Home Security - Demand for Home Security Systems on the Rise

While perusing for articles that may be of interest to our readers, we found that the demand for security systems and even owning guns has been steadily rising in almost all locations this past year.

We found this article out of Tennesse that is demonstrative of the near constant flush of articles on home invasion, burgularies and such pushing sales of Home Security Systems.

Demand for home security systems on the rise in East Tennessee
By JAMIE LYNN DROHAN
6 News Reporter

KNOXVILLE (WATE) - Experts say 22 percent of Tennessee homes have electronic security systems, and local security companies say they're seeing a significant increase in the demand for home protection.

"They're not coming in the middle of the night like they used to. They are coming in plain daylight," said John Knox, of the Electronic Security Association.

"With the economy the way it is, we're just crazy busy installing security systems. Everybody wants to put their systems back online. Maybe they had them 10 years ago, but now they want to re-do them," said Robert Macauley, of Knox Integrated Systems.

Experts say video surveillance is the most popular request right now.

"The prices have been lowered where it's more affordable, more attainable for people. The quality is much better and it's just a good way of documenting a lot of things. It helps the police in a lot of ways," Knox said.

Homeowner Knick Myers is a big believer in security systems after his father's home was burglarized.

"After that event, it definitely changed the way he thought because the fear of someone actually being in his home while he was asleep was a very, very scary thought. Especially after the fact when you think of what could have been," Myers said.

Experts say if you're considering an alarm system, do your homework.

"AsK if all the doors are protected or what if they come through a window? What if they touch your phone lines? Who are the people in my house installing this system?" Knox said.

"People are aware of what is happening around them, and they want to do what they can to prevent that from happening to them," Myers said.

Personal Security - Be aware of Office Photocopier's

This excellent short article came out of the Daily Green News blog, written by Brian Clark Howard, pertaining to digital photo copiers that can retain information and images that you otherwise want to remain undisclosed.

Did you know that most office photocopiers are built to save digital images of documents? It's true.

When CBS News recently purchased some used photocopiers that were destined for new customers, their computer technician was able to easily retrieve thousands of pages of sensitive documents from their hard drives: perfect images of personal medical records, pay stubs, and tax forms -- even the blueprint of a building near Ground Zero and reports of sex and drug crimes from the Buffalo, N.Y., police department. There were home addresses, social security numbers, and medical histories aplenty.

The data isn't particularly easy to view and sort, but a thief who knows what he's looking for can download free software from the Internet that can be used to mine this treasure trove of personal data.

Still, before you run screaming from your nearest Kinko's, there are a few things you should know.

"It's a real issue, and it's something we've been talking about for a long time," Larry Kovnat, manager of product security for imaging company Xerox, told The Daily Green. "There have been a lot of inquiries and plans put in place to institutionalize the use of encryption and data overwrite on copiers, to protect the data," Kovnat added. Encryption encodes the data so only someone who has the "key" can make sense of it, and overwrite erases each previous scan.

Kovnat explained that some manufacturers offer image overwrite as an optional extra (according to the CBS story, the vendor charges $500 for that). "We offer it standard because we think the issue is important," said Kovnat. "We want people to use the features, and they don't slow down the devices."

Still, each office's machine administrator needs to know to turn the security settings on, and to make sure care is taken when the device is no longer needed. "Before you drop off that used machine to a lessor or for a charitable write-off, make sure that you have totally erased the hard disk or removed and destroyed it," cautions Peter Fannon, the vice president of technology policy for Panasonic.

Fannon adds that Panasonic has built-in security features into all their imaging products since 2005, and that the company works to educate authorized dealers to tell users to enable them. According to Fannon, the products ship with such security features as image overwrite, encryption, hard disk lock (which prevents the drive from being used in any other device), and security passwords that prevent making unauthorized changes. However, the default setting of these features is off, so they have to be activated by the user.

"Fax machines also have large image memories that can store a significant amount of data. To eliminate concerns about that, we have the option Panasonic Image Memory Eraser Function, which erases all fax data after each transmission, including where it is being sent, the sending number, and all data," Fannon adds. As for older copiers, Fannon said they sometimes came with a combination of physical locks and password protection.

Neither expert was aware of a single proven case in which sensitive information was taken off a copy machine and used maliciously. Still, both recommend that consumers take precautions. As it stands, the Federal Trade Commission is currently evaluating the way manufacturers present their security procedures.

Before copying anything sensitive, Kovnat says one should ask the administrator how the machine is set up. "Ask, does it have a disk? Is encryption enabled? Is image overwrite enabled? If you can't get a good answer, I wouldn't take the risk," explained Kovnat.

"These are sophisticated machines; don't think of them as 'just a copier,'" he added. "You wouldn't use a laptop without thinking about security or updating software."

Internet Security - Burglars Picked Houses Based on Facebook

Burglars Picked Houses Based on Facebook Updates

From an article on yahoo finance by Nick Bilton.

If you plan to log into your Facebook account and announce to the world that you're heading to the beach for the weekend, you might want to append the status update with a warning that your home is under 24-hour surveillance, you have a 140-pound Rottweiler who hasn't eaten in a week and that you own a really good alarm system.

If you don't, you personal belongings could be fodder for some tech-savvy burglars.

According to New Hampshire's WMUR Channel 9 News, three local men, Mario Rojas, Leonardo Barroso and Victor Rodriguez, have burglarized more than 18 homes in the Nashua area of New Hampshire simply by checking status updates on Facebook and then pillaging houses of victims who announced on the social network that they were not home.

Police told the news outlet that they recovered between $100,000 and $200,000 worth of stolen property as a result of the investigation.

According to local police, investigators tracked down the burglars by listening for the sound of a specific kind of fireworks stolen from a home. When they heard it, they apprehended the suspects and their loot.

A Web site called Please Rob Me had noted when people informed the world they weren't home by their status updates and check-ins on some location-based social networks. But the site has since shut down, noting that the site's founders are "satisfied with the attention we've gotten for an issue that we deeply care about."

Ron Dickerson, captain of Nashua 's Police Department, told the local news that people need to "Be careful of what you post on these social networking sites."