Is Your Home Security System Worthless?

I've long wondered about some electronic security systems. Do they really do any good? In the movies, the thieves never seem to have to do much more than snip a red wire to have free rein over the gear in your home.

Turns out that, for many alarm systems, that's not far from the truth. The folks over at Provident (which, truth be told, is a security company that would love to sell you an alarm system that works the right way) have an interesting post outlining exactly what's wrong with a common and very cheap alarm setup.

The key to the problems outlined in the photo above and on the site is that the system is all contained in one place: The control panel is part of the keypad, which can be disabled by simply tearing the entire thing off the wall. It's also plugged in to wall power, visibly, as well as a phone line. Any one of these marks a single point of failure that could take down the entire alarm system, made worse by the fact that are easily accessed through a window that's only a few inches away from all of this.

I won't steal Provident's thunder and lessons in home alarm systems, but the post is an easy read and very informative, whether you're hiring someone to install a security system for you or building one yourself. Give it a look!