This article originally ran on The Legal Intelligencer on August 24, 2022. All rights reserved.
Flaster Greenberg Shareholder Christopher J. Merrick's upcoming Transportation Lawyer Association (TLA) CLE webinar titled “Scamsters, Chameleons, and Thieves Oh My! Preventing, Combating, and Avoiding Identity Theft in the Supply Chain: What to Do Before, During and After, to Keep the Barbarians Outside of the Gates!” was featured in The Legal Intelligencer's People in the News column.
Victoria Pfefferle-Gillot article reviews the event description, panel discussion, panelists, and more. Register for this event.
The event description details that imposters, chameleons and scamsters have been running roughshod throughout the supply chain, and the entire transportation sector, for decades now. They interject themselves, via feigned identities, imposter/chameleon roles and sophisticated cyberattacks, with resultant losses of not only high value cargo, but also actual physical rolling stock. The frequency of these tactics was increasing prior to 2020. However, these violations were magnified and accelerated by a Great Digitization during the COVID pandemic, logistics entities dramatically digitized ever more phases of their operations to respond to the strictures and proclivities of the pandemic.
The webinar panel is to discuss topics that encompass all modes and will recommend various methodologies by which transportation and logistics companies can prevent and combat identity theft in their daily operations, commercial relations, contractual practices, regulatory filing hygiene, and systemic IT policies.
The panelists are also to discuss cybersecurity and data privacy contingencies from both the combative and preemptive perspectives and explore how to set up internal systems that complement privacy compliance efforts and related contracting, like data mapping and the necessity of legal/compliance, IT, operations and human resources, working together to rebuff cyberattacks.
The panel is to spotlight the risks of identity theft and other forms of cyber fraud facing carriers on the road, on the rails and on the internet itself. Panelists are to compare the UMLER system for electronic tracking of railcars with digital truck registration systems now being tested by several state DOTs.
Additionally, they are set to compare current rail and highway vehicle identification requirements and standards for electronically tracking rolling stock, including license plate tracking and GPS tracking.
The panel is also meant to cover various fraudster methodologies, including cloned trucks and border coyotes and how to deal with them. Finally, the panel is to discuss the FMCSA/DOT agency responses to this pox on the industry, and update the audience on the progress of regulatory safeguards.
The moderator is set to be Mayer LLP Houston partner Eric Benton. Along with Merrick, the other speakers are set to be: Mark Andrews of the Washington, D.C., office of Clark Hill and Ryan T. Sulkin, partner in the Chicago office of Benesch.
At Flaster Greenberg, Merrick focuses his practice on all stages of litigation, including appellate litigation and alternative dispute resolution, and represents corporate clients acting as both plaintiffs and defendants.
The TLA webinar is scheduled to be held at 2 p.m. Aug. 31.
