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ORC Legislation is a Top Industry Priority
4 retail industry priorities for sustaining U.S. economic growth

Addressing the industry’s top priorities is essential to maintain economic momentum

Heightened levels of theft, violence and organized retail crime continue to plague retailers despite their best efforts to curb these incidents and ensure the safety of their customers and workers. These efforts include enhanced security protocols, store reconfigurations, additional employee training and continued partnerships with law enforcement agencies.

These endeavors alone are not enough to fully deal with the scope and complexity of these crimes. Thankfully, significant momentum has been built at the federal level and in Congress to tackle this pervasive issue.

The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2025 (H.R.2853/S.1404) was reintroduced in April. The legislation would help address the severe economic and safety threats posed by organized retail crime by creating greater coordination and providing increased resources for law enforcement at all levels. The bill has garnered broad bipartisan support with 129 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and 28 in the Senate.

In addition, the Senate Judiciary Committee recently held a hearing focused on the issues of organized retail crime and supply chain theft. The hearing highlighted the sophisticated nature of retail crime and the threat it poses to the safety of communities that retailers serve. NRF submitted written comments for the record and a letter signed by over 260 retail members in support of CORCA.

NRF continues to work with Congress to ensure law enforcement agencies and retailers have the necessary resources at their disposal to adequately address organized retail crime. Passage of the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act is an essential step toward accomplishing that mission. nrf.com


'Adding Security Layers' to Fight Retail Crime
Stopping Rising Retail Crime Requires a Layered Approach to Security

The most successful retailers recognize this fundamental truth and prioritize systematically limiting these opportunities for criminals.

Retailers Are on Their Own, and Security is More Difficult Than Ever

It's important to note that retail crime also encompasses issues like workplace violence. Failing to create a safe and secure environment can have a significant impact on both the customer and the employee experience. Customers won’t exactly flock to a store where they don’t feel safe, while employees operating under the constant threat of danger will experience stress, reduced morale and, ultimately, higher turnover rates. This not only degrades the customer experience but can lead to reputational damage that takes years to recover from and will ultimately lead to lost revenue.

Unfortunately, addressing these issues is only becoming more difficult. Modern communications technology, including social media and encrypted messaging apps, allows criminals to coordinate with one another and sell stolen merchandise more easily. There are entire forums dedicated to swapping shoplifting tips and tricks, where criminals in (for example) Massachusetts can share tactics with those in California. This means retailers need to be more aware than ever. Second, high prosecution thresholds have emboldened many shoplifters, who no longer fear consequences for their actions. Retailers cannot rely on the legal system — they need to protect themselves.

Leveraging Technology to Provide a Much-Needed Advantage

Moving forward will require a layered approach to security, with zones of influence spanning from the parking lot to the point of impact. Advanced technology is no longer a luxury; rather, it's a necessity for gaining a much-needed advantage. Solutions like license plate recognition or face matching can identify known offenders and notify loss prevention teams, enabling retailers to engage in information sharing to ensure they can’t simply move to a different location. Inside, retailers need a thorough understanding of where hotspots for theft exist, which items are frequently targeted, which areas have poor visibility, among other factors. Video analytics can help detect if shoppers are behaving abnormally or loitering in high-theft areas, which can prompt loss prevention associates to investigate. Simply rearranging shelves to ensure high-value items are in clear view of associates or registers can make it significantly more difficult for shoplifters to act.

Many retailers are adding security layers that transcend traditional zones. Some self-checkout kiosks are now equipped with computer vision technology capable of identifying when shoppers attempt to bypass checkout or ring up incorrect items. Body-worn technology is also on the rise, allowing loss prevention associates to capture interactions on video. This can help de-escalate a situation by ensuring the individual knows their behavior is being recorded, reducing the potential for a violent outburst while also limiting the retailer’s potential liability if an incident does take place. These solutions may not make sense for every store, but those experiencing a high level of retail crime may wish to explore more advanced options.

Collaboration and Intelligence: The Future of Loss Prevention | Don’t Be an Easy Target for Retail Crime: mytotalretail.com


Shoplifting Incidents Drop Dramatically at Some Walmart Stores
Walmart Launches Biggest Fraud Crackdown in Retail History—$6.5B at Stake
Self-checkout systems—once introduced to boost convenience—have become prime targets, intensifying the crisis. Industry analysts say this surge is unprecedented in modern retail. Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, accounts for a startling share of these losses. Estimates put its theft costs at roughly $3 billion in 2021, jumping to $6.1 billion in 2022 and about $6.5 billion in 2023.

That far exceeds most competitors—about a sixth of total U.S. retail shrinkage. High-end goods lead the stolen list: electronics, beauty and personal-care products are top targets.

Organized rings focus on these valuables across multiple stores. That escalation has put Walmart’s leadership on high alert, driving urgent discussions on how to plug the leaks in its business.

Some Walmart locations became real-world tests. In Shrewsbury, Missouri, law enforcement logged 1,915 calls in the first five months of 2024—25% theft-related—at one store. After removing self-checkouts, arrests and calls fell by roughly two-thirds.

Walmart is now applying the same fix in other high-loss stores. Preliminary reports from those pilots show similarly large declines in theft. Early results in Cleveland and beyond suggest these changes can sharply reduce shoplifting and disturbance incidents.

