physical security

we talk a lot about pentesting and cybersecurity, but what about physical security? I feel like you are the only people I can talk to... I had a break in recently (locks picked/ non destructive entry), and I want to know how to harden all of my things against being stolen. It looks like just a lot of documents and some of my prescriptions were stolen along with a bunch of flash drives and some cash. unfortunately the documents/USB compromise my entire identity, which at this point makes me really worried (especially considering these don't seem to be your average breaking and entering kind of criminal). What can I do to keep my self safe, I dont trust IP security cameras and cannot afford to install a bunch of CCTV hardware, and I cant stand around watching my things. how can I keep myself and my belongings safe? criteria are >no dogs (no pet policy from my landlord) >no alterations to my home >no internet connected devices also discuss aspects of good physical security, does anybody have manuals or PDFs about keeping things secure?

big, fake cameras inside your house with flashing leds

its important to recognize that there are two different angles to work on here: first, obviously, preventing the breakin, and second, putting yourself in the best possible position after the breakin. your ability to prevent a breakin is unfortunately limited by how much money you have, and how much work you're allowed to do to your apartment. with that caveat, i'll just throw out some ideas. >change/upgrade your locks (make sure you have a deadbolt) >secure windows with locks, bars if possible. >heavy lockbox/safe >computer cable/locks >good lighting outdoors >curtains >cameras (or fake ones) now, your goal for preparing for after the breakin is making sure that you get a good insurance payout. your secondary goal is to help the cops catch this guy, but in my experience that's unlikely to happen. >renter's insurance >log your valuables w/ photos (this is good to do for fire/flood too, not just theft) >cameras a camera system is probably cheaper than you think. buy a bunch of webcams off ebay and hook them up to a couple raspberry pis. buy an old cctv system from an erecycler. whatever you have to do. get as many as you can, inside and out. this is important not only for the police to be able to catch the guy, but more importantly to prove to the insurance company that a breakin occured, and that the things you claim were actually stolen.

>>6011 i just saw you said no alterations to your home. i'd still run the lock thing by your landlord. chances are they'll work with you if you pay for it and give them a key. you can buy bars that install on the inside of the window instead of the outside. if you want to go that route just pull them when you leave and patch the holes.

I've been thinking a lot about physical intrusion recently. I haven't designed or built it yet, but I have an idea for a motion detector that plugs into a power outlet and creates a ground fault to trip the circuit breaker. It should safely and reliably shut down all equipment running off of mains power. >unfortunately the documents/USB compromise my entire identity There's not much you can do about documents except lock/hide them away or not have them in the first place. For sensitive electronic data however there's no reason it shouldn't be encrypted.

> unfortunately the documents/USB compromise my entire identity most important is to maintain red/black discipline. red is sensitive plain text, black is ciphertext. you don't want anything red laying around. alphabet agencies have elaborate protocols for red-black, but you can KISS, e.g. get yourself a copy of gpg1 and get into habit of encrypting every single bit of sensitive data. don't even put a password on your gpg key, just keep on an external usb dongle. cary that dongle with you everywhere.

>>6011 Any tips for setting up a CCTV system in an apartment? I found an old VCR and I have a VHS-C camcorder, so I am not sure how I would best hook that up. The camcorder could almost be redundancy in case one or the other tape is destroyed.

>>6015 Unless you're dead set on the tape aesthetic or you're using an existing system, go digital. Cheap USB webcams are better and fairly practical for small installations.

I'd start with your external appearance. Why were you targeted when your neighbors were not? Do you have a habit of leaving doors unlocked? Do you leave lights on when you leave? Does your place look different when you are present versus when you are not? You cannot look at your vulnerabilities from your (or a defensive) point of view. Look at yourself, your home. Literally. I mean it. Walk around, pretend you have no knowledge of the interior. Pretend you are trying to break in. What vantage points give you excellent visibility? What weaknesses do you see? How would you go about breaking in?

