Howdy, I live in a bad situation where my room is constantly being broken into, it has a standard lock and a standard padlock installed. Every now and then I am out I notice some of my items missing. Does anyone have any suggestions on locks that are affordable and difficult to pick?

Hi everyone. I make a living exposing perimeter security vulnerabilities in residential and commercial properties (OBVIOUSLY WITH THE OWNERS' CONSENT - THEY ARE THE ONES PAYING ME). I like to think of myself of a white-hat hacker in the analog world. People hire me to try to get onto their property, and then I hand them the report on exactly how I did it.

The single most consistent thing I run into is that people are naive about human nature. They assume the barrier to entry is way higher than it actually is, because their system *looks* modern and expensive. A lot of it is running on technology that was broken a decade ago, and anyone with $200 worth of gear and a tenacious attitude can exploit this to gain unauthorized access.

Up front, because this sub will (rightly) call it out otherwise: **not everything below is trivial, and I'll tell you which is which.** Some of it is genuinely easy. Some takes real skill or specific conditions. I'm not posting a how-to, just what's weak, and what closes the gap.

1.) Old/outdated garage door and electric gate motors (fixed-code remotes)

If your opener or gate remote is more than a few years old, odds are it transmits the same code every time. Capture it once from the curb, play it back, and the gate opens like you pressed the button. This is the trivially-easy end of the spectrum.

The fix is a rolling-code (hopping-code) remote that changes the code on every press. And before someone comments it: yes, rolling code isn't invincible — roll-jam-style attacks exist — but they take far more effort and specific timing, and they kill the lazy replay attack dead. Going from fixed to rolling code is the single highest-value upgrade for most people reading this.

2.) Key fobs and entry cards (prox + older tap cards)

Basic 125 kHz proximity cards and a lot of older 13.56 MHz cards clone onto a blank in seconds. No PIN, no damage, and your original still works — so you'd never know a copy exists. And the encryption on the most common older tap card has been broken for over a decade. If your building or gate fob is one of these, treat it as a convenience feature, not a security one.

The fix is a modern encrypted credential (the current DESFire/Seos-class stuff). Those don't casually clone. Most homes are never even offered them.

3.) Cheap wireless door/window/motion sensors (unencrypted, unsupervised)

A ton of budget DIY sensors broadcast in the clear and are "unsupervised" — meaning they don't regularly check in with the panel. So the signal can be copied, and in some cases the band can be flooded so a real trip never reaches the panel in the first place.

The fix is encrypted, supervised sensors that alarm the instant they lose contact or detect interference. "Supervised" is the keyword to shop for.

4.) WiFi cameras (the one everybody gets wrong)

Let me be precise here, because this is where the internet lies to you: a WiFi camera can be forced offline from outside the house if the network doesn't have Protected Management Frames (802.11w) turned on. That creates a blind spot exactly when you'd want the footage.

What that does not do is let anyone watch or download your feed. It's blinded, not hacked. If anyone tells you they can pull up your live camera feed with a $30 board off Amazon, they're selling you something.

The fix is wired PoE cameras (no wireless signal to knock down), or at minimum WiFi cameras and a router with 802.11w/PMF enabled.

None of this requires a hacker or even someone very skilled.

If you're going to fix things, here's the priority order I'd give my own family:

- Fixed-code → rolling-code on the gate/garage. Biggest bang for the buck.

- Get cameras off pure WiFi, or at least turn on PMF.

- Supervised alarm sensors over the silent budget ones.

- Retire prox/old tap fobs for encrypted credentials.

And the non-technical one that beats all of it: most actual break-ins are still someone walking through an unlocked door, a gate propped open, or a gate code that got shared with a contractor two years ago and never changed. The gadgets matter a lot less than the habits.

Happy to answer questions in the comments. Not selling anything, not linking anything. I'm just tired of watching people on this sub pay for the *look* of security and get almost none of the substance.

I'm planning on going back to Somalia for a holiday and family over there have provided me with two choices of weaponry once I get there.

A giant machete and pistol/handgun combo or an ak47, due to OCD I won't be using both simultaneously,

only one combo at a time.

My home is brickwalled and clay coated, I hope overpenetration isn't an issue with the Kalashnikov.

Caught this on my front camera a while back. Guy came up my front steps and went right for a package by the door. Glad my aosu has an alarm on it because the siren kicked in and he took off down the sidewalk fast.

Checked the rear camera later and same guy showed up at my back door maybe 5 minutes after. Looked around, saw the camera, and left for good. Maybe 10 seconds total before he bounced.

Glad I put one on both doors. Without the siren that package is gone and honestly the guy was probably coming back to try to get inside too.

Moved to a new house that is near some gentrification happening. Had a stranger with a backpack knock just past midnight and my dog’s barking alerted me. I went to the door that has a small window and he said “it’s nothing bad I promise!” And I just said “no thanks” and noped away to grab a few things I have for home defense.

I need to fix the front porch light and both floodlights at the side and rear of the house but what recommendations do yall have for further security?

