El Paso Walmart Unveils Plans for Permanent Memorial for Shooting Victims

The memorial will be built on the south side of the store's parking lot and will be enclosed by a decorative metal fence and landscaped with native plants.

Walmart has unveiled its plans for a permanent memorial to honor the 22 victims shot inside the El Paso store on Aug. 3, 2019.

The memorial's centerpiece will be a 30-foot tall Grand Candela that will be made up of 22 individual perforated aluminum arcs that are grouped together into one piece. The candela will symbolize unity and emanate light into the sky.

"We are grateful to be part of such an incredible community that when faced with tragedy has responded with unity, compassion and love," said Todd Peterson, Walmart vice president and regional general manager.

Store to reopen Thursday November 14. nbcdfw.com
 

WSJ Article: Worries about Facial Recognition
Business Groups Push Back Against Proposed Facial-Recognition Bans
Moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology would be premature and have unintended consequences'

The corporate sector is working to influence how facial-recognition tools are regulated, spooked by local bans on government agencies' use of the technology and lawmakers' proposals for nationwide restrictions.

The issue is a talking point among Democratic presidential candidates. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has called for a nationwide ban on police use of facial recognition. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) have both called for regulations on facial-recognition technology as part of their criminal-justice platforms.

Also worrying for corporations is a bill that Sen. Roy Blunt (R., Mo.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) introduced in March. The Commercial Facial Recognition Privacy Act would limit companies' ability to share facial-recognition data and would prohibit the use of the technology unless a business obtains consent from the people it is used on and provides notice and documentation explaining how the technology works. The bill hasn't made it to a committee vote.


 

Artificial Intelligence Use Expected to Increase in Risk and Compliance Efforts
Nearly half (48.5 percent) of C-suite and other executives at organizations that use artificial intelligence (AI) expect to increase AI use for risk management and compliance efforts in the year ahead, according to a recent Deloitte poll.

The findings are based on more than 565 C-suite and other executives working at organizations using AI, polled online during a Deloitte webcast.

Only 21.1 percent of respondents report that their organizations have an ethical framework in place for AI use within risk management and compliance programs. While AI ethics frameworks for risk management and compliance may be few, there is a silver lining, says the report: companies are more likely than not to involve top leaders in developing ethical AI practices. More than half of respondents (53.5 percent) indicated that AI ethics responsibilities are established including the C-suite. Just one-fifth (19 percent) indicate the C-suite in their organizations have no AI ethics responsibilities, notes the report. securitymagazine.com

What the CEO's Are Reading
How Retailers Get Ahead of the Weather
Retailers Companies Must Make Weather Work for Them not Against Them
We've all heard it thousands of times in earnings calls. "Unfavorable weather conditions" are a popular excuse as to why sales are down, and profits not realized. Quarter after quarter, year after year, this straw man is trotted out, and shareholders and investors buy it. After all, the weather in that earnings period was pretty bad.

But IBM's global director of consumer weather Paul Walsh says that excuse can't fly anymore. "We now have the data, forecasts, and ability to measure precisely what the weather will mean in terms of what consumers will be wanting and buying so we can change our businesses and our results accordingly."

Walsh knows what he is talking about. He served for10 years as chief meteorologist in the U.S. Air Force until 1994, then moved over into civilian life to develop weather-based decision and planning tools for retail, CPG/FMCG, pharmaceutical, restaurant and financial services companies. This led to The Weather Company and now IBM. He quips, "We were big data before big data was cool."

Weather Can Make or Break You



FedEx Bribery Generates $150M in Revenue for Trucking Co's At Utah FedEx Ground Hub
Four indictments reveal trucking companies in Utah paid more than $1 million in bribes to the Utah FedEx Ground hub manager as a part of a scheme to exploit the employee's position within FedEx Ground (FXG) to make the trucking businesses as lucrative as possible. Ten individuals are charged in the indictments.

One of the four indictments, for example, alleges that by fraudulently obtaining runs, allowing unauthorized runs to continue, boosting miles and receiving payment for "ghost runs," falsely reporting accidents, and falsely reporting miles to gain income - among other things, five co-conspirators received approximately $150 million in FedEx Ground revenue and paid $300,000 in bribes to Mower.

