Genetec announces keynote speakers and partner pavilion
for Connect'DX Virtual Trade Show

Genetec President, Pierre Racz, takes on the AI hype. Starbucks, Barclays and Uber discuss their Cloud-first approach. Leading industry voices from Intel, Brekke Group and Convergint discuss security in a time of crisis

Genetec Inc., a leading technology provider of unified security, public safety, operations, and business intelligence solutions today announced the keynote speakers and the details of the partner pavilion for Genetec Connect'DX, the company's first virtual trade show taking place April 20-22, 2020.

● AI: Genetec President takes a pragmatic view
● A Cloud First approach to physical security: live panel discussion with Barclays, Starbucks, and Uber
● Security Leadership in Time of Crisis
● Customer-led panels
● Partner and international pavilions

Read the full press release here | Register for the virtual trade show here


7PSolutions, Leader in Logistics Security and Risk Management Joins National Efforts to Help Combat the Spread of Covid-19
7P Solutions has launched their Pandemic Monitoring Assistance Program with an initiative offering donated services to help combat the spread of Covid-19. The company and Board of Directors have committed to finding ways to give back during our nation's health crisis. In doing so, Jeff Clark and 7P are identifying hospitals, health institutions and key centers that can benefit from the company's Pandemic Temperature Monitoring and Access Control Platform powered by ISB Global. 7P has always provided new technology to meet the needs of specific industries - including health and pharma. Read More Here
 

Coronavirus Update: April 16

US: Over 650K Cases - 33K Dead - 57K Recovered

Worldwide: Over 2.1M Cases - 143K Dead - 543K Recovered

New Retail Layoffs & Furloughs

Academy Sports + Outdoors announces furloughs for "substantial number" of corporate & distribution center employees


Retail Sales Plunge Globally
Worst ever decline recorded in the U.S. - down 8.7% in March
Worst ever decline recorded in the UK - down 4.3% in March

NYPD has hundreds more coronavirus cases than previously reported
A total of 4,080 members of the NYPD, 3,350 uniformed officers and 730 civilian employees have tested positive for the pandemic COVID-19 since the outbreak hit New York City, police sources said. That number is nearly 1,300 more than the NYPD reported Tuesday in its daily coronavirus update, where it said 2,232 officers and 568 employees were diagnosed with the virus. So far, 25 members of the NYPD have died from coronavirus complications. Five of them were uniformed members and the other 20 were civilian employees. nypost.com

Tracking Police COVID-19 Deaths
Police officers in at least 12 states have died due to COVID-19. Click here to see a running list of law enforcement officials who have died of the virus.
 

Business Leaders Urge Trump to Dramatically Increase Coronavirus Testing

During first call to discuss reopening country, executives tell president more testing is needed to convince public to return to work

Banking and financial services executives told President Trump that his administration needed to dramatically increase the availability of coronavirus testing before the public would be confident enough to return to work, eat at restaurants or shop in retail establishments, according to people familiar with the matter.

No potential dates for easing coronavirus restrictions were discussed, and no follow-up meeting was scheduled. The task force, known formally as the Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups, includes more than 200 business and political leaders, who have been divided into smaller groups based on their industry.

The people involved in the first call, which included executives from banking, financial services, food and beverage, hospitality and retail industries, described current testing levels in the U.S. as inadequate to effectively reopen the economy.

Mr. Trump said he would release a new set of guidelines on Thursday about reopening the country.

Some experts have said there should be millions of tests a week before Americans can return to work. wsj.com

Cuomo extends NY shutdown to May 15th as deaths pass 12,000
In order to prevent the disease from mounting a comeback, the governor extended the policy for another month, a decision that he said was made in consultation with other regional states New York has allied with to plan an eventual economic revival.

Total hospitalizations, however, remained effectively flat, dipping slightly from 18,335 on Tuesday to 17,735 on Wednesday, despite 1,996 new daily hospitalizations.

