Security. There's an App For That.

As all of you are well aware, there's an app for just about everything. Well, personal security is no exception. A few weeks ago, I received some insider information on a security app called MyForce, that uses your smart phone's GPS and microphone to pinpoint your location and monitor any audio. The app is basically a panic button on your smart phone that you press if you get in a dangerous situation. The system is being monitored 24/7 by trained security personnel who can notify the nearest law enforcement agency and provide detailed information on your situation.

I reviewed the system and it seems great, in theory. I do believe this security app will work as advertised but I do have one nagging reservation. This reservation come to mind after recalling the research on the Vivint Home Security System . Is the system actually being monitored by a real human being? In the case of Vivint, a customer who disconnected his alarm and boxed it up, was told by the monitoring company that his system was working just fine. (Vivint Security Alarms post, 12/28/13). Could this the case with MyForce?

 With that being said, The app seems be more than just another "me too" app trying to make a buck. One benefit I see in the app is the GPS locator and the ability to transmit audio of the situation. Of course, that brings up the obvious question of, why not just call 911?

Well, since most attacks happen when you least expect it, dialing 911 and explaining your situation and giving an exact location is almost impossible. Imagine walking to your car in a dimly lit parking lot. You get the creepy feeling your being followed and turn around just in time to see an assailant rushing you from about four feet away and closing in fast. Honestly, do you have time to dial 911, wait for three or four rings, explain your situation, and give your location before the assailant has you pinned down? Or would it be easier to have your phone in your hand with your finger hovering over the panic button and hit it when you realize you're being attacked? Your location will be instantly transmitted and the microphone activated. The monitor will be able to pinpoint your location and hear the attack in progress and anything you or the attacker says. That information will be relayed to your local law enforcement agency within minutes.

Besides, if you get abducted and taken somewhere in a vehicle, 911 will be of no use, considering you don't drop your phone.

At this point, the decision to use this app over calling 911 is yours. Although the MyForce service costs around $15.00 per month, I think it's a small price to pay for security in this day and age.

MyForce is available for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.

For more information on this app, follow the link below.

MyForce Security App.

Your safety must be 24/7.

Dave.

An Amazing New Discovery in Lock Technology

Well folks, I have good news, and I have bad news, First, the good news. As I have always stated in my blog and presentations, I'm always on the lookout for new techniques on personal security to keep you and your family safe. Well, after getting several requests and questions on door locks, I kept digging and persisting and I'm glad to tell you that I have found a new residential / commercial door lock and padlock that is currently undefeatable with all known lock defeating techniques. It is bump proof, pick proof, force-proof, and even idiot proof.

The bad news is that it is currently out of stock every where I searched and I'm not even sure who the manufacturer is. Rest assure that I will continue to search for the manufacturer and I will probably be one of the first to market this lock to presentation guests and hosts, (right after I install the first one in my house), and post the website of the seller right here on this blog puppy.

This door lock, also known as a soft key. It is unique in that the tumbler path is curved and the key itself is more of a flexible chain rather than an easily duplicated traditional straight key. Rather that try to explain this amazing locking mechanism...just follow the link below and watch the video to be amazed. No sound but not needed.

http://www.gadgetreview.com/2014/10/the-soft-key-lock-is-essentially-unpickable

Since the teeth of the key are flexible and must follow a curved path within the tumbler section, there is no known method to defeat this key and tumbler system because all current techniques are based on the same straight fixed key and tumbler method. This is a fine example of "thinking way way outside the box."

Folks, I love this lock because the concept of its design goes beyond traditional lock construction and avoids typical lock defeating techniques. Whoever designed this lock, really thought things through and put a lot of security thought into it.

But, if I found this, I'm sure the scumbag thieves found out about it too and working on a way to defeat it or looking for other weaknesses in your home. So, as I have said many many times before, don't become over reliant on just one piece of technology for your safety. Layers, layers, layers.

It's a new world, keep up.
Dave.

A Stalker Has Constitional Rights!

Stalkers. I don't know about you but I hate stalkers. I'll be honest, I don't know much about stalking laws but I do know that they're not readily enforced because it is a relatively new activity and as it stands, stalking is not harmful, dangerous, or legally, not a crime to follow someone without harmful intent as the laws are now written.

As we all know, stalking and following or appearing periodically at the same place for purpose of observing or intimidation cannot be defined as threatening or endangering by any current definition  of current laws. It is well known that stalking could cause serious psychological and emotional damage, but while a textbook definition of a stalker could by current laws, defined as anyone who happens to appear regularly or at random places, could just as easily be defined as someone who has a similar schedule or route as yours everyday. The stalker's defense could just as easily be that he has a similar schedule as yours and works or lives near by and presence be justified be simply defined as happenstance.