>>6017 my neighbors have said they have had past experiences with people trying to break in. I want to believe it was just junkies, but the items they took seems suspiciously not like junkies (junkies don't usually steal documents or data) >What vantage points give you excellent visibility? What weaknesses do you see? How would you go about breaking in? I have been noticing a lot of people walking around outside my house before the break in (but mostly seemed like people going for walks which is not uncommon) since the break in, I have not seen anybody walking around. I don't want to say it was targeted, but there are some signs without getting into specifics that say it might have been. I have already done a threat assessment and It seemed pretty secure (not assuming a well trained person or persons gaining entry)

Ask your building owner to install CCTV on front door. /thread

Depends on what you classify as an alteration but you can get metal plates that fit on the door jamb that make it much harder to kick through without taking the frame out of the wall or breaking the hinges also. You can also put thin film over your windows that make them shatterproof and slow down any thieves trying to smash their way in. If they've "picked" their way in you need to think about who could have a key, or invest in getting better/more locks. If you have a landlord try to convince them to allow you to do it, as a more secure property could mean it's easier for them to rent in the future. The theft of digital data should never concern you for any other reason than how annoying it is to lose storage and how costly it will be to replace. There's no excuse not to backup your stuff to a couple of different hard drives with enough encryption on them that only nation states would bother breaking them. It's simple, free, and doesn't take much time. For physical documents consider copying all of them so you can refer to account numbers etc when needs be, and keep the originals in a safe deposit box at a bank.

I solve this problem by not having anything worth stealing Also, you should live next to retired women The meme is true They're really nosy always peeking out their windows always home and if you are friendly to them they bring you baked goods

This is a good point, but how to convince old ladies to move in when all the white people moved, and a bunch of haitians moved in?

Engraving your things can help with getting them back if they've been pawned. Invest in a few of those solar powered motion detector activated lights. Get new locks installed. Nice ones. Ask the locksmith which ones are a bitch to pick, they'll know.

>>6017 Why were you targeted when your neighbors were not? I have a suspicion my neighbors know something about it, because I saw them the day after it happened and they ran away (one of them stared at me and then unironically ran down an alley, and the other went back inside) Do you have a habit of leaving doors unlocked? no Do you leave lights on when you leave? yes Does your place look different when you are present versus when you are not? sometimes

>>6065 Haitians are superstitious Scare them away with bad juju Just don't let them find out it's you with the voodoo toys and paints or you get lynched

Buy one of those stupid timers that turn things on and off while you're out.

I try to keep it simple - always keeping doors locked (back door has a metal locking bar which is really cool), keeping a light on when I go out, keeping sensitive / important data hidden in closets, etc. If I can grab a raspi camera for cheap I may turn it into a home security cam, but honestly the neighborhood I live in is safe enough.

>>6009 Try this

>>6095 highly illegal in most places, will probably get you sent to prison also what do you guys do about people dealing drugs outside your front door? I don't want to get raided because someone thinks the dealers live in my house

>>6096 Make a mock police sign saying "No dealing here"

>>6011 Some useful tips here. I'm gonna start taking pictures of my valuables and system components and soykaf more often and storing them somewhere. Catching the guy is a lot easier if you actually have cameras and CCTV footage of the incident. But even then it's less than 50% chance of catching him. The windows of my current place are the biggest weak spot. They are so fuarrrking trash, and my dog keeps fuarrrking up the blinds to watch me leave the house, so I can't keep them down. I keep all my valuables upstairs and out of sight. My neighbours are fuarrrked and steal anything that's not tied down outside. I live way up north and these fuarrrkers keep stealing my goddamn extension cords to plug in the heaters on my car battery and oil pan... Unfortunately a dog doesn't always help. My dog started spooking the woman whores next door, and the rotation preppy assholes and drug dealer guys they keep bringing over eventually started hanging out in front of my townhouse unit and taunting my dog when they thought I wasn't around. I started figuring it out cause she walked by and said to him while he was pooping "I'm not afraid of you anymore, noooo, you're not so scary are you?" and soykaf like that. I was confused because she's never interacted with him or me that I knew of. Eventually I caught them standing outside my window drinking and knocking on the glass and fuarrrking with my dog, and they scattered when I stood up. I made a complaint to the landlord, and a few weeks later there was a notice on their door that they were showing the place to a potential new tenant that week. They're gone now, and my home is much safer. >>6009 This makes me want to go back to encrypting all of my data again, despite how much of a hassle it all was. Ugh... I had my laptop and some jewelry and soykaf get swiped a couple years ago, and thank god, I had the whole computer encrypted because there was all kinds of soykaf on it. >>6096 Make it very uncomfortable for them. Everytime you see them doing soykaf, yell at them to fuarrrk off and tell them you'll call the cops. Yes, it's confrontational and douchey, but the more uncomfortable you make it the more likely they are to find somewhere else to do it. You can put some political flag in your window or another that shows you are anti-drugs. Maybe one of those "community watch" things.

