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COVID Update
US: Over 6.7M Cases - 199K Dead - 4M Recovered
Worldwide:
Over 29.4M Cases - 933K Dead - 21.3M Recovered
Private Industry Security Guard Deaths:
189
Law
Enforcement Officer Deaths: 105
*Red indicates change in total
deaths
New Cases Have Reached Record Levels in the Midwest
Case numbers surged in the Northeast this spring. They spiked early this summer
in the South and the West. And now, even as parts of the country experience
rapid improvement, reports of new infections have soared in the Midwest.
nytimes.com
Stop Expecting Life to Go Back to Normal Next Year
Anthony Fauci
warned us last week that Covid-19 is likely to be hanging over our lives
well into 2021. He’s right, of course. We need to accept this reality and take
steps to meet it rather than deny his message.
Many Americans are resistant to this possibility. They’re hoping to restart
postponed sports seasons, attend schools more easily, enjoy rescheduled
vacations and participate in delayed parties and gatherings.
It is completely understandable that many are tiring of restrictions due to
Covid-19. Unfortunately, their resolve is weakening right when we need it to
harden. This could cost us dearly.
Until we see convincing evidence that a vaccine has a large population-level
effect, we will still need to mask and distance and restrain ourselves. Too many
of us won’t. Too many will believe that the vaccine has saved them, and they
will throw themselves back into more normal activities.
nytimes.com
Pfizer CEO says COVID-19 vaccine efficacy will be clear by October
There is a good chance that by October Pfizer will know whether its COVID-19
vaccine under development works, Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO said Sunday on an
interview with CBS' “Face the Nation”.
In the interview, Bourla said however, that it's not yet known whether Americans
will be able to receive a coronavirus vaccine before 2021, because issuance of a
license depends on federal regulators.
drugstorenews.com
How Companies Are Getting Speedy Coronavirus Tests for Employees
 Intermediaries are finding labs with capacity for companies seeking to make sure
workers are virus-free. But many employers choose to avoid the cost.
Many have complained of two obstacles: access to coronavirus testing for
their employees and long delays in receiving results.
But some have found a reliable workaround. Through a growing number of
intermediaries, they can generally obtain test results in one to three days,
often by circumventing large national labs like Quest and LabCorp.
The intermediaries occupied various corners of the health care galaxy before the
pandemic, and are now addressing “a supply-chain optimization failure.”
The solution often meant turning to labs located where the spread of the
virus was relatively contained. “In some places there are spikes and perhaps
testing issues; in other parts of the country there are not.”
nytimes.com
Returning Workers Divided on Contact Tracing
HR must address employee reactions, privacy
and compliance concerns
Majority of U.S. workers feel that contact tracing would help prevent the spread
of coronavirus as they return to their workplaces, but many aren't entirely
comfortable about the process and have concerns about its use. Experts
say contract tracing will be key to safely returning workers to their workplaces
and helping prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The method has been accepted by most U.S. workers. A recent survey of
1,007 employees by SHRM found that 68 percent of respondents agree that
employers using contact tracing would help to limit the spread of COVID-19 in
the workplace. However, a smaller majority said they would feel more comfortable
at work if their employer were to use contact tracing (57 percent) and that
the benefits of the practice outweigh potential privacy concerns (53 percent).
Employers must track workplace exposures, but they do not have to conduct
contact tracing.
New Area for Compliance Concern - Privacy Concerns shrm.org
You May Not Say It - But Everybody's Thinking It
How to Prevent Remote-Work Abuse
"During this period of time when employees are working remotely, it has never
been more important for employers to regularly communicate with and check in
with employees."
Signs include an employee:
● Not responding to e-mails or telephone calls during regular business hours for
long stretches.
● Not being available for calls or videoconference meetings.
● Being late with work assignments.
● Going out of town without seeking approval.
● Customer complaints about a lack of responsiveness.
"Managing remote teams is best done with metrics of performance established as
benchmarks, allowing for measures of performance," said David Lewis, CEO of
OperationsInc, headquartered in Norwalk, Conn. "Someone who is not meeting those
benchmarks will be easy to pick out." Those benchmarks include project output
and meeting deadlines, he noted.
Employers should have policies in place that clarify what conduct is not
acceptable in the remote workplace, Bronchetti said.
Policies should address:
● What hours nonexempt employees are expected to be on the clock.
● When exempt employees are expected to be available.
