Thinking Like a Criminal
Thinking like a Criminal: Holiday Security Tips
Santa enters via the chimney. If someone is kicking in a door or smashing a window, it ain’t Santa. Might be the Krampus, mind you, but I still wouldn’t want him in my house. Is it any wonder why home invasions, robberies, and theft go up during the holidays? People are getting all kinds of new things. There’s packages left on door stops. There’s cards in the mailbox filled with cash. It’s easy pickings for your average criminal. It’s also amazing how stupefyingly naive the average person gets during this time of year. As I drive around, I am awestruck by how some people are just opening themselves up for trouble. Most might as well leave their door unlocked with a big neon sign saying “HEY! COME ON IN! i’VE GOT SOME AWESOME STUFF FOR YOU TO STEAL!”
First off, I see a lot of people who integrate their tree into their outside decorations. They put it and the presents right by a big front window with the curtains open. Now, I admit it’s very difficult to tell what’s in a wrapped present. There are some obvious ones, however. Giant, thin 40+ rectangle? Probably a flat screen. Three inch by three inch tiny box? Jewelry. If you don’t think the people who would break in and grab presents don’t have a good idea what box sizes game systems and such come in you’re fooling yourself.
Regardless, with that tree right by the window, it’s a quick smash and grab. Two or three people could empty it out far faster than you would think. Depending on the layout of your house, they could have most of your stuff grabbed and be peeling out of your yard by the time you even make it to the room with the tree.
Easiest solution here: don’t decorate like that! Keep the presents and the tree out of easy sight. I wouldn’t even recommend putting the presents under the tree until the last minute.
Speaking of decorations, having a timer on your outside lights goes a surprisingly long way. You see, if you turn out your lights manually whenever you go to bed, you’re announcing to the world that your guard is down. Having a timer makes it harder to tell when everyone in your house has gone to sleep. Ideally, if you don’t mind the extra electric bill, leaving them on all night is the way to go. It illuminates your yard and house far better and would make it easier for a passerby to notice something suspicious.
If you want to send money to someone, try not to make it an obvious Christmas card. I’ll admit, I haven’t quite figured that one out yet. I’m open to suggestions in the comments below or on Facebook. Heck, there’s always Bitcoin if you want to send cash! As far as packages on your doorstop, the only way to avoid that one is to either be home when they’re delivered by opting for Saturday delivery or opting to pick up the packages yourself from your local distribution center. You can ask UPS and FedEx to hold your shipments at their offices and then you can just go get them from there. Now, that might now be entirely feasable depending on your location but it’s still an option, especially if you’re getting a high dollar item delivered. The other option is to have a trusted neighbor grab them off your doorstep for you.
One other thing I’m seeing is crooks using social media to their advantage. It doesn’t matter how locked down your Facebook profile is, don’t talk about the big trip you’re planning any more than you have to. Your immediate friends might be trustworthy. What about your friends’ friends? You post “going up to my family in [NextStateOver] for a week.” All your friends now know that you’ll be going out of town. Then, one of your friends is talking to a less than reputable friend. The person you don’t know is talking about how they wish they could go out of town. Your friend mentions “I know what you mean. A bunch of my friends like [X], [Y], and [YOU] will be gone for a week.” Less-than-reputable now knows 3 people whose houses will be empty. Think it’s a stretch? A good friend of mine had the exact same scenario happen earlier this year. We’re all excited (or dreading) our holiday travels but this time of year is the worst time to be letting the world know about them.
Finally, and I say this every year: don’t just put your boxes out by the curb on trash day. Cut them up and put them in trash bags or just take them to the dump or a recycling center yourself. Otherwise, you’re telling everyone who passes by what brand new, shiny and valuable items are sitting in your house. As a bonus, your also telling people that they work because if you had to return them, you probably wouldn’t be throwing out the boxes. I tell everyone I know. I tell neighbors (at least the ones I like). I will still see a neighborhood full of boxes the day after Christmas. I’m thinking of making some flyers up for next year.
Stay safe, stay secure, and have a Merry Christmas (or Hanukkah) and a happy New Year.
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Getting the Heck out of Dodge: Dealing With and Surviving a Riot.
Ask any expert: society is fragile. It doesn’t take much for it to collapse and when it does, it’s not pretty. Law and order go out the window while bricks and trashcans go through windows. Civility is replaced by rage. Humanity is replaced by something else…something feral. There is no reasoning at this point, there is only survival. When the riots broke out up in Ferguson, I started to wonder what I would do if it happened here. How would I handle it? Where would I go? I’ve been researching for the last few days and I’ve noticed some major trends in advice.
