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The perfect burglar alarm? Technology but not only. The new tricks to protect your home from thieves

Alarms via app, webcam, remote-controlled locks and artificial intelligence. But to really raise the security threshold you need attention, a little imagination and a few tricks.

The perfect burglar alarm? Technology but not only. The new tricks to protect your home from thieves

Beware of trusting only in technology, in the alarm system presented as miraculous, perhaps connected 24 hours a day with the police. Security, real or presumed, has a thousand weaknesses. The professional burglars know more than we do. And we too often remain anchored to the rudiments of a world that was: the “inviolable” European lock that already a couple of decades ago gave way to the so-called “Bulgarian keys” that adapt to everything, the “armored” grates on the windows that give way miserably in less than two minutes under the blows of the new portable battery-powered blenders with diamond blades that bite everything and make little noise, the “very safe” cord sensors on the windows neutralized with a wire inserted in the upper part of the roller shutter.

How to raise the our defenses without attacking our wallet, without too many complications, maybe resorting to do-it-yourself both in the equipment and in our behavior? Yes, the behavior. Decisive since always, even more decisive today with the advancement of technologies. Those in our hands, but also – let us never forget – of the thief who attacks us.

The vast world of the Web is full of advice, guides, tutorials, proposals. Much of it has a commercial flavor. Something it is useful. But what has already been said and heard prevails. We will not make the same mistake.
We appreciate, of course, what our law enforcement agencies strongly recommend: the Police, the Carabinieri. We want to add something new. Some providential additions to what we already know and to the anti-theft equipment we already have, to integrate and boosts up our defense system. This is valid for our home, but also for the office, the laboratory, the shop. In short, a few more tricks. And even a few alternative to “classic” and expensive anti-theft devices.

The phone no. Better the cell phone and apps

If we have an old alarm system of those that "talk" to us and alert us through the old home telephone line, it is time to scrap it, replace it. Or perhaps integrate it, saving the basic components, with a latest generation system. Call for applications to the landline which can be easily interrupted and isolated. The latest generation alarm systems work with the same principles, but rely on two providential innovations: the most recent sensors (microwaves, contacts, laser beams for terraces and external parts) are managed with advanced algorithms, close relatives of artificial intelligence, which reduce the possibility of false alarms to a minimum and can even discriminate between the passage of, for example, an animal (this is especially true for external sensors) and a genuine intruder.

The second novelty concerns the permanent connection with us. Instead of the traditional telephone line, here is the smartphone and the relative App, with many other safety margins compared to using the voice and the keypad through the landline. The alarm control unit is connected to our home Wi-Fi, but it has its own SIM that acts as an automatic backup: we turn off, turn on, exclude and insert the zones. And maybe with the same system and the same app we also control the webcams that we place in the house to see everything, whenever we want and everywhere.

Webcam with motion sensor. Excellent and cheap

Speaking of webcams. The latest generation ones, which can be connected with extreme simplicity to our home Wi-Fi, offer a powerful additional function to our alarm system at a very low price (less than 50 euros per unit), or they can even replace it, perhaps while waiting to equip ourselves with a “complete” system. We are talking about “motion detection”, or the ability of the webcam to activate, record and perhaps automatically send images in real time if something moves within the range of the lens. A function that in the best models can be activated and deactivated in an instant, even associating multiple cameras in a “scenario” preset.

Doors and windows: let's modernise those too

The armored post with its safety lock, the windows with the usual anti-intrusion contacts or the cord and reel sensors. Today there is better, much better. The mechanical and magnetic sensors on the windows have had their day: they are easily surmountable by a not-so-expert thief. Let's rely instead on mini microwave or laser beam sensors, which are infinitely safer even in their wireless version.

The lock must be chosen carefully. Better if it is smart

There is little to say about the armored door. It is indispensable. If possible, we choose the one with the certificazione security with the highest code. The critical point is, and remains, the lock. Which has two weaknesses, one obvious and one hidden. The obvious one is in its structural resistance to attacks. A standard European cylinder costs a few dozen euros but can easily be attacked by a professional thief equipped with not too complicated tools. The less sophisticated cylinder-lock gives way after a few hammer blows on a special blade inserted in the key hole, or with the use of mechanical adapters that in a few seconds can simulate the original key. Those with a degree of security higher they can cost even 200 euros and more. It is still worth it. But here is the hidden weakness of our lock, or rather its multiple weaknesses.

Are there many copies of keys around? To the relative, to the neighbor, to the housekeeper, to the doorman. Good, or rather bad. Each of the custodians is in turn exposed like us to the theft of the key, to loss, to theft. Here is the solution: the electronic lock. The one we recommend definitely does not involve the complete replacement of the mechanism with expensive modifications to the door. Modifications that also risk making the potential thief identify the type and any weaknesses of the super-lock that we install.

Better a device from mount internally, with simplicity, even by yourself, which acts as an actuator for the key inserted inside with an electric motor, controlled (this is the type we recommend) both remotely via Wi-Fi whether we are in front of the door or with Wi-Fi or even with a direct connection Bluetooth. We can find a good model that meets these characteristics in a specialized shop or by browsing the main e-commerce sites.

At that point it will be enough to use the codes that we preset, which we can change at any time, to temporarily or permanently give our virtual key to whoever we want, naturally using it ourselves with the care of having a physical key available to open the door in case of malfunctions of the lock or the connection.

The solution of the electronic keypad with numeric combination to be placed outside the door? From avoid. Too many clues and too much information for the attacker. With the smartphone we really do everything. If anything, let's put an emergency keypad inside the house, in case of malfunctions of our cell phone or the App.

Better a “filter” to call the police

We have examined the criteria and alchemies of our alarm system. Question: is it worth connecting it directly to the police? We can do without it. Better to stay alert, perhaps by configuring the connection via app also on the smartphone of a relative, a friend, a condominium member. So as to have good emergency coverage. We or someone on our behalf will eventually notify the Police or the Carabinieri, thus avoiding possible embarrassments (as well as the problems) of an automatic mobilization of the police forces in the (remote, as we said) case of a false alarm or in the (less remote) case of an error in the maneuver of the insertion or insertion sequences on our part.

Alarm even when we are there. And a life-saving phone

Set the alarm when we leave home and there is no one there? Woe betide us if we do only this. statistics and common sense teaches us: most thefts that have serious consequences happen when someone is at home, at night (but not only). Thieves know very well that this is the best opportunity: people sleeping at home, goods at home, alarm maybe turned off, lots of time to act in secret. The alarm set in "perimeter" configuration (external sensors, on windows and entrance doors activated, internal motion sensors deactivated) is a absolute obligation when we go to sleep: let's always remember it.

Are we being attacked when we are at home? The active alarm will give us much more margin to neutralize the threat. The evildoer does not give up (rare case)? A piece of advice: let's keep our cell phone within reach, in the same room but perhaps not on the bedside table (any risk of the harmfulness of electromagnetic waves becomes truly irrelevant if we maintain a distance of at least two meters) and let's preset a button speed dial 112, the single national number for emergencies. In any situation of immediate need or, worse, panic we will have a providential direct channel to the police.

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