● Where an employee can work if his or her job requires access to confidential
information.
shrm.org
Apple Express is a new retail store experience designed with COVID-19 in mind
Apple Design Teams Develop Special Face Masks for Employees
California Proposition 20
- 11/3/2020
Let's Counter Prop 57 & Reduce Crime in the Stores
Retailers Call to Action in California: Nov. 3rd, 2020 Election
Prop. 20: Tougher Penalties, Parole Req's for Non-Violent Crimes;
DNA Collection
for Convicts
 There’s some serious debate surrounding a little-covered measure up for a
popular vote in two months: Proposition 20.
What is Proposition 20? In a nutshell, it’s three separate things:
1. It would allow prosecutors the option to charge some non-violent crimes as
felonies. These are mainly theft and drug crimes – crimes Californians recently
voted to reduce to misdemeanors.
2.
It would make it harder for those convicted of said theft and drug crimes to get
early parole.
3.
It would mandate DNA collection for people convicted of theft, drug and domestic
violence misdemeanors.
Increases Penalties for Certain Theft-Related Crimes. Proposition 20 creates two
new theft-related crimes:
● Serial Theft. Any person with two or more past convictions for certain
theft-related crimes (such as burglary, forgery, or carjacking) who is found
guilty of shoplifting or petty theft involving property worth more than $250
could be charged with serial theft.
● Organized Retail Theft. Any person acting with others who commits petty theft or
shoplifting two or more times where the total value of property stolen within
180 days exceeds $250 could be charged with organized retail theft.
 Merchants are suffering from more thefts, more violence and “more fear” in their
stores, and they have little recourse, according to Pfingst. He is referring to
an earlier ballot measure which increased the threshold for felony theft to $950
from $450. As long as shoplifters steal less than $950 of merchandise, it’s a
misdemeanor – something Pfingst says just isn’t strong enough to deter crime.
“They went too far,” said Pfingst of the prison reduction measures. “We’re just
allowing too many people to commit too many serious crimes, calling them
misdemeanors rather than felonies, and this is having collateral consequences,
unintended consequences that is hurting small businesses, merchants and other
people. A correction is overdue.”
“Prop 20 is an attempt to bring it back to a more strict analysis of who should
be in jail and who should not,” he said.
State Assemblymember Jim Cooper (D) out of Sacramento and Assemblymember Vince
Fong (R) out of San Joaquin Valley sponsored the ballot measure. Supporters
include two police unions out of Los Angeles and giant food retailer chain
Albertsons Safeway.
nbcsandiego.com
Editor's Note: If you can persuade your retailer to support the bill and send
emails, make calls, or have government affairs get involved please do so.
California Propositions and Initiatives - Prop 20
Election Date: Nov. 3rd, 2020 - Here's the online info
What Would This Ballot Initiative Change About Criminal Sentencing and
Supervision Policies in California?
West Coast Wildfires
At least 35 dead in wildfires that continue to blanket the West in smoke
 Oregon fire crews continued to battle the more than 30 fires raging across the
state, where more than 1 million acres have been scorched and, according to Gov.
Kate Brown (D), at least 10 people have been killed. More than 3,000 people were
staying in shelters run by local counties, Oregon officials said, which are also
following protocols to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus as residents
face overlapping crises. One death has been reported in the state of Washington,
according to the Associated Press.
Fire crews expect cooler conditions that may be helpful in coming days. Air
quality in the Pacific Northwest is among the worst in the world. Air quality
alerts are in effect for parts of California as well.
washingtonpost.com
Map-locator graphics and photos of the Western wildfires
Oregon wildfires race through small towns, scorching hundreds of buildings
California wildfires have burned an area almost the size of Connecticut
Since the start of 2020, wildfires in California have burned over 3.2 million
acres of land -- an area almost the size of Connecticut.
CalFire said Monday that nearly
16,500 firefighters have been battling 28 major
wildfires in the state, which have left 24 people dead and over 4,200 structures
destroyed. For those who have avoided the flames, smoke from the fires has
choked the air and kept people inside. The continued risk of future fires has
forced partial power shutoffs for thousands of California residents.
Record-breaking temperatures and a lack of rain have only exacerbated
conditions.
cnn.com
Cal Fire Incident Info Interactive Map
A zoomed out view of the map
(below, left) shows active
fires throughout the western U.S.
Zooming in (below, right)
you can see the status of individual structure and actual pictures of buildings
in the vicinity of the Creek, CA fire.
Field damage inspection is still ongoing and subject to change. The points shown
in this map are being updated regularly. Data is subject to change as
information is gathered and verified. The icons on the map indicate the current
known status of the structure. If your structure is not identified by an icon,
it has not yet been identified.
arcgis.com
Click to view interactive map
Top Trump health appointee warns of armed insurrection after election
A top communications official for the administration’s coronavirus response
urged President Trump’s supporters to prepare for an armed insurrection after a
contested election and accused government scientists of “sedition” in a
Facebook Live chat that he described in detail to The Washington Post on Monday.