Ryan Lee Mower, age 47, of Bountiful, was FXG's highest-ranking employee in Utah from at least 2008 to October 2019. His primary responsibilities included overseeing the FXG contract service providers and ensuring that each local trucking company complied with FXG policies and regulations. He received more than $1 million in bribes. justice.gov

Black Friday retail outlook is challenging
Crowds & Online's Easier Plain & Simple
There is good news and bad news for retailers about Black Friday.

The good news is slightly more consumers say they intend to go into physical stores on Black Friday this year than in 2018 – 39%, up 2% from the response in a similar consumer survey last year, according to a report by Genesys.

However, 61% of U.S. consumers said they do not plan to shop in-store on Black Friday and, of that total, 33% said they simply "never" go. In a challenge for retailers, 28% claim they used to go shopping on Black Friday but have stopped.

67% cited crowds as their main reason for staying home. Other reasons for staying home: price reductions aren't worth the inconvenience (25%); and online shopping is easier (27%). chainstoreage.com
 

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market

VP, Asset Protection, North America for Ralph Lauren Corporation in Nutley, NJ
The Company is seeking a Vice President, Asset Protection based in either Nutley, New Jersey or Greensboro, North Carolina. This leader will be passionate about our mission - to serve everyone like family. This simple, passionate mission provides a better shopping experience for our customer, shows respect, value and development for our team, and creates growth for our shareholders.

In addition, the role oversees and directs North America Asset Protection related functions for multi-state distribution centers and large retail store network as well as supports the SVP of Asset Protection and Internal Audit in executing the strategy with a goal of minimizing shrink, ensuring compliance, and maximizing security and associate safety.ralphlauren.com

Sr. Security Project Manager job posted for Verizon in Waltham, MA

Carvana Post First Dir. Risk Management & Senior LP Manager Corporate positions in Phoenix

Manager, Risk Management for Harvest Health and Recreating in Tempe, AZ (Cannabis grower/retailer)

 

Legislation Introduced to Help Rental Car Firms Identify Potential Terrorists

Walgreens To Open 30 More ‘Small Stores’ In Big U.S. Cities

Raley's to close 27 pharmacies

Publishing Note: LP Newswire will not be published tomorrow. It will resume publication on Nov. 7


Quarterly Results
The Container Store Group Q2 comp's up 5.4%, net sales up 5.3%
Cheesecake Factory Q3 comp's up 0.4%, sales up 1.9%
MarineMax Q4 comp's down 9%, sales down .16%, full yr comp's up 1%, sales up 5%
Regis Corp. Q1 comp's down 1.1%, franchise comp's down 0.1%, sales down 14.2 (driven by conversion of 1,143 salons to franchise ownership)

Topco & Food City to Test Mastercard & Envisible Blockchain - Food Traceability
Mastercard said Monday that, under the initiative, its blockchain-based Provenance Solution will power Envisible's Wholechain traceability system to help Topco members' supermarkets trace and highlight the origin of seafood. The test will start with Food City, part of Abington, Va.-based K-VA-T Food Stores, which operates more than 130 stores overall.

"Using Envisible Wholechain, powered by Mastercard, our grocers will be able to stock shelves with confidence and also be able to pinpoint issues in the food chain during any unfortunate events such as recalls,"

"The identity of things is becoming even more important as consumers raise demands for transparency." supermarketnews.com

Webroot Reveals 2019's Nastiest Threats
From ransomware strains and cryptomining campaigns that delivered the most attack payloads to phishing attacks that wreaked the most havoc, what are 2019's nastiest malware threats, identified by Webroot?

Ransomware - Evolving more targeted models with SMB's their primary target.

1. Emotet - Trickbot - Ryuk ("Triple Threat") - The strains have shifted their focus to more reconnaissance-based operations. They assign a value to the targeted network post infection and then send the ransom for that amount after moving laterally and deploying the ransomware.

