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LAPD warns residents after spike in burglaries using Wi-Fi jammers that disable security cameras, smart doorbells (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 119 points 3 months ago (22 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (13 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (5 children)

I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do what I did.

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.
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.