Michael Caputo, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of
Health and Human Services, which is overseeing the coronavirus response, leveled
the accusations and promoted other conspiracy theories in a Facebook Live event
first reported by the New York Times. Caputo confirmed the authenticity of the
video in comments he made to The Post.
washingtonpost.com
Protests in Lancaster, PA
Protests erupt after police shooting of Ricardo Munoz caught on body cam
Mayor
says ‘we need help’ with mental health care
 After a night of protests over the fatal shooting of a Latino man by police
Sunday, city officials in Lancaster, Pa., addressed the issue Monday and called
for a different, “more human” response to emergency situations that involve
mental health.
Mayor Danene Sorace said in a news conference Monday that there is a “clear
need” for a de-escalation response from law enforcement, as well as an expansion
of state-funded mental health care — and other social services — to prevent
fatal incidents like Sunday night’s, and she argued that recent state budget
cuts have undermined these efforts.
washingtonpost.com
Cities Were Filled With Mass Protests in the Summer of 2020.
They Are Different Now
Law-enforcement officials say presence of
armed fringe groups from both sides of political spectrum raises prospect of a
new wave of violence
 Months of mass protests have given way to more violent and even deadly
demonstrations, driven by extremists who are flocking to them.
Law-enforcement officials say they are alarmed by the presence of armed fringe
groups from both sides of the political spectrum at the protests and say the
deadly shootings late last month in Kenosha, Wis., and Portland, Ore., raise the
prospect of a new wave of political violence.
Forces ratcheting up the intensity at rallies include outrage expressed by many
about the treatment of Black Americans by police, divisions over pandemic
restrictions, an economic downturn that left millions of Americans jobless and a
contentious national election, current and former law-enforcement officials say.
Police have struggled to stop the violence and have faced criticism for allowing
protests to descend into chaos, while more armed fringe groups have been drawn
to the fray, experts say.
“This has always been the nightmare scenario,” said Colin Clarke, a researcher
at the Soufan Center, a nonpartisan group that tracks extremism. “I’m frankly
surprised it’s taken this long for people to be shot and killed.”
As protests over police brutality grew more intense this summer, police in some
cities were told to avoid using force unless they absolutely had to, said Frank
Straub, a director at the Police Foundation and a former Spokane, Washington
police chief.
wsj.com
Hurricane Sally Live Updates: Gulf Coast Could See Up to 30 Inches of Rain
Officials urged people to prepare for “life-threatening” flash floods,
torrential rains and strong winds. “This is the real deal,” Mississippi’s
governor said.
As Hurricane Sally churned slowly over the Gulf Coast early Tuesday morning,
creeping along at just 2 miles per hour as it approached the coast, officials
warned residents from Mississippi to Florida to prepare for possibly devastating
flooding with the storm surge and heavy rain expected to build in intensity over
the next 36 hours.
A hurricane warning remained in effect for an area stretching eastward from the
mouth of the Pearl River on the Louisiana-Mississippi border to Navarre, near
the tip of the Florida panhandle — a distance of about 200 miles that includes
Mississippi’s and Alabama’s entire coastlines.
nytimes.com
Security company GardaWorld reveals it's trying to buy G4S for $3.9B
GardaWorld, the world’s largest privately owned security company, went
public Monday with a 3 billion-pound ($3.9 billion) offer for G4S, saying
its London-based rival has rejected or ignored three previous approaches.
Montreal-based GardaWorld says it decided to publicize its bid of 190 pence a
share - a 30% premium to G4S’s closing price on Friday - to pressure the firm
into talks.
London-based G4S responded by saying the bid “significantly undervalues the
company and its prospects.″ “Shareholders are strongly advised to take
absolutely no action in relation to the new proposal,″ the company said.
G4S, which employs more than 500,000 people in 85 countries, said its
financial performance has been “particularly resilient" since the outbreak of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company in July posted underlying first-half earnings of 97 million pounds,
the same as for the year-earlier period. Revenue fell 1.5% to 3.35 billion
pounds.
abcnews.com
UK: ACS calls for sentencing guidelines to do more to recognize shopworker
violence
The Association of Convenience Stores is calling for sentencing guidelines to do
more to address violence against shopworkers, and for penalties to better
reflect both the physical and psychological impact on victims.
