Woman Drags Naked Intruder By His Beard

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‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’…then there is this woman.

They say “never hit a woman”.  The reason is because women don’t just hit back, they keep hitting back until they are done with you. Plus it isn’t cool.

“A 64-year-old woman fought off a neighbor and dragged him out of her house by his beard after he let himself into her Kansas City home and took his clothes off. The woman said she awoke about 12:50 a.m and found her 62-year-old neighbor standing over her naked, as she tried to throw him out, he allegedly grabbed her throat. She picked up a tape measure and bonked it against his head three times. He left.”

Moment’s later police found him outside crying. I think I’d cry too after a bonk on the head and a whooping like that.

Resistance in this situation worked out for the victim.  At 64 she decided she wasn’t going to sit back and allow the intruder to make advances on her in any way.

What is important to understand is in any attack situation the victim actually has a lot of control over the outcome if they react within the first 30-60 seconds. What the victim does in that initial time frame can allow them to gain control over the direction of the attack. The attacker generally goes into the attack thinking the victim will be submissive but when the victim is confrontational the attacker is usually not prepared for that.

This entire situation could have been prevented if the homeowner had a home security system installed and beefed up her doors and windows with the appropriate locks. Now THAT is taking control.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing self defense on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

Police Warn Burglars Are Using Social Networks

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The sage advice used to be “don’t tell the world you are on vacation via your outgoing answering machine.” Then we pretty much eliminated answering machines and the advice pertained to voicemail. As we got more technology, the same message was don’t tell the world you are on vacation via your emails auto responder.

For a few years now I’ve been warning people about how vulnerable they are when they post their whereabouts in social media. And it looks like the bad-guy figured it out and is taking advantage of peoples’ naiveté.

In Nashua, NH, police busted a bunch of burglars they say used Facebook as a tool to gather intelligence on who is home and who is not home.

“Police said they recovered between $100,000 and $200,000 worth of stolen property as a result of an investigation.  Police said there were 50 home burglaries in the city in August. Investigators said the suspects used social networking sites such as Facebook to identify victims who posted online that they would not be home at a certain time.

“Be careful of what you post on these social networking sites,” said Capt. Ron Dickerson. “We know for a fact that some of these players, some of these criminals, were looking on these sites and identifying their targets through these social networking sites.”

It is obvious to me that none of these homes had home security systems, alarms or cameras. Due to the fact they were successfully burglarized. And once an intruder enters your home and does their dirty deed, your “castle” and how you feel in it is never the same.

Protecting yourself is real simple. Be cautious about what you post on social media and consider an investment in a home security system.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Social Media and giving out to much information on the CBS Early Show. Disclosures.

Strong Passwords Aren’t Enough

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I’ve said it before, use upper and lower case, use number and letter combinations and when possible, if the website allows it, use special characters. It has been documented that “Adding just one capital letter and one asterisk would change the processing time for an 8 character password from 2.4 days to 2.1 centuries.”

It is great advice to strengthen your passwords. It is just as important is to make sure your PC is free of malicious programs such as spyware and key-loggers.  Beware of RATS a.k.a “Remote Access Trojans.” RAT’s can capture every keystroke typed, take a snapshot of your screen and even take rolling video of your screen via a webcam. But what’s most damaging is RATs gaining full access to your files and if you use a password manager they have access to that as well.

RAT’s covertly monitor a PC generally without the user’s knowledge. RAT’s are a criminal hackers dream and are the key ingredient in spyware. Common RAT’s are the LANRev Trojan and “Backdoor Orifice”.

Installing RAT’s can be done by full onsite access to the machine or remotely when the user opens an infected attachment, clicking links in a popup, installing a permissioned toolbar or any other software you think is clean. More ways include picking up a thumb-drive you find on the street or in a parking lot then plugging it in, and even buying off the shelf peripherals like a digital picture frame or extra hard drive that’s infected from the factory. The bad guys can also trick a person when playing a game as seen here in this YouTube video.

An unprotected PC is the path of least resistance.  Use anti-virus and anti-spyware. Run it automatically and often.

A PC not fully controlled by you is vulnerable. Use administrative access to lock down a PC preventing installation of anything.

Many people leave their PC on all day long. Consider shutting it down when not in use.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Digital picture frames with built in viruses on Fox News. Disclosures.

