[HN Gopher] Police warn of thieves using WiFi-jamming tech to di...
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       Police warn of thieves using WiFi-jamming tech to disarm cameras,
       alarms
        
       Author : Bluestein
       Score  : 20 points
       Date   : 2024-07-18 21:48 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ktla.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ktla.com)
        
       | djohnston wrote:
       | Alternative solution- DA could actually start prosecuting theft.
        
         | netsharc wrote:
         | I DDG'ed "police shortage after covid" and these 2 articles
         | support my belief that it's real: [1] [2]. [2] says hiring in
         | 2023 is back up, but they're not out of the woods yet.
         | 
         | It feels like the breakdown of social trust got worsened by the
         | pandemic, and it has far-reaching effects. There's probably
         | also emboldened many who've noticed we don't live in a police
         | state, and getting away with crime (like surging an Apple Store
         | with your friends) is actually possible. Of course people who
         | resort to crime aren't the smartest to begin with, e.g. they
         | don't know that stolen Apple devices will just be software-
         | bricked...
         | 
         | 1) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-experiencing-
         | police-...
         | 
         | 2) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-officer-
         | hiring-u...
         | 
         | Edit to add: and the pandemic has also emboldened racist idiots
         | like sibling comment saying "Stop being racist /s".
        
       | batch12 wrote:
       | I wonder what took them so long. Now, cameras I understand.
       | Disarming an alarm via deauthing sounds implausible unless these
       | panels are complete garbage. I have seen 'advanced' panels from
       | alarm companies though that are simply an Android app +GPIO so I
       | guess anything is possible...
        
         | Bluestein wrote:
         | > Android app +GPIO
         | 
         | Ouch, right?
         | 
         | Whatever happened to embedded-systems, aeronautics-quality
         | software?
        
           | p_j_w wrote:
           | Aeronautics quality software is expensive.
        
           | mouse_ wrote:
           | Turns out most people will pay the same price for white label
           | Android hardware.
        
       | teamspirit wrote:
       | Glad all my cameras are hard wired. I do need to look into off-
       | site video recording though. Dream scenario: a home assistant
       | automation that automatically uploads video when an alarm is
       | triggered.
        
         | Bluestein wrote:
         | ... and an AI-driven "warning shots" turret :)
        
         | Joel_Mckay wrote:
         | Many FOSS programs have been around for ages:
         | 
         | https://zoneminder.com/
         | 
         | Having everything hardwired has its own set of issues. It is
         | often better to have both a working visible "decoy wifi" kit
         | people will identify/jam with ease, and a covert "Casino" 8k
         | pin-hole option people will not be able to scan.
         | 
         | Just remember mantraps (bastion double fire-doors/cages etc.)
         | are usually illegal in most jurisdictions, and crackheads are
         | unhealthy for the pet crocodiles anyway. =3
        
       | ysacfanboi wrote:
       | One solution is to throw out all those Ring cameras and get local
       | storage solutions. After all, your data should belong to you.
        
         | RIMR wrote:
         | I run a couple local wired cameras with a week of onboard
         | storage that stream to a VPS running DVR software with months
         | of storage.
         | 
         | Hardly uses my gigabit connection, and the cloud video is
         | impossible to destroy by anyone with access to the cameras.
         | 
         | And it's my own Linux server. Nobody is going to hand anything
         | over to the authorities behind my back.
        
           | Thorentis wrote:
           | > VPS
           | 
           | > nobody will hand anything over
           | 
           | Uh, there's these things called subpoenas...
        
             | anonym29 wrote:
             | There's this thing called the internet, it's an
             | interconnected network that allows people in one
             | jurisdiction, say, the United States, to access servers in
             | another jurisdiction, say, Russia, who is well-known to not
             | cooperate with international law enforcement.
             | 
             | Get an American court to issue a subpoena for the data on
             | my Russian dedi. The judge and prosecutor will die of old
             | age before they get so much as a boilerplate response in a
             | Cyrillic alphabet.
        
               | chatmasta wrote:
               | You gotta find a Russian dedi that is unwilling to
               | respond to subpoenas but also secure enough not to be
               | compromised by the NSA, who presumably has an ongoing
               | operation to monitor "sketchy hosts" and poke holes in
               | them by signing up, testing the internal management
               | infrastructure, etc...
        
               | anonym29 wrote:
               | NSA is not a law enforcement organization, and the
               | national security need to keep NSA processess,
               | techniques, tools, and practices as secret as possible is
               | a powerful motivator to keep any traces of NSA
               | capabilities far away from the legal discovery process of
               | a courtroom. Parallel discovery is possible, but do you
               | think the NSA is eager to risk tipping their hand to
               | Russia just over some nobody's CCTV footage?
               | 
               | I'm not that important.
        
         | bennyg wrote:
         | What _are_ the best wired cam/local storage solutions today?
        
           | darknavi wrote:
           | Reolink is fairly inexpensive but their apps are pretty
           | lacking.
           | 
           | Unifi Protect is my go-to because of usability but does
           | (somewhat) rely on their SSO cloud login. All stored locally
           | though on purchased NVRs and their app is soooo much better
           | than Reolink's.
        
             | egberts1 wrote:
             | Reolink periodically phones home ... to China.
        
       | kkfx wrote:
       | If someone really have safety _wifi_ cam... It 's would be just
       | natural selection. BTW cam have only one purpose, alerting. 99%
       | of the time having evidence is useless, as a deterrence it's
       | almost the same. They are effective only to alert a distant owner
       | "something is happening in your property" and IF wired and well
       | disposed get a chance to see what's wrong an instant before the
       | shiny system die. Marginally they are requested for some
       | insurances, at least to lower their price.
        
       | egberts1 wrote:
       | Standalone, VLAN over PoE 4K camera is next to impossible to
       | find.
       | 
       | Offline, selfhosted NVR coupled with private VPN for
       | status/notification is the only way to go.
       | 
       | Bonus if self-hosting on your own VPS for backup viewing (also
       | thru private VPN).
        
       | wkyleg wrote:
       | I wonder if anyone uses Flipper Zeros for things like this yet.
       | Cameras, garage doors, radio activated gates are usually very
       | insecure. They were not built under the assumption that thieves
       | could hack RFID devices easily.
       | 
       | I don't want this to happen but it's kind of cool in a cyberpunk
       | dystopia kind of way.
       | 
       | https://flipperzero.one
        
         | anonym29 wrote:
         | The flipper zero is an FCC-approved toy with an itty bitty
         | teeny tiny subset of the capabilities of proper wide-band SDR
         | kit, e.g. HackRF One. This isn't due to firmware locks that can
         | be jailbroken - there is no wide-band SDR hardware present.
         | This is just a collection of a small handful of narrow-band SDR
         | chips.
         | 
         | Neither serious threat actors nor corporate red teams waste
         | their time with such trivial things.
        
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       (page generated 2024-07-18 23:13 UTC)