First off, the best bit of advice is to avoid being near a riot before it even starts. Don’t let anyone tell you that a riot just pops up out of nowhere. You’ll never be walking to your car after shopping at the mall when a riot just jumps out of the bushes and says “booga booga I’m a riot!” There are always signs leading up to one even though it may only be a couple hours worth of leadup as opposed to days like in Ferguson. It may be a protest going on and on or a crowd at a sports game getting a bit unruly. If you keep your head on a swivel, like you always should, the signs are there loooong before one actually happens. It’s like building clouds on a summer day. You look at the sky and it goes from blue to cloudy to anvil clouds to darkened skies and eventually the storm is unleashed. Sometimes, even though it gets dark and nasty looking, the rain that follows isn’t as bad as it looked. Sometimes the clouds will disappear before any rain falls. Other times it’s a borderline hurricane with lightning, hail and tornadoes. Learn to watch for those metaphorical clouds. It doesn’t always guarantee a riot but I wouldn’t go swimming if the sky looks that dark that’s for sure.
So let’s say that, for whatever reason, you find yourself with a riot on your hands. There’s a couple different situations you could find yourself in and, though they’re handled essentially the same way, there’s a few slight differences in how they should be handled.
The ideal situation is one where you live safely outside of town and the riot is just between you and your home. In that case, take the long way home. Don’t try to even shortcut near the riot or just give it a slightly wide berth. Circle as far away from it as feasibly possible. Even if it takes 2 or 3 hours to get home, it’s worth the extra miles on your car.
Second worst situation is if you live safely outside of town but you’re in the middle of the riot when it breaks out. This is where things get a bit dicey. Your goal is, first and foremost, survive and stay safe. Secondly, you should try to get out of the middle of things. This can be a lot more difficult than it would seem. In most cases, the police will try to set up a perimeter to contain the violence. Even if you have nothing to do with the riot, you’re probably not going to get through. The police aren’t going to listen to your pleas any more than the rioters will. You’re either going to have to find another way out or weather the storm however you can. The bright side is that the police will be focused on where the heaviest rioting is. Head in the opposite direction and you may find a way out. You may be going quite a long way on foot so I hope you’re wearing comfortable shoes.
The worst situation is if your home is right in the middle of the riots. Here, you don’t have a sanctuary to go to and you’re probably not going to have any way out either. You’re likely going to need to hole up and fortify. The biggest reason this is the worst is because you’re most likely to be completely separated from your family for a long time in this situation, at least more so than in the other scenarios. Your kid may be at school, your husband or wife may be at work. They will be stuck there because there is no safe place waiting for them at home. The school certainly isn’t going to drop your kid off in the middle of the craziness. Make arrangements for a friend or family member who doesn’t live in the middle of things to pick up your kid(s) and take them somewhere safe. If the spouse is at work, make sure they stay there or again, someplace safe. It’s going to eat at you not to have everyone there where you know what’s going on but if they’re someplace safe they need to stay there. That’s more important than being together in this case.
Now, there are some consistent bit of advice across the board that you should follow. The biggest rule of them all is:
Stay Calm – It’s very easy to get freaked out because, frankly, everyone around you is freaking out. No one is going to listen to reason so don’t bother. Just keep your head about you and keep thinking and analyzing your situation and surroundings. If you’re with your family, keep them close and keep them calm as well. Don’t get separated. Lock arms or carry them if you have to.
Don’t Draw Attention to Yourself – Calmly (but briskly) walk to a safe place. Try to blend in as best as you can. No one is looking at you. Look for a less crowded area and make a beeline for it. Rioters tend to group together so get on the edge of that group and get away.
Stay Out of It – Smashing cars and stealing flat screen TV’s make look like fun but don’t give it a try. If you want to stay safe, don’t join in. Even if you sympathize with the rioters, your primary concern should be yourself and your family.
Being Selfish is Being Smart – This one hurts to say but now is not the time to be a hero. If you see someone getting assaulted or what have you, ignore it. I know it would gnaw at my conscience for a long time afterwards if I did that but my family is more important and I can’t protect them if I’m injured or dead. My family is my biggest concern and, even if it means leaving a stranger in trouble, I will do what I have to in order to get to them and protect them. Stepping in to help someone will draw far too much attention to yourself. I feel rotten for even typing this, mind you, but we have to do what we have to do.
Watch Your Feet – Keeping upright and walking is of utmost importance. If you trip and fall amidst the crowd, you will get trampled. If you do fall, go fetal and protect your head with your arms and hope for the best. The ideal situation, believe it or not, is if a bunch of people trip and fall on you. This will cause the crowd to instinctively avoid the pile of people and it could result in some breathing room for you to get back on your feet and moving again.