Cuomo announced the extension as another 606 New Yorkers succumbed to the bug in the 24-hour period ending midnight Thursday, raising the overall death toll to 12,192. nypost.com
 

Americans Unemployed & Protesting

Coronavirus Has Put 22 Million Out of Work & Another 5.2M Filing Unemployment

13% of the American workforce sidelined in just a month

Thursday's report came on the heels of other signs that the coronavirus crisis has plunged the economy into a deep recession with more than nine in 10 Americans being told to stay at home under local lockdown measures. Retail sales plunged by a record 8.7 percent in March as factory output suffered its largest decline since the end of World War II, the feds revealed Wednesday.

Economists expect US payrolls to recover less than half the jobs they lost to the coronavirus crisis by the end of 2021, according to a recent survey by the National Association for Business Economics. nypost.com

Opponents of Stay-at-Home Orders Organize Protests at State Capitols
People Are Getting Restless & Going Broke - Makes For a Powder Keg

In states like Michigan, North Carolina and Kentucky, people protested against rules aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. More demonstrations were planned.

Chanting 'lock her up,' Michigan protesters in MAGA hats mass against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

In Michigan, thousands of demonstrators in cars jammed the streets around the State Capitol in Lansing in protest of restrictions to prevent spread of the coronavirus. In Frankfort, Ky., dozens of people shouted through a Capitol building window, nearly drowning out Gov. Andy Beshear as he provided a virus update at a news conference. And in Raleigh, N.C., at least one person was arrested during a protest that drew more than 100 people in opposition to a stay-at-home rule, The News & Observer reported.

In several states, protesters have taken to the streets to urge governors to reopen businesses and relax strict rules that health officials have said are necessary to save lives.

Future protests of stay-at-home limits have been announced in other states, including Texas and Oregon, as the economic and health effects of the coronavirus mount in the United States. nytimes.com
 

Who's Protecting Essential Workers?
What Are The Safety Measures & Who's Enforcing Them?
Here's Where the Lawsuits Are Coming

Covid Whistleblower Lawsuits Heating Up: What Industries Need To Know
Covid-19-related lawsuits are being filed nationwide. The three primary plaintiff groups are consumers, employees and shareholders. Schmidt said he's seeing more and more employee lawsuits being filed as the weeks move on, and he said no industry is safe from these lawsuits, with the latest lawsuit filed against Trader Joe's.

Among the types of lawsuits brought by employees are retaliation claims for raising concerns with management on a variety of compliance issues, whether or not relating to Covid-19. Schmidt said companies need to start doing some things to protect themselves from this kind of litigation.

"In the Trader Joe's case filed in Kentucky last week, the allegation is that the company expressly terminated the plaintiff because of his complaints about health and safety.

He added that companies should take steps now to be sure they have procedures in place to address employee complaints and there is no retaliation for raising the concern. theshelbyreport.com

Workers Are Getting Sick & Dying
But OSHA won't crack down on businesses that fail to follow COVID-19 guidelines
As more of the nation's essential workers become ill with coronavirus, the federal agency responsible for employee safety is telling many of them that it won't crack down on businesses that fail to follow COVID-19 guidelines.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration's position has left some workers, unions and advocates scrambling to figure out how to protect employees.

Workers say employers aren't cleaning worksites properly, providing protective equipment or telling them when coworkers became sick with the coronavirus, interviews and records obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel show.

"Workers are left to fend for themselves right now," said Rebecca Reindel, safety and health director at the AFL-CIO.

OSHA won't disclose how many complaints it has received regarding the virus. But in Oregon, where state regulators have taken a more aggressive enforcement stance, a spokesman said they received more complaints in a recent two-week period than they typically get in an entire year.

Advocates say that advice is wildly inadequate: Police officers aren't trained in workplace safety, and many employees won't risk calling the police for fear of losing their jobs.

Some workers, he said, report not receiving protective equipment or training on how to use it. Others said they are forced to work closely together.

On Tuesday, after pressure from worker groups and legislators, OSHA issued new instructions, saying complaints affecting workers with a high risk of exposure to coronavirus patients in certain health care jobs may result in on-site inspections. 

