WARNING - wireless alarms

[oldman]

This is a heads up for anyone using a wireless alarm system. (including me)

Many moons ago I was told that it would be quite easy to disable a wireless alarm by overpowering the signals from the sensors. It seems that there is now a product on the market that will do this. It transmits on the common frequencies of wireless alarms and outputs 15W to 30W of scrambling. From a radio point of view these contravene the OFCOM rules so are illegal to use in the UK.

Effectively, anyone carrying one of these will disable the sensors of your wireless alarm while they break in.

Before you panic these things are expensive (this one was just over £200 from China) so it's not the kind of thing your common-all-garden thief will have. If you are worried about the CIA or MI5 breaking into your house then you may want to change your alarm system to a wired one.

Expect a scare story in the press soon.

[Yorkshire Andy]

What about the systems that includes anti jamming?


Even wired systems are simple enough to "mute" if you know how either by direct bell box attack or on older systems making use of the entry timer to access the control box and within 20 seconds having the cover off and doing something just under the cover resets the system to factory defaults...... (My parents old system had that weekness)

Look down the average street at alarms.

a look round here only about 1/4 of homes if that have bell boxes..

I recon 85% of those are U/S based on the lack of status lights or the status lights showing a system fault.... Or outright age of the bell box (back up batteries have a typical life of 5 years so both control unit and bell box should be tested and batteries replaced if needed) that and I've seen cobwebs so dense they jamb tamper switches cobwebs hold moisture which over time rots circuit boards (higher end stuff is more resilient)

Then at a guess 10% of those that appear serviceable are not set except on occasions like 2 week summer holiday

Leaving about 5% of homes actually covered on a regular basis eg when they go to work / at night


Then factor in neighborhood attitudes... Where my parents live half the street comes out if an alarm goes off.... Yet where I am no one seems to bother to so much as twitch a curtain...



Technology security is a big arms race the likes of yhe keyless BMW and fords been targeted and stolen by people with a laptop in 40 seconds

What was wrong with a mechanical key and chip immobilizer....

Good mechanical security should be the first line of defence

I've had a kick up the arse this week due to a spate of burgularies locally a visit by a pcso warning us then the front gate been opened at silly am and them leaving rapidly when they triggered the pir lights on the porch. Swiftly backed up by a 1200lm torch strobe assault as they legged it, from the bedroom window that I was looking out of

I was awake with a poorly little man fortunately

Today's task is new snap safe locks to ts007 bsi ***standard

I'm not after keeping mi5 out but local Billy burgular who makes his drugs money from nicking and trashing people's house in the process

Man who cut my extra keys was saying Billy is after cash and car keys... Not phones / computers / jewelry as most computers are remote lockable same with I phones so gone are the days of selling them down the pub as the big drunk guy who's new iPhone he bought off Billy locks down Billy gets a kicking..

likewise cash converters want all your details so fencing stolen jewelry is a risk

Bit of good housekeeping helps too clear front gardens so people can't hide and a cluttered window sill if they try and creep through a window they won't do it quietly as random plants fall off / books / toys clatter to the floor

[peejay]

I can confirm that Cash Converters still gets used for fencing stolen gear.

My car was broken into in Feb this year & £2.5k of photography gear stolen from it (stupidly left there by yours truly). It wasn't actual cameras but expensive carbon fibre tripods & stuff that really had no business being left there, even though not on view.

Anyway, cut to April & I'm perusing eBay still looking for replacements & guess what I find - the most expensive elements of my kit for sale by a Cash Converters in the next city! (Also found that the same seller had already sold some of the other kit)

Long story short, last month I got the most expensive bit (£1,500 tripod) back plus some bits but Police are still trying to get to some of the kit that got sold around the country.

At the end of the day, despite having the ID you mentioned & police interviewing the seller, they were "satisfied" that he sold them on for someone else (I suspect "daan the pub") but crucially that they didn't believe he knew the gear was stolen.

[sniper 55]

From personaly experience Iphones can be unlocked very very easily, her indoors often forgets the password on her Iphone, her grandson who lives with us is a bit of a computer nerd, he unlocks the phone in seconds, without the password. How the FBI coudn't unlock one baffles me, most 16 years can bypass them.
In London Iphone theft is rife, even the numpties wouldn't keep nicking phones they cant sell on.

