Hi-Tech-Consulting

“Convenience Stores Get Tips to Boost Security”
Houston Chronicle (08/28/07) ; Crowe, Robert

Houston Mayor Bill White’s 38-member Task Force on Convenience Store Security is providing security tips to the 1,600 convenience stores in the city. Among other things, the task force recommends that convenience store owners implement security cameras, keep minimal amounts of cash in the register, establish relationships with local police officers, and remove clutter from store windows so that crimes in progress will be visible. These recommendations are “minimal steps, which are very inexpensive and will improve the safety by 50 percent or more,” says Assistant Houston Police Chief John Trevino. The task force is led by a convenience store owner and includes city officials, police officials, and other convenience store owners among its members. The task force further recommends that Houston legislators pass laws pertaining to the type of lighting used at stores and the minimum number of security cameras that must be in place. The task force plans to assign a grade of “high crime” or “low crime” to all convenience stores in the city, and the task force is lobbying the Houston Police Department to create a convenience store unit.
(go to web site)

“Aiming to Protect and Serve”
Investor’s Business Daily (08/20/07) P. A9 ; Much, Marilyn

Companies that provide security and safety products and services are part of an overall industry whose stock ranks at No. 38 out of 197 industry segments, according to Investor’s Business Daily. “The aftermath of 9/11 has created a continuing and accelerating backdrop for revenue in the security companies, whether they be military related or homeland security related or ultimately commercially related,” says Lehman Bros. analyst Jeffrey Kessler, who foresees increased fragmentation and consolidation within the industry. The Freedonia Group predicts that demand for private contracted security services in the United States will grow 4.3 percent annually, to $48 billion by 2010. Included in this prediction are security segments such as armored vehicles, alarm monitoring, and the management of correctional facilities. Indeed, the top three private prison operators are expected to deploy high-tech monitoring and surveillance technologies within their newest facilities. The Freedonia Group also predicts that terrorism, computer-based threats, and white-collar crimes will help drive demand for private security companies.
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In Aftermath of Deadly Shootings, Newark Invests in Surveillance. According to Mark Dilonno of the Star Ledger, Mayor Corey Booker will announce today that this New Jersey city will invest in an advanced surveillance system to monitor its most troubled neighborhoods after last week’s execution style shootings of four young adults, three of which died.

The new program, Community Eye:

…will put about 100 security cameras and audio gunshot-detection machines overlooking city streets. The Newark Community Foundation, with funding from businesses and private donors, has promised to raise $3.2 million for the program…. The gunshot detectors, sensitive enough to differentiate between gunshots and other explosions like engine backfires, alert police immediately, cutting down on response time…. The technology works together. When a gunshot is detected, the surveillance camera will immediately zoom in on that spot. The cameras cover overlapping areas, so police can electronically follow suspects as they leave the scene.

Booker told the paper that when the program is complete, eight-square miles of Newark’s worst neighborhoods will be monitored by the system. Eighty percent of the city’s recent shootings have occurred within that eight-square mile radius.

The New York Times described the proposed surveillance system as the most advanced system anywhere in the nation.

“Satellite Aids in Tracking Bank Robbers: Bad Guys Now Have to Worry About GPS Technology”
New Haven Register (08/05/07) ; Kaempffer, William

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is being utilized in New Haven, Conn., to follow bank thieves, most likely the first time it has been used for that reason. “The banks will tend to use it in higher-risk locations because it’s not the cheapest,” explains Connecticut Bankers Association senior vice president Lindsey R. Pinkham. “That, to some degree, has limited its deployment.” Industry sources claim one product being worked on is a computerized fiscal recognition system in a current database. While GPS technology functions in a similar fashion to traditional dye packs, which are placed alongside money and go off after the thief exits the bank, the GPS tracker silently transmits signals that permit police to precisely uncover the suspect’s whereabouts on a computer screen. Throughout the country, GPS technology has been more and more used by police to solve a broad variety of crimes. A female bank robber was recently apprehended in New Haven after exiting the branch with money and a concealed transmitter. Police were able to find and arrest her in minutes by using GPS to locate her.
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“Retailers Organize Against Crime”
Security Management (07/07)

Vol. 51, No. 7, P. 52 Thuermer, Karen E.

