Sensormatic Solutions to Showcase Connected, Scalable Solutions at NRF 2020
Johnson Controls announced today its leading global retail solutions portfolio, Sensormatic Solutions, will showcase its latest product innovations at NRF 2020: Retail's Big Show, booth #5401, Jan. 12-14, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. By combining insights into retail inventory, shopper traffic and loss prevention, Sensormatic Solutions powers operational excellence at scale and helps retailers create unique shopper experiences.

Sensormatic Solutions continues to fast forward retail with its portfolio of smart, connected and scalable solutions. The technologies that will be on display at this year's show leverage the latest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), as well as smart sensors, devices and video technologies to help retailers elevate their store operations and improve the customer experience. businesswire.com

Sensormatic Solutions Unveils 2019 Holiday Shopper Traffic Recap
Johnson Controls today announced that Sensormatic Solutions released the annual ShopperTrak traffic and behavior trends recap for the 2019 holiday season, the period of time spanning from the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, 2019, through Saturday, Dec. 28, 2019.

The traffic data shows that Sensormatic Solutions initial prediction of the top 10 busiest shopping days aligned with the actual busiest in store shopping days. Altogether, the actual busiest shopping days of 2019 accounted for 46.5 percent of the total season's brick-and-mortar traffic. businesswire.com


Checkpoint Systems' HALO App Simplifies and Speeds Up Omnichannel Orders with RFID
Checkpoint Systems came out with a major release of the IoT software platform HALO which comes with omnichannel and task management functionality.

● New release of HALO supports in-store fulfilment of omnichannel orders
● RFID-driven inventory data drives distribution of orders to stores
● Store staff receives easy-to-use order information, location of items and schedule for packing for shipment or in-store pickup.
● Increased in-store productivity and customer satisfaction checkpointsystems.com
 

Product Safety Failure Takes 4 Children's Lives
IKEA to Pay $46 Million to Parents of Child Killed by Falling Dresser
Failed to Take Adequate Safety Measures After Several Deaths
The family of the two year old said it would donate $1 million to organizations advocating for more rigorous stability testing for dressers

IKEA has agreed to pay $46 million to the parents of a California toddler who was killed when one of the Swedish furniture company's dressers fell on him. Two-year-old Jozef Dudek was fatally injured by a tip-over of an IKEA Malm three-drawer dresser in 2017.

The lawsuit filed by the Dudek family alleged that IKEA knew of many injuries and deaths associated with tip-overs of the Malm line of dressers before Jozef's death but failed to take adequate measures to improve the safety and stability of the product.

IKEA in 2016 recalled 29 million chests and dressers in the U.S., including eight million belonging to the Malm line, following a raft of injuries and several deaths caused by furniture tipping over. The same year, the company reached a $50 million settlement with the families of three children who had died after tipovers.

Between 2000 and 2018, some 459 children were killed by tip-overs, 83% of the total number of such fatalities in that period. wsj.com

Facial recognition hardware to reach over 800 million devices by 2024
A new report from Juniper Research found that facial recognition hardware, such as Face ID on recent iPhones, will be the fastest growing form of smartphone biometric hardware. This means it will reach over 800 million in 2024, compared to an estimated 96 million in 2019.

The new research, Mobile Payment Authentication: Biometrics, Regulation & Forecasts 2019-2024, however notes that the majority of smartphone facial recognition will be software-based, with over 1.3 billion devices having that capability by 2024.

This is made possible by advances in AI, with companies like iProov and Mastercard offering facial recognition authentication that is strong enough to be used for payment and other high-end authentication tasks.

Juniper Research recommends that all vendors embrace AI to drive further developments of capabilities and therefore increase customer acquisition.

This expansion of biometric capabilities will bring the technology to more eCommerce platforms, as retailers seek to meet enhanced security requirements. Originally envisioned for contactless payment use, the report expects over 60% of biometrically-authenticated payments in 2024 will be for authorizing remote payments.

