Is Your Home Security System Worthless?
Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:05PM EDT
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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!
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2 Posted by shadowfax4269 on Sat Oct 21, 2006 10:33PM EDT Report Abuse
The real problem with alarm companys is their response times. I work for a Diaptch center and more often then not it's several minutes before an alarm company will contact the authorities. I have take several calls where neighbors call in cause of the noise and then five minutes later after we have already come and gone the alarm company calls about an activation. And then they often can't tell you anything else. The might be able to tell you it's an interior motion sensor...but not where in the house it's located. they only thing a home alarm is good for is the make a loud noise and hope it scares the bad guys away.
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3 Posted by mattmorneault on Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:52AM EDT Report Abuse
I worked for five and a half years in the alarm business. Initially as an operator who called the authorities when an alarm went off and ending as a tech who aided people over the phone. Alarm systems can be made to provide a lot of information about what is happening and provide back up systems to insure that theh signals get through. For example the idea that cutting the phone lines will prevent the alarm from sending a signal doesn't take into account that there can be a cellular backup for the signal to be sent. Annunciated point alarms can be enabled to specify things like glass break detected in livingroom or IR motion detector in front hall. But don't expect this on a system that is installed with one door alarm, two windows and a smoke detector for 199.99 and 19 dollars a month monitoring. If you really want an alarm to work, you need to install two systems from two competing companies and use them both. What one misses the other may catch. But for me, the protection I use at my residence is a 12 guage shotgun. That provides more deterence than just about any siren installed on an alarm system.
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4 Posted by djgrayle on Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:41AM EDT Report Abuse
I've been a police officer for some time now and I have a criminal justice degree in forensics. It has been my experiences through talking with people I arrest and convicted burglars in prison the best security system in the world is a dog and a shotgun. Having an actual alarm isn't a bad thing but a dog will make a burglar go on to the next house much sooner than an alarm will. If you are home when one comes calling, the dog will alert you to their enterence and racking the shotgun will send them running back out. If your not home the dog barking will annoy a neighbor into looking to see what's going on quicker than an alarm will. I've caught 2 would be burglars in my own home with my golden retriever and 12 gauge. Most and I stress most criminals are lazy and opportunist. They pick the easy target. Knocking an alarm out is a lot easier than a dog.
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1 Posted by frankw@sbcglobal.net on Fri Oct 20, 2006 7:47PM EDT Report Abuse
A similar article re Spam control, firewalls, etc. would be appreciated.