This article just came across my feed:
Police: ‘Transnational gangs’ targeting mansions in Bloomfields, Grosse Pointes, for thefts
The videos show men dressed all in black, in teams of three or four, using special equipment to quietly breach windows, enter mansions in Oakland County and escape quickly with currency, jewelry, costly purses and safes.
One man holds “a jammer” to disable wireless burglar alarms, enabling what authorities said were among more than 30 break-ins of high-end homes in Oakland County since September.
The gangs are “very well trained. The surveillance video we have makes them look all white. That’s because it’s filming at night. They’re all in black.
“They very often try to approach homes in a secluded manner – from woods, for example. They’re looking for jewelry, cash, safes, even a larger safe. They’ll take that with them and try to brute-force it open later,” he said.
“If you’ve got a high-end home, you may be a target,” Bouchard said. The gangs don’t appear to be violent, he said. “In one of the few times when they went into a house and the people were home, as soon as they found out, they ran,” he said.
Here are some points to consider:
Miguel and I are big fans of security systems. The wireless ones are cheaper and easy to install. They are also easier to disable. If you have expensive stuff, you might want to invest in a wired system that is more resistant to being disabled.
Security should be in layers. Having cameras facing your house is good, but if you have a large yard or you face the woods, cameras pointed towards the open spaces that can see long distance is an improvement. If you have a long driveway, add cameras and monitors to see who is approaching your house from a distance.
Safes are great, but only if they are anchored down. These guys carry off safes and break them open later. I have several posts on anchoring safes into both concrete and OSB subfloor if you want advice on how to do it.
These guys are not violent now, but there is no guarantee they will stay that way. Homeowners need to be prepared to face multiple home invaders with tools. You need high capacity magazines.
Thieves are getting bolder and more aggressive.
We’re seeing it with shop lifting, it was a matter of time until it came to people’s homes.
Prepare accordingly.
My old house had security, that was old. Do you have recommended reading for the new technology?
I may be wrong but it appears this stuffis happening in “gun free” areas… where people are unarmed..
Same type story recently here in Nashville, too.
Wireless security is cheaper but I always try to talk the customer into having a hardwired sensor near the alarm panel if no where else in the building. Preferably hardwired everything in any new building if planned properly.
I’ve been installing security for 27 years now and while there are some high tech thieves most theft is still unlocked doors and windows.
RCC what is your favorite residential hardwired security brand or brands. I don’t trust web ratings sites anymore. Appreciate any help you can provide. Thanks.
Hi
I am in Australia.
My favourites are DSC (Canadian), Crow (Israeli) and Digiflex (Australian) usually sold as Bosch Solution.
DSC was sold as DSC the last time I was in the USA.
Digiflex is probably my favourite as the same panel can have hardwire and wireless in any combination.
Crow is my go to for basic hardwire systems.
Appreciate the information RCC, thank you.
That supposed jammer is putting out RF. Talk to some local hams and see if they can figure out what frequency it’s on, and maybe triangulate it the next time it comes on air. I have a little widget that’s a “software controlled receiver” — it can scan a HUGE frequency band, and I’d bet hams would have better equipment and more knowledge on how to use it.
It would most likely be on 2.4 or 5ghz. Those systems usually run on wifi.
Depends. It could be in the 300 MHz, band, 400 MHz or 900 Mhz.
Get the FCC acceptance number off of a transmitter and look it up on fcc.io
WiFi frequencies on the Simplisafe are to provide a faster data update to their servers, AND are used by the cameras for the video stream. Door sensors, etc. are on a different frequency.
The test reports will list what frequencies the gear uses.
The Simplisafe stuff we have is in the 400 MHz band if I remember correctly. A good hand held RF spectrum analyzer will also ‘find’ it if you put it up next to one of the remote sensors and trigger the sensor.
I forgot to add, the Simplisafe base also has a built-in cellular modem and battery pack, so that in the event of power failure or loss of internet, at least you’ll still get alerts and can run the door control / access stuff for about 8 hours, I think it was. No camera video, because that IS carried via WFi + internet.