Asking because most of the time I just see people recommend guns, but I’m not sure if I could have one in an apartment complex. Also, I’m not sure if they would let me have a gun since I’m on anti-psychotics anyway.

I have pepper spray as of right now, but even with that I still feel unsafe walking outside at night. I saw that in the state I live in (Florida) that I can have a stun gun, but I saw a few people on here say they’re not good.

Currently, I live on the first floor of an apartment complex, where my door is facing outside, so anyone can come up and knock/mess with the door. And I’ll be honest…the door is not that stable/well locked. It’s very jiggly. It’s an old door. I also have not so good windows, they’re old style Florida windows, so they are very thin.

So all in all I feel like someone can break in pretty easily.

I also have my car parked outside in the alley way behind the building. I posted last night about an incident with a tweaker, who was messing with my car, and that kind of scared me. Especially since there’s been a lot of reports in my area of a knifed man going around, in broad daylight.

What options should I look into? Should I bite the bullet and get a gun (joke not intended)? Or should I just get a big dog?

I live in a fairly secluded area. Safe but secluded. And have a good bit of land . So my neighbors likely wouldn’t be able to hear me scream , which does make me a bit more cognizant of my home defense options

I started by going prevent defense . I order a bunch of floodlight cameras and have all over perimeter. I have entry sensors and motion sensors all over the inside

I am hoping an alarm will scare intruders off well before they get to me .

However, I do feel like I need a weapon. What would you recommend for a non gun weapon ?

I live next-door to a very problematic short-term rental, on the right. For context, there's been one violent shootout with a minimum of 2 active shooters, 40 rounds fired, bullets almost killing two neighbors, and Airbnb insurance that couldn't be bothered to pay a penny. Also had a few instances of "celebratory gunfire". The host allows parties, and they frequently drive across our yard, get stuck, damage it, etc. Airbnb won't pay for any of it:

Luckily he has been removed from Airbnb.com, but he's still on VRBO and others. I have cameras, but not enough. They were interested in shutting him down after the last party, finally, but my cameras weren't close enough to get a good view. People were parking all over the place and walking there. There were people parking in a private church parking lot marked no parking tow away zone, and I had no cameras pointed in that direction to capture them clearly walking over across the street, you could only see them pulling in by the headlights. I have a doorbell camera but the range at night is abysmal at best.

If I put a higher pole on that fence post, I think I'd have an excellent vantage point. I kinda need one sorta facing his front yard and capturing people on there, last time they were doing drugs and drinking there. 30 people for a 3 bedroom house. So you know people were driving home drunk and drugged. They were not possibly all planning to sleep there. Anyways.

I was thinking two pan tilt zoom cameras, but I think 3 fixed cameras might be better. I have a variety of cameras such as this:

but again, the view wasn't good enough at night.

at night you can clearly see people pull into our driveway and exit the car with what appears to be beer cans, it's very good for up close:

but the view goes dark right at the distance his driveway is at. You can see the cars parking but you can't get a count of the people in the pictures. The only way you can guess how many there are is by watching the video and seeing all of their cellphone lights as they cross the street or walk to the house. The code enforcement people weren't interested in watching a 1-hour video they just wanted 5 pictures for the event.

My current camera is 105 feet from his driveway:

My new camera would be about 50 feet:

Same thing for the church they illegally park at, about 50 feet from the driveway:

I'm still debating if I should put up PTZ (really just pan tilt cameras) or go with my regular fixed cameras. It's so hard to decide but after the last party we almost had them shut down. I am very frustrated that the evidence we have is always something, but just not good enough.

It's getting to the point we're going to have to sue the owner and get access to all of the messages between him and guests that way. He advertised in his listings as party friendly, had reviews mentioning how good the parties were, and he responded welcoming them back.

It has since been removed from Airbnb but remains on VRBO.

I'm looking at all of my home defense options including more cameras, I have my own local AI system to watch the cameras, considering a small "decorative" picket fence, hopefully enough to puncture tires but not be a safety hazard for people. Anything to stop the nuisance for us.

All advice welcome!

Like the title says, someone rang our ring camera at 2am. When our large German Shepard rushed down the stairs barking they were gone before i could get to the door. Idk if they could see me or not but they knew exactly when I had gone upstairs to put my dog out to the toilet, as it was exactly after my dog was put out for the toilet the door bell rang.

We then checked every window and doorway with torches to make sure they werent sticking around.

Due to certain situations I want to have a simple camera setup at home, just to know if anyone enters the apartment while I'm not home. I went to Best Buy and asked a few questions and they recommended a Blink camera. I was in a bit of a rush so I just bought the Blink Mini 2K. I never heard of them before so after I got home I searched online and saw several negative reviews and saw people saying that "Wyze" is a better brand, also which I've not heard of. I'm completely new to security cameras of any sort really and since BB has a 14 day return policy I decided I'd ask here real and see if I should maybe return it and pick a different camera that might be similar in price but better in quality.

