The Los Angeles Police Department has warned residents to be wary of thieves using technology to break into homes undetected. High-tech burglars have apparently knocked out their victims’ wireless cameras and alarms in the Los Angeles Wilshire-area neighborhoods before getting away with swag bags full of valuables. An LAPD social media post highlights the Wi-Fi jammer-supported burglaries and provides a helpful checklist of precautions residents can take.
Criminals can easily find the hardware for Wi-Fi jamming online. It can also be cheap, with prices starting from $40. However, jammers are illegal to use in the U.S.
We have previously reported on Wi-Fi jammer-assisted burglaries in Edina, Minnesota. Criminals deployed Wi-Fi jammer(s) to ensure homeowners weren’t alerted of intrusions and that incriminating video evidence wasn’t available to investigators.
Don’t use wireless for security, PoE or CCTV
Those aren’t always options for renters, hence why wifi security systems are so popular.
Even beyond renting, installing a wifi camera is SO much cheaper than running Ethernet all over your house. And if you need it run through an external wall? Even more money.
Renters have virtually no choice here. I hate it when people state this like it’s some damn easy thing for everyone to do.
The landlord might have an incentive to protect their investment
Right?? I don’t understand this attack. People are lazy and far too trusting to have their home feeds uploaded over the internet
Cheap wireless cloud connected security cameras are the reason home surveillance is so ubiquitous today. Many people don’t have the know-how to install POE cameras, or it’d cost them too much to pay someone to do it. Plus, if you’re renting your house, putting the holes you’d need where they’re supposed to go is something you might not even be allowed to do.
I fully understand the attack. It’s effective against the majority of people.
It’s one of the easier things to DIY though, much easier than setting up a printer or installing a TV. Also, it’s about the same price if not cheaper, I got 1tb harddrive, 4 cameras, cables and and OS for under $200
I’m just tired of these excuses on why we give away our data and then are surprised when their security is trash
It’s one of the easier things to DIY though, much easier than setting up a printer or installing a TV
I don’t think that’s true at all, and also like I said before if you rent it’s literally not an option unless you can do it without drilling holes.
Also, it’s about the same price if not cheaper, I got 1tb harddrive, 4 cameras, cables and and OS for under $200
Well no, a Wyze cam is like $25. So that’s not “The same price if not cheaper”, it’s twice the cost.
I’m not familiar with Wyze but Ring and Nest doorbells go for $50-$200 per camera plus a month subscription if they want to keep the data, so still cheaper
And they do have magnets to allow for non drilling options if that’s a requirement. I should also stipulate if the person installing it has the physical ability, the setting up the computer side is easy enough for a novice and simpler than installing Windows/MacOSX
My argument is not go the easy, convenient route. Fast food is nice in a pinch, but eating it every day leads to bad outcomes. And I’m not saying the consumer is 100% to blame, but they aren’t innocent bystanders, especially if they are spending money to protect valuables, why not learn which tools are available and when to use what
The thieves are jamming WiFi systems and the comments on the article and on Lemmy seem to blame the victim for not being tech savvy. The bulk of Nest/Ring customers do so because the app is easy to use and the cameras easy to setup. By definition the victims are far less likely to be able to defend against this kind of jamming attack.
If the next step in escalation is to shut down the power to the house, will the victim be blamed for not having home batteries and solar panels?
Why not question the viability of WiFi systems in general? Has video ever been more than a deterrent to those scared of cameras? Fearless thieves who know how to deter the systems get free loot for their trouble.
Treat security like we did before 2010; improve physical security to defend instead of relying on deterrence.
Can’t go wrong with a german sheppard.
Until he gets bored and starts gnawing on the linoleum
I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do what I did. I have a WiFi doorbell camera but I also have 13 other cameras that cover the entire perimeter of my house connected to a PoE switch. My switch is on an UPS and connected to an outlet my natural gas generator cutover powers. My office (includes my miniPC running HAOS and frigate) is also on an UPS plugged into outlets my generator cutover powers in a locked cage inside a vented drawer with a 120mm exhaust fan to keep air circulation going in the drawer. All motion is recorded and saved to my local NAS (that is in the same locked cage) for 30 days and it syncs the recordings directory to the cloud. I have isolated cameras that look like usb chargers that record motion on a loop to 128GB micro sd cards aimed at all entry/exit points, hallways, and points is interest. Everything is pretty much set it and forget it. I get notified of any motion on my property regardless of my location and the jpeg captures are immediately sent to a dedicated email I setup should something unforeseen happens to the recorded video. If my or my partners cell phone is not on the WiFi all the cameras (except the doorbell and isolated ones) are set to siren mode on movement detection and they are surprisingly loud especially if two or three are going off at once.
Family members will think twice about masturbating in your house.
Nah, they’ll just do it while staring directly at the camera. Gotta get that eye contact.
I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do what I did.
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Your setup is fucking insane, and I mean that in a good way. As someone who ran a small team focused on security and who entertained more than one “I totally sploited our OS/let me show you how we suck today so we can fix it” conversations with dizzyingly smart zealots, this setup has excellent layering and coverage. Well fucking done.