[Jamesey1981]

Thankfully my alarm system, though wireless is also monitored, so if anyone tampers with or jams any of the sensors then all our phones start ringing, even if it's not armed at the time, as I discovered when I moved a PIR to paint behind it!

To be honest if MI5 or the CIA want to get in I'm not going to be able to stop them, but I can't think of any reason they'd want to.

People worry about privacy and being spied on, I protect against that by being so boring that no one would want to.

[korolev]

I am firmly of the view that radio has no place in a fixed installation; putting in wires might be more time consuming but it's far more resilient.

[Yorkshire Andy]

I am firmly of the view that radio has no place in a fixed installation; putting in wires might be more time consuming but it's far more resilient.

But Ideal if in rented accommodation simple to remove without a trace no need with some to wire into the mains negating the need to pay for a electrician

As I said earlier a working alarm is better than a dead 20year old system

Posh housing estate a all singing all dancing nacos approved system may well be affordable plus the yearly subscription for monitoring / servicing but at the lower end a £100 DIY fit system is better than nothing

BUT only once the basics have been sorted alarms only let you know someone has "got in" unless vipers are fitted on all doors / windows and they kick the alarm off before they get in... But then if the burgular is smart walk past kick the door walk off.. do it for several days home owner leaves alarm un-set awaiting engineer to call to test system as they don't want to upset their neighbours...




https://www.lv.com/atheart/features/11- ... rglars&utm

You don't want them getting in if you can. Disuade them or make them look elsewhere security lighting my porch light cost £3 in the bargain bin in Lidl it even camewith batteries!

Cutting the hedge cost erm a few quid in electric
New 007 *** door locks cost about £30 each plus extra keys
Back garden solar flood light cost £30ish
Bolt and lock for back gate about £10

Remembering to lock the windows and shut the deliberately wonky noisy scraping along the ground front gate takes seconds


Up with the cost of approved alarms are things like laminated glass / plastic spikes on fence tops / CCTV


Chaining ladders up all help too so does securing sheds so your tools can't be used to get in

But if they want to be in unless you live in a fort they will get in friend of ours had the lot locks approved alarm et all they lobbed the stone bird bath through his patio windows and grabbed a laptop and tablet and left

[Jamesey1981]

This is precisely it, no matter what you do, if they want to get in enough they will, but even if they could buy a gadget that jams the alarm, they could also just break in next door and save themselves the jammer money.

[Deeps]

Aye, that's why I need the hollowed out volcano lair, with sharks with giant frickin' lasers. The henchmen will have to be strictly vetted too.

As has been said, if they want in, they'll get in, modern houses are built for comfort (naturally) and not for fending off armies of orcs/zombies/chavs. They're only moderately good against burglars FFS. You can help by taking measures, admittedly we don't take many on that front but (touch wood) we've not had a single issue. We live in a 'nice' area and have a couple of loud dugs who only live on the ground floor which helps but we've only had them for nearly 4 years but been in the house for 14. Having a fierce wife helps, she's a light sleeper too.

I do have some spare bolts etc that would be fitted to fences etc (top and bottom kind of thng) if required but as already said, if they want in that bad, they'll get in. It will take a fair bit of work to turn Casa Deeps in to Schloss Deeps.

[Yorkshire Andy]

This is precisely it, no matter what you do, if they want to get in enough they will, but even if they could buy a gadget that jams the alarm, they could also just break in next door and save themselves the jammer money.

I remember the old vented bell boxes and trying to remove one off a shop front filled to the brim with expanding builders foam ended up crowbaring it off the wall as it wouldn't let go ( they had used the foam to muffle the noise and black roofing tar type paint over the bolt on strobe light

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Another issue with "installed alarms" is the company uses the same wiring schemes and control units in its installs once a half clever Billy knows that "ABC" alarms fits brand "a" alarms he knows that doing xyz can shut it up quick enough and that they follow the installation pattern of a sensor here there and round the corner... My sister's was installed by a big name they wired it as a DIY person would not in the "high security method" with it was so bad I ripped it all out and started over resistance loads added to avoid the snip the wires and twist together to "disable the signal" mixed up the wire colours to each sensor and removed the control unit sounder so it's hard to find adding a slave sounder instead on the landing doubles as the fire alarm too

A DIY type install can really keep them guessing if you know what your doing

So too can one of these in the kitchen visible from the window

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The cats love it

And outside

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Helped by us often dogsitting the Mail's big daft mutt

The other great deterrent is me at the top of the stairs in a nighty

Don't have nightmares