2. GandCrab - One the most successful instance of RaaS (ransomware-as-a-service) to date, the authors have boasted shared profits in excess of $2 billion.

3. Sodinokibi - Sodin / REvil - This combination arose after the retirement of GandCrab. It's not uncommon for successful threat actors who receive a lot of attention to try to start new projects in an attempt remain successful.

Phishing - Email-based malware campaigns increased dramatically in complexity and believability in 2019. Phishing campaigns became more personalized and extortion emails claimed to have captured lude behavior using compromised passwords.

1 Company Impersonation: Top impersonated brands like Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Google and PayPal - caused significant damage.

2. Business Email Compromise (BEC) - In 2019 there was a rise of email address hijacking and deep fakes. Individuals who are responsible for sending payments or purchasing gift cards were targeted through spoof email accounts impersonating company executives or familiar parties. Victims were tricked into giving up wire transfers, credentials, gift cards and more. securitymagazine.com

IaaS cloud vulnerabilities expected to increase 50% over 2018 figures
Although the total number of IaaS cloud vulnerabilities is still small and the technology relatively young, volumes are increasing year-over-year at a steady rate, an expected to hit 50-percent growth by the end of 2019, Skybox reveals.

Key findings of the report include:

● Vulnerabilities affecting cloud IaaS solutions likely to increase 50% over 2018 figures
● Cloud container vulnerabilities have increased by 82% thus far in 2019
● Third-party cloud plugins and apps further expanding the attack surface
● Misconfigurations the greatest risk to cloud security

"Organizations would be wise not to be too distracted by this increase in vulnerability reports. The biggest cloud insecurities don't exist within the service provider's infrastructure itself, but in the way that companies implement and manage the technology.

"Without proper security considerations and oversight, misconfigurations and policy violations may abound. These process-related issues are hiding in plain sight within organizations - and they present the greatest risk." helpnetsecurity.com

Fast-Food Chain Krystal Investigates Card 'Security Incident'

Beginners Guide to AWS Security Monitoring - Registration Required

57% of Midsized Companies in U.S. Have No CISO

Kitchener, ON: Trailer loaded with tires worth $110K stolen from business

Cookstown, ON: Toronto Couple - One Former Employee - Arrested Following $50,000 Perfume Theft; Selling Online

GTA: Three Romanians facing 114 charges in distraction theft ring

156 criminal charges later, Calgary police ask public to look out for distraction scammers

Credit card fraud alert: Kelowna woman warns after false food order

A lot of people 'getting ripped off' by gift card scammers, victims and experts warn
 

Robberies & Burglaries

● C-Store - Montreal, QC - Armed Robbery
● C-Store - Oshawa, ON - Armed Robbery
● C-Store - St. Johns, NL - Armed Robberies (2)
● Cycle Store - Kingston, ON - Burglary
● Grocery Store - Edmonton, AB - Armed Robbery
● Grocery Store - St. Johns, NL - Armed Robbery
● Salvation Army - Wiarton, ON - Burglary
● Sports Store - Kingston, ON - Burglary

Intelligent Video.
What's Your Store Showing You?

Network surveillance technologies continue to revolutionize the way retail professionals work with not just loss prevention, but also with store optimization, operational efficiencies, and enhancements to the overall customer experience. Hedgie Bartol, Retail Business Development Manager for Axis Communications, tells us how new advancements in intelligent devices and deep learning technology can provide business intelligence that helps LP/AP professionals drive results beyond shrink, safety, and security.
 

International Multimillion 'Gold Trafficking'
French Jeweler + 9 Accomplices Arrested By Europol
Fencing Operation - Retail Store - Busted in Germany
A gold trafficking case between France and Germany thought to be worth at least €1 million has led to the arrest on 21 October of a French jeweler and nine of his accomplices, as well as the seizure of nearly 3 million of criminal assets. The 56-year old jeweller was arrested on a train at the border between France and Germany with €37 000 in cash on him. Two accomplices were arrested in Germany, and one in Austria.