But complaints from essential workers in other sectors will typically trigger only a letter asking the employer to investigate and respond with a description of any corrective action taken. If an adequate response is not received, OSHA may conduct an inspection.

Advocates say the new guidance is not enough. All essential employees working now should be considered a high priority, said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb of the National Council for Occupational Safety.

Last week, Vice President Mike Pence said that the government would continue "to work tirelessly" with food industry employers to make sure workplaces are safe. 

But when Illinois attorney Tony Kalogerakos asked OSHA to open an investigation into the death of a Walmart employee, the agency said it couldn't.

Walmart supervisors, the lawsuit says, failed to follow cleaning, social distancing and other safety guidelines; didn't tell Evans and others that coworkers had COVID-19 symptoms, and didn't provide workers with protective gear. An Evans coworker died from the virus a few days after he did, according to the lawsuit.

"OSHA does not have any jurisdiction on enforcing anything related to COVID-19 at this time," the OSHA official said in the voicemail, which Kalogerakos provided to the Journal Sentinel. jsonline.com

Spot Checks: Oregon OSHA to systematically check businesses
The state's workplace watchdog, Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (Oregon OSHA) is launching spot checks following a sharp jump in complaints about businesses not complying with the state's social distancing requirements.

In a release, Oregon OSHA said it is ramping up its enforcement activity and will begin systematically conducting spot checks to verify that employers are complying with requirements - including closures to the public - aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic.

The spot checks - which are in addition to more time-intensive, on-site inspections initiated by the division - are intended to confirm whether employers are actually doing what they are telling the division they are doing in response to complaints. thechronicleonline.com
 

Security & Safety - Forever Intensified
As the World Awaits a Vaccine

Coronavirus Paves Way For New Era of Digital Surveillance

Coronavirus Pandemic Could Become a Watershed Moment Similar to 9/11

In an age of ubiquitous smartphones governments now have surveillance capabilities unimaginable during prior outbreaks.

In South Korea, investigators scan smartphone data to find within 10 minutes people who might have caught the coronavirus from someone they met. Israel has tapped its Shin Bet intelligence unit, usually focused on terrorism, to track down potential coronavirus patients through telecom data. One U.K. police force uses drones to monitor public areas, shaming residents who go out for a stroll.

The Covid-19 pandemic is ushering in a new era of digital surveillance and rewiring the world's sensibilities about data privacy.

Governments are imposing new digital surveillance tools to track and monitor individuals. Many citizens have welcomed tracking technology intended to bolster defenses against the novel coronavirus. Yet some privacy advocates are wary, concerned that governments might not be inclined to unwind such practices after the health emergency has passed.

Data flowing from the world's 5.2 billion smartphones can help identify who, where and how people get infected-and lasso in those who might. Read more here

The Smart Approach to Reopening
New York taps McKinsey to develop 'Trump-proof' economic reopening plan
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has hired high-powered consultants to develop a science-based plan for the safe economic reopening of the region that can thwart expected pressure from President Donald Trump to move more rapidly, state government sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

Governors from seven East Coast states formed a coalition on Monday, led by New York, to develop a joint reopening plan. Three governors from the West Coast formed a similar plan. The 10 states, mostly led by Democrats, together make up 38% of the U.S. economy.

As part of Cuomo's effort, McKinsey & Company is producing models on testing, infections and other key data points that will underpin decisions on how and when to reopen the region's economy, the sources said.

Deloitte is also involved in developing the regional plan, a source said.

Experts and governors have said there would need to be guarantees of ramped-up coronavirus testing before people return to work safely. reuters.com

Face Masks Now Required in New York Anyone outside in public in New York will be required to wear a mask or some kind of face covering under a new executive order from Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo on Wednesday said the order will apply only in situations where you can't be physically distant from other people, like riding public transit.  thehill.com

New Role for New York Police: Breaking Up Crowds at Trader Joe's

20% of NYPD Out Sick - 20 Dead From Covid-19

Crime has ebbed, but nearly 20 percent of the force is out sick. Officers have become public health police, breaking up crowds at stores.