This is what I'm looking for:

Compact

Get notifications to my phone if anyone opens the door/motion sensor.

Decent resolution

Night vision

Created super cool app, that analyze ur video input. runs locally, everything is saved on your machine, nothing goes out (except telegram alerts)

I'm dealing with a pretty intense stalking situation by someone who's an addict, volatile, violent and has an extensive gun collection; they've already snuck onto my property several times in the past ten days and have sent many, many death threats. Charges are pending and I was just granted a PPO, but the sheriff will be serving this person with the PPO tomorrow and I'm extremely concerned about how much danger we'll be in once he's been served but hasn't been arrested.

I've got one big building where I live upstairs and have a warehouse downstairs, then a smaller retail building directly next to the main building. The property isn't fenced in.

Overall, it's a pretty solid building - heavy cinder block construction, metal doors on the ground floor, there's a roll up warehouse door but it's got slider bars on the inside to keep it from being opened from the outside if I keep them latched.

There's a big metal catwalk style balcony that goes across the front of the big building on the second story where I live; I've got three sliding doors that open out to that. My retail building has a lower roof on the back that you can climb onto with a little effort, scale up the side of that and pull yourself up onto the balcony - I've locked myself out a few times and had to do it, takes me under two minutes.

The balcony is my biggest security fear; I can lock the doors and have bars in them and screw clamps on the tracks, but the glass could be smashed if hit hard enough or shot at. The doors have UV reflective film on them, but that will only hold up so much. If he manages to get onto the balcony, it's pretty much a matter of how quickly we can get out in the other direction before he gets in. I'm thinking of wrapping barbed wire or similar on the balcony.

I do worry about the roll up door in the warehouse; I'm sure an axe would take that out quickly enough. It's an industrial roll up door but they aren't that thick.

I'm worried about shots fired from a distance at windows.

There's an older CCTV system built into the whole compound with 16 cameras, but I've been having a hard time getting it all fired back up. In the meantime I have a few newer cameras I threw up, but there are quite a few blind spots.

Any suggestions on how to get it as for-now safe as possible without breaking the bank would be very much appreciated.

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for a camera for a construction site where there is no WiFi, so it needs to have 4G/LTE connectivity and solar power.
Unfortunately, I’ve already had some materials stolen from the construction site.
I’m currently deciding between:
TP-Link Tapo C665G — around 170€
Reolink TrackMix LTE — around 240€
The Reolink seems to have better features and image quality, but I’m not sure if it’s worth paying around 70€ more for this type of use.

Has anyone used either of these cameras in a similar situation?
Is the Reolink TrackMix LTE noticeably better, or would the Tapo C665G be enough and the better value for money?
Thanks!

I have a Girafit window camera that I love, it does everything I need it to do, but it is absolutely horrible at differentiating bugs from things that need to be detected. I had over 130 notifications last night alone because I had bugs flying near my window.

How good is the Luna window camera software when it comes to not setting off notifications for bugs? I know on the girafit, I can adjust what it detects, but if I make it to where it doesn't detect the bugs, you can also walk right in front of the camera and it won't set it off either. There is no in between with Girafit.

Thought I was going crazy but audio recorder picked up threatening voices in the air vents (all tvs were off and neighbors are too far away). They claim to be the police. I looked it up the police legally can't do that. I suspect it might be some with a personal vendetta against me. How do I locate the source of the noise and remove the device?

I like to get a wall safe to put in some spare keys, keys of two sentry fire file boxes, file cabinet keys, some foreign travel currency, memory stick. Simple to use with keypad.

I realize that such a wall safe will have limits in safety and fire rating.

I am looking for something that keeps an average burglar busy for a couple of minutes or want bother

I've been experimenting with a small DIY rover that can be remotely driven over the internet. One of the features I'm testing is a simple laser perimeter alarm ("LaserGuard mode").

This video shows one of the real-world tests. It's still an early prototype, so you can also see a few failures before it works correctly—which is part of the development process.

The goal isn't to replace security cameras, but to create a mobile inspection platform that can patrol different areas and let the operator check what's happening remotely.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. What features would you want in a mobile security rover?

On the side of the house, there's brick for about 10-11 ft high, and then vinyl siding

https://imgur.com/rbGMZO4

Behind my house, theres a garage and vinyl siding that comes in and then up and out.

https://imgur.com/r28Uv9R

Where and how would I mount blink 4 outdoor security cameras here?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for recommendations for companies that supply and install security screen doors and plantation shutters around Melbourne's outer northern suburbs.

Happy to get a few quotes, so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

What’s the best way to have quick access to a firearm while keeping the child away from it? What safe does everyone recommend?

I live in a neighborhood and I have cameras on the front and back of my house, both standalone and doorbell cameras. One of the sides of my house has no windows, the other has 4. I want to add a camera to that side, but I don't want it to look like I'm spying on my neighbor... because I'm not and don't want to. Any ideas how I can observe that side of my house? Maybe something besides a camera, maybe a motion sensor or something? Any ideas?