Stalkers Bad Tasting Lollipop

/in /by

What I love about the internet is the ability to learn, grow, create, share and so many other verbs. What I hate is the creepiness of the internet and the weirdness of coming in contact with trench coat wearing freakazoids.

A new website called “Take This Lollipop” (TTL) is another reason to have ahome security alarm. TTL brings together everything I love and hate in one convenient place.

Through a very well produced and very “dark” video, you will get a sense of what a twisted predator may be doing when stalking their prey using technology.

If you dare to connect your Facebook account to TTL you will experience a front seat theater ticket to a movie about you being stalked by a sweaty gross man with nasty dirty fingernails slithering through your Facebook account photos and looking at all your friends and the locations you have been. What’s worse is as the film progresses he gets angrier as he drives his car to where you are.

Location sharing in social media has never been a good idea for this reason. Sharing family photos, home addresses, kids names, etc has always been a little risky. Friending freaky people or complete strangers goes against everything Mom ever taught you. All I’m saying is, yes, this is only a move, it’s not real, but the lessons of it are.

Oh, and if you don’t want to connect your Facebook to TTL, you can watch some other poor soul get stalked HERE.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing sharing too much information online on Fox News.Disclosures.

 

 

Serious Considerations When Building a Panic Room

/in /by

A “fortified environment” is what it is known as. A safe haven or “safe room” buys you time in the event of brutal home invasion where people are tied up, raped and murdered. Like this one.  A safe room is also a layer of protection in the event of manmade or natural disasters.

Envision you are home and the home security alarm goes off because some drug crazed axe, knife and gun wielding bunch of lunatics smash down your door with the intent of doing very bad things to your family. This is when a fortified environment would help you survive.

Features of a safe room include:

Reinforced doors. These may be steal fire rated doors or ones lined with steel plate. The frames are also beefed up with door brace technology.

Reinforced walls, ceiling, floors. This can be anything from extra layers of plywood, sheet metal, steel plate, concrete or bullet resistant acrylic (plastic) or Lexan sheet.

Electronics. What safe room wouldn’t be complete without wireless internet and mobile communications?

Security systems. A monitored home security system complete with security cameras and back up batteries. All of which are in some way protected from intruders.

Self defense equipment. This can be anything from non-lethal to lethal.

Nourishment. You may be in your safe room for hours to days. Non perishable canned foods, and water is a must.

Gas masks. In the event your home invaders (or nuclear fallout) try to smoke you out, a gas mask is a nice touch.

Emergency first-aid kit. And assortment of bandages, ointments etc. Put some trash bags in there too. Trust me.

A simple enough strategy when installing a safe room in an existing home is to either install in your bedroom, basement or retrofit a walk-in closet.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist toHome Security Source discussingADT Pulse on Fox News. Disclosures

Beware of Furnace Scams

/in /by

To my horror, old man winter is knocking at my door.  There is snow on the ground in Boston accompanied by a howling wind with a wind chill of wicked, wicked, wicked cold. Did I say it’s wicked cold? It’s only 37 degrees but feels like 10 below. Frankly, I should live on an island in the pacific for more than one reason, and avoiding winter is one of them. I’m a very delicate flower.

Anyways, if you are proactive you should have already gone through with your annual maintenance regime with your forced hot air furnace, or forced hot water boiler.

In this process you may change air or water filters, clean out tubes, clean ducts, tighten up any water or air leaks, or flush the system of bad fluids. If you haven’t done any of this or have no idea what I’m talking about you may be a good target for furnace scams.

The most effective way not to be scammed is to do business with those you know, like, and trust. A referral by someone you trust who has a long term relationship with a licensed plumber or pipefitter is often the best way to get a reputable contractor to do maintenance or install a new system. Keep in mind any heat/cooling related work can cost under a $100.00 to several thousands. And if you don’t have an honorable contractor, they can easily fleece you.

Look for a license and confirm its validity with the local registry.

Be especially aware of duct cleaning scams. Do your research on how often they should be done and watch the contractors every single move. You want to see dirt and see dirt removed.

Confirm they are insured.

Don’t do business with anyone who does door to door sales.

Beware of scare tactics.

Always require a full proposal.

Get second and third opinions.

Get references.

Search them online and seek out any complaints with the Better Business Bureau.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing home security and identity theft on TBS Movie and a Makeover. Disclosures.

Community Comes Together to Fight Burglary

/in /by

In Rochester New York they are being “plagued” by burglaries which rose by over 13 percent in the last year. As a result they organized a Burglary Prevention Clinic to teach homeowners how to better secure their homes.

WHEC reports one of the residents was quoted saying “It’s so easy to forget that maybe I didn’t lock my window, or I didn’t secure my door, or my lock is a little loose.”

This particular event had more than the standard Neighborhood Watch attendees. In attendance was law enforcement, security professionals, locksmiths, politicians, insurance agents and community members all sharing their experience and best practices to keep safe.

