Retailers Scramble to Beef Up Security Amid Violence & Theft Surge
Retailers Ramp Up Holiday Safety Measures After Wave of Violence, Thefts
Several mall shootings this weekend have cast a shadow on the busy after-Thanksgiving rush to stores as some retailers across the country deal with flash mob robbery sprees that have put a damper on holiday cheer.

These shootings are coupled with six reported “smash-and-grab” thefts on Black Friday in the Los Angeles area. Police in Los Angeles were on a “city-wide tactical alert” Friday night due to these increased robberies, authorities said.

This string of rising crime has sparked concerns on how retailers are addressing the safety of its customers, employees, and merchandise as the holiday shopping season heats up.

Nordstrom, which has been heavily affected by these flash mob robberies is beefing up its security efforts. A Nordstrom spokesperson told FN in a statement that, “The safety of our employees and customers is always our top priority, and it’s important to us that we create a store environment where everyone feels safe and welcome. Given recent incidents at our stores and incidents across the industry, we’re heightening our in-store security presence and implementing additional protective measures to keep everyone safe.”

To accomplish this, the Seattle-based retailer said it is “positioning security personnel inside and outside of our stores” and “working closely with mall security and law enforcement to anticipate and minimize risk.” The spokesperson also noted that it has implemented enhanced training and protocols “designed to ensure all our teams feel prepared to respond in the event of a safety incident.”

Another major department store chain that wished to remain anonymous as to not disclose specific security measures, told FN in a statement that it “deploys both visible and plain clothed security personnel in its locations” and “coordinates closely with mall security, local and national law enforcement agencies, in assessing risk and response.” The retailer added that “we take these situations very seriously, as health and safety of our colleagues and customers are our top priority.”

Over at New Jersey’s American Dream mega-mall, a company representative told FN that the shopping center has added additional security and K9 units for the holiday season in result to current (crime) trends. The representative went on to state that the mall has a team that “collaborates with our retail partners on loss prevention” and have “implemented an extremely successful system” designed to identify shop lifting and prevent it while in progress. Additionally, American Dream also has a “partnership with law enforcement to stay informed on New Jersey/New York as well as national crime trends. The goal is always to stay informed in order to maintain a safe environment,” the representative added. footwearnews.com

Surge of Armed Security at California Shopping Malls
Gov. Newsom Enlists CA Highway Patrol To Help Stop Smash & Grab Robberies
This holiday season the California Highway Patrol will provide additional armed protection at major shopping malls across the state as retail robberies become more frequent and brazen. Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state officers to increase patrols on freeways adjacent to busy California shopping centers and make stops at the malls.

The CHP’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force plans to also help local law enforcement investigate retail crimes and recover stolen merchandise. Since 2019, the task force has made 240 arrests and recovered $18.9 million in stolen goods.

“I don’t feel safe anymore,” said Jocelyn Quiroz. “We try not to go to San Francisco anymore because it doesn’t make sense to go there right now.”

Quiroz, who chose to shop on Monday at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, said she’s more vigilant of her surroundings while shopping and picky about where she goes in the wake of the recent retail smash-and-grabs.

The wave of robberies have spanned the entire Bay Area. San Francisco police made multiple arrests recently in a brazen smash-and-grab at the Louis Vuitton store. About 40 thieves stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise. An estimated 80 robbers ransacked a Nordstrom in Walnut Creek. Stores in Palo Alto, Concord and San Jose have also been recently hit.

In San Jose, police and security stepped up patrols and stood at almost every doorway at Valley Fair mall and Santa Row for Black Friday shopping.

“Full stop, we want real accountability,” Gov. Newsom said. “We want people prosecuted and we want people to feel safe this holiday season.” sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com

The Politics of Surging Retail Crime
Retail thefts ratchet up reformers’ rhetoric
A series of seemingly orchestrated, stunningly brazen smash-and-grabs have hammered stores in the Bay Area and Los Angeles over the past few weeks, frightening retailers and putting elected officials on the defensive. A string of Thanksgiving weekend robberies in L.A. had authorities there on tactical alert, and Bay Area law enforcement fortified their presence outside shopping areas after people broke into several stores the prior weekend.