A message popped up on Sgt. Joseph Rosso's phone. The message said a small crowd had gathered outside a Trader Joe's grocery store in Lower Manhattan. This is law enforcement in the age of a pandemic.

Sergeant Rosso and his partner, Officer Nicholas Contardo, are members of a 708-member task force that has been drawn from other duties to enforce social-distancing rules intended to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Shaking his head, Sergeant Rosso stepped on the gas, and the police cruiser lurched forward, its red and blue lights blaring. As the car neared 14th Street and Second Avenue, about 10 people in front of the grocery store slowly stepped apart.

The epidemic has affected almost every aspect of policing in the nation's biggest city. Violent crime has dropped precipitously. Patrol officers find themselves reassigned to act as public health police of sorts, warning people not to socialize. Detectives are responding to a growing number of calls to investigate deaths at home; they wear Tyvek suits, gloves, masks and face shields to prevent exposure to the virus.

But as crime has ebbed, police officers find themselves engaged in a very different fight against a microscopic threat that makes every interaction with the public dangerous to their health.

Nearly 20 percent of the 36,000-member police force has called in sick since the virus began taking a toll in the department. At least 20 department employees, including two detectives and a police officer, have died from Covid-19.

"Make no mistake. You are saving lives." - Supermarkets and parks are hot spots nytimes.com

Shoppers Praise Grocers' Response To Covid-19 Pandemic

Consumers Highest Priority - Sanitation Efforts @Stores

American consumers express a high degree of concern about the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, with 92 percent concerned and 69 percent "extremely" or "very" concerned. The vast majority of consumers (88 percent) also feel their lives have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, with 63 percent saying their lives have been extremely or very disrupted.

This overall sense of worry is heightened when it comes to grocery shopping -an activity that all households must do and that brings to consumers' homes and bodies foods from an environment they don't control. They worry about inventory and getting sick, though concern about getting sick from other shoppers is higher than getting sick from surfaces in the store itself.

In fact, two-thirds of consumers give their primary stores high marks for their response to the outbreak and nearly a third give the highest mark.

Their highest-priority request of stores is continued sanitation efforts, followed by finding ways to reduce shopper exposure to the store and others and keeping up strong inventory in both fresh and shelf-stables categories.

The Hartman Group/FMI U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends COVID-19 Tracker report. theshelbyreport.com

Coronavirus Hobbles Corporate Compliance Monitoring

Lockdowns and curbs on travel have scuttled a crucial part of supervision:
the on-site visit

Lockdowns intended to blunt the spread of coronavirus are delaying the work of corporate monitors who rely on visits to companies and access to sensitive data to ensure that regulator-mandated changes to compliance regimes are being upheld.

Corporate monitors are independent compliance experts appointed by regulators, usually as part of a settlement.

"Monitorships that are currently in process in many respects are being slowed down almost to a complete halt," said John Hanson, president of the International Association of Independent Corporate Monitors. "They can continue in some capacity, but not in a full capacity."

Prior to the pandemic, most site visits were periodic-lasting one to three weeks at a stretch-to review transactions and conduct in-person interviews, and then off-site for two to three months, Mr. Melican said. In other instances, a monitor might pop into a company more frequently, once a week or once a month, to attend meetings and make contacts, he said. wsj.com

Restrictions to cross-border traffic between U.S. & Mexico & social distancing has
slowed illegal drug trade

UK Coronavirus May Have Peaked as Deaths Rise to 12,868

Coronavirus: UK Government Promises App for Contact Tracing
 

Two Sheriffs Warning of COVID-19 Crime Surge
17 States Releasing Prisoners

LA County Sheriff fears possible surge in crime after releasing 4,276 nonviolent inmates due to coronavirus
The Los Angeles County Sheriff told FOX 11 that his decision to release over 4,000 nonviolent inmates from county jail has been effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19, however, he has concerns about a potential future surge of crime as a result of so many inmates being released. en-volve.com

