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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 4 months ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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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[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 60 points 4 months ago (8 children)

Renters have virtually no choice here. I hate it when people state this like it's some damn easy thing for everyone to do.

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The real answer is caching. Instead of writing video to the cloud live and losing all recordings during a wifi outage, it should just cash the last 30ish minutes in case of failure to connect to the cloud. Then once the connection is up again, it just uploads the cached video.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

My cameras are PoE going to an NVR but you can also slap SD cards in them to record locally. I'm sure there are some wireless options out there with this feature included. Unfortunately wireless cameras have another glaring flaw in that they only record on movement and I've heard of so many stories where they didn't catch any movement to start recording when something happened.

[–] FrederikNJS@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

I have a few cheap cameras that can handle both WiFi and ethernet, they support an SD card, and they do continuous recording regardless of connection type.

[–] jagermo@feddit.org 5 points 4 months ago

There are some that have local storage in case wifi drops out.

[–] iamjackflack@lemm.ee 4 points 4 months ago

I beg to differ not with that attitude. In most situations you can non permanently get a camera out a window or door without harming anything / risking deposit loss. Only where you have no windows near exit points and a windowless door. But even then you can still atleast have something internal to catch a break in (wired streaming to web).

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Easy or not, wireless isn't secure.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

Honestly, if I'm renting, I'll just get renter's insurance and not bother with doing any security.

As a homeowner, I'm going to do everything I can to avoid making a home insurance claim. As a renter, whatever, not my problem, the insurance can maybe sue the landlord for not securing things properly because it's their job, not mine, to keep things secure.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

There’s no OSFA solution. Yeah, it sucks if you’re renting and can’t run cat 6 everywhere. All the same, you can still run a hard wired cam to a NVR/NAS in at least one location inside, but then you face the same difficulty anyone else does of securing the storage from theft - or you can have it upload to a cloud as quickly as is practical so you get off-site storage images and alerts of the theft.

There’s a lot of opportunistic thefts near where I live. Honestly, the odds of actually catching a good image of the thieves’ faces are petty low. If they know enough to jam the wifi, they also probably know enough to hide their faces. The thieves in our area all wear hoodies and hide their faces somehow, so all you get is the alert that someone is there and an image of a hoodied individual.

[–] aviation_hydrated@infosec.pub 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The landlord might have an incentive to protect their investment

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Burglars stealing whole apartments over here.

[–] capital@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

Can't have shit in Detroit.

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world -1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Honestly super easy. I have a pet cam that records locally to an SD card and is accessible via wifi. A jammer wouldn't stop the recording. Also like 30 bucks vs 50-100-200 bucks depending on which ring cam you get. Certainly not weatherized but good enough for internal monitoring.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Honestly super easy.

Would you go so far as to say it's barely an inconvenience?

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Wow wow wow. Wow.