10 Very Stupid Criminals

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Dumb Criminals are performing stupid crimes all the time.  Here is a list of 10 stupid criminal stories.

#1 Firefighters said it can’t get more ironic than this — an arsonist breaks into a convenience store, steals scratch-off lottery tickets, tries to cover his tracks by setting a fire, and in the process, sets himself on fire.

#2 Robber walked in to a store with duct tape wrapped around his head to conceal his face. The store manager had some duct tape of his own. He had a wooden club wrapped with duct tape that eventually sent the suspect fleeing the store. A store employee chased Duct Boy to the parking lot, tackled him and held him in a choke position until police arrived.

#3 Burglar breaks into a home and rifled gems from a jewelry box and helped himself to a check book, but the vodka and valium he had already downed that morning was taking its toll. And when the stunned homeowner came upstairs, she found him fast asleep under her bed.

#4 A woman stepped out of her car to talk to an officer about a crime she witnessed. While her back is turned, a man in a black cap carrying a big stick walked past her and and jumped into her car. The officer banged on the hood – to try to get the man to stop, but he got away. He was caught the next day.

#5 A policeman and his drug sniffing dog were invited to a Boy Scouts meeting for a demonstration. One of the boy’s mothers was arrested for having marijuana in her purse.

#6 Robber holds up a liquor store and demands all the money. Clerk gives him the money then the robber demands a bottle of scotch. The clerk refuses unless the robber shows him ID to verify his age. Robber showed his ID.

#7 Woman’s car is stolen with her mobile phone in it and she reports it to the police. Police call the thief on the phone saying they were responding to a news paper ad to buy the car. Thief shows up to sell the car.

#8 Two robbers enter a store and one screams “Nobody move or I’ll shoot!” His partner moved, he got shot.

#9 Guy breaks out of jail and goes to his girlfriend’s house. He accompanied her to court the next day on a charge she faced.  While at court he went outside to smoke a cigarette, she couldn’t find him and had him paged. Two cops recognized the name and arrested him.

#10 Bank robber stuffed a bag of money down his pants. The teller put an exploding dye pack in the bag. The dye pack exploded.Ouch! He didn’t make it out the door.

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

World War II Veteran Fights Off Suspect in Home Invasion

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An elderly World War II veteran fought off a man who had broken into his home and attacked the Marine veteran.

The Boston Herald reports the Vet was sitting in his living room watching TV and his wife was upstairs. The home invader comes in and attacked the Vet, then “as he was being attacked, the man shouted, drawing the attention of his wife who then called police while the suspect fled when the retired Marine fought back.”

Immediately the state and local police went into the neighborhood and found the perpetrator “soaking wet and had fresh blood on his white t-shirt and cuts on his hands and was found to have property stolen from the home”.

Everyone loves a happy ending.

Resistance in an attack has been proven in most cases to send the attacker fleeing. Resistance can be a tricky proposition whether or not a weapon is involved. As long as you survive, you’ve done the right thing.

Every family must have a plan for home security and a home security alarm.

Consider a trained German shepherd as a protection dog as well.

Another consideration is a home safe-room also known as a “panic room” where families can hide out in a relatively bullet proof, well stocked room equipped with wireless communications and wait for law enforcement to show up.

Never talk to strangers via an open or screen door. Always talk to them through a locked door.

NEVER let children open the doors. Always require an adult to do it.

Not all home invaders knock, some break in without warning.  That’s just another reason to have that home alarm on while you are home.

Install a 24-hour camera surveillance system. Security cameras are a great deterrent.  Have them pointed to every door and access point.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing home invasions on the Gordon Elliot Show. Disclosures

Geolocation Technology; Please Stalk and Rob Me

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Technology is meant to make life easier, safer and in some cases fun-er. Geolocation is supposed to make you save a few bucks on discounts when you “check in” at participating retail stores and gather “points”. It is also supposed to tell your friends and followers via geo-tagging that you just snapped a photo somewhere.  However there is nothing “safe” about this technology.

Geolocation can be used on a PC but is primarily used with a mobile phone. The geolocation software gets its data from your PCs IP address or your phones GPS longitude and latitude. It’s actually a nifty “tool” and a smart use of available technologies.