They discussed a number of security issues, people voiced their concerns but one politicians stated very poignantly “I would say the most important thing is that there’s a lot that we can do to protect each other, so communication with your neighbors, and relationship with your neighbors goes a long way.”

Use solid steel or solid wood doors.

Trim shrubs to eliminate hiding spots.

Report suspicious activity in your neighborhood.

Start a neighborhood watch and get to know your neighbors.

Inform a few trusted neighbors of any travel plans to assist in the collection of newspapers and mail.

Install a home security system monitored by law enforcement and consider security cameras too.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist toHome Security Source discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

How To Recover a Hacked Facebook Account

/in /by

At least weekly some stressed out victim of a Facebook hack a.k.a “account takeover”, contacts me to help them get their account back in order. While I do have a connection or two at Facebook, I’m not in a position to send an email or flip a switch and make it all good just like that. Facebook doesn’t allow that.

The victim of the hack is in the best position to fix it themselves.

First, be proactive. Set up your computer with auto updates for your operating system, anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti-spyware and have a 2-way firewall turned on and lock down your wireless connection.

Facebook offers a number of security features, Use all of them. Take screenshots of your settings and contact info, print them, and store them in a secure place.

Opt-in security features:

Trusted Friends

What are trusted friends?

Trusted friends are friends you can reach out to if you ever get locked out of your Facebook account (ex: you turn on login approvals and then lose your phone, you forget your Facebook password and can’t get into your login email account to receive a password reset). If you get locked out, we’ll send each of your trusted friends a security code. All you need to do is call your friends and collect the codes.

Secure Browsing (https)

What is Secure Browsing (https)? What are the benefits?

Secure Browsing (https) is an opt-in security feature. When you turn this feature on, your traffic (i.e. all of your activity) on Facebook becomes encrypted, making it harder for anyone else to access your Facebook information without your permission.

Login Notifications

What are Login Notifications?

Login Notifications are an opt-in security feature where alerts are sent to you each time your account is accessed from a new device.

To turn on Login Notifications:

Go to your Security Settings page (Account > Account Security > Security)

Click on the Login Notifications section

Check the box next to the type of alerts you’d like to receive and save your changes

Note: If you want to receive text message alerts, you’ll need to add a mobile number to your account.

Login Approvals

What is Login Approvals?

Login Approvals is an opt-in security feature similar to Login Notifications, but with an extra security step. With Login Approvals, each time you try to access your Facebook account from an unrecognized device (ex: any computer or mobile phone you haven’t named and saved to your Facebook account), you will first have to enter a security code we’ve sent to your mobile phone.

To turn on Login Approvals:

Go to your Security Settings page (Account > Account Security > Security)

Click on the Login Approvals section

Check the box and save your changes

If all else fails go here: https://www.facebook.com/hacked this is the system Facebook has in place to help you get your account back regardless of if the hacker changed your email address.

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video.

Thinking About Building a Safe Room?

/in /by

A safe room also known as a panic room is designed to keep bad out and extend your lifetime. Bad could be in the form of Mother Nature’s wrath, manmade disaster or a human predator.

There are varying levels of options and financial investments based on what exactly you want to protect yourself from.  For example if you live in a part of the world where tornados are a problem then you may build your safe room with similar security features as you would when trying to protect from a predator. But may not as extreme as protecting yourself from manmade disaster, like nuclear fallout.

FEMA has a guide that begins the process of building a safe room and asks you to consider: When extreme weather threatens, individuals and families need advance warning and protection from the dangerous forces of extreme winds. Individuals and communities in tornado and hurricane areas need structurally sound safe rooms and early alert systems.

What is the cost of installing a safe room?

Can I install a safe room in an existing home?

Can I build the safe room myself?

Where is the best location for the safe room?

Where can I find plans for safe room construction?

FEMAs guide discusses having a safe room in your home or small business that can help provide “near-absolute protection” for you and your family or your employees from injury or death caused by the dangerous forces of extreme winds.

This is a good start for anyone considering a safe room of any kind. In the next post we’ll get into detail about what designs may be considered when building one to protect for predators and even manmade disasters.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist toHome Security Source discussingADT Pulse on Fox News Live. Disclosures

Phone Scammers Have No Shortage of Targets

/in /by

Scammers call as a grandchild with a bad crackly phone connection in another country on vacation hoping the victim will believe they are their grandchild who needs to get bailed out of jail. Other scammers call informing the victim they won the sweepstakes or lottery and only need them to pay by credit card or wire money to insure the winnings end up in their back account.

Sometimes the caller will say they are a lawyer from a foreign land and a long lost relative just died and left a large amount of money that desperately needs to get into the victims back account. All that needs to happen is the victim coughs up bank routing numbers and authorizes a cash transfer. And if the phone ever rings and it’s someone telling you they are selling stocks, bonds or gold or can get you a tremendous rate on your mortgage, chances are they are just another scammer trying to separate you from your money.

Amazingly, Alexander Graham Bells little invention has allowed scammers for well over 100 years to use his tool of technology to fleece unsuspecting citizens, and rob them of their personal security. Just like the internet today, people believe that the anonymous person on the other end of the communication is who they say they are.