As images and accounts of those crimes reverberated beyond California, local and statewide leaders have vowed to crack down. Last week we saw Gov. Gavin Newsom pledge he would seek an “exponentially” greater budget outlay to help cities and counties combat property crimes, offering an echo of the rhetoric of an earlier tough-on-crime era.

“I have no empathy, no sympathy for these kinds of criminal gangs and elements,” the governor said, vowing to “make an example” of perpetrators and noting his own businesses have been hit multiple times. Earlier this year, Newsom signed legislation reconstituting an organized theft task force.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has similarly telegraphed toughness, launching an organized retail theft initiative of her own and floating privately funded cash rewards for tips that help break up orchestrated theft rings. Last week Attorney General Rob Bonta and a collection of Bay Area district attorneys unveiled a collective effort to stymie organized retail theft — a push that notably had the endorsement of even reformists like San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton, as well as the support of the Prosecutors Alliance, a group these progressives formed as a counterweight to the more traditional California District Attorneys Association.

California’s Democratic elected officials, like the electorate writ large, have been supporting policies to lessen criminal penalties while backing a new generation of reform-minded prosecutors.

Republican critics have been eager to point out that Democratic incumbents from Newsom on down largely supported Proposition 47 — which downgraded property crime penalties — and opposed last year’s law enforcement-backed Proposition 20, which specifically sought to create a specific new crime called “organized retail theft.”

Those dynamics have already helped opponents of Boudin qualify a June recall vote to oust the first-term San Francisco district attorney. politico.com

Massive LAPD Scandal Began with Gun Store Theft
How the theft of 44 firearms from an L.A. gun store exploded into an LAPD scandal
Duenas, manager of the gun store at the Los Angeles Police Academy, had been reprimanded over the years for tardiness and sloppy record keeping, but he never took time off, according to the memo. As the store’s closing supervisor, he was there each night to lock up — and hand count the inventory.

Then, in February 2020, Duenas’ bosses told him he had accrued the “maximum allowable leave hours” and had to take time off, prosecutors wrote in the memo. When he did, another manager finally made the startling discovery: Boxes meant to have guns in them were actually empty.

The resulting investigation quickly led to Duenas’ arrest. But it also uncovered a larger scandal inside the LAPD: The clientele for Duenas’ stolen weapons included cops.

LAPD and L.A. County District Attorney records and interviews by The Times show that what started out as a probe into Duenas has spiraled in the last year and a half, spurring a cascade of allegations of criminal activity, misconduct and corruption on the part of officers and commanders.

There are also dueling claims by some of the accused officers that they have been scapegoated by overzealous investigators despite doing nothing wrong and being victims themselves — not only of Duenas’ deception, but of years of negligence on the part of the LAPD to ensure proper management of the gun store, which it directed officers to use.

That alleged neglect, according to a pending claim against the city from one officer, came despite the fact that the LAPD was aware for years of “prior negligence and mismanagement issues related to the sale, tracking, and documentation of firearms and firearm transactions” by gun store personnel.

The case raises red flags about the LAPD’s oversight of the gun store and its ability to investigate its own officers. It also offers an eye-opening window into the gun culture within the LAPD and the degree to which LAPD officers are allegedly profiting off the sale of firearms — including “off roster” guns that police officers have special access to despite their being declared unsafe for commercial sale in the state.

Investigators alleged LAPD officers, including several who are still on the job, knowingly purchased stolen weapons from Duenas, bought and sold much larger numbers of firearms in questionable ways, and dangerously stored loaded guns in places accessible to children, according to internal police records. latimes.com

Bail Reform Driving Violent Crime
Op-Ed: Deadly result of progressive arrogance on bail reform
It’s hard to beat the arrogance of Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who actually admitted back in 2007 that his low-bail policies would someday see a beneficiary “go out and kill somebody.” Though “it’s guaranteed to happen,” he argued, “it does not invalidate the overall approach.”

Ouch. That has to be cold comfort to the survivors of the Dancing Grannies and others slain in the attack on the Waukesha Christmas parade, including little Jackson Sparks.