"Many consumers are now used to making fingerprint-based biometric payments, both for contactless and remote payments," remarked research author James Moar, a Lead Analyst at Juniper Research. "That familiarity and continued inclusion in smartphones will make it hard to displace in many markets." helpnetsecurity.com
 

2019 Year-End CEO Report
Highest Annual, Quarterly Totals On Record

#MeToo Impact Hits the Top - CEOs
Retail CEO Shake Ups in '19 Up 80% - 63 Out in Retail - 70 in Food - 14 in Apparel
15 For Misconduct & 20 Amid Scandal & 24 Terminated
Demanding Accountability Professionally & Personally

"The number of chief executives who announced their departures in 2019
was staggering"

Chief Executive Officer turnover jumped 8%, from 148 in November to 160 in December, the second-highest monthly total since Challenger began tracking CEO departures in 2002, according to a report released Wednesday by global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

In 2019, 1,640 CEOs left their posts, according to Challenger tracking, 12.9% higher than the 1,452 CEOs who announced their exits in 2018. It is the highest total since the firm began tracking in 2002.

"Following the #MeToo movement, companies were determined to hold CEOs accountable for lapses in judgement pertaining to professional and personal conduct, creating higher ethical standards at the C-level. What may have gone unrecognized or was downplayed in the past was not overlooked by boards, shareholders, or the general public in 2019," said Challenger.

Retail, which saw a tumultuous year, had an 80% increase in CEO changes, with 63 last year versus 35 in 2018. Food companies saw a 75% increase in CEO changes, with 70 in 2019 compared to 40 in 2018.

The departures in retail are happening at a variety of companies, including distressed retailers like Destination Maternity and David's Bridal as well as better-positioned brands like Nike. The retailers that lost CEOs last year include Tapestry, Gap, Under Armour, Best Buy, Away and Bed Bath & Beyond, among others. The C-suite shuffling extends beyond just the top role, with Bed Bath & Beyond and J.C. Penney building up whole teams around new CEOs - and getting rid of those that didn't stack up.

On top of all that, CEOs are being held accountable for bad company culture and other personal transgressions, including undisclosed relationships or otherwise failing to meet company standards. Fifteen chief executives left their posts amid allegations of professional misconduct last year and 20 left amid scandal, typically under investigations for financial wrongdoing or other legal issues. Another 24 saw their positions terminated, 122 gave no reason, and 138 resigned, 3 for sexual misconduct, 2 amid investigation..

"We are also tracking companies that are demanding accountability in their CEOs' professional and personal lives. Any behavior unbecoming to a company's brand is pretty quickly followed by a resignation announcement," he added. See Full Report  retaildive.com challengergray.com
 

Visa and Mastercard Say No to Delaying Deadline for Gas Pump Chip Card Upgrades (EMV)
Gas stations around the U.S. are rushing to upgrade fuel pumps to accept credit and debit cards with chips after Visa and Mastercard rejected a request to delay a looming deadline to complete the work.

Beginning in October, station operators that haven't modernized their pumps will face liability for any card fraud that happens at their businesses. The industry is "massively under-prepared," said Joshua Smith, chief executive officer of Gas Pos, which sells point-of-sale systems.

In a 2019 survey by Conexxus, a non-profit that represents convenience stores, almost 70% of respondents who own a convenience store said they haven't upgraded any outside pumps to the new so-called EMV technology.

Fuel retailers that don't upgrade could face costs of as much as $201,000 per store over the next seven years, according to data compiled by Conexxus. The group expects the fuel industry to suffer $451 million of card fraud in 2020 alone. fortune.com

Bucking the Trend - She's Almost Filled - Retailers Open in March
The American Dream Mall's 17 Year Development Nightmare Has Ended
Developers have leased almost 90% of its available 3.3 million square feet, a figure which rises to nearly 100% when leases under negotiation are included, according to a filing. In particular, all retail anchor stores have been spoken for-which is critical for malls because those locations, typically department stores, are key in driving foot traffic. That the $5 billion behemoth is close to full capacity appears to buck the slow demise of physical retail.

But American Dream has said it can beat the odds because of its attractions-counting a Nickelodeon Universe park, an ice skating rink and a ski slope among them-and its accessibility to New York City. It seems to have paid off, with all of the stores bigger than 20,000 square feet now leased, and about 70% of smaller ones, the filing showed.