Detroit may not be the place for it to happen, but someone, at some point, with a backup “biological security system” will, at the first bark or two, pick up a suitable tool and demonstrate E=MC(2) is a Real Thing. Which, of course, requires that the domicile be occupied which the gang may put some effort into avoiding.
…
Isn’t wide spectrum blocking/scrambling very easy to do bit gets you caught pretty quickly if someone is looking? Definitely helps they are in a less dense suburban area, and of course the novelty of the attack does as well.
The Simplisafe stuff will complain about loss of communication to the sensors, but it can take a bit of time for it to show up. Since the remotes are battery powered, you have to balance battery life vs asking ‘are you still there?’ more frequently, which requires more power to run the transmitter.
Which makes me wonder if there’s a software update that would fix that, might require a hardware change or two as well. Such as: the base station pings Sensor X every Y seconds (which could be a dedicated sensor just for that purpose, maybe 2 or 3 dedicated sensors required to eliminate single point of failure, those could be multi-battery units, or 120 volt with battery backup) and doesn’t get a response; that triggers a wider ping to multiple other, regular sensors (door, window, etc.) and if that multi-sensor ping fails it calls the mothership via cellular. If THAT fails the alarm triggers the interior siren, displays “system jamming” message on the keypad (and phone app if it has a cell connection) and starts trying to call the mothership repeatedly.
Not a bad idea!
I know the system can tell the ‘mother-ship’ what the RF levels are of the sensors, (I’ve called and talked to them, when having issues with one particular sensor,) so if the system could also watch what is known as the ‘noise floor,’ and trigger if that goes over a certain level for a certain time, it could send an alert that the RF com system is either faulty or under attack. The app CAN test the camera WiFi levels and test the actual throughput of the channel in order to help with installation issues. Unfortunately, it won’t show the end user what those ~430 MHz signal levels are.
I’d have to do a bit of research on the Cell modem to see what bands it is capable of using. When I get a bit of time, I’ll see if the base station has a FCC ID on it.
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BTW, if anyone following this is curious, get your equipment FCC ID # and drop it into fcc.io (Yep, that’s the full address. Short and sweet!)
One thing: Whatever electronic countermeasures we good guys develop and employ, the foundation has to be a hardened and secure perimeter. Even if a security system is capableof detecting and reporting jamming, time is required for it to process that info and report it – a hair trigger could alert on false positives, and one or two will ruin trust in the system – so the perimeter has to be solid enough to keep the Bad Guys out for the time interval required for 1) The security system to detect and report jamming, and; 2) the resident to arm-up and prepare to repel boarders.
So electronic warfare is almost certainly required but the physical side of security has to come first.
And, thinking out loud, PH2 at 0924 hrs in comments mentions 2 security systems that have, or offer, jamming detection. Which is good, but how quickly do they detect jamming, how quickly does it report it, and is your AR-15 within a couple steps and does it have a full magazine in it RIGHT NOW? Because that guy with the antennas isn’t working alone, he’s just the point man for the 2-4 bad Guys who are going to breach your perimeter by force and they will blitzkrieg it so you may have only a few seconds of warning.
Might be a good idea to game-out a few home invasion scenarios and practice them with a blue gun, and include the family. YOU may know what to do but if there’s a spouse and/or children whose default setting is “Huh? What?” and who regard life-saving urgent commands as the opening remarks in a debate, you have work to do on that as well.
I’d like to know more about Simplisafe, and the two other systems PH2 @ 0924 hrs mentioned. Anyone have contact information for people at those 3 outfits who has the technical knowledge to answer those sort of questions? The low-IQ minimum wage drones on their 800 numbers won’t even understand the question and almost certainly have no way to route the question to the right people.
Not sure about Simplisafe, but the DIY stuff like Qolsys and 2GIG both offer jam detection.