In its submission to the Sentencing Council’s
consultation on revised guidelines for assault offences, ACS calls for:
● Intention to cause fear of serious harm (including disease transmission) to be
explicitly referenced as a higher culpability factor increasing offence
seriousness, given the increase in coughing and spitting offences related to
Covid-19
● The sentencing guidelines for assaults must better account for violence
against shopworkers and the psychological impacts of these offences, to ensure
offenders receive appropriate sanctions and to deter repeat offending
● The barriers to the use of ‘serving the public’ as an aggravating factor by
magistrates must be understood and resolved to determine whether clearer
language is required.
Figures from the 2020 ACS Crime Report show that there have been over 50,000
incidents of violence, abuse and threats towards people working in the
convenience sector, including almost 10,000 incidents where a weapon was
involved. Additionally, during lockdown, 40% of retailers in the convenience
sector reported that there had been an increase in violence and abuse in stores,
with many facing Covid-19 related abuse such as coughing and spitting.
talkingretail.com
Kent, England: C-store Introduces Body-Worn Cameras to Protect Staff
 Nye said: “It took a while for the staff to get used to the cameras because they
stick out a bit, but it’s been fine, it makes them feel safer. At the moment
they aren’t recording, we are just using them as a deterrent, but if they feel
something is going to happen they are easy to switch on.”
She added: “The cameras cost £199 each from Amazon – we just got two to test,
but we will probably buy more, a slightly cheaper version. I would 100%
recommend body-worm cameras to all retailers.”
talkingretail.com
Ignoring the China Threat - Money Means More?
GNC Scraps Auction, Going Ahead With Sale to China’s Harbin
Proceeding amid call from Sen. Marco Rubio
for national-security probe
GNC is moving ahead with a sale to China’s Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Co. after
no other offers emerged and canceling the bankruptcy auction, even as the deal
drew scrutiny from Sen. Marco Rubio.
The senator argued that through the deal, the Chinese government could gain
access to sensitive health data about U.S. consumers. The senator has focused on
the potential threat that Chinese acquisitions of U.S. companies pose to
national security.
In 2018, Congress ordered Cfius to take a closer look at acquisitions that could
put personal data at risk and the panel made no objections.
wsj.com
16 Retailers That Are Actually Opening More Stores Right Now
Quarterly
Results
Alimentation Couche-Tard Q1 merchandise comp's up 7.7%, in U.S., 19.9% in
Canada, 3.4% in Europe, fuel comp's down 21.2% in U.S., down 25.6% in Canada,
down 12.4% in Europe
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Bipartisan Bill Looks to Create Secure Digital Identities
Legislation Seeks to Address ID Theft and
Fraud Stemming From Breaches
A bipartisan bill introduced Friday in the House of Representatives looks to
take some initial steps in creating nation-wide digital identity standards that
attempt to address a range of security issues, including theft and fraud
stemming from data breaches.
The bill, "Improving
Digital Identity Act of 2020," was introduced by Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill.,
who serves on the House Financial Services Committee and has previously held
hearings about using emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to
improve identity and make it more secure (see:
Congress Hears Ideas for Battling ID Theft).
The bill would create an interagency task force composed of federal, state and
local agencies that would develop uniform standards for digital identities that
would offer more security and privacy protections for individuals. It also calls
for creating new verification tools that public and private organizations could
use.
govinfosecurity.com
U.S. Interconnected E-Commerce Fraud Networks
U.S. Leads the World in Volume of Attacks
The LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report Reveals New Opportunities and
Risks for the U.S. and Canada in Digital Channels During Global Pandemic
 Findings from the first half of 2020 highlight overall decline in
human-initiated attacks, growth in bot attacks targeting financial services
organizations.
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions today released its biannual Cybercrime Report, which
tracks global cybercrime activity from January through June 2020. The report
dives deep into how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the global digital
economy, regional economies, industries, businesses and consumer behavior. The
period has seen strong transaction volume growth compared to 2019 but an overall
decline in global attack volume. This is likely linked to growth in genuine
customer activity due to changing consumer habits.
The LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report analyzes data from more than
22.5 billion transactions processed by the LexisNexis® Digital Identity
Network®, a 37% growth year over year. Mobile device transactions also continue
to rise, with 66% of all transactions coming from mobile devices in the first
half of 2020, up from 20% in early 2015. The Digital Identity Network® also
noted an uptick in transactions from new devices and new digital identities. We
can attribute this to many new-to-digital consumers moving online to procure
goods and services that were no longer available in person or harder to access
via a physical store during the pandemic.
The United States (U.S.) and Canada encountered lower overall attack rates in
comparison to other global regions from January through June 2020. This is true
across both desktop and mobile browser channels. The U.S. does contribute the
highest volume of human-initiated and automated bot attacks globally. There are
also pockets of attack growth across specific industries and use cases. These
include upticks in attack rates targeting all use cases in the media industry,
as well as financial services new account creations.