Backstreet’s Back, Alright – If they’re rioting in the streets, which they always are, they stick to main roads. Places where you’d normally get stuck in traffic is where they’ll be rioting. Now’s the time to see the less visited places of your town/city. The alleyways and back roads will be significantly less crowded so head to those. Knowing the layout of the city, it goes without saying, it vitally important. How well do you know your city? Probably not as well as you should. Why not explore it more this weekend to get a handle on its layout beyond the main roads you always take?
Have Gun Will Travel Should Stay Hidden – If you’re one of the millions of CCW holders in the country, you’ve got a good advantage in most cases. A riot, believe it or not, is not a good place to have your gun out. Remember: you’re not dealing with rational people at this point. In most cases, a criminal will flee at the sight of a firearm. In riots, if there’s enough people around, they’ll charge right for you. Trust me, you don’t have enough bullets. The ideal situation is to get away from the crowd as quickly as possible. Once you’re safely away from the main riots, you may still encounter people taking advantage of the lawlessness. Then and only then should you consider drawing if there is no other choice. A group of 3 or 4 people are more likely to flee than a group of 30 or 40 rioters.
Have a Rally Point – If you’re all separated before the riot starts or, worst case scenario you’re separated in the middle of it, have a point to meet at. It could be your home which might be safely outside the violence, a relative’s house or even a landmark or park that you know is in a safe area. It’s best to have a main one and a couple of alternatives. Make sure you all know how to get to them before everything goes to crap because the middle of a riot is not the best time to be looking at a map.
In riots, much like in life, the cool and rational minds prevail. Stay alert and stay alive. Those with a plan have a natural advantage. Have a plan and stick to it.
Image Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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Can We Actually Learn Something From TV and Movies?
It’s pretty much cliche for firearm bloggers to write about how Hollywood gets stuff wrong. Heck, I’m guilty of it myself. Sometimes, you just get a bit of writers block and it’s just too dang easy to turn on a random action movie or TV show and pick apart a scene with a “Lulz…look how stoopid this guy is” type of attitude.
Now, I’m not saying Hollywood doesn’t deserve every bit of the criticism and more. They really do screw stuff up more often than not. We’re talking scopes on backwards, horrible trigger discipline, incorrect terminology and more. Don’t even get me started on their laughable grasp of basic physics.
Either way, this isn’t going to be a rip on Hollywood article. In fact, I’m issuing a moratorium on “how Hollywood gets it wrong” articles on this site.
Let’s talk about something you actually can learn from movies. Maybe not in the gun department, mind you, but hear me out. Continue reading
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Thinking Like a Criminal: Change your Key Code!
You’ve got a home alarm, one of those neat keypad things for your garage and a gun safe and they all have digital keypads. So when was the last time you changed your code? Every time you push one of those numbers, it affects the button you push. The plastic is worn down by a minute amount. The paint is worn off a tiny bit. Some of the oils from your finger is left on the button. After even a short period, the most commonly hit keys are going to be obvious. Continue reading
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Security Quick Tip: Hide your Boxes…
Christmas has come and gone and, hopefully, you got some good gifts. All my neighbors certainly did. As I drive down the road I know exactly who got PS3s, XBoxes, iPads, Computers and…ooo..that house got a really sweet 70″ flat screen!
How do I know this? Because they put their boxes out in front of their houses. Fortunately, I am a responsible and law abiding citizen. Others might not be.
Do yourself a favor: cut up your boxes and put them in trash bags. Better yet, take a few minutes and haul them to the dump yourself. Don’t make it any easier for a criminal than it already is.
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Thoughts on Aurora
I haven’t commented on the Aurora massacre here on this blog. There were too many different aspects of it, too many things about it that had to be digested. Watching the media coverage of the very predictable political fallout, particularly when it comes to gun rights, I am filled with contempt, not only for the shooter, whom I will never name here as notoriety is exactly what he wanted, but also for those who would so eagerly dance in the blood of the shooter’s victims as part of their ongoing crusade to strip millions of Americans of one of their inalienable human rights, the right of self defense. Continue reading
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TLaC: Safety Through Obscurity – Keeping Your Kids Safe…
I used to work as a network administrator for a very large insurance company. Now, net admins for insurance companies have a particularly stressful job due to something called HIPAA. I’m not going to get into the details of what that is because it’s boring as hell. The short of it: “If even the smallest bit of customer data gets leaked or stolen, we will end you. Signed, The Government.” Essentially, it was our job to protect our company from its own users. We were good at it too.