I bring this topic of stalkers because I recently did a home presentation for a high school friend I had not seen in many years. I happened to run into her while jogging at a park and we had a good conversation while reminiscing. As we continued, we wound up at the topic of my security service and I eventually wound up doing a presentation at her home with only three of her friends present. While I normally don't do presentations with less that six guests, I made an exception for Leonor. (I've always like that name), I must mention that I did the presentation without any of the security products I normally have for sale.

After I made the presentation, I received very good input and information from the three women guests. The second guest, whom I'll call Cassy, (because I like that name), gave me some great insight into her problem with some creep who seemed to appear wherever she went. He always seemed to be at the same store she was at, behind her in traffic, driving down her street, etc. Although she reported her experience to the local police, they told her that there was nothing they could do because the "citizen" had not broken any laws.  While that was technically true, they were aware that he was stalking her but had their enforcement hands tied and unable to do anything without violating his constitutional rights.

The first guest, whom I'll call Nicki because I also like that name, told me about the time she was jogging and was approached by a another female jogger who attempted to stop her to ask her for directions to a certain park. She found it suspicious that the female jogger was wearing a local high school football team shirt but didn't know where a well known park was. She also noticed a tall male wearing green shorts and a San Antonio Spurs jersey behind her. She played dumb and ran off. Later, she heard from an acquaintance that the same question had been asked from her by a female jogger and a tall man wearing the identical clothing described in her incident!

The third guest whom I'll call Consuela because I don't like that name, told me about the time she went to the grocery store and a older gentleman approached her in the parking lot and offered to help her load her grocery bags into her car. Although she was a little reluctant, she agreed and the stranger helped load her groceries, wished her well, bid her good night and walked away.

So what's the point of this post? Well, first off, the first two incidents sounded very suspicious because the first case demonstrated that the perpetrator was clever enough to know the legal limits of his actions without being accused of anything, yet accomplishing his goals. The second seemed like a setup for some type of mugging. The third, resulted in a random act of kindness, or as I refer to it, human interaction.

So what's my take on these three incidents? In the first two incidents, the potential victims were OBSERVANT. Cassie was observant in the way that she was cognizant of her surroundings at all times. She noticed that the creep appeared to be wherever she was because she took notice of her surrounding and noticed an anomaly, something out of the ordinary. She took action as she notified police. Even though the police didn't take any action, the incidents were documented in case any later proof was ever needed in the futuer.

Nicki was OBSERVANT in that she saw the female jogger who was wearing a local school shirt but was asking for a well known local landmark but was quick enough to ask if the jogger knew the city while she formulated a quick egress plan. But, she also took the time to look around and noticed the male jogger behind her and got his description. This may have been a  mugging scheme.

Consuela was a victim of a human act of simple human interaction. I believe Consuela was paranoid because she had lost confidence in humanity and she had become suspicious of everyone and changed her mentality towards being a victim.

My take? There are those who will take advantage of you at every turn but, you will only be taken advantage if you know how it's done. You'll never know if you;re being set up if you don't know your enemy. When yo're ready to learn about your enemy and learn how to defend yourself against him, come here and educate yourself in the new times!

This is a new world and you must keep up with new knowledge to survive or they will run you over with your ignorance.

Dave.

Note: Although I don't normally deal with stalking, it is a violation I STRONGLY despise, I will do more research and advise on in later posts. Please note the words in BOLD lettering in the post.

My Home Alarm System is Set, Yup, I'm Good.

Not so fast folks. I was reviewing speeches from the latest Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas and found an interesting talk on defeating home security systems. I also found this very topic on a deep web site (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Web)  along with instructions on how to go about defeating alarm systems using off the shelf 90s technology

This is why I repeatedly keep reminding my readers that you must have layers of security and to stay informed on the latest security measures. This blog will be one of your resources. Remember, we live in different world that 10 years ago. I know security is not a popular, convenient, or "comfort" topic, but it is a necessary topic for our time, and because, it is the go-to topic for the bad guys.

Anyway, what is now common knowledge is that many of today's modern gadgets and home appliances are hooked into the internet and can easily be hacked and taken over by hackers and other unsavory type folk. That's nothing too alarming since the most they can do is reprogram your toaster oven, fridge, or turn your heater on to 100 degrees during a heatwave in South Texas. 

While it's frustrating and scary to know that a stranger with unknown intentions can control things in your home without your knowledge, but it's down right scary to realize that a stranger may have the ability to disarm you home security system at will without your knowledge. All this is possible because you are dependent on old technology that the bad guys have had plenty of time to study and learn how to defeat and the industry has continued to use while telling you that it is still top of the line technology.

So what is this defeatable technology?, your wireless home security system. Here's how they are defeated. All the wireless alarm systems examined rely on radio frequency signals sent between door and window sensors to a control system that triggers an alarm when any of these entryways are breached. The signals deploy any time a twired window or door is opened, whether or not the alarm is enabled. But, when enabled, the system will trip the alarm and also send a silent alert to the monitoring company, which contacts the occupants and/or the police. But, researchers found that most wireless systems do not encrypt or authenticate the radio signals being sent from sensors to control panels, making it easy for someone to intercept the data, decipher the commands, and play them back to control panels at will using easily obtained technology.