The retail side of the mall will start opening in March with some 450 businesses. fortune.com


LPF Announces December's LPC and LPQ Professionals
The Loss Prevention Foundation would like to recognize and congratulate the following individuals who successfully completed all of the requirements set forth by the board of directors to be LPQualified (LPQ) and/or LPCertified (LPC). View Full List Here


Macy's to close 29 stores

Quarterly Results
Albertson's Cos.' Q3 comp's up 2.7%, sales up 1.9%
Walgreens Q1 comp's down 0.5%, front-end comp's up 0.8%, sales up 1.6%
Macy's Holiday sales down 0.6% for November and December
 

'Report: Retailers at risk from Iran cyberattack'
DHS Warns of Potential Iranian Cyberattacks
'Cyberattacks are an 'immediate' challenge for businesses following Iran strike'
In the past, Iran-sponsored hackers have attacked U.S. businesses, and an expert from cybersecurity firm Critical Start told CNBC that retail services companies could find themselves attacked as part of broader Iranian efforts to disrupt the American economy.

"From financial services and healthcare to even retail services, targeted attacks against any number of organizations could occur in an attempt to disrupt the U.S. economy," Mauriello said.

The CISA alert is the first public acknowledgement from the US government about potential Iranian cyberattacks in response to the US drone strike last week that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Several security vendors, including Crowdstrike and Recorded Future, have noted the possibility of such attacks in recent days, citing past precedent.

The US Department of Homeland Security urging organizations to be on heightened alert for denial-of-service and other more destructive attacks.

This week's CISA alert listed multiple Iranian APT group techniques that US organizations should be monitoring for, including credential dumping, file obfuscation, PowerShell misuse, and the abuse of other legitimate system features such as Registry run keys and the startup folder.

"Scrub accounts that are no longer active, and investigate accounts that log in at odd hours," Smothers adds. "Iranian activities were previously [discovered] due to activity occurring only during Iranian government business hours."

He warns, "All businesses should be on notice: they could easily become collateral damage as geopolitical crises escalate." darkreading.com chainstoreage.com cnbc.com

     Iranian Cyberattacks: 10 Must-Have Defenses


New Standards Set to Reshape Future of Email Security
Emerging specs and protocols expected to make the simple act of opening an email a less risky proposition.

Almost 300 billion emails are sent worldwide every day, and the number of worldwide users continues to grow at a rate of 3% per year. By 2020 there will be 4 billion active users of email - more than half the planet's population - according to the Radicati Group, which tracks email usage worldwide.

Email insiders are busy developing standards aimed at addressing email's most glaring weakness: that anyone can send email as anyone else. This lack of a strong sender identity model has created an epidemic of spoofing that doesn't exist through other messaging applications that have strong sender identity controls. There are 6.4 billion spoofed emails sent every day, according to a research report from Valimail.

DMARC 2.0
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance has been an unofficial but widely accepted standard since 2015. It provides a way for domain owners to control which senders are allowed to send email using their domain.

BIMI
Brand Indicators for Message Identification is a way for brands to specify images that appear alongside the authenticated email messages they send.

AMP for Email
AMP is a framework for accelerating web page load times. AMP for Email creates the possibility of building interactive applications in AMP that live right inside the inbox.

Schema.org for Email
Schema.org is a collaborative, decentralized project creating data '"schemas" for different types of structured data, such as informational listings for people, places, and businesses; calendar events; audio and video objects; books; and even recipes.

STARTTLS and MTA-STS
STARTTLS is an email security protocol that enables email clients and servers to exchange data in encrypted form, using TLS (Transport Layer Security) or SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) if they are available.

As these standards gain acceptance, with strong and widely deployed sender identity, email will become more interactive and more secure for all users. That won't be easy. It will take a lot of effort by many different organizations and individuals. But the groundwork has been laid, and the benefits will be immense, so there is every reason to think that email is going to continue improving - and growing. darkreading.com

Top Jobs in LinkedIn in 2019 - AI, Data Science & Cybersecurity
Artificial intelligence (AI) and data science roles continued to dominate among emerging jobs in 2019, spreading across nearly every industry, according to U.S. data from global professional networking site LinkedIn.