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Cost. The same people who say “I’m on a pension so they can’t steal much from me” without realizing their retirement savings and credit rating are the golden fucking goose, also won’t see the benefits to such a cost in capital and setup labour. They won’t do it, and they’ll see us as nutcases until the leopards have eaten their face.
I was making a joke using the absurdity of what I put together as a hobby project over the past couple years as an example to reinforce the comment I replied to. I’ve spent my whole career in IT and it’s absurd the level of knowledge a lot of career or even hobbyist IT folks expect the general public to have.
My generator cost $8k installed.
I ran all the cables myself, still cost $1k for the materials.
Doorbell camera $200.
PoE cameras averages to $174 each or ~$2,500
UPS’s: $300 combined
MiniPC: $500
Cage and mounts: $150
Isolated cameras: $30 ea
SD cards: $15 ea
All told I have over $13k invested easily and it would easily be over twice as much without knowing how to do it myself. Anyone giving folks shit for using WiFi security systems is out of touch.
Fence with a lock on it is a lot cheaper. Crazy how much people will spend on surveillance, given how little it does to achieve deterrence.
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If only there was a solution, I don’t know, a cable resistent to jamming the ether, something we could call ether-jamming-resistant-network, in short Ethernet
I know… I am just dreaming :-P
It’s easy to write snarky comments like this, but the truth is running cables isn’t easy, and in some cases simply not possible, at least if you don’t want the cable simply draped over the outside of the house.
As a side business I consult and install security systems in small businesses and homes.
Literally none of them want the cable option, no matter how hard I push it.
The cost of running the cable and the time needed always is the dealbreaker.
Doesn’t matter if its insecure, they just want it to work now and be cheap.
While still hating this living dystopia, I do appreciate some of cyberpunk headlines we get.
POE is where it’s @
It’s even easier to cut the Internet cables going into a house.
If I had a PoE surveillance system I’d have it saving to a local server.
I got great pictures of the people breaking into my van. It did nothing to help catch them.
Well, if you got a license plate, maybe the police would pretend like they care.
Thieves who use cars during thefts usually use stolen cars. Yeah, I was able to get a license plate of a car that dropped them off once, it didn’t seem to do much since it hasn’t stopped them from returning.
Well, it’ll hopefully help them connect crimes and nab those thieves eventually. It certainly doesn’t hurt.
Never lived somewhere with buried infrastructure huh?
This but unironically. Burying lines costs money and who is going to spend it?
Uh, no it doesn’t? Just use a shovel, wedge open the dirt like 6-12 inches, and Bob’s your uncle. I recommend also putting in conduit so you can fish another line if you ever need to.
Just use a shovel
On asphalt and concrete?
Yes, he kicked down the Point Of Entry. Also, Power Over Ethernet is the best. It is known.
And here I thought someone was just saying they like path of exile.
i know nothing; would a hardwired connection from the cameras to the router solve this?
Yes but the camera should be in a place that can’t be physically tampered with easily since someone could theoretically unplug the camera and plug into your home network and see all your computers or other devices as if they had stolen your WiFi password. A small risk but it’s better to hardwire it somewhere they would need a ladder to get to or get a camera system that connects to a central box inside the house.
Well, if it’s not on a WiFi network, it’ll be fine. CCTV is a great example of this. Just wire up some cameras, encrypt the harddrive and put it somewhere difficult to get to. Only way to disable all cameras at once would be an EMP. There are kits for a few hundred $ and all the data stays local
Or just flip off the main switch on your breaker if they can get to that.
Totally. Get a PSU? Or use solar with a PSU. Or batteries. Always a mitigation for the mitigation lol
If a burglar is using a wifi-jammers then the basic consumer is not going to be able to stop said burglar. Basic consumer security products aren’t designed to do anything more than keep honest people honest. It’s much harder & more expensive to prevent a determined criminal from gaining entry and would likely require rethinking housing construction from the foundation up.
Its also to help police with investigations. POE cameras and doorbells won’t have this specific weakness, they’ll probably still get in and steal all your valuables, but if they think thier wifi jammer is working you might get some footage thats useful for the cops…
Then the burglars will just upgrade to a device that sends an EMP to disable everything. If it’s worth it.
Wouldn’t that destroy all the expensive electronics they’re trying to steal?
Maybe they’re after GOLD
Sorry I forget people have other types of expensive stuff too. I’m usually only worried about protecting my Lucky Charms.
My go to method for stealing people’s stuff is actually a neutron bomb. It keeps the property intact and all you gotta do is wait for a few months for the big gamma emitting neutron activated materials to cool off.
However, jammers are illegal to use in the U.S.
What is the point of adding this bit for an article about burglaries?
Ostensibly harder to obtain when they’re illegal to stock and sell retail.
Same reason why you see folks in Japan and the UK obsessed with knife crime rather than gun crime. Obtaining a gun is more difficult to do legally, so fewer people carry them.
I wish that apps notified you when your camera has been unreachable for too long, but at least that’s a hint that a jammer may have been involved. Cameras won’t stop them, but a the best setups would rely on wires and hidden local and cloud storage for recordings and alerts.
apps notified you when your camera has been unreachable for too long
The volume of false positives this produced would render the system significantly less useful.