Bristol County, Mass., Sheriff says:
"It's not the right time to open the doors and release inmates. It's the absolute worst time."
Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson said 80 percent of his jail population has drug issues with compromised immune systems. If released, they will be out without completing a treatment program, and going into communities that are now without Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous programs because of gatherings restrictions, the sheriff said. Also, the released inmates would have few job prospects because businesses are closed due to the coronavirus crisis, he added. "It's not the right time to open the doors and release inmates. It's the absolute worst time," Hodgson said. thesunchronicle.com
 

Rite Aid to open more Testing Sites in coming weeks utilizing the self-swab nasal tests

J.C. Penney explores bankruptcy as hopes for recovery fade - sources

Neiman Marcus Skips Bond Payment

Facebook is Running New Workshops to Help Group Admins Manage Communities Amid COVID-19

Quarterly Results
Bed Bath & Beyond Q4 comp's down 10%, digital sales up 16%, sales down 6.1%
Bed Bath & Beyond full yr comp's down 6.8%, net sales down 7.2%
 

Could Your Retailer Be Price Gouging?
Price Gouging Laws Triggered By States Of Emergency Pose Risks For National And Local Retailers
Prices ordinarily fluctuate on the basis of supply and demand. But during a governmentally declared state of emergency, so-called "price gouging" laws can take effect, imposing controls on price increases for a variety of items and carrying the threat of serious fines for violations.

Companies must be cautious at this time because many decisions to raise prices could later be deemed an illegal gouging of vulnerable consumers.

Compliance is complicated, particularly for sellers that utilize the Amazon platform and market products nationally, because more than half of U.S. states have price gouging laws, and they vary significantly - not only as to what items are covered, but how the key terms are defined.

A coordinated response is needed because an investigation by one state can trigger inquiries by other states.

To date, at least 33 state attorneys general have initiated investigations into allegations of price gouging arising out of the coronavirus crisis.

The U.S. Department of Justice has also formed a COVID-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging Task Force that has seized critical medical supplies and distributed them where needed, and paying the owners the "pre-COVID-19 fair market value" of the products.

Price gouging laws make it unlawful to sell certain merchandise and services at an excessive price during a declared emergency. Many governors have declared emergencies in their state due to COVID-19.

As a result, the sale of some merchandise, including surgical masks, hand sanitizers, disinfectant sprays and wipes, certain foods and bottled water, are being monitored by the various state Attorney General offices for evidence of illegal price hikes.

The definition of "price gouging" varies significantly from state to state. Some states use specific formulas to determine whether a company has unfairly increased prices, while others use a combination of subjective factors, without setting any exact price value. jdsupra.com

Work from home, phase 2: What comes next for security?
Phase 1 was all about employee access, network communications confidentiality/integrity, and basic endpoint security. The next phases will move quickly from risk assessment to mitigation.

Some organizations are implementing split tunneling so key employees can access VPNs and the internet simultaneously. Some are paying to upgrade employee bandwidth - especially for executives spending their days on videoconference meetings while their children use the same networks for home schooling. My colleague Bob Laliberte also tells me about companies instrumenting key employee systems with WAN optimization software. Back at corporate, there's also lots of load balancing and SD-WAN activity.

From a security perspective, forward-thinking CISOs are now on to phase 2 focused on situational awareness and risk assessment. This is directly related to the fact that a lot of LAN traffic has been rerouted to WANs and internet connections. The goal? Scope out the new realities of usage patterns and the attack surface.

To gain this level of visibility, organizations are deploying endpoint security agents to assess device posture and system-level activities. Think Tanium agents and EDR software from vendors like Carbon Black, CrowdStrike, and Cybereason. Security pros also recognize that employee home networks may be populated with insecure IoT devices, out-of-date family PCs, etc., so I've heard of instances where security teams are doing home network scans as well. Finally, there is an increased focus on network traffic monitoring travelling back-and-forth on VPNs or directly out to SaaS providers and the public cloud. csoonline.com

Coronavirus-Related Spear Phishing Attacks See 667% Increase in March 2020

Scams & Brand Impersonation Attacks Dominate

Barracuda researchers have seen a steady increase in the number of coronavirus or COVID-19-related spear-phishing attacks since January 2020, but they have observed a recent spike in this type of attack, up 667-percent since the end of February 2020.

