Europol and MRC Europe join forces in the fight against e-commerce fraud
Today, Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the European Merchant Risk Council (MRC Europe), an independent and not-for-profit business association engaged in fighting e-commerce fraud in Europe. The MoU was signed by Una Dillon, Managing Director of MRC Europe and the Head of EC3, Steven Wilson, at the Europol headquarters in The Hague.

MRC Europe is a close partner of EC3 in taking action against e-commerce fraud in the European market landscape. As such, MRC Europe is a key stakeholder in the recurrent Europol e-Commerce Action, an international EMPACT operation targeting fraudsters and serious organised crime groups with the help of national competent authorities, as well as MRC’s network of 535 e-merchants. europa.eu

Facebook Shuts Down 'Online Criminal Flea Market'
Facebook Erases 74 Cybercrime Groups With 385,000 Members Selling Passwords, Credit Cards And Hacking Services

Facebook has launched a crackdown on cybercrime on its platform after security researchers from Cisco Talos discovered what it dubbed an "online criminal flea market" on the site. They uncovered scores of groups where hundreds of thousands of members oversaw the trade of passwords, credit card information and hacking tools. The news comes as Facebook faces renewed criticism for its failure to moderate violent content, extremism and state-sponsored disinformation campaigns.

Meanwhile, more run-of-the-mill crooks continue to benefit from the openness of the platform to reach a wide audience to sell illegal offerings. It took a warning from the Cisco cybersecurity unit to get Facebook to remove 74 groups in which many of their 385,000 members were offering a wide array of cybercrime services. Those criminal offerings included stolen credit card details with CVV security numbers, usernames and passwords, and email spamming tools, a Cisco Talos report released Friday revealed. Some of the groups had managed to remain active for eight years. forbes.com

Feds To Use FISA Surveillance In Prosecuting Huawei
U.S. authorities gathered information about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd through secret surveillance that they plan to use in a case accusing the Chinese telecom equipment maker of sanctions-busting and bank fraud, prosecutors said on Thursday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Solomon said at a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn that the evidence, obtained under the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), would require classified handling.

The government notified Huawei in a court filing on Thursday of its intent to use the information, saying it was “obtained or derived from electronic surveillance and physical search,” but gave no details.

The United States has been pressuring other countries to drop Huawei from their cellular networks, worried its equipment could be used by Beijing for spying. The company says the concerns are unfounded. reuters.com

Enterprise Security Risk Management: Culture Eats Strategy
Enterprise Security Risk Management, or ESRM, seems to be the new buzzword across the corporate security ecosystem. Interestingly, any of us who have led its parent “enterprise risk management” (ERM) recognize “security” has been a component part of the enterprise risk management framework for well over a couple of decades, arguably more. Nevertheless, given the prudence of security leaders adopting an “enterprise-wide” perspective, there is renewed focus in this domain. Most security leaders are highly adept at the hard-skills aspects of administering a security program: policies, procedures, operational execution and technology among others. However, as you codify your enterprise security risk management strategy, are you giving the soft-skills elements their due attention?

While a CSO, I often said to my leadership team, “We can develop the best security strategy in the world, and if our culture isn’t going to let it happen, it will absolutely fail in its attempt at implementation”. I have personally experienced culture eating security strategy – and have the scars to prove it, despite prior success as a seasoned and diversely skilled leader. securitymagazine.com

CVS Completes Rollout of Time Delay Safes in All of Its Tennessee Pharmacies
New safes for controlled substances will help combat opioid epidemic in the state and reduce robbery incidents

CVS Pharmacy, the retail division of CVS Health, announced today that it has completed the rollout of time delay safes in all of its 169 CVS Pharmacy locations in Tennessee. The safes will help prevent pharmacy robberies and combat the ongoing opioid epidemic in the state by helping to prevent diversion of controlled substance narcotic medications by keeping them out of the hands of unauthorized individuals. In addition, the safes will help CVS Pharmacy ensure the safety and well-being of its customers and employees.

Controlled substance narcotic medications that are sought after by robbers, such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, are now stored in time delay safes in every CVS Pharmacy in the state of Tennessee. Time delay safes help deter pharmacy robberies by electronically delaying the time it takes for pharmacy employees to be able to open the safe. CVS Pharmacy first implemented time delay safes in Indianapolis, a city experiencing a high volume of pharmacy robberies, in 2015. The company saw a 70 percent decline in pharmacy robberies among the Indianapolis stores where the time delay safes had been installed. cvshealth.com newschannel5.com

AP Security Checkpoint Lawsuit:
Walmart Metal Detectors Short Fulfillment Center Workers' Breaks, Jury Told
A former Walmart employee told a California federal jury Thursday she felt like a criminal going through a metal detector before leaving work, a time-consuming process she claims in her class action lawsuit discouraged workers from leaving the center for meal breaks.

From 2016 to 2017, Chelsea Hamilton worked as an order filler in a Walmart fulfillment center in Chino, California, compiling items that would be shipped to customers for online orders. To protect its merchandise, Walmart installed asset protection checkpoints with metal detectors that all employees are required to pass through whenever they leave the warehouse, including for lunch breaks.

Describing the process of going through the asset protection checkpoint, Hamilton said employees were required to put all of their personal belongings through a conveyor belt, step through a metal detector and show their phone screen to the asset protection personnel to ensure they weren't stealing any Walmart property.

"I felt like a criminal," Hamilton said. "I thought it was a hassle and I felt violated."

