Expanding Use Cases For RFID:
Enabling BOPIS, Cutting Inventory & Speeding Checkout
Global Report Presented by Retail TouchPoints & Zebra
Now, retailers are looking at ways to get even more out of their RFID investment, both by taking advantage of the increased inventory visibility that RFID affords and by using the tags to streamline and enable other operations.

Emerging use cases include:

• Using more accurate inventory data to reduce safety stock levels and gain a clearer view of inventory enterprise-wide;

• Incorporating RFID-tagged items with Internet of Things (IoT) solutions such as smart shelves; and

• Leveraging RFID at the POS to reduce checkout times, and incorporating RFID with other technologies to enable cashierless stores.

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Inside the NIST team working to make cybersecurity more user-friendly
Cybersecurity is usually not a user’s primary duty, yet they suffer an increasing burden to respond to security warnings, maintain many complex passwords, and make security decisions for which they are not equipped.

This is the main reason why security needs to be usable and why the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a team of researchers working on projects aimed at understanding and improving the usability of cybersecurity software, hardware, systems, and processes.

Pointing out the problems
With an academic background in mathematics and computer science and many years of work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and US federal agencies under her belt, Theofanos moved to NIST around 2003 to develop standards for usability. She is a convenor of an ISO Working Group developing user-centered design standards and has worked to apply user-centered design and usability principals to many domains including cloud computing, public safety communications and biometrics.

Julie Haney, the other co-lead for the Usable Cybersecurity program, ended up at NIST after getting degrees in CS, spending over 20 years working at the US Department of Defense as a cybersecurity professional and technical leader primarily in the cyber defense mission, and getting increasingly interested in the intersection of people and security and the factors impacting people’s willingness and ability to adopt security best practices and technologies.

Making users care and be careful is not easy
Too many users are still choosing convenience over security. Security measures mean unwelcome friction when you just want to quickly set up an account to buy or do something online, and users still have a nebulous idea of the consequences of bad security.

Advice for security advocates -- Organizational cybersecurity problems -- Read more  helpnetsecurity.com

20 Questions to Ask During a Real (or Manufactured) Security Crisis
There are important lessons to be learned from a crisis, even the ones that are more fiction than fact. In this spirit, I offer 20 questions to ask during a real or manufactured security crisis.

1. What is the threat that the issue at hand poses? Regardless of the noise surrounding a given situation, you need to understand the actual threat you're dealing with.

2. What is the organization's exposure to the threat?

3. What risk does this threat pose to the organization? Once you understand the organization's exposure, you can assess the risk posed to the organization. This is where you really begin to understand how seriously to consider the threat and how aggressively to respond.

4. Is the hype surrounding this threat justified? Separating fact from fiction is important.

5. Does the hype surrounding the threat translate to a real risk for the organization? If the risk is real, then it's time to respond appropriately.

6. When did we first become aware of the issue? Were you just made aware of this, or have you been aware of it for quite some time? The difference is important.

7. Why wasn't this raised earlier?

8. Could we have avoided this issue?

9. Why didn't we avoid this issue? Once you understand how you could have avoided an issue, you need to ask why you didn't.

10. Has any damage to the organization occurred? This is, of course, the quintessential question. If no damage occurred, you need to remediate the risk, learn from your mistakes, and be thankful.

Read the final 10 questions here.  darkreading.com

Summer: A Time for Vacations & Cyberattacks?
In a survey published on July 11, security firm Lastline found that 58% of security professionals believe there is some seasonality in the attacks on their company, and the majority of that portion — about 52% — peg summer as the prime time for breaches. Both phishing and malware attacks are more likely to be encountered during the summer months, according to the survey of 1,000 security professionals, with 47% and 44% of respondents seeing more of each of those attacks, respectively.

The results are interesting and should raise questions for companies, says John DiLullo, CEO of Lastline. "I don't claim to know what is going on in the cybercriminal's mind, but there is some logic to saying that I may get a higher return on my effort during the summer months, especially when my efforts are aimed at individuals," he says.

The feeling among security professionals that summer is high time for sun and cyberattacks persists. A 2017 blog post by former security firm Secdo, bought by Palo Alto Networks in 2018, also argued that summer, with lower staff counts and workers connecting to unsecure Wi-Fi, continues to endanger corporate networks.

"Summer is an opportunity for hackers to take advantage of less staff on call and increased remote access combined with possible ignorance when it comes to the use of public Wi-Fi and mobile network security," the company stated in an archived blog post. darkreading.com

Fed’s Powell Says Facebook’s Libra Raises ‘Serious Concerns’
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and legislators in both parties expressed broad concern about Facebook Inc. ’s plan to create a cryptocurrency-based payment network, underscoring the intense legislative and regulatory scrutiny the project could face. Mr. Powell, speaking to the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, expressed doubt about the feasibility of launching the digital coin, dubbed Libra, on the timeline Facebook has targeted.

“I think we agree that Libra raises a lot of serious concerns, and those would include around privacy, money laundering, consumer protection, financial stability,” he said. “Those are going to need to be thoroughly and publicly assessed and evaluated before this proceeds.” wsj.com

Tesla wants Apple’s help in solving IP theft

'Inside the LPRC IMPACT Conference' 2018
An Eight-Episode Series Presented by Sensormatic

Assessing The Real-World Impact of LP Efforts
The LPRC Delivers Evidence-Based Solutions and Actionable Results
 

The Retailer's View

The Value - Expectations - Impact
Long-Term LPRC Members Discuss its Role & Impact on the LP/AP Industry

Joe Coll, VP of Asset Protection Operations & Administration, Macy's
Paul Jaeckle, VP of Asset Protection, Meijer Stores & LPRC Vice Chair
Kevin Larson, Senior Manager, AP, Kroger & LPRC Vice Chair

Given the level of disruption going on in the retail industry, the increasing role of technology, the importance of brand reputation, and the impact of social media, the opioid epidemic, active shooters, and cybercrime on retail, it's never been as important as it is today to find and develop academic solutions that solve or at least help minimize enterprise risk.

In our 5th episode, we speak with Joe Coll, Paul Jaeckle, and Kevin Larson - three tenured members of the Loss Prevention Research Council - who discuss the role and impact the group is having on the industry, as the leading academic resource in the U.S. totally dedicated to the retail LP/AP community.

Learn how the LPRC conference extends well beyond three days, providing a year-long work effort of industry collaboration, working groups, research papers, Store Labs, offender interviews, and more.
 

Exclusive Sponsor:

See more of our 2nd LPRC series here.
Watch our 1st series here.

Take the time to learn.
As this is the LP/AP academic "Think Tank".