Between March 1 and March 23, 2020 Barracuda Sentinel has detected 467,825 spear-phishing email attacks, and 9,116 of those detections were related to COVID-19, representing about 2 percent of attacks, says Fleming Shi, Chief Technology Officer at Barracuda. In comparison, a total of 1,188 coronavirus-related spear-phishing attacks were detected in February, and just 137 were detected in January, he adds. Although the overall number of these attacks is still low compared to other threats, the threat is growing quickly, he warns.

Barracuda researchers have seen three main types of phishing attacks using coronavirus COVID-19 themes - scamming, brand impersonation, and business email compromise. Of the coronavirus-related attacks detected by Barracuda Sentinel through March 23, 54 percent were scams, 34 percent were brand impersonation attacks, 11 percent were blackmail, and 1 percent are business email compromise. securitymagazine.com

The New Norm
Coronavirus turns up the heat on cybersecurity projects

Tighten 3rd Parties - Showing Off Their Work on Social Media - Sharing Devices @Home

For all the havoc it's wreaked, the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed many of these cybersecurity projects initiatives to the forefront where they're gaining traction. "Any technology available today that helps employees with this transition to working remotely is going to see a huge acceleration and new innovations to help with likely see this becoming the new norm."

Cloud migration. Still hesitant about moving to the cloud? Get over it.

Locking down the supply chain. Most security teams worry about the security of supply chains - with good reason. Third parties have been the entry point for hackers into larger, more data rich companies. With all the companies connected along the supply chain, the risk grows greater. Now is the time to tighten requirements. Rawlins says start with asking "your suppliers what they might do to maintain their security in the meantime and encourage them to make incremental improvements in other areas to compensate - increasing logging. improving their patching, ensuring multi-factor authentication and enhancing their own."

Recruitment. If it seems like the only companies hiring these days are food, grocery and delivery services, think again. While many organizations are trying to keep costs way down and have implemented hiring freezes, the security challenges raised by working through the pandemic might strengthen the pitch to aggressively pursue skilled cybersecurity professionals to add to your roster.

Social media compliance. Even the tightest social media policy might be challenged as the bulk of the workforce works from home. "There is a growing movement of showing off your 'work from home' setup on social media, and this can lead to operational security issues," says Ragland.

IoT security. The exposure of public Wi-Fi replaced by sharing devices in the home and the need to ensure that basic cyber hygiene principles are being followed.

Identity & access management - Building in efficiency - Expanded corporate network support - Security awareness & cyber hygiene - Threat monitoring - Securing remote computing - Zero trust networking scmagazine.com

Slack's Incoming Webhooks Can Be Weaponized in Phishing Attacks
Security researchers exploring attack vectors in collaboration platform Slack have discovered a way its Incoming Webhooks could be leveraged to launch phishing attacks against employees.

Incoming Webhooks is a feature designed to give people an easy way to share messages from external applications in the Slack platform. Users can send a message to any webhook for which they know the URL, in any workspace, regardless of whether they're a member. Webhooks use normal HTTP requests with a JSON payload, which includes the message and optional details. darkreading.com

Going After Price Gougers Aggressively
Amazon Aims to Test All Employees for Covid-19
Amazon has started building a testing capacity to diagnose all employees for Covid-19, including those who display no symptoms.

"We have begun assembling the equipment we need to build our first lab and hope to start testing small numbers of our front-line employees soon," Mr. Bezos said Thursday. "We are not sure how far we will get in the relevant time frame, but we think it's worth trying, and we stand ready to share anything we learn."

The Seattle company has turned over information from sellers suspected to have engaged in price gouging for essential products to 42 state attorneys general offices, and state attorneys general can communicate with Amazon through a communication channel the company has set up, Mr. Bezos said. Amazon has removed more than 500,000 offers from its stores and suspended more than 6,000 selling accounts globally due to price gouging, he said.