Store staff and customers feel the impact. Walmart emphasizes it is “continuously investing in people, programs and technology to keep our stores and communities safe”.

Floor associates report growing stress as theft incidents rise. Honest shoppers notice more locked cases and longer lines—but many support the tougher stance. styleonmain.net


Republican NYC mayoral candidate criticizes his Democratic opponents' crime policies
Curtis Sliwa, the GOP nominee for mayor of NYC, said understaffing at the New York City Police Department (NYPD) under Mayor Eric Adams' leadership has contributed to a culture of crime.

Community reacts to data showing drop in Spokane property crime

JD Vance says Columbus rife with 'lawlessness,' but the data tells another story

Data shows crime in Detroit is trending down; police chief talks future plans for city
 

Businesses Not Taking AI Risks Seriously?
‘Shadow AI’ increases cost of data breaches, report finds

Companies are failing to protect their AI tools from compromise, often leading to more extensive data breaches, according to new data from IBM.

Unmonitored artificial intelligence tools are making data breaches costlier, according to a new report from IBM.

One in five organizations surveyed said they’d experienced a cyberattack because of security issues with “shadow AI,” and those attacks cost an average of $670,000 more than breaches at firms with little or no shadow AI, IBM said in its annual Cost of Data Breach report.

According to the report, while only 13% of organizations reported breaches involving AI tools, 97% of those organizations “lacked proper AI access controls.”

As security leaders grapple with how to oversee their companies’ new AI platforms, IBM’s report illustrates the potential consequences of not taking AI security seriously enough.

One of the most important findings relates to the ubiquity of weak authentication controls as a factor in hacks of businesses’ AI platforms. According to IBM, the most common origin point for these attacks was a supply-chain intrusion, with the hackers accessing the AI tool through “compromised apps, APIs or plug-ins.” The finding highlights the importance of basic security protections for AI tools and other business platforms, including zero-trust principles like network segmentation.

After hackers penetrated a company’s AI platform, they frequently compromised other stores of data (as happened in 60% of cases) and occasionally caused operational disruptions to important infrastructure (31% of cases).

Despite clear evidence that strict attention to the security of AI tools can prevent costly breaches, businesses aren’t rushing to implement governance programs. Sixty-three percent of companies that experienced a breach said they didn’t have an AI governance policy, although some were developing such policies. Even companies with policies often had defective ones — IBM found that fewer than half of such organizations “have an approval process for AI deployments,” and 62% of them failed to implement strong access controls on their AI tools. cybersecuritydive.com


Cybercriminal Tool of Choice - Still
Why stolen credentials remain cybercriminals’ tool of choice
It’s often the case that the simplest tools have the longest staying power, because they ultimately get the job done. Stolen credentials play a similar role in a threat actor’s playbook. It’s an old method that’s still effective.

When it comes to mass adoption, simplicity will always win out against sophistication. And in age of deepfakes and AI-assisted hacking, stolen credentials are still the cybercriminals’ tool of choice.

Unfortunately, that leaves passwords as a very common way for hackers to gain access to places they shouldn’t be. Most hacks come from databases of stolen usernames and passwords, a.k.a “combolists”, because they are cheap, effective, and readily available.

The exact number of passwords the average person can remember is hard to judge. Even though users are told repeatedly not to reuse passwords and about the benefits of password managers, the unfortunate truth is that many will take the path of least resistance. If they can’t use a simple, easily guessed password (and most services today won’t allow that) they’ll do the next best thing—they’ll use the same complex password repeatedly.

This unfortunate fact of human nature is what makes stolen passwords the duct tape in a threat actors’ arsenal. They are easy to use. While most hackers will automate the checking of passwords, you or I could simply buy some today and start checking them on different services. And while you may need some dark web savvy to access many combolists, the Genesis Market existed on the “clear net” (i.e., the “regular” internet) until it was taken down in 2023. Many alternative markets exist on a combination of internet, dark web, and Telegram channels.

The lack of two- or multi-factor authentication means we can stretch the metaphor—combolists, when they do contain reused passwords, don’t often “jam” on additional security checks. Even if they do, hackers can use them on other services as part of an attempt to gain wider access to someone’s private information. helpnetsecurity.com


Strategy Shift Needed
Ransomware will thrive until we change our strategy
We have reached a stage where ransomware isn’t simply a cybercrime issue: it is now clearly a business disruptor, a threat to societal trust, and increasingly, a national security crisis.

As James Babbage, Director General (Threats) at the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), recently noted, ransomware is “a national security threat in its own right, both here and throughout the world.” Alarmingly, despite years of targeted operations, global strategy papers, and industry guidance, ransomware groups continue to extort millions from organizations every year with little fear of real consequences. Why? Because most of our current efforts are focused on dealing with the aftermath of attacks and not the conditions that allow them to happen in the first place.

Laws mandating the reporting of ransomware payments, like those being rolled out in Australia, are well-intentioned: they aim to build better national visibility of the threat landscape. In the UK, the government is proposing that public sector agencies no longer be permitted to pay ransoms, a move designed to cut off financial incentives to criminal groups.

While I support these measures in principle, these initiatives are reactive, and they will not stop attacks from happening. They do nothing to the raise the cost, financially or otherwise, for the criminals behind these attacks, and they do little to build resilience in the organizations most at risk. helpnetsecurity.com


New AI model offers faster, greener way for vulnerability detection

AI is changing the vCISO game