Loss Prevention Research Council Weekly Series - Episode 106 - Mass Shootings, Data Breaches and USA Economic Forecast
With Dr. Read Hayes, Tony D'Onofrio, and Tom Meehan
Active Shooter Incidents in the United States for 2021
https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-incidents-in-the-us-2021-052422.pdf/view
Let me start with the latest FBI report on active shootings in the United States published a couple weeks ago.
The FBI defines an active shooter as one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.3 Implicit in this definition is the shooter’s use of a firearm.
The FBI has designated 61 shootings in 2021 as active shooter incidents. What does this mean versus prior years? For the period 2017–2021, active shooter incident data reveals an upward trend: the number of active shooter incidents identified in 2021 represents a 52.5% increase from 2020 and a 96.8% increase from 2017.
In the 61 incidents tracked by the FBI, 243 were the total human casualties in 2021 with 103 killed and 140 wounded. This compares with 164 casualties in 2020 with 38 killed and 126 wounded.
December had the fewest number of incidents (one), and similar to 2020, June had the highest number of incidents (12). When compared to 2020, April saw the biggest increase in incidents (from zero to 10).
The total casualty count for 2021 (243) is below the average for the period 2017–2020 (345.25), but exceeded casualties in 2020 (164) with a 48 percent increase. The 2021 numbers represent the third highest total casualty count over the last five years (2017–2021).
Thirty-two of the 61 active shooter incidents occurred in areas of commerce, resulting in 68 killed and 72 wounded. • Twenty-eight incidents30 occurred in business environments open to pedestrian traffic, resulting in 57 killed, including three managers,31 17 employees,32 two law enforcement officers,33 and one security officer.
2022 is not looking any safer. According to the Washington Post there had already been 232 mass shootings this year in the United States as of June 6, 2022.
Mass shootings, where four or more people — not including the shooter — are injured or killed, have averaged more than one per day so far this year. Not a single week in 2022 has passed without at least three mass shootings.
Mass shootings have been on the rise in recent years. In 2021, almost 700 such incidents occurred, a jump from the 611 in 2020 and 417 in 2019. Before that, incidents had not topped 400 annually since the Gun Violence Archive started tracking in 2014.
This year is on pace with last year’s high when comparing the same time period. The toll is immense. Mass shootings have killed 256 people and injured 1,010 more through the end of May.
This is an area important to LPRC and we encourage both solutions partners and retailers to work together to make us all safer.
Visualizing the Top 50 Data Breaches from 2004 to 2021
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/visualizing-the-50-biggest-data-breaches-from-2004-2021/
From Visual Capitalist and in support of Tom, let me summarize a recent infographic on the top 50 data breaches from 2004 to 2021.
A data breach is an incident in which sensitive or confidential information is copied, transmitted or stolen by an unauthorized entity. This can occur as a result of malware attacks, payment card fraud, insider leaks, or unintended disclosure.
In 2021, a new record was set with more than 5.9 billion user records stolen.
The largest data breach recorded occurred in 2013 when all three billion Yahoo accounts had their information compromised. In that cyberattack, the hackers were able to gather the personal information and passwords of users. While the full extent of the Yahoo data breach is still not fully realized, subsequent cybercrimes across the globe have been linked to the stolen information.
By sector, the top 3 places where breaches occur most are Web with 9.9 billion records lost, finance at 2 billion lost, and tech and 1.6 billion lost. Retail ranks sixth with 594 million records lost.
A 2021 IBM security report estimated that the average cost per data breach for companies in 2020 was $4.2 million, which represents a 10% increase from 2019. That increase is mainly attributed to the added security risk associated with having more people working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It's a good idea to listen to this podcast and to Tom for ideas on how to prevent you from being a victim of data breaches.
NRF: Economy is rebalancing, but extreme cooling off unlikely
https://chainstoreage.com/nrf-economy-rebalancing-extreme-cooling-unlikely
Let me end this week with an a projected view from the National Retail Federation or NRF on the state of USA economy as published in Chain Store Age.
Although the Federal Reserve faces “a tricky job” in addressing inflation, continuing growth in employment, wages and consumer spending make it unlikely the effort will backfire into a major setback for the economy, according to National Retail Federation chief economist
Though many people fear an extreme cooling off of the economy, there is not an overwhelming amount of evidence to support such predictions,” according NRF’s chief’s economist. In general, the data suggests that we remain in an ongoing expansion.
GDP growth in the USA is projected to climb 2.6% in 2022 and another 2.1% in 2023. While the rate of inflation expected by consumers in the near term has moved up, expectations for the long term are subdued.
I personally do have some concerns for the balance of 2022 as uncertainties remain including the Ukraine war. Let’s all hope he is right and we come out of this inflation cycle with continued growth.
