STORES Magazine - November 2008 - (Page L3)

Industry COVER STORY Addressing Wireless Vulnerabilities provided by Downing & Downing avesdropping, lost or stolen devices, man-in-the-middle attacks, spoofing and hijacking are just some of the techniques hackers have used to breach wireless networks in retail. LPi recently asked Asa Holmstrom, president of New York-based Columbitech, to suggest five steps retail companies can take in an effort to shore up wireless vulnerabilities. Create strong user authentication. Including a certificate stored on the device, a password or biometrics defend networks from any unauthorized access and ensure the user is who he claims to be. Strong user authentication utilizes more than one method; it also keeps rogue devices from gaining access to network resources and prevents stored data manipulation. Ensure wireless encryption. If the wireless network is encrypted using a strong symmetric encryption algorithm like AES, the wireless traffic is not vulnerable to eavesdropping. Establish server-side authentication. While user authentication ensures the user or the client is who he claims to be, it doesn’t guarantee the client is connecting to the right server. Thus, the network is vulnerable to the manin-the-middle attack. When both serverside and client-side authentication are used, a mutual authentication is established, preventing man-in-the-middle attacks. E Mark Stinde was promoted to vice president of asset protection for Circuit City. … Ray Cloud has been named vice president of LP for Ross Stores. … David Lund was promoted to vice president of LP for Dick’s Sporting Goods. … Brian Bazer has been named vice president of asset protection for Advance Auto. … John Vleke has been named vice president of LP for Total Wines & More. … Daniel Hafford was promoted to divisional vice president for Coach. … Kevin Darnell has been named director of LP for Brown Shoe. … Kevin Larson has been promoted to director of LP for Bath & Body Works. … Earl Watson has been named senior director of LP for Wal-Mart. 400-sq.-ft. storage area on the second floor of the mall. Authorities say the growers used the mall’s electricity to power their equipment, adding that the flimsy wiring could have caused a fire. The plants could have fetched at least $3,500 per pound (each plant is considered a pound when harvested) on Miami streets or as much as $7,000 in New York, according to DEA special agent Jeannette Moran. Install integrity protection. Protection of all transmitted traffic can be accomplished by using data integrity mechanisms like MD5 or SHA, which generate a numeric sum from looking at blocks of bytes of data. After data is transmitted, the sum is recalculated and can verify if data is compromised or not, thus helping the retailer avoid spoofing and hijacking. Encrypt wired traffic, too. Most wired traffic is transported unencrypted. To prevent an intruder from plugging into a rough device at an access point or a laptop with WAN capabilities, retailers need to encrypt the wired traffic in the unprotected part of the network, too. Busted New York man has been charged with selling $80,000 worth of stolen Victoria’s Secret bras online. Prosecutors say the suspect sold more than 2,000 hot bras over the past two years, and had 650 bras worth an additional $26,000 in his home when he was caught. Sources said he bought the bras from a shoplifting ring, and then used several different eBay and PayPal accounts to sell them. The bras, worth between $40 and $80 apiece, were sold on eBay for about $25 each. An observant cybercrimes manager at Victoria’s Secret uncovered the crime and alerted the district attorney’s office. STORES / NOVEMBER 2008 A Smoked Out of the Mall t seems you never can tell what you’ll find at the mall these days. Last year, a secret apartment was uncovered at a mall in Rhode Island. But something far more nefarious turned up at the Mall of the Americas in west Miami-Dade, Fla., a few weeks back. DEA agents discovered a hydroponic nursery with more than 200 marijuana plants ranging from 4 to 6 ft. high. Agents found the “grow house’’ in a WWW.LPINFORMATION.COM I WATCH L3 NEWSbeat http://WWW.LPINFORMATION.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - November 2008

STORES Magazine - November 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Every Cup Counts What Shoppers Think Less Park Time, More Shop Time 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Retail Held Captive First Look Concept2Watch Marketing Technology Custom Software PCI Compliance Data Security Arts Update Newsbeat LP Issues: Q&A Cover Story Surveillance Systems Online Fraud Industry Perspective LOEB Retail Letter Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - November 2008

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