Many people remember the tragic death of a Wal-Mart employee as a result of a customer stampede on Thanksgiving weekend 2008. A crowd had gathered outside the store anticipating major savings, and the employee was trampled to death when the store opened its doors. As a result of this tragedy, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued crowd safety guidelines for retailers. As you plan your holiday sales and promotions, here are some points from the guidelines to keep in mind:

1. Create a detailed staffing plan that designates a location for each worker.

2. Designate a worker to contact local emergency responders if necessary.

3. Provide legible and visible signs that describe entrance locations, store opening times, and other important information.

4. Train workers in crowd management procedures and the emergency plan.

5. Set up barricades or rope lines for crowd management well in advance of customers arriving at the store.

6. Ensure that barricade lines have an adequate number of breaks and turns at regular intervals to reduce the risk of customers pushing from the rear.

7. Consider using mechanisms such as numbered wristbands or tickets to provide the earlier-arriving customers with first access to sale items.

8. Consider using Internet lotteries for "hot" items.

9. When the store reaches maximum occupancy, do not allow additional customers to enter.

Click for the complete OSHA guidelines.

In the first seven months of 2011, a number of companies and institutions reported large-scale data breaches. The causes of the breaches range from misplacement of data by employees to malicious hacking by organized hacker groups. These serial breaches have led some commentators to nickname 2011 "The Year of the Breach."

In April, Epsilon, the world's largest email marketing provider, reported that data on customers of 50 retailers, including the Home Shopping Network, Best Buy, Target, and Verizon, were exposed to an unauthorized entry into Epsilon's email system.

Sony fell victim to what has been called the largest data breach ever, affecting nearly 77 million users of Sony's Playstation and Qriocity services by an organized group of hackers. Sony predicted that breach remediation measures alone would cost the company at least $171 million.

This spate of data breaches has brought renewed attention to cyber-insurance - a specialized insurance product intended to protect companies against costs due to hacker attacks and data breaches.

-Lexology, August 8 2011

Contact us if you would like to learn more about cyber liability insurance.

A 290-pound New York man is suing the fast food chain White Castle because his body is too wide to fit into one of its standard-issue booths. The claimant is citing the Americans with Disabilities Act, which he claims is "applicable, not only to me, but to pregnant women and to handicapped people."  A spokesman for White Castle said the store is renovating its booths to make them "comfortable for people with a little more weight".

-Hot Air, September 11, 2011