Gangs of professional thieves who conduct organized retail crime (ORC) operations are capable of hitting as many as 15 retail stores per day, according to loss-prevention specialists. ORC thieves typically operate in teams of three or more people who steal hundreds of dollars of merchandise from stores, then sell the stolen products to fences who sell the items for as little as 20 cents on the dollar. Popular items targeted by ORC thieves include CDs and DVDs, electronics, alcohol, baby formula, razor blades, meat, OTC medicine, and beauty care products. Members of the retail industry are concerned that some of these ORC operations are helping to finance terrorism through global black-market rings–thus, retailers should coordinate their anti-ORC efforts with law enforcement and government officials, loss-prevention specialists say. Some fences will re-label stolen products or produce counterfeit labels to make the products look legitimate, but retailers are fighting back by authenticating their products with special stamps, laser codes, and UV ink. Retailers also are using antitheft technology such as merchandise-locks, hard tags, infrared technology, and Radio Frequency Electronic Article Surveillance systems. Loss-prevention specialists recommend that retailers emphasize the human element of security by training store associates in customer service and noticing and reporting suspicious activity. Security cameras are not effective deterrents to ORC thieves, but they are effective at identifying suspects who can be prosecuted.
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“Thieves Turn Simple Strip Into Cutting-Edge Tool”
USA Today (08/01/07) P. 8B ; Acohido, Byron; Swartz, Jon

Thieves have discovered a way to alter the magnetic stripe on the back of bank cards using a “magstripe reader-writer.” A 26 year-old man was arrested in Canada in possession of thumb drives and computer printouts of credit card account data stolen from hundreds of U.S. and Canadian consumers. He also had prepaid gift cards from Visa and MasterCard. By altering the magstripes of authentic bank gift cards, the suspect was able to bypass a riskier task of fabricating fake credit cards. The ploy mimics a Miami ring that used counterfeited credit cards to buy stacks of Wal-Mart gift cards. Ring members then used the gift cards to amass $1 million worth of big-ticket items from Sam’s club, a Wal-Mart subsidiary. Like merchant gift cards, bank cards do not have embossed numerals or an individual’s name on the card so no proof of identity is required to use them. Altering the magstripe on bank gift cards “is a way to convert small-value cards into big-value plastic,” says information risk strategist John Pironti of Getronics. Visa, MasterCard, and American Express have been rolling out contactless payment cards that use technology significantly more difficult to compromise, yet magstripe payment cards are virtually ubiquitous and will probably reign in use for decades.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/infotheft/2007-07-31-gift-cards_N.htm

“Experts: Internal Locks on Classroom Doors Could Save Lives”
Dothan Eagle (07/30/07) ; Potter, Dena

School security experts say that schools and colleges across the country can prevent another Columbine or Virginia Tech massacre with one simple step: equipping classroom doors with internal locks. Colorado, scene of the infamous Columbine High School massacre, is at the forefront of a movement to equip classroom doors with locks that lock from the inside, according to Vincent Wincelowicz, vice president of the Foundation for the Prevention of School Violence at Denver-based Wales University. Most schools, including Virginia Tech, have doors that lock from the outside, but Virginia Tech and schools in other states are considering implementing internal locks. During the Virginia Tech massacre this April, students in at least one classroom desperately struggled to block a classroom door with their bodies to prevent gunman Seung-Hui Cho from entering. Security experts say that, given the number of classroom doors on some college campuses, colleges should expect to shell out a hefty sum of money when installing internal locks. The cost could be about $200 per door, but the locks “add a layer of protection that a security camera that’s being remotely monitored may not afford,” says PublicSchoolSecurity.com CEO Robert Siciliano.
(go to web site)

By Entrepreneur.com Click here for more stories from Entrepreneur.com 7/23/2007 9:07 AM EDT

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In retail, you want your products to fly off the shelves and out the door — but only after they’ve been paid for. Theft — both by customers and employees — costs American retailers more than $33 billion per year. Entire retail chains have gone out of business due to their inability to control losses from theft.

http://www.thestreet.com/s/how-to-prevent-retail-theft/smallbiz/entrepreneur/10369228.html?puc=googlefi