 Oh yeah, 1234, I'm safe!

These radio signals can also be jammed to prevent them from tripping the alarm by sending radio interference to prevent the signal from getting through from sensors to the control panel. My questioning of alarm company personnel either claimed the signals were encrypted or they gave me the deer in the headlight look. My observation of their reactions when asked that question was that they had no clue but responded with the better sounding answer of "encrypted", but couldn't answer how it was encrypted.

So, without getting into the technical details of encryption and defeating methods, I'll just tell you that with the right equipment, top-selling home alarm setups use wireless technology can be easily subverted to either suppress the alarms or create multiple false alarms that would render them unreliable. False alarms could be set off using a simple tool from up to 250 yards away, though disabling the alarm would require closer proximity of about 10 feet from the home.

Some of the technology used to perpetrate this crime may cost in upwards of $1,700.00, but it may may very well be worth it for a thief who can break into multiple homes without the risk of the home security system going off to make a good profit . Think about it.

"An attacker can walk up to a front door and suppress the alarm as they open the door, do whatever they want within the home and then exfiltrate, and it’s like they were never there,” says Logan Lamb, a security researcher at the Oak Ridge National Lab, who conducted his work independent of the government. So who could possibly get within 10 feet of your home while the home security system is armed and still get in? 

Yeah, this discovery gave me the creeps but at least I know I have multiple layers of security in my home. Do you?

See related posts:
Be Alarmed, Be Very Alarmed, 12/20/13
I Bought Your Front Door Key Online, 9/26/14

Be One Step Ahead of The Dirt Bags.  

Dave 

Latest Presentaion

I want to thank Monica K. for her generosity and hosting my presentation at her home. Monica brought nine of her friends to her home for one of my presentations and introduced me to a lady who had experienced a home invasion. Not only did this woman do all the right things during the home invasion, she told me about her experience with the legal system afterwards. Fortunately, she was released from all guilt and did not have any charges pressed against her. And, the attackers were put away for a long time. Yes, shots were fired in this case.

This brave woman will have to live with that experience for the rest of her life but she has a new understanding of the times we live in and has accepted that she must make some changes in the way she does things now. She did purchase a few of my products but did mention to me that it was just something she knew she must do in this new age. She compared buying my product to having to buy a new computer and cell phone when society turned to the technology age in the 80s. She didn't want to but she understood that that's where society was going and she didn't want to be left behind. The society of today has now turned to security and she knew she had to keep with the times.

Sandra also told me and the group about the time she was approached by a man who asked for directions while pumping gas in her car at a convenience store. While she turned around to point in the direction, the man's accomplice snuck up behind her to attack her. As the pump lock snapped off, she looked back down and noticed the accomplice rushing towards her and she instinctively pulled out the gas nozzle, still  and pointed it at the attacker with gas still spewing out. That was enough to scare him off and he ran away. That was a new scenario that prompted me to investigate this technique and learned that it was a new tactic and had only been reported six other times in Texas and once in Louisiana. Sandra's incident happened north San Antonio.

Here's the scenario in Sandra's incident. A two man team hangs around a gas station or convenience store with gas pumps, the lost man (perpetrator), sometimes holding a map or appearing as a tourist, waits by the street near the gas station while the accomplice waits by the station or store entrance away from the perpetrator. Once a female starts pumping gas in her vehicle, the perpetrator walks up to the female pumping gas, who is committed, and asks for directions to a certain street or location he knows is located in the opposite direction of his accomplice. This is done to ensure that the female victim is facing away from the perpetrators accomplice. While her attention is focused on telling the perpetrator directions, the accomplice is rushing her from behind. The accomplice grabs the victim and her car keys, throws her aside, jumps in the car, the perpetrator jumps in the passeger seat and they drive away with her car.

 More than likely, the victim's purse along with any cash, credit card, identifiers, and personal information is quickly found and exploited. Not to mention her car could be used in further crimes.

My take on this crime is that the criminals may now know the victim's name by the content of her car, where she lives and works, and may have her garage door opener, house keys, cell phone which may give them access to her online accounts which may wreak more havoc in her life. If she had a gun in her car that was used in a future crime, there could be legal implications for her.

Let's take this scenario a step further, what if you were the victim in that scenario and you left your cell phone in the car? What valuable, embarrassing, or incriminating information on that cell phone could the criminals use to their advantage or use against you?

I'm not trying to scare anyone here but, I just want you to realize that the crooks are getting smarter and are now using human nature to get you to let your guard down to victimize you. I want you to realize that we now live in a different time and you must know that your personal safety is reliant on what you know.

Knowledge is protection.

Dave