Cheddar

This week the security industry showcases the latest in theft protection and prevention at NRF Protect 2025.

Judging by how eye watering my last grocery bill was I’d say retail entities attending the National Retail Federation's (NRF) conference have a lot of expensive merchandise to protect. The battle to deter theft has two front lines as well now, thanks to the explosion of online retail. We should also consider that the rise of AI-assisted tools has made cybercrime easier than ever before, and so to those fighting the good cybersecurity fight, I wish you the best of luck.

They’re going to need it too. Companies have to reckon with an increasing amount of valuable and vulnerable consumer data generated by online sales that must be processed and protected by complicated and region-specific legislation that changes frequently.

As for physical theft, at the end of 2024 retail theft had begun to skyrocket, experiencing a 93% increase between 2019 and 2023. Monitoring companies have been working in collaboration with shared networks and services to expand the reach of their loss prevention tools.

I’ve been writing this blog long enough to have forgotten half the things I’ve talked about, but I’m certain that I’ve equated the security industry to the endless pursuit of building a better mouse trap.

That’s what they’re accomplishing here, in spades, but the theft statistics keep on rising.

Security does a lot of things: it protects people, it protects property, and it protects profit. If all the AI-powered, facial recognition, biometric, shared database mouse traps only manage to accomplish making more mice, it might be more effective to address why they need the cheese so badly.

And offer a sidelong glance at the cat.