Harrisonburg City/Rockingham County, VA Monitored Alarm Users to Experience Faster, More Accurate Emergency Dispatch
Harrisonburg City/Rockingham County, Virginia is the latest Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) to implement Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP), technology that automates communication from alarm monitoring central stations to PSAPs and 911 centers, resulting in faster, more accurate emergency response for users of monitored alarms. With ASAP, monitored alarm users served out of that PSAP will experience faster, more accurate emergency dispatch.

ASAP was developed in partnership between The Monitoring Association (TMA) and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), with Vector Security President and CEO Pam Petrow co-chairing the committee. Vector Security was the first alarm company to debut ASAP in Richmond, VA in 2012. vectorsecurity.com
 

The Response to Gun Violence Across America
Georgia Deploys National Guard, NYC Looks for Answers, More Protests 

Hundreds of July 4th Weekend Shootings Across the U.S. 233 Shootings, 70 Killed, 276 Injured in 30 Cities Studied In case you missed it, see the full list compiled by The Daily here.

Georgia Gov. Kemp declares emergency, calls up National Guard troops after
8-year-old fatally shot near Atlanta Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks was killed
Georgia’s governor on Monday declared a state of emergency and authorized the activation of up to 1,000 National Guard troops after a weekend of violence in Atlanta left five people dead, including an 8-year-old girl.

A statement from Gov. Brian Kemp’s office says troops will provide support at certain locations including the Capitol and governor’s mansion, freeing up state law enforcement resources to patrol other areas.

“Peaceful protests were hijacked by criminals with a dangerous, destructive agenda. Now, innocent Georgians are being targeted, shot, and left for dead,” the Republican governor said. “This lawlessness must be stopped and order restored in our capital city.” usatoday.com

At least 6 kids killed by gun violence over holiday weekend

'Very chilling': Philadelphia Police Commissioner addresses gun violence, calls for community-driven response


Mayor de Blasio, NYPD brass at odds over cause of July 4th weekend violence
Mayor de Blasio and top NYPD brass publicly clashed Monday over the reasons behind a horrifying surge of gun violence over the weekend — and things between Hizzoner and police leadership are even more tense behind the scenes, sources told the Daily News.

While top cops largely blamed recent police reforms for the citywide carnage that left nine dead and more than 50 people shot, the mayor sought to take a wider view.

“We need laws that make sense,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said on NY1. He went on to call the City Council’s recently passed bill banning chokeholds “insane,” saying, “Police officers should not have to worry more about getting arrested than the person with the gun that they’re rolling around on the street with.”

Shea also blamed the city’s recent policy of releasing hundreds of inmates from the Rikers Island jail complex — a move aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus — for the July Fourth weekend mayhem.

At a press conference later in the morning, de Blasio said, “There’s not one cause for something like this. The court system is not working, the economy’s not working, people have been pent up for months and months — so many issues underlying this challenge.”

He promised the city would take a multi-pronged approach to stemming the violence, including by “doubling down” on neighborhood policing initiatives. nydailynews.com

As Gun Violence Spikes in New York City, Officials Blame 'Perfect Storm' of Factors


Phoenix Police Kill Man in Parked Car, Igniting New Protests

Bloomington, IN: A protester was struck by a car during a Black Lives Matter demonstration

Baltimore Hits Pause on Gun Violence Command Centers

Eugene, OR: One City’s 30-Year Experiment With Reimagining Public Safety

Arrested Under New Law, Hong Kong Protesters Get Swabbed for DNA
 

It’s Been ‘Such a Weird Year.’ That’s Also Reflected in Crime Statistics.

In large cities across America, murders are up sharply,
while other violent crimes have decreased
The national numbers for murder and other types of violent crime rarely move in opposite directions. But this is no ordinary year. Overall crime is down 5.3 percent in 25 large American cities relative to the same period in 2019, with violent crime down 2 percent.

But murder in these 25 cities is up 16.1 percent in relation to last year. It’s not just a handful of cities driving this change, either. Property crime is down in 18 of the 25 sampled cities, and violent crime is down in 11 of them, but murder is up in 20 of the cities.

The F.B.I. doesn’t supply recent crime statistics, so we collected Uniform Crime Report (U.C.R.) data for these cities (each with over 250,000 people), which reported data at least through the end of May. Crime in the report is divided into violent crime — murder, aggravated assault, rape and robbery — and property crime composed of theft, auto theft and burglary.

Homicides usually rise in the summer, which coincided this year with many people emerging from pandemic lockdown. In one recent weekend in Chicago, 14 people were killed and at least 106 people were shot, the most in eight years.

And as The New York Times reported recently: “It has been nearly a quarter century since New York City experienced as much gun violence in the month of June as it has seen this year.” (On Sunday, there were at least nine killings in the city.)

An additional 11 cities provide year-to-date murder data. Murder is up 21.8 percent in all 36 cities with 2020 data through at least May, with 29 of those cities seeing an increase this year relative to last year.

How often do murder and other types of violent crime move in opposite directions? There have been only four years since 1960 (1993, 2000, 2002 and 2003) when murder increased but overall violent crime decreased nationally, and the increase in murder was small in each of those years. The average absolute difference between the national change in murder and violent crime since 1990 has been just 2.2 percent, so a big increase in murder nationally while violent crime falls is almost unheard-of.