The naïve and false belief to trust the authoritative figure who informs you that you either stand to gain or lose something based on your compliance is a tried and true method of scammers.

Really, the key to preventing phone scammer: hang up.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing home security and identity theft on TBS Movie and a Makeover. Disclosures.

Defense Begins in Petit Home Invasions

/in /by

It’s as hard for me to write this as it is for you to read this. In one of the worst publically known home invasions of the 21st century one defendant has received the death penalty while the other is facing the same fate. Joshua Komisarjevsky, confessed to the attack on the home and family of Dr. William Petit, and the murders of his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and girls Michaela Petit, 11 and Hayley Petit, 17.

The 2 home invaders met in jail and after they got out one night set out to rob some people at ATMs and ultimately landed at the Petit home. The father was sitting on his sun porch when the two men came in and Komisarjevsky hit him with a baseball bat.

Then both men went up stairs to tie up mom and two kids. A short while later one of them escorted the mother to the bank to take out $15,000.00.

When they came back each of the men sexually assaulted the mom and a daughter. To cover up the DNA evidence they debated to burn the house down killing the victims and destroy the evidence.

After what Komisarjevsky described as a brief argument they agreed and poured gasoline all over the house. The mom and her daughters died of smoke inhalation.

In his confession Komisarjevsky stated “They did every, they did, they did what they were supposed to do. There was no reason for them to die. They were compliant the entire way, both you know, very bright young ladies.”

We can “what if” all day long and play out different endings as a result of actions or inaction taken. I’ll simply offer this; while compliance is how most of us are raised and is necessary in a civilized society, sometimes noncompliance is in order in an uncivilized situation.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

Reinforcing Your Doors Security (Part 3 of 3)

/in /by

Frightening Statistics:

1 of every 5 homes will experience a break-in or violent home invasion.

80% of break-ins occur forcibly through a locked door.

A burglary occurs every 15 seconds in the United States.

This is why installing multiple layers of protection including a home security alarm, door reinforcement and numerous other methods are fundamental to your homes security.

In a recent post I discussed 5 different kinds of door reinforcement devices and then focused on door frame reinforcement. Here I’m reviewing door brace options. Door braces are usually floor mounted alloy metal devices that come in two parts. One is the horizontal floor plate screwed right in the floor and the other is a vertical plate that inserts in the floor plate tightly fit up against the door.

I called Mr. Jordan Frankel known as The Security Sensei of ShatterGARD Glass Protection, Inc. A Division of Global Security Experts to review the OnGARD Security Door Brace. Jordan is a passionate inventor and well sought after expert in home security worldwide. In our conversations he was flying between Saudi Arabia, China and somewhere stateside. He’s like the Thomas Edison of home security.

I’ve known of door braces for some time now. Usually they are a “door bar jammer” which are installed under the doorknob and pitch to a 45 degree angle to the floor. The OnGARD Security Door Brace is in a another league.

What I like most about this device is simply how difficult it becomes for a 250 pound man to kick in your door. The device installs on the floor with four heavy screws and you’re done. It works best when you are home as this device essentially (for lack of a better tem) barricades you in. I asked Jordan how else this would work if I wanted to keep it installed when I leave the home and he suggested if you have a garage door then enter and exit through the garage, which makes perfect sense. The OnGard is less than a foot wide and 4 inches tall but is a beast. I like a door brace in combination with door frame reinforcement to add 2 effective layers of door reinforcement security.

I’m sleeping even better these days.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

 

Reinforcing Your Doors Security (Part 2 of 3)

/in /by

In a recent post I discussed 5 different kinds of door reinforcement devices. In this post I’m going to review a door frame reinforcement device by Door Devil. I reached out to other manufacturers of door frame reinforcement and only Nick Fairless from Door Devil was kind enough to respond and send out a device to test.

The Door Devil Anti Kick Door Jamb Security Kit is made of a 1/16“ heavy steel and is 4 feet in length and is installed on the door jamb center, right over the exiting strike plates. Standard door security is comprised of (2-4) small screws through 1-2 small strike plates attached to a thin door frame. A strong kick focuses on this single weak point and easily blows apart the door frame. That’s why kick-ins are (by far) the #1 tactic for home invaders.

|Door Jamb fortified with Door Devil™ provides additional security with:

1) 48″ steel door jamb reinforcement replaces 3″ brass strike plate

2) Force is diffused across 4 feet of the door frame

3) 3.5″ heavy screws drive into 2×4 studs behind door frame

4) 3″ screws reinforce hinges – provide extra door security

What I like most about the door frame reinforcement technology is that it’s always there. Meaning there are no moving/additional parts, it requires no effort other than an initial install and then locking your doors. By itself the Door Devil is one layer of security in addition to a home security alarm and cameras and does a great job. Keep in mind that after about a minute of kicking and shouldering a door, most burglars would give up.

There is one more layer of door security I’d recommend in the category of “door brace” discussed in post 3.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing ADT Pulse on Fox News. Disclosures