I had a particularly awesome manager as well. Once in awhile, he would walk into our area, staple a $20 to the poster board and say “social engineering time!” At that point, it was a contest to see who could get the most people in the call center to give up their login info or customer data by the end of the day using a set of guidelines (call from outside number, don’t say ____, etc etc). Basically, doing the things that any run of the mill hacker or identity thief would do. It was quality control. It was a test to see which of our call center people paid attention to that section in training that said “if you give out your login info or customer data to unauthorized/unverified people you will be fired on the spot with no warning.” You’d be surprised how many people didn’t pay attention to that. At the same time, there’s a reason I don’t have my insurance with that company.
Anyway, the thing I learned from my time there is that it doesn’t take much to convince someone you’re trustworthy. Often times, I could just take a quick trip to their MySpace page (Facebook wasn’t very popular yet at the time) while I was talking to them and I could glean enough info to convince them that I worked on the next floor up. Mentalists use similar techniques. You’d be surprised how much someone will tell you about themselves without realizing that they’ve told you. Even something as simple as a lucky guess on a personal detail can put the other person at ease enough to trust you with whatever info you want from them.
But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about today. I wanted to talk to you about keeping your children safe.
I constantly see these stickers that people put on the backs of their cars (almost always SUVs or Minivans). It’s a stick-figure diagram of that person’s family. I know you’ve seen them too. Have you ever really thought about them, though? Think about what they’re advertising to the world.
Let’s take a look at the example above. We can see that there are 4 members of the family plus 2 pets. The dad likes to build things, and the mother reads (or maybe works at a library?). The daughter plays soccer and the boy plays baseball. We don’t know the names of the parents but we do know the names of the kids and the pets. We also know the family’s last name.
Now imagine that some scumbag was watching a school and sees the young boy getting out of this car. The school day ends, he meets the kid leaving the school and says the following: “Hey, Peter! Your sister, Florence, was in a bad accident playing soccer and is at the hospital. Your dad asked me to check on Sebe and Tabby then pick you up and bring you to the hospital to meet them.”
Now imagine a kid’s thought process: “Well, I was always told not to talk to strangers but this guy knows my sister’s name and my pet’s names and my sister DOES play soccer. He must know our family pretty well!”
You’re probably sitting there thinking “my kid is smart enough to see through that”. I can tell you from my experience in IT that it has nothing to do with intelligence. Scams work on the brightest to the dimmest. It just depends on how convincing the scammer is and, believe me, they can be VERY convincing. If I were to have called up one of those customer service people with the equivalent amount of information above, I could get any information I needed from them with no problems at all. A kid isn’t going to fare much better. They still have an innocent and trusting view of the world.
So how do you protect them without destroying that innocent and trusting view of the world (before the world has the chance to do that for you)? For starters: scrape those damn stickers off your window. I know you’re proud of your family and you should be. Show that pride elsewhere. Even if you don’t have the names and hobbies on yours, enough information can be deduced from just a basic diagram. Do you really want to be saying “well, I know it makes it easier for someone to kidnap my child but I really like those stickers!”?
Also, and this is the big one, figure out a secret password. A word that you agree on as a family and that no one but your family would know. Something that wouldn’t be used in normal conversation but could be used as either an ok or a warning. If you ever do have to send someone to pick up your kid that your kid doesn’t know, tell them the password. Even police officers can convey the password. That way, your kid will know for sure that the person is legit. Instruct them never to go with someone that doesn’t know the password.
At the same time, if something is wrong, they should be taught that if you work it into a conversation in a specific way, it is a warning and they should run and call the police.
Ultimately, the concept of “stranger danger” is a good thing to teach. That concept falls apart when said stranger is really good at convincing people he’s not a stranger. Keeping your kids safe is a monumentally difficult task. Don’t make it easier for someone to endanger them.
Top image used under Creative Commons License from cometstarmoon.
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Thinking Like a Criminal: Surprise Visits…
“Know your enemy.”
That saying has been around, in one form or another, for as long as humans have been around. It is a valuable bit of advice to live by. Regardless of politics, religion, interests, and philosophies there is always a common enemy to us all: criminals. As long as there’s more than one person on the planet, there will always be the potential for someone to steal from or harm another and they will use any means they have available to do so.They were using rocks back in the stone age and they’ll probably be using some kind of laser beam device 1000 years in the future.
Now, having the means to protect yourself goes a long way but I never want to have to use my gun to defend myself and I know that pretty much every gun owner out there feels the same way. One of the best things we can do is make sure we never put ourselves in a situation where we would need to. Continue reading
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