Chisholm’s concession that the $1,000 cash bond given Darrell Brooks just days before Sunday’s parade carnage was “inappropriately low” won’t help, either.

But his arrogance is rivaled by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Carolyn Maloney and Jamie Raskin, who just wrote the five city district attorneys demanding answers on “excessive bail” supposedly trapping innocents on Rikers.

The three congressfolk seem unaware that Rikers’ population is at its lowest in decades (other than after the early releases when COVID hit) thanks to criminal-justice reforms that rule out any chance of jail for most perps, as well as those same DAs’ refusal to even prosecute many low-level crimes. Only (some of) the truly violent can be given high bail and remanded to Rikers.

As Bob McManus notes, “Darrell E. Brooks has become the latest face of America’s deranged campaign against reasonable law enforcement.” AOC & Co. should consider that face — and those of his alleged victims — before posturing again. But they won’t and never will. nypost.com

Fort Worth Citizens on Patrol Recruit Volunteers to Help Deter Crime

US: 49.3M Cases - 801.3K Dead - 39M Recovered
Worldwide: 262.5M Cases - 5.2M Dead - 237.1M Recovered

Former Senior Loss Prevention Executive
Know of any fallen LP exec? Let's remember & recognize.

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 328  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 540
*Red indicates change in total deaths

COVID Hot Spots Move North

Most Dangerous COVID Variant To Date?
World Health Org. warns of very high risk posed by the omicron variant
The World Health Organization is warning that the new omicron variant of the coronavirus poses a "very high" global risk because of the possibility that it spreads more easily and might resist vaccines and immunity in people who were infected with previous strains.

In a technical brief issued Sunday, the WHO warned its 194 member states that the new variant's numerous mutations "may confer immune escape potential and possibly transmissibility advantage," and as a result "the likelihood of potential further spread of omicron at the global level is high."

It says that the risk to vulnerable populations — especially in countries with low vaccination rates — could be "substantial." npr.org

Omicron Variant 'Days Away' From Hitting NYC
NYC reinstitutes mask advisory ‘at all times’ indoors regardless of vax status

New York City has not identified any cases of omicron so far, according to outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio and Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi.

New York City on Monday issued an advisory strongly recommending that everyone wear masks indoors in public places at all times regardless of vaccination status, amid concern about the new, highly mutated strain of the coronavirus named omicron.

“There are no omicron cases here in New York City at this moment. It is very likely there will be, but there are no cases at this moment,” de Blasio said during the update. “Our entire focus once again is going to be on vaccination. Based on everything we know, vaccination is crucial to any strategy for addressing omicron.”

Chokshi said it will probably be a matter of days before omicron is detected in New York City. He said the city has a strong surveillance system that can rapidly identify omicron when it arrives. cnbc.com

LA Vaccine Mandate Enforcement Begins
Los Angeles Now Enforcing Indoor Covid Vaccine Mandate At Movie Theaters, Restaurants, Gyms; Rule Among Nation’s Strictest
Los Angeles today began enforcing an ordinance requiring Angelenos patronizing indoor restaurants, gyms, movie theaters and recreational facilities, personal care establishments and some city buildings to show proof of full vaccination against Covid-19. Business owners are expected to monitor compliance.

The law went into effect on Nov. 8, but enforcement begins today after a grace period. The Department of Building and Safety can issue administrative citations to businesses that violate the ordinance. The citations will include a $1,000 fine for a second violation, $2,000 fine for a third violation and a $5,000 fine for a fourth and subsequent violations. It is unclear how aggressive enforcement officials will be.

Penalties were uncommon during last winter’s more expansive business shutdowns. Two of the more intransigent local businesses met varying fates at the hands of city and county officials. Burbank-area restaurant Tinhorn Flats was forced to shut down after its permits were revoked, its doors padlocked and one of its owners arrested. Popular Agoura Hills-area restaurant Cronies, which remained open throughout the pandemic, received only $9,999 in fines.