Often, the asset protection personnel were men, according to Hamilton, and she would feel violated when she had to display her personal items, sometimes including feminine hygiene products. law360.com

Amazon Go Faces Unlikely Challenge From Checkout-Free Startup
Will Run Into Heavily Supported Start-Up in Europe - Big Time
Cheaper & Quicker to Retrofit Existing Stores
Grocers, alarmed at Amazon.com Inc.’s rapid growth in Europe, are considering fighting back with the help of a tiny Portuguese startup.

Sensei, a 16-month-old technology company based in Lisbon that’s backed by Germany’s Metro AG and Portugal’s Sonae SGPS SA, is pitching its technology to European supermarkets as they race the e-commerce giant to open the region’s first checkoutless stores.

Sensei says three major European grocers, including a U.K. supermarket operator, have tapped its technology for stores they plan to open this year -- potentially getting in ahead of Amazon. The U.S. behemoth has reportedly scouted space for its Amazon Go stores in London, but has not announced any openings.

The startup uses overhead cameras and artificial-intelligence software to detect what’s picked off shelves and calculate the bill. It can also determine whether products are put down again anywhere in the store, so that shoppers aren’t charged. Customers check in with a payment card or mobile-phone code when they arrive, and the store automatically takes payment when they leave.

Amazon has not detailed the technology in its Go stores, but analysts who have inspected them say it relies on a variety of sensors, including so-called smart shelves that can determine when an item is removed, as well as cameras that can read patterns printed on package labels. Payment is made via a mobile app. The company declined to comment on European plans for checkout-free stores.

Sensei’s technology may be cheaper to deploy. It’s easier to retrofit existing stores with AI-driven, camera-only approaches than with multisensor systems, said George Lawrie, a principal analyst with research firm Forrester. bloomberg.com

VICKI: ViaTouch’s AI-Driven Kiosk For High-Theft Items
New York-based ViaTouch has introduced a new solution to make the purchase of high-theft items easier for both shoppers and retailers. ViaTouch’s automated solution is dubbed Via Touch Intellishelf Cognitive Kinetic Interactions, or VICKI.

“VICKI is an AI-driven self-checkout device that auto inventories itself and also provides media at the point of sale,” Tom Murn, ViaTouch CEO, told The Shelby Report at the National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show earlier this year. “You open the door with a credit card or a biometric purse that you can sign up (for with) your thumb, your eye, or with your credit card once. After that VICKI knows who you are, and you open the door.”

VICKI can be customized with a retailer’s branding and lighting, and it accepts a number of forms of payment, including credit cards, Apple Pay and thumb or optional iris scan.

VICKI even tracks its inventory automatically while it’s being restocked, so its products are secure against theft from employees as well. theshelbyreport.com

Lowe’s to cut over 200 jobs in Charlotte, relocate hundreds more to HQ
On Thursday morning, roughly 600 full-time employees at the Lowe’s corporate offices in Wilkesboro were informed that their jobs would be shifting to the retailer’s headquarters in Mooresville, about an hour away. About another 80 Wilkesboro-based tech jobs will be moved to the Lowe’s data center in Winston-Salem, according to Dan Frahm, Lowe’s vice president of communications.

The job cuts and relocations come amid a transformation of Lowe’s spearheaded by Marvin Ellison, who took over as CEO in July. charlotteobserver.com

Retail employment dropped in March but overall job gains point to economic growth
Retail industry employment in March was down by 11,700 jobs seasonally adjusted from February and down 47,400 jobs unadjusted year-over-year, the Labor Department said today. The retail numbers, which exclude restaurants, came as the nation saw a monthly gain of 196,000 jobs overall. nrf.com

NRF hails Trump retreat on Mexico border closure
Amid pressure from business groups in several industries and top lawmakers in his own party, President Donald Trump this week walked back his threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border.

The National Retail Federation was among them. "We are relieved the administration has listened to the concerns of lawmakers and the business community and backed away from threats to close the US-Mexico border," ​NRF SVP of Government Relations David French said in a statement emailed to Retail Dive on Friday. "Now is the time for Congress and the administration to act on bipartisan solutions for border security and immigration reform." retaildive.com

UK: Retail Risk – London ‘supercharged’ for April 11, 2019. Get your tickets today!

More interactive than ever before, the eighteenth annual Retail Risk – London conference will provide you with unparalleled networking opportunities and expert-lead discussion sessions on best practice solutions to take away and use immediately.

   Learn more about the conference and register here.

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Retail AP Conference Brings Women, D&I Center Stage

During Women's History Month in March, we shared a look at some of the incredible women who help shape our supply chain-focused communities and some of the female-driven content featured at our recent LINK conference. Now, we're turning our attention to our upcoming Retail Asset Protection Conference. Held May 5-8 in Denver, the leading conference for top level asset protection executives from the most progressive retailers in the world is the perfect opportunity for us to continue fostering a community of strong women in retail and AP. Here's a look at how we'll be celebrating women at the Retail Asset Protection Conference:

WRAP - Women in Retail Asset Protection
Similar to our Women in Supply Chain community (which is now 11 years strong!), we're launching an official Women in Retail Asset Protection (WRAP) group designed to connect and support female advancement in the industry. We'll be holding a few events at the conference to help kick off the start of WRAP.

D&I - Diversity & Inclusion
In 2018, RILA launched our Diversity & Inclusion Initiative led by CEOs like RILA chairman and Target CEO Brian Cornell and other top executives from leading retailers to unify the industry's commitment to a diverse workforce that reflects its customers. The initiative is focused on developing new tools and resources tailored to retailers' unique needs and deepening D&I engagement across companies. To that end, we will dedicate time and programming at the upcoming conference to just that.

Read more here   |   Register for RILA's AP conference