There is a clear pattern of networked fraud recorded across the region,
highlighted by large, interconnected e-commerce fraud networks in the U.S. This
network saw at least $27.9 million exposed to fraud across five online retailers
and one online marketplace. This network alone consisted of 850 devices, 134,000
email addresses and 61,000 telephone numbers.
Download a copy of the
LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report, January
through June 2020.
Watch Rebekah Moody, director of fraud and identity at
LexisNexis Risk Solutions, share an
overview of the latest Cybercrime Report.
prnewswire.com
Security Through an Economics Lens: A Guide for CISOs
Security and IT leaders are familiar with the challenge of making trade-off
decisions about how and where to invest resources to best manage risks to the
organization. Viewing their problems through the lens of economics may help them
reprioritize these tricky investment decisions.
Tom Scholtz, research vice president at Gartner, took a deep dive into this idea
during a talk at Gartner's Security & Risk Management Summit, taking place
online this week. Scholtz argued how concepts such as opportunity cost, core to
the study of economics, can prove just as useful in cybersecurity, where it's
often tough to determine whether resources are spent properly.
According to Gartner, 82% of businesses will only change their investment
portfolio when they update their budgets, whether that's on an annual or
biannual basis. Only 18% change their investment priorities throughout the year
based on major business changes, Scholtz explained.
"We all know that change doesn't sync up with our budget cycles, and we all know
that our executives tend to make decisions based on changes in the business
environment," he said. "We need to find ways of understanding how the business
makes investment decisions and change decisions … so that we can react to that
as effectively as possible when those changes occur."
darkreading.com
Dark Side of AI: How to Make Artificial Intelligence Trustworthy
Security and privacy concerns are the top barriers to adoption of artificial
intelligence, and for good reason. Both benign and malicious actors can threaten
the performance, fairness, security and privacy of AI models and data.
This isn’t something enterprises can ignore as AI becomes more mainstream and
promises them an array of benefits. In fact, on the recent
Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2020, more than a third of the
technologies listed were related to AI.
At the same time, AI also has a dark side that often goes unaddressed,
especially since the current machine learning and AI platform market has not
come up with consistent nor comprehensive tooling to defend organizations. This
means organizations are on their own. What’s worse is that according to a
Gartner survey, consumers believe that it is the organization using or
providing AI that should be accountable when it goes wrong.
It is in every organization’s interest to implement security measures
that counter threats in order to protect AI investments. Threats and attacks
against AI not only compromise AI model security and data security, but also
compromise model performance and outcomes.
informationweek.com
Big Exposure Most Often Overlooked
More Printers Could Mean Security Problems for Home-Bound Workers
Tricked-out home offices have led to an influx in printers, many of which have
not been set up securely, leaving workers and their companies vulnerable.
Remote workers often do not use strong passwords to protect the
administrator account and may not have up-to-date firmware on the
devices, which leaves the printers as a way into their home network and — using
lateral movement through a company's virtual private network — into the
corporate network.
At the end of August, a group of researchers sent a print job to a sampling of
50,000 of the 800,000 Internet-connected printers found through search engines
such as Shodan.io, resulting in nearly 28,000 printers — or 56% of the
discoverable devices — printing out their document, a single-page guide to
securing the printer. The experiment of questionable legality led the group to
conclude that about 450,000 printers are vulnerable to attack over the
Internet.
The threat is not theoretical.
darkreading.com
PCI SSC to Host its 2020 Community Meetings Online as Virtual Events
 In an unprecedented year, PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) will host its
2020 Community Meetings online, as virtual events, for the first time in the
Council’s history. The annual North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific Community
Meetings offer an opportunity to bring the PCI SSC community together to network
with colleagues, share regional insights, and hear important Council updates.
In this interview with Executive Director Lance J. Johnson, we discuss what
attendees can expect this year, the key content that will be addressed, and the
value of holding these meetings, even in a virtual environment.
pcisecuritystandards.org |
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Catherine
joined Total Wine & More in October 2006 as an Assistant Store Manager and later
became a Store Manager. In June 2009 she joined the Loss Prevention team as an
analyst. As the company grew Catherine assumed additional positions and
responsibilities, serving as an investigator, senior regional LP business
partner, Sr. Manager of Investigations, and most recently as Director of LP &
Safety. In her most recent position she has provided important leadership on
cross-functional teams, Covid-Tracing Teams, and complex investigations.
Congratulations, Catherine!
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