>>6096 Very bright lights, and extra lights that react to movement. Make them so they can't break them.

>>6011 >secure windows Get some dowels, cut them to an appropriate length, and put them in the rail where the window slides. This way you have your windows partly open but prevent anyone from sliding them open far enough to climb in. This can also be used if the latches can be forced open from the outside. If you have windows near your doors, be careful about leaving them open. Someone could stick an arm in and unlock the door from the inside. Screens can often be removed from the outside or can be broken silently. >>6096 >people dealing drugs outside your front door Report them to the police every time. This will at least leave a record. They might even remember you when someone else calls to report drug dealers at your house.

>>6096 You could call the cops on them. Once that happens the spot is compromised and they probably won't use it anymore. This can also backfire, so be careful, especially if they seem like the type to come after you if they were to find out. Have you considered just befriending them? You don't have to hang out with them or anything but if you have a good rapport a few drug dealers out front almost becomes a security system. If you want them to leave you could then just mention that you've been seeing a lot of cops around lately. If they believe you they'll probably be appreciative, if they don't they'll just think you're being paranoid.

>>6208 >cops say they will patrol the area to stop crime (and don't) >prefer to sit at the local diner and set up speed traps I started parking next to a speed trap, so constant police presence works in my favor. almost a symbiotic relationship if I do say so myself

>>6096 Yeah, but you can actually set up simple holders for blanks with a striker and a monofilament wire. Buy them right off the internet. We had a break-in in our garden, you could set up the trap attached to a gate or something they would quietly move to gain entrance, or on a fence that sags down. I think hearing a gunshot would send anybody into a blind panic.

>>6096 Assuming this isn't the sketchiest person you've ever seen, just talk to them. I find being on decent terms with them is generally a good idea anyways. If they're literally on your lawn just ask them not to. If they're on the sidewalk/road just leave them be, it's not your problem.

>>6207 >>6208 >neurosuggesting the police have ever been anything more than a guard service for the owning class and their assets and their enforcers against organized labor Calling the police a bunch will do nothing more than put you on their radar and/or make them sick of you so they stop showing up promptly when you call during a real emergency. If you have dealers on your street at all times in broad daylight that's already clear proof they don't give a fuarrrk about you or your lower class neighborhood.

>>6403 sure must be nice to have such an incredibly simplistic mindset. everything's just not complicated. it all just automatically fits into the cognitive mold of your ideology. I know because I was once like that.

>>6017 Best response imo Crackheads breaking in because they need easy cash are looking for the lowest effort to highest return with the delta of opportunity. What controls can you effectively place on your home (or 'system') given the constraints of the customer (read 'you') that would create less opportunity or effort/risk to the attacker? >>6207 >>6011 These two are by and large the biggest ones with someone kicking in a back door being a strong third. Film, dowel rods, curtains, not being a dipsoykaf, etc. will prevent the opportunity and raise the time/risk for them to be soykafheels via windows. For the latter door issue, I'd recommend just using longer screws for the faceplate and door system since you cant install new stuff. Typically shorter screws are used and thus thats why they can be kicked in. With a solid construction striker and faceplate + long ass screws that bite into the meat of the door, most 140-lb.-neck-scratching-meth-lords aren't going to be able to smash it in. Absolutely last, is there are a number of lower cost cheaper + mobile app attached security systems available for purchase online. I know you said no net connected devices but surely one of your neighbors has no encryption on their wifi ;). GL;HF, use it to learn better security processes. Cheers

>>6013 It's not like you can't encrypt physical documents. If you're super batsoykaf rig a SIAD firestarter in a filing cabinet that triggers if security is tripped and it gets opened.

beware of dog sign

>>6526 mostly good advice but... >putting the cameras in and around your home on your neighbors unsecured wifi network i'm not sure you thought that one through lol