The city’s so-called SafePassLA ordinance is one of the strictest mandates of its kind in the nation, requiring people over the age of 12 to show proof of vaccination at several indoor public spaces. deadline.com

California City Refuses to Obey COVID Mandates
To protest COVID mandates, CA town declared itself a 'constitutional republic'
For Oroville Vice Mayor Scott Thomson, the father of two young boys, Gov. Gavin Newsom's mandate requiring schoolchildren to be vaccinated against COVID-19 was the final straw. He believed the government had no right to tell him what to put into his, or his children's, bodies. Many of his constituents agreed when it came to pandemic mandates.

And so, he came up with a grandiose, headline-grabbing nom de guerre for his small Northern California city. Oroville declared itself a constitutional republic. A place where the local leaders pledge to fight mandates they say go too far.

"Any executive orders issued by the State of California or by the United States federal government that are overreaching or clearly violate our constitutionally protected rights will not be enforced by the City of Oroville against its citizens," read the declaration passed this month by the City Council.

For some, the declaration was a stand for freedom. But others in town saw it as a reckless tantrum amid an ongoing pandemic that has killed more than 73,000 Californians. Butte County, population about 220,000, has one of the state's lowest vaccination rates. As of Saturday, 47% of its residents were fully vaccinated, compared with 64% of all Californians.

Butte County's largest hospital, the 298-bed Enloe Medical Center in Chico, has averaged 26 COVID-19 patients over the last week — more than all but one hospital in Los Angeles County, home to 10 million people. yahoo.com

More European Countries Consider Vaccine Mandate for Entire Population
Making Covid-19 vaccines mandatory was once unthinkable. But European countries are showing it can work
Earlier this month, Austria took a step once unthinkable for a Western democracy: It announced that Covid-19 vaccinations would become compulsory for its entire population.

Austria's tough new measures were unveiled before the announcement of the discovery of the Omicron variant late last week, which triggered fears that the winter Covid-19 wave could be more brutal than previously thought. The news of the variant could push more countries to harden their approach, pivoting from voluntary to mandatory measures in a last-ditch effort to get shots in arms.

"It is a drastic measure. I would have preferred to go another way. But if one year in having the vaccine, of having national campaigns, of having media explaining again and again what this is about, that we have such a high degree of insecurity, of people believing in fake news ... we have a necessity to take this drastic step," Schallenberg added.

Countries elsewhere are starting to consider similarly drastic measures to persuade more people to get shots, despite criticisms that low vaccination rates made them unrealistic and would deprive millions from earning a livelihood. cnn.com

Federal judge blocks Biden vaccine mandate for health care workers in 10 states
A judge blocked the federal government on Monday from mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for health care workers in ten states.

Court blocks Covid-19 vaccine mandate for California prisons

Mask mandates to tackle Omicron come into force in England

CDC Says Everyone 18 and Older Should Get Covid Booster Due to Omicron Variant

Stock market rebounds on hopes Omicron may not be as bad as feared

Global Interpol Operation Nabs 1,000 Cybercriminals
Over 1,000 Individuals Arrested in Global Cybercrime-Fighting Operation

HAECHI-II initiative represents Interpol's stepped-up efforts to tackle the operators of financially motivated online scams and other cyberattacks.

Law enforcement officials across 20 countries have arrested more than 1,000 individuals for various cyber-enabled financial crimes, including investment fraud, business email compromise (BEC) attacks, money laundering, and illegal online gambling.

The arrests took place over a four-month period between June and September 2021; they were part of an Interpol-coordinated operation code-named HAECHI-II that was designed to curb online financial crimes. During the operation, Interpol officials piloted a new global stop-payment mechanism called the Anti-Money Laundering Rapid Response Protocol (ARRP), which allowed them to intercept and recover nearly $27 million in illicit funds from cybercrime operations.

HAECHI-II is the second operation in a three-year effort to take down operators of certain types of financially motivated cybercrime, such as romance scams and illegal online gambling. Nations participating in the initiative include China, Japan, Korea, India, Spain, Thailand, Indonesia, Ireland, and Philippines.

Law Enforcement on a Tear

HAECHI-II represents the stepped-up efforts that law enforcement agencies globally — led by Interpol — are putting into tackling a wide range of cybercrime. The efforts have yielded some significant results in recent months. These include the arrests of individuals believed responsible for tens of thousands of attacks involving the use of GandCrab and REvil/Sodinikobi ransomware families worldwide. The suspects are accused of demanding more than $225 million in these attacks over a period spanning four years.

