I just received a report that car windows had been smashed in Heather Hills (11817 132nd Ave. Ct. E. and 13117 116th St. Ct. E.). The vandalism took place on the night of 22-23 July. One of the people reporting the vandalism said that she had noticed at least one other vehicle in the neighborhood with a