The year long investigation, by the French Gendarmerie, identified a jeweler in Nantes, France, who is believed to be the mastermind behind a large-scale gold trafficking scheme. The suspect would be provided with large amounts of gold jewellery – most of it thought to be stolen, which he would proceed to melt. The French jeweler would then travel to Frankfurt, Germany, where he would sell the melted jewels with the help of an accomplice who managed a shop selling gold. The jeweler is believed to have traveled to Frankfurt over 28 times this past year for such illegal activities which are thought to have generated at least 1 million in criminal profits.

Organized property crime is one of the Europol's EMPACT priorities, Europol’s priority crime areas, under the 2018–2021 EU Policy Cycle. europa.eu

Brazilian Skimming Gang Hit U.S. ATM's - Casinos - Retailers For Millions
11th Man Sentenced For International Credit Card Fraud Scheme Receives 97-Month Prison Sentence
Anderson Clayton Mariano Alcantara, 29, of Sorocaba, Brazil, was sentenced Monday to 97 months in prison, U.S. Attorney Nicholas A. Trutanich announced.

According to court documents, from about January 1, 2013, to about January 3, 2017, Alcantara and others conspired to commit credit and debit card fraud by placing “skimmers” on automatic teller machines (ATM).

Alcantara and his co-conspirators used the counterfeit credit and debit cards at hotel casinos; nightclub;, high-end watch, jewelry, and fashion boutiques: electronic retailers; and ATMs in Las Vegas and in other cities around the country. The Alcantara group’s conspiracy touched Del Mar, California; Detroit, Michigan; New Orleans, Louisiana; Nassau County, New York; Biloxi, Mississippi; and Atlantic City, New Jersey. These activities caused millions of dollars in losses to hotel-casino properties and other retail businesses. justice.gov

Cedar Rapids, IA: Nordstrom Distribution Center employee accused of stealing more than $20,000 in merchandise
A Vinton woman was arrested over the weekend after she allegedly stole more than $20,000 worth of items from the Nordstrom Midwest Fulfillment Center. Officers were called to the center to meet with loss prevention staff. Public safety spokesman Greg Buelow said Rhonda L. Kies, 48, who was a center employee, allegedly had placed several thousand dollars worth of stolen items on an online auction site to sell. The center’s loss prevention staff also reported that Kies was seen on the facility’s video security system stealing a bracelet before police were called. The criminal complaint states Kies allegedly admitted to stealing items from the business on more than one occasion over the past couple of years. Buelow said a majority of the items Kies took were jewelry pieces. Kies faces a charge of first-degree theft. Kies is the third Nordstrom employee in the past 11 months to be arrested on accusations of stealing. thegazette.com

Forsyth, WI: Man arrested for $4,700 of fraudulent transactions at Menards
Police said they have arrested a Decatur man responsible for setting up a fraudulent account that cheated Menards out of merchandise valued at more than $4,700. A sworn affidavit from the Macon County Sheriff’s Office said the goods were taken in a flurry of purchases made between June 22 and June 24. The affidavit said deputies found and arrested the 25-year-old man Friday and he was booked on a preliminary charge of fraud; preliminary charges are subject to review by the state attorney’s office. Writing in the affidavit, Deputy Anthony Anello said the sheriff’s office had been alerted to the fraud in August when it was contacted by a Menards “security adviser” from the home improvement chain’s home office in Wisconsin. “They stated they had just discovered a fraudulent account had been used to make purchases at the store in Forsyth,” said Anello. herald-review.com

Cheltenham Township, PA: Home Depot thief busted with $229 in merchandise, also an active warrant
Felix Rodriguez-Nazario, 49, and Maria Gonzalez, 48, of the 3300 block of North 2nd Street, Philadelphia, were charged with retail theft after taking $229 in goods from Home Depot, 7690 Washington lane, at 3:25 p.m. Oct. 10, police said. Rodriguez-Nazario was taken into custody on an active warrant out of Burlington County, police said. thereporteronline.com

Fort Hays, KS: Stolen Credit card used to purchase $4,000 in gift cards

Omaha, NE: Police find credit card-making machine, 9 laptops, credit cards and IDs in man's car