AI specialist showed the fastest rate of growth over the past five years, based on job titles added to users' profiles. "Hiring for this role has grown 74 percent annually and encompasses a few different titles within the space that all have a very specific set of skills despite being spread across industries," said Guy Berger, LinkedIn's chief economist.

"Artificial intelligence will require the entire workforce to learn new skills, whether it's to keep up to date with an existing role or pursuing a new career as a result of automation." shrm.org

The top 10 emerging jobs in the United States, according to LinkedIn, are:

• Artificial intelligence specialist.
• Robotics engineer.
• Data scientist.
• Full stack engineer.
• Site reliability engineer.
• Customer success specialist.
• Sales development representative.
• Data engineer.
• Behavioral health technician.
• Cybersecurity specialist.

RFID Reading Drone Tested in Asia Warehouses
Safety for Workers
Drone company AeroLion Technologies has launched a proof-of-concept with automatic-identification solutions firm SATO to provide a passive UHF RFID inventory-tracking solution that can take to the air. The system consists of a high-powered RFID reader and antenna mounted on a compact drone that can fly through a warehouse, capturing inventory counts. The two companies developed the solution with the support of the Yamato Group Research Institute.

In some cases, warehouse workers must climb a ladder to read the highest RFID tags or scan barcodes on the boxes or pallets. "Considering the safety of workers, we decided to utilize drones," says Kazuhiro Chatani, SATO's head of logistics business.

The drones typically fly over barcoded products, scanning 2D or 1D barcodes, thereby saving time warehouse personnel would otherwise spend manually counting goods. However, if UHF RFID tags are attached to products, the capturing of data can be accomplished faster and without a line of site required between the drone and the tag. Although there are RFID-reading drones available on the market, they tend to be large in order to support the weight of an RFID reader, which means they are not nimble enough to be flown indoors. rfidjournal.com

Accenture to Buy Symantec's Cyber Security Services

Online Merchants Need Scalpels, Not Sledgehammers To Combat Fraud
While sledgehammer-style efforts may serve to reduce fraud, they can also create entirely new problems. Those problems include lost sales, losing shoppers to competitors, wasted marketing investments and lower lifetime customer value.

Our research indicates that such scenarios are quite common:

• 30% to 70% of orders merchants decline are legitimate orders that could have been fulfilled.

• 30% of customers report being falsely declined.

• 66% of falsely declined customers either reduced or stopped shopping with the retailer.

Those aren't the only losses. Merchants often spend a large amount of money on legacy fraud-review systems and dedicated resources to update and maintain them. And marketing teams will be upset to learn that the effort they invested in attracting customers is squandered when an inaccurate fraud solution turns those customers away at checkout. The costs of using the sledgehammer approach can really add up.

Using a scalpel-based strategy to address fraud

E-commerce has transformative powers. It provides people with the ability to order and receive products, services and experiences online from anywhere in the world. It allows for greater choice and the ability to comparison shop. And it enables shoppers to avoid the inconvenience of visiting stores in person and waiting in line.

Everyone should be able to enjoy those benefits. But inefficient systems and legacy solutions -- which aim to hammer out fraud using very limited information -- often strike too hard. And they turn away real customers and harm e-commerce merchants in the process. forbes.com

Fake and dangerous kids products are turning up for sale on Amazon
Under current US case law, Amazon is not liable when third-party products sold on its site directly infringe on intellectual property or have safety defects. The liability lies with the third-party seller. This is fundamentally different from how the law treats brick-and-mortar retailers like Target (TGT) or Walmart (WMT) or even your corner grocery. If you find a product at a physical store that infringes on your trademark, or you buy something defective there, you can sue the store even though they didn't make the product. 

Wenham said the counterfeit products used Baby Shusher's branding and replicated the real product's packaging and user manual. Iris Wilbur-Kamien thought she had bought a genuine Baby Shusher on Amazon until it fell apart just five months after she purchased it. Only when the real company asked her to send a photo of the product's identification code did she realize it was a counterfeit, she told CNN. There wasn't one.
cnn.com

U.S. Commercial Drone Deliveries Will Finally Be a Thing in 2020