Some companies have even adopted the technology calling it “GPS Dating” for singles on the dating scene and help a person find someone local to them whenever and wherever. These same sites have photos and descriptions of the person which makes it that much easier to “find” the person. I did a spot on Good Morning America here discussing the security implications of GPS Dating.

With geolocation, the value in this technology for the bad guy is to determine where you are and where you are not. They can get a full profile of your itinerary all day every day. Someone who is paying unwanted attention to you gets every address you are at when you “check in”.

Extreme problems arising with these technologies as they pertain to GPS are with women in domestic violence situations when the woman heads to a shelter; the first thing the shelter does is take the battery out of the phone and/or turn it off so the abuser doesn’t show up at the shelter.

Thieves use geolocation to determine if you are home or not then use that data to plan a home burglary. I had a chance to appear on the CBS Early Show to discuss a gelocation site that revealed ones location away from home and its impact on personal security.

Stalkers who use the phones GPS are usually someone close to the victim like a family member or ex- boyfriend/girlfriend that has the capability of turning on tracking. If you suspect your phone’s GPS has been activated by the carrier then call to find out. If you don’t’ like the feature turned on, request it be turned off or shut it off in your phone.

The bottom line is geolocation could pose a privacy threat. Information collected through geolocation is particularly sensitive, since it can allow an adult or child to be physically contacted wherever he or she is, at any time.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing GPS Dating Security on Good Morning America. Disclosures.

Are You Your Family’s Chief Security Officer?

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Everyone’s job spills into their personal life is some way. I’m sure if your job is to clean offices all day, your home is probably clean. If you are a computer technician, your family bothers you every day to fix stuff. My guess is if you are a nurse, your kids are probably well taken care of.

My job is to scream about home security and other security issues all day. I’m pretty sure people are listening because they often thank me for the heads up and lately have been pointing to specific posts that saved them lots of headaches and heartache. In my home environment, I’m the CSO, Chief Security Officer, and security is an ongoing process that everyone is involved in. They have no choice. I bark it all day.

My belief is everyone has a job to do in personal safety. No matter what, you must protect yourself and family from the bad-guy. The hard part about this part time job is it requires a bit of thought. Because you’re not immersed in it all day like I am, the “second nature” part requires putting out a tiny bit of extra effort in order to complete whatever security task there may be at hand. To some people who are already burdened with life, a simple task like locking your doors or activating an alarm might be too much to think about.

I remember about 20 years ago I knew I wanted a safe. So I bought one. And that safe sat in my closet in the box for another 8 months until I actually bolted it to the floor and began to use it.  It took extra effort. Everything of significant monetary value that I don’t want stolen is easily locked up and fireproofed. Today it’s no effort.

Occasionally after a long day I go to bed and forget to set the alarm. But I always remember if I didn’t set it as my head hits the pillow, which means I get out of bed and set it. It’s a tiny bit of extra effort. Then I sleep better.  Security might not be your job, but it is really everyone’s job. Be the power of example and provide the leadership your family needs and be their Chief Security Officer.

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



Celebrity Burglaries and Home Invasions

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I’m not one to dish on celebs, although I did just meet Mario Lopez on the set of EXTRA. Cool dude took a pic with me. Celebs are no different than you and I. They are fallible and vulnerable humans, who just get lots more attention.

With one big exception; they are much bigger targets than we are because often they are moneyed.

A half dozen teens from a hoity toity suburb of LA fancied the celeb lifestyle and considered themselves part of the “in” crowd. While they lived the celeb lifestyle by hanging out in all the clubs, staying up all night and doing drugs, their thirst for drugs led to the need for more money to pay for those drugs. So they started to steal. They first started to break into cars. That was their “gateway” felony which led to breaking into homes. They were dubbed the “Bling Ring” and many are now in jail.

Their methods were simple. They tracked their victims by using social media, Facebook and Twitter. They knew when they were home and when they were away.  They even used Google Earth to scope out their homes.

They would approach a home and knock on the door and ring the bell. If nobody was home they’d jiggle the door knob. When a door was locked they looked under the mat for a key and often found one.

In 2008 Paris Hiltons home was burglarized. Shortly afterwards she installed a burglar alarm to prevent another home invasion. Many people install an alarm after their house is robbed. They react emotionally opposed to being proactive with a home security installation to protect their homes and families.

Paris Hilton recently tweeted she was almost the victim of a home invasion by a man carrying two kitchen knives. Her publicist was quoted saying “”The security cameras and alarm system were alerted and the police immediately came to the house and arrested the intruder who was attempting to break a window when they arrived.”

Without an investment in security this could have been a lot worse. And situations like this happen to millions of “everyday” people annually. Protect yourself for a dollar a day with a monitored system.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Home Security on NBC Boston. Disclosures.

Dealing with Online Harassment

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I was watching Back to the Future II with a little person in my life and thought how funny it was that every time McFly was called a chicken he would accept the challenge and throw up his dukes. Maybe it’s funny to me because I’m kind of like McFly. When someone tosses out an insult or a challenge or baits me, my teeth come out and I’m ready for battle. I can’t help myself; I’m half Italian American and half German shepherd (and I’m not sure which half is worse).  Constructive feedback is one thing, but insults and attacking me is another.

I think most people at some level have a hard time with being mocked or personally castigated online or on the ground.  My mom used to say if you ignore them they will eventually go away. There is truth to that but it is easier said than done. Today’s advice might be to R.I.D yourself of the perp. That’s Report-Ignore-Delete.

Social networks are a minefield of messy comments and accusations that can invade your personal security. Anyone can set up a profile of someone else or post photos and videos or say awful things. The best thing you can do is simply manage things said about you.

To report someone on Facebook go to their profile and seek out in the bottom left corner “Report/Block this person” and you can remove them too. All sites allow you to remove those you are connected to.

Any Groups or pages that are designed with harassment in mind can be reported.

You can’t stop someone from posting a photo of you but you can remove any tags associated with photos on Facebook. If you see pictures that are harmful report them.

Most sites allow you to delete stuff on your feed or at least control who/what can be posted.

Most sites allow you to restrict access to your profile using various privacy settings

In email if you receive harassing messages most email providers allow blocking senders in the options menus. Otherwise create filters and automatically delete them. There is no need to engage in hate. Ignoring them by never seeing them is best.

You can also block text messages from unwanted callers. Why even give them the time of day. Ignore them and visit your carrier for instructions.

Monitor your children’s online profiles. Friend them to keep tabs. There are numerous programs that allow you to get snapshots of your kids social media activity. If you decide to install them have a conversation with your kids so they know why.

If any threats are ever made or harassment is taken to a level that deems a call to law enforcement, don’t hesitate to make the call.

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

Scammer Tricks Woman with Bait and Switch

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As far back as I can remember I would often be approached in parking lots by someone in a van who was trying to sell me home stereo speakers. The speakers were always from a retailer’s loading dock or from trucks that had extra unaccounted inventory. And today was my lucky day.  The ruse was when you got the speakers loaded into your trunk, you were generally getting them in their new box. But the box just had pieces of wood.  Anyone thinking they were getting a deal, was just getting firewood. This is classic bait and switch.  Be more aware of these scams and protect yourself from them.

A twist on this scam happening all over is with laptops. The Business and Heritage reports “As a woman got out of her vehicle, she was approached by a man who had exited from his car. In his car were a woman in the front seat and a kid in the back. He approached the woman and showed her a laptop.  He explained that his girlfriend is a manager at Best Buy and that he had gotten a great deal on some laptops like the one he had. But, now he needed the money more than he needed the laptops and said he would sell them to her for $350.00 each. He had four of them, each in an individual Fed Ex box in his car.  She accompanied him to his car, where he opened two boxes, and she saw what appeared to be two laptops. One was a black laptop with a Best Buy sales tag of $1999.99 and the other was a white Apple laptop with a $1999.99 price tag on it. Both were packaged nicely in plastic bubble wrap in Fed Ex boxes specifically made for shipping laptop computers.

The woman called some of her friends and they all wanted to buy one, so she bought all four of them for $1,000 in cash, on the spot. The scammer loaded them into the woman’s car and quickly left.  After the woman got back to her hotel, she discovered that the “computers” were actually several packages of notebook paper sandwiched between a black notebook binder and a white notebook binder.”

PT Barnum once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute”. Even old scams with new twists make smart people stupid. It’s not difficult to get swindled out of your money in a scam like this. Everyone wants a deal and everyone likes to think they are too smart to get scammed. Always keep in mind what Mom said, “If it’s too good to be true, then it is.”

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing scammers and thieves on The Big Idea with Donnie Deutsch. Disclosures