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Windows are made of glass, and most deadbolts are installed into little more than a 1/4 - 1/2” of wood. In some places, they’re held by little more than moundin
by arkades 9y ago
Windows are made of glass, and most deadbolts are installed into little more than a 1/4 - 1/2” of wood. In some places, they’re held by little more than mounding. Both are absolutely trivial to knock open, with the quality of the lock itself being far less important to the overall picture. Securing a door goes like this:
1) good deadbolt mounted into thick wood with a big strike plate and a sheet of sheet metal attached to the entire length of the stud with 3” screws, so you can’t just kick in the door. They sell kits like this oh amazon for usually sub100$.
2) good deadbolt.
3) steel door, because a 15lb mallet will knock through pretty much anything else and, if you have a door not visible to neighbors (like a backyard doors) no one will even notice.
4) an alarm system, because if no one is coming, steps 1-3 are irrelevant. Time defeats all security measures.
5) thorny bushes under all windows, motion-sensing lights on the entire perimeter. This keeps no one out, but if your house looks like a pain in the ass to get into, someone else’s will get hit. Outrun your neighbor, not the lion.
6) and if you’ve got the cash to spend, hurricane-proof glass and window stops will make it very unlikely anyone is getting in through a window either.
7) and that’s all still just to make you less attractive than a neighbor, ‘cause if I can get into your yard, cutting away some siding with metal snips and knocking a hole in your sheetrock is trivial. Walls are more psychological than structural in most modern home construction.
- latencyloser 9y agoWhere'd you learn this stuff? As someone who recently ended up a family man, I'm definitely interested in keeping my place more secure.
- arkades 9y agoWay way back when, before I had a professional degree and respectability, I grew up in the sort of neighborhood where this information is... something approximating common knowledge. My father grew up in a similar environment and passed along a lot of wisdom on the topic as well. I parlayed it into some security work in undergrad, where I got to see the way small businesses address these issues. I’ve never seen it written up anywhere, though I’m sure someone has to have spilled beans on this topic at some point. If you have specific security concerns relevant to your personal situation (eg, I live In an apartment with a balcony...) feel free to leave an email address or some other contact info and I’ll happily give you some quick tips. Most residences, unless you’re a high value target, need very similar security.
- cr0sh 9y agoPer #7 - I have concrete slump-block construction for my walls. If they're going to get in that way, they're gunna work for it. /at that point it would be easier for them to go thru the doors or windows (not even sure where you'd get hurricane glass in Arizona).
- johnbrodie 9y agoI remember a story from years ago in the news where a family (I believe the father may have been a jeweler) had their house burglarized. They had a house fairly far away from their neighbors, and the suspect literally brought a circular saw and cut a hole in the side of the house.
- arkades 9y agoHah. That’s a good example. Even that’s overkill. Even if someone sheathed their exterior walls in plywood, structural sheathing runs 5/16 - 1/2”, and seams are between studs. It’s for resisting shear stresses on the house and/or insulation. In terms of orthogonal force, it’s a far cry from requiring a saw to get in.
- icebraining 9y agoA talk on Doors from the perspective of a physical penetration hacker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YYvBLAF4T8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YYvBLAF4T8
- arkades 9y agoThat was really interesting, thank you for sharing!
- icebraining 9y agoI found it thanks to another by the same guy, on elevator hacking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHf1vD5_b5I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHf1vD5_b5I
- arkades 9y agoAwesome. It’s definitely a different perspective. He’s oriented to getting past security; normal thieves are risk-minimizing opportunists, so the approach isn’t “how do I get past security”, it’s “how do I get past the minimum security I can expect, and identify those targets that will have that minimum.” Still, super interesting.
- icebraining 9y agoYeah, targeted attacks like those are different from drive-bys - both in the physical world and in the digital. On the other hand, targeted attacks are not just for industrial espionage; for example, a friend of mine caught his landlady stealing from him. Family members and friends are also not that uncommon either, unfortunately.