A similar Interpol operation resulted in the arrest of an individual suspected of participating in the massive supply chain attack on Kaseya, which resulted in ransomware being deployed on systems belonging to thousands of downstream customers of several managed service providers.

Another recent Interpol investigation led to the arrests of six individuals thought to be the ringleaders of the Cl0p ransomware operation. The individuals are believed responsible for facilitating international transfers of more than $500 million linked to various ransomware attacks in recent years.

While such arrests are unlikely to do little to deter cybercrime in the short term, security experts have noted that they do demonstrate the reach, willingness, and growing ability of international law-enforcement agencies to find and nab individuals associated with major cybercrime operations. Many have said that such global cooperation is essential for the fight against cybercrime to yield results. darkreading.com

Phishing Campaign Targets IKEA Employees
IKEA Email Systems Targeted in Cyberattack

Attackers are reportedly targeting IKEA employees in a phishing campaign that leverages stolen reply-chain emails.

IKEA is battling an ongoing cyberattack where threat actors are targeting employees in internal phishing attacks using stolen reply-chain emails.

A reply-chain email attack is when threat actors steal legitimate corporate email and then reply to them with links to malicious documents that install malware on recipients' devices.

As the reply-chain emails are legitimate emails from a company and are commonly sent from compromised email accounts and internal servers, recipients' will trust the email and be more likely to open the malicious documents.

In internal emails seen by BleepingComputer, IKEA is warning employees of an ongoing reply-chain phishing cyber-attack targeting internal mailboxes. These emails are also being sent from other compromised IKEA organizations and business partners.

"There is an ongoing cyber-attack that is targeting Inter IKEA mailboxes. Other IKEA organisations, suppliers, and business partners are compromised by the same attack and are further spreading malicious emails to persons in Inter IKEA," explained an internal email sent to IKEA employees and seen by BleepingComputer.

"This means that the attack can come via email from someone that you work with, from any external organisation, and as a reply to an already ongoing conversations. It is therefore difficult to detect, for which we ask you to be extra cautious." bleepingcomputer.com

Human Error - Ransomware - Phishing
Most challenging security threats for CTOs
59% of CTOs still see human error as the main security threat to their business, alongside other prominent concerns such as ransomware (49%) and phishing (36%), a research from STX Next reveals.

Despite this recognition of risk, the findings suggest that more needs to be done to properly safeguard companies against dangers, with only 26% having a dedicated cybersecurity team in place and only 50% outsourcing cyber responsibilities.

Maciej Dziergwa, CEO at STX Next, said: “Our survey shows that, despite the inexorable rise of ransomware in the last couple of years, the biggest security concern in the minds of CTOs remains the potential impact of human error. This is understandable given that in order to be successful, many types of cyberattack rely on someone inadvertently clicking a link or downloading a file.

Dziergwa believes that to further shore up security capabilities, businesses should look closely at how disaster recovery processes have been successfully implemented, and aim to replicate these approaches for cyber.

He added: “The strong presence of disaster recovery planning shows that organizations are doing well when it comes to the more all-encompassing, overarching responsibilities that ensure the business is resilient in the face of unexpected disruption. The next step is for leaders to apply this approach to the more granular elements of cybersecurity, including anti-ransomware tools.” helpnetsecurity.com

Customer Data Stolen?
Panasonic Hit in Data Breach

Tech firm reveals that data on one of its file servers was accessed by attackers.

Panasonic recently discovered that it had suffered a data breach in which attackers were able to reach one of its file servers and pilfer data, the company announced late last week.

The tech firm said its network was breached on Nov. 11, 2021, and "some data" on the sever was exposed to the attackers. Still unclear, however, is whether customer or other sensitive data was stolen in the attack.

"In addition to conducting its own investigation, Panasonic is currently working with a specialist third-party organization to investigate the leak and determine if the breach involved customers' personal information and/or sensitive information related to social infrastructure," the company said in a press announcement.  darkreading.com

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