimes. securitymagazine.com
 

Robberies Down 6.6% From 2016 - 3% from 2018
Q4 Robberies Down 22% From 2016 - 11% from Q4 2018
 

Dispelling Myths and Avoiding Common Mistakes for Noncompete Agreements

New Hire Breaches - If You Co. Benefits - You're Liable

Noncompete agreements are valuable tools. When properly used, a well-crafted noncompete can protect the employer from significant harm. On the other hand, when your new hire breaches a noncompete with his or her former employer, the liabilities can be substantial. In recent years, noncompetes have become political footballs in some jurisdictions, and many misconceptions have emerged.

Probably the most common misunderstanding is that noncompetes are no longer enforceable. Although they are restricted in a few states, noncompetes remain generally enforceable elsewhere. The general rule in the majority of states is that enforceability requires the employer to prove the following (each of these factors is case sensitive):

- The agreement is necessary to protect the employer's legitimate interests (for example, to protect confidential information or client relationships).

- The noncompete will not impose an undue hardship on the employee.

- It will not cause public harm.

Many companies wrongfully believe they have no liability if the employee breaches the former employer's noncompete. Actually, a new employer can be directly liable, most often on a "tortious interference" or conspiracy claim, or on a "respondeat superior" basis (sometimes referred to as vicarious liability). In fact, even when the new employee violates the noncompete without the new employer's knowledge, courts in many states can still hold the new employer liable if it receives the benefits of that breach. shrm.org
 

LexisNexis Risk Solutions Report Highlights Size, Scale and Monetary Exposure of Global Cybercrime Networks

Fraud Networks Use Bots to Target the Mobile Channel

LexisNexis® Risk Solutions today released its Cybercrime Report covering July 2019 through December 2019.

The findings crystalize how fraud has increasingly become borderless on a global scale. As the report analysis shows, cybercrime is a well-organized, global endeavor powered by networks of fraud. While consumers enjoy access to goods and services from all over the world, fraudsters are able to harness stolen identity data to launch corresponding cross-border fraud attacks.

This global, networked pattern of cybercrime is further reflected in mobile attack rate growth, which is heavily influenced by a global bot attack targeting mobile app registrations. Fraudsters are migrating attacks to exploit the mobile channel: Of the 19 billion transactions recorded by the LexisNexis® Digital Identity Network® in this six month period, for the first time, mobile attacks outpaced desktop attacks, with a 56% growth in the mobile attack rate year-over-year.

Download a copy of the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report, July through December 2019 here.

Top 5 Tips to Protect User Data
Flashpoint analysts recommend the following best practices to protect user data, from third parties and unintentional data loss.

1. Proper authentication is the first line of defense. It is important that organizations have methods to properly identify, authenticate, and authorize users. Multi-factor authentication may help to prevent unauthorized access.

2. Second is patch management and regular updates. It is essential to perform regular software and operating system updates to maintain the best security posture.

3. Third, it is important to use antivirus software. Good antivirus software can help to detect known malware strains inside an organization.

4. Fourth, organizations should be aware of internet-facing systems, and ensure there is proper authentication. Threat actors may attempt to infiltrate internal systems through brute-force, or SSH root/no-password login.

5. Lastly, actors may target systems that use Remote Desktop Protocols (RDP). Access to compromised, or brute-forced RDPs may be sold within cybercrime communities. It may be beneficial to disable RDP, especially on servers and all systems not requiring remote connection. rhisac.org

Exploring the impact that hybrid cloud is having on enterprise security & IT teams
While enterprises rapidly transition to the public cloud, complexity is increasing, but visibility and team sizes are decreasing while security budgets remain flat to pose a significant obstacle to preventing data breaches, according to FireMon's 2020 State of Hybrid Cloud Security Report.
"As companies around the world undergo digital transformations and migrate to the cloud, they need better visibility to reduce network complexity and strengthen security postures," said Tim Woods, VP of Technology Alliances for FireMon. "It is shocking to see the lack of automation being used across the cloud security landscape, especially in light of the escalating risk around misconfigurations as enterprises cut security resources.

The 2020 FireMon State of Hybrid Cloud Security Report found that:

• Business acceleration outpaces effective security implementations.

• Nearly 60 percent believed their cloud deployments had surpassed their ability to secure the networks in a timely manner. This number was virtually unchanged from 2019, showing no improvement against a key industry progress indicator.

• The number of vendors and enforcement points needed to secure cloud networks are also increasing; 78.2 percent of respondents are using two or more enforcement points. This number increased substantially from the 59 percent using more than two enforcement points last year. Meanwhile, almost half are using two or more public cloud platforms, which further increases complexity and decreases visibility.

Lack of automation and third-party integration fuels misconfigurations

While cloud misconfigurations due to human-introduced errors remain the top vulnerability for data breaches, an alarming 65.4 percent of respondents are still using manual processes to manage their hybrid cloud environments. helpnetsecurity.com

New Research Confirms Blockchain's Effectiveness for Improved Data Sharing in the Retail Industry
The Auburn University RFID Lab, in collaboration with GS1 US, completed a proof-of-concept that demonstrates the effectiveness of blockchain and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies to improve serialized data sharing in the retail industry. Participating companies included: Nike, PVH Corp., Herman Kay, Macy's, Kohl's, Mojix, Avery Dennison, SML, IBM and Collaboration, LLC. The complete findings are available in a new white paper titled "Chain Integration Project (CHIP) Proof of Concept."

The researchers examined the exchange of serialized product data between paired brands and retailers. The findings confirmed that a blockchain network was capable of sharing item-level data encoded in RFID tags between the participants. According to the white paper, the automation of serialized product data exchange using blockchain can potentially eliminate the need for human audits and counting, increasing the productivity and efficiency of the retail supply chain. prnewswire.com