How to Protect Your Business from Social Engineering

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

What is social engineering? Social engineering is the act of psychological manipulation of people into performing specific acts (breaking normal security procedures). It is used in over sixty-six percent of all attacks by hackers whether it’s warranty exploitation or attempting to breach company data. According to the FBI, social engineering scams have cost U.S. businesses 1.6 billion since 2013. A couple types of social engineering attacks are called phishing and pretexting. Read more →

How to Mitigate Organized Retail Crime This Holiday Season

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

Dealing with organized retail crime (ORC) is one of the major challenges for loss prevention programs across the country. Now that holiday and Black Friday shopping are fast approaching, ORC is likely a primary concern for your retail business.

Why are most retail businesses concerned? ORC costs the retail industry about $30 billion each year, according to the 2016 Organized Retail Crime Survey, an annual survey conducted by the National Retail Federation (NRF).

Moreover, the problem is growing. For the first time, 100 percent of the retailers surveyed by the NRF said they have been victims of organized retail crime, up from 97 percent in 2015. In addition, 83 percent of the retailers surveyed reported an increase in ORC year-over-year. Read more →

Online Database Helps Cambridge Police, Residents Track Crime

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

Recent technology allows police departments to respond to crime more efficiently and alerts residents more effectively.  

The Cambridge Police Department, for example, offers an online crime map that displays and analyzes crime data, informs Cambridge citizens about crimes in their area, and allows police to quickly alert the public about crimes as they occur.

If you live in another city or town, you can access the national crime data map and apply filters to the data to view only the information that matters to you most here. The easy-to-use interactive map includes a number of filters that allow you to focus on a specific area, type of crime or date range. Read more →