Amazon is also paying associates double their regular rate for overtime work at a minimum of $34 an hour, Mr. Bezos said, adding that these wage increases will cost the company more than $500 million through the end of April.

The company has established an initial $25 million relief fund for independent delivery-service partners and their drivers, Amazon Flex participants and temporary workers under financial distress, Mr. Bezos said. wsj.com

Amazon Closed Six French Warehouses Over Safety Issues - Biggest Fall out Yet
Amazon has no clarity yet on when its warehouses in France might reopen, the head of its French business said on Thursday, after the e-commerce giant clashed with unions over the measures taken to limit the risks of coronavirus contagion.

Amazon closed six French warehouses used to stock and package goods for shipment on Thursday until at least April 20, in one of the biggest fallouts yet from a growing stand-off with its workers over safety measures during the pandemic.

The world's largest online retailer is facing mounting scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic as it juggles a surge in online orders during unprecedented lockdowns during the pandemic and employees' safety.

France is the only country where it has shut down all of its so-called fulfillment centres after unions complained that they were still too crowded and filed a legal challenge.

A court sided with the workers on Tuesday, ordering Amazon to focus only on delivering essential items like food while it revised health protocols.

Duval added that rather than limiting its activities, Amazon had temporarily suspended trade through the warehouses because the court order, which included a 1 million-euro ($1.1 million) per day penalty for non-compliance, was too vague.

Amazon's vice president of the European Union segment, Roy Perticucci, has stepped down, the company confirmed on Wednesday, a day after the French court's ruling. reuters.com

US consumers report $12M in COVID-19 scam losses since January
FTC has received more than 16K Coronavirus-related reports from consumers. Consumers reported losing a total of $12.78M to fraud w/ a reported median loss of $570," said the agency today.

According to the FTC, consumers reported 16,778 fraud incidents so far, with roughly 46.3% of fraud complaints also reporting a loss between January 1, 2020 - April 12, 2020.

Most reports were received from California with 2,010 consumers saying that they were targeted by fraudsters, followed by Florida, New York, and Texas with over 1,000 complaints each.

Scammers targeting consumers looking for travel and vacations deal were behind over 2,800 fraud attempts reported to the FTC, while online shopping and text message-based scams were trailing behind with 1,741 and 1,017 reports, respectively. bleepingcomputer.com

Waterford, CT: Two arrested for theft of $39K In Merchandise From Home Depot
Police have arrested two people in connection with stealing $39,000 in merchandise from a local Home Depot. The investigation began in January and culminated Wednesday with two arrests. Zachary Eckard, 30, was charged with first-degree larceny and organized retail theft. He was held on $25,000 bond. Erin Kievits 33, was charged with second-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit larceny. She was held on $5,000 bond. Both are scheduled to appear in New London Superior Court June 4. The department's investigation was in conjunction Home Depot Loss Prevention, which began an investigation into a series of thefts occurring at various Home Depot store locations in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. facebook.com

Fairbanks, AK: Woman arrested for punching Fred Meyer employee confronting her about $1,000 of stolen items
Audra Jean Hamilton, 27, was arrested after she allegedly spent two hours inside of West Fred's stealing items, and then punched an employee who attempted to stop her. Charging documents say that Kevin Watts, a loss prevention officer for Fred Meyer, watched Hamilton load two suit cases and a back pack with stolen goods. When she left the store he attempted to stop her on the side walk when she punched him in the face. She left the suitcases but ran off with the backpack. According to police, Hamilton then tried to get drivers at the gas station to drive her away but they refused. She left the gas station and was located by police in the parking lot of the Extended Stay Hotel. Hamilton has been charged with multiple counts including Robbery in the second degree, theft and assault. webcenter11.com

Lake Havasu, AZ: Man arrested in 3 separate shoplifting incidents; theft of Baby Formula

Joliet, IL: Amazon Fulfillment Center employee arrested for felony theft