But this year has been distinct in many ways, because of the pandemic and because of the protests and civil unrest after the death of George Floyd in police custody. nytimes.com

Gun background checks hit record high in June, a metric for gun sales, FBI reveals
Historic numbers of background checks to purchase or possess a firearm were done in June, a trend in a year marked by uncertainty over the coronavirus pandemic, a subsequent economic recession, protests over racial injustice and calls to reduce police funding.

FBI numbers released Wednesday show that 3.9 million background checks were conducted last month, the most since the system was created in November 1998 to ensure felons and other prohibited people could not buy or possess a firearm. The previous monthly record came in March, when 3.7 million checks were done. Each week in June is now in the top 10 weeks for background checks.

Halfway through 2020, just over 19 million checks have been done, more than all of 2012 and each of the years before that.

Background checks are the key barometer of gun sales, but the FBI’s monthly figures also incorporate checks for permits that some states require to carry a firearm. Each background check also could be for the sale of more than one gun. apnews.com

All kinds of outbreaks, from COVID-19 to violence, share the same principles
 

Modern Solutions for Mitigating Fraud in a Shifting Economic Climate

COVID-19 forcing acceleration of digital transformations and mobile platform adoption

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 63% of consumers said they referenced their mobile phones as a resource while shopping in stores. Today, due to the lack of face-to-face interactions resulting from COVID-19, we’re seeing a rapidly accelerated adoption of eCommerce as a marketplace. The week following the pandemic declaration, eCommerce traffic increased 23% and it’s unlikely this trend will slow as companies look to reopen brick-and-mortar stores.

Fraudsters have also noticed this shift, and have been quick to exploit merchants grappling with how to manage the surge in online volume. In a recent consumer survey by TransUnion (Formerly iovation), 29% of consumers indicated that they had already been targeted by digital COVID-19 scams. These attempts are especially concerning because breached personal data and compromised credentials harvested from such attacks are just a step towards perpetrating other types of fraud.

As fraud continues to grow in sophistication, so are the strategies required to successfully mitigate such attacks. Here are three solutions discussed at RH-ISAC's recent Digital Fraud Working Group to help mitigate fraud in the shifting economic climate:

1: Assume that bad actors have perfect information.

The days of assuming that a customer is “good” due to having perfect information are behind us. Fraudsters are now succeeding at mimicking the behavior of good customers to commit account takeover (ATO) and other types of fraud. In 2019 alone, there was a 347% increase in ATO, a number we’re sure to see climb as credentials are compromised due to phishing scams. Layering in additional methods of authentication helps mitigate risk throughout the customer journey while still maintaining a great customer experience.

It’s important to consider that not all points throughout the customer journey hold the same level of risk. For lower risk transactions, you should avoid adding unnecessary friction. Adding device-based authentication is a simple solution that utilizes the consumer’s device as a transparent second factor of authentication, and can easily be layered on top of current authentication methods such as one-time passwords or username and password combinations.

To protect higher risk transactions including large purchases, changes in account details, or outreach to call centers, utilizing mobile multifactor authentication (MFA) provides a comprehensive authentication solution that utilizes the capabilities of mobile devices that consumers already own. MFA is a highly secure experience for your customers, offering all three types of authentication factors: knowledge, possession, and inherence. These factors come in the forms of various methods such as fingerprint recognition, facial recognition, PIN code, pattern code and geofencing, making it incredibly difficult for a fraudster to successfully infiltrate an account.

2: Think beyond checkout and look at every step of the customer journey.

Today’s levels of fraud sophistication go beyond a single point of risk such as checkout or account changes, which is why a holistic approach is needed to effectively combat fraud across the entire customer journey. Take the rise of shipping fraud as an example, which increased 391% from 2018 to 2019. Fraudsters will successfully take over an account, make minor changes to things like the phone number or email address, but leave the shipping address untouched to avoid alerting the merchant that the account has been taken over. Then, the fraudster may closely track a package and change the shipping address once it hits the carrier, or even intercept the package at its final destination.

To help combat criminal methods like shipping fraud, there are a number of tools retailers can utilize, such as adding additional authentication for high risk transactions or using velocities to uncover unauthorized devices and fraudulent behavior. Having two-factor authentication solutions in place at key risk points helps to strengthen security by requiring specified behaviors (like leaving a package at the door or a purchase over a certain price point) to be authorized by the customer, and their authorized device, prior to being accepted.

3: Create a friction-right experience that balances security and convenience.

Protecting the customer journey is a constant balancing act of reducing friction while ensuring account security. The good news? Modern day consumers expect and value a secure digital transaction experience. Our recent global eCommerce report revealed that 95% of shoppers view additional identity validation as positive. Even more compelling is that 63% of consumers report that they’ve abandoned a transaction due to a poor identification process.

Properly using risk signals to reduce friction for good consumers provides additional assurances while also helping to reduce false positives. When you consider that in 2019 there was an estimated 340B in lost revenue from false positives, this balancing act becomes even more important for the eCommerce industry. It is critical to look past single anomalies and consider all risk signals holistically in order to reduce false positives and avoid rejecting good business. rhisac.org