The Week in Review: July 21-27

Happy Saturday, Security readers! We’re shifting things around this week to give you your Week in Review update over the weekend. Let us know what you think in the comments box at the bottom of the page!

So without further ado, your top stories this week include:

10 Tips to Mitigate Workplace Violence and Threats: An astounding two million workers in America are victims of some form of workplace violence each year, and workplace violence now ranks among the top four causes of workplace deaths.

Fighting the Rising Tide of Flash Mobs in Retail: Retailers have been hit hard by the increasing spate of flash mob robberies occurring in major cities throughout the United States. Also referred to as a “flash mob theft,” this unique breed of theft has become a challenging crime for retail store owners to not only deal with, but also prevent.

Sixth Annual Security 500 Report: Measuring Up: Security leadership and value is being tied directly to business unit and organizational goals as the best measure of its contribution. So directly tied, that business unit leaders are paying for risk management and security as a direct service versus an allocation.

SEC 500: 2011 Rankings: What do Dan Ryan, Daniel DeLorenzi and Mark J. Cheviron have in common? They’re all at the top of their field in last year’s Security 500 rankings.

Mass Shooting in Colorado Leaves 12 Dead, More than 50 Injured: A shooting at a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater early today has left at least 12 people dead and more than 50 injured, according to a recent report from The Associated Press.

67,000 Phones Likely to Be Lost, Stolen During Olympics: The numbers of smartphones and other portable networked devices have exploded over the past few years, the release says. As such, this year’s Games will see the largest-ever risk of corporate and personal data loss during an Olympics period, with an estimated 214.4 terabytes of potentially sensitive data likely to be lost or stolen – the equivalent of 200 million books’ worth of data.

Securing Doors in Schools, Hospitals and Detention Centers: Many institutions have been haunted by the memories of disastrous shootings and tragedies where, among other things, access control went wrong: Columbine, Virginia Tech, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. So now, in certain organizations, including schools, hospitals and corrections facilities, choosing a strong locking system is both entirely compulsory and infinitely complicated.

Hacker Will Expose Potential Flaw in Four Million Hotel Room Locks: At the Black Hat security conference Tuesday evening, a Mozilla software developer and 24-year-old security researcher named Cody Brocious plans to present a pair of vulnerabilities he’s discovered in hotel room locks from the manufacturer Onity, whose devices are installed on the doors of between four and five million hotel rooms around the world according to the company’s figures.

Solving the Eli Lilly Drug Theft: It turned out be the largest theft of prescription drugs in United States history, as described by the authorities, and it was intricately orchestrated and meticulously executed. The late-night operation lasted five hours, with the thieves descending into an Eli Lilly warehouse in Enfield, Conn., cutting a hole in the roof of the warehouse and lowering themselves with ropes after compromising the alarm system. Over the next five hours, they used a forklift inside the warehouse to load the drugs into a tractor-trailer and made off with approximately $80 million worth of prescription drugs, which were loaded into a truck and eventually driven to Florida.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Leave us a message below or send me a note directly at meyerc@bnpmedia.com