Wilshire-area neighborhoods were told to be particularly vigilant.
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.
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.
That's one of the reason I went with a PoE camera. Just make sure your network is isolated so people can't connect to your internal network from the camera Ethernet cable.
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 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.
This is one of those things I thought would always remain firmly within the realm of science fiction. Watching movies and reading books growing up, movies like "The Matrix" and books like "Snow Crash" and "Neuromancer," I'd always be fascinated with high tech burglary. The idea that one could intercept communications, jam frequencies, or anything of the like, always just seemed a bit too out of reach for modern day criminals. And yet, here we are.
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.
In my big American metro area, the burglars usually mask up and roll in with swapped plates, a car they stole, or a car they got off a Kia boy for $100-$200. They’re tough to catch in the act or identify with video surveillance, even with a new hardwired or pre-WiFi hardwired system.
Easiest way to avoid this bullshit is to install wired cameras, and such a way that they are not easy to access/cut.
I know someones gonna come in and be all "BUHBUHBUT YOU CAN JUST DESTROY THE CAMERAS" and yeah, thats true.
but you cant destroy the camera from 3 blocks over, you have to get right up on them, and your face/vehicle/other helpful information may just well be caught and recorded before you do. Unlike wifi jamming, which could be done from streets away.
back in the day, the trick was to cut the phone line, then shove the cut wire back in the phone box. wait for the police to come and see that there's nothing wrong, then you go and burgle.
Something tells me that systems will just have a strong dummy wireless signal act as a tripwire and then it goes down, it triggers stuff...even super low end stuff could implement it.
Why did they specifically mention to "secure home DVR recorders"?
Other than potentially losing some TV or movies, is that really a big deal next to the other items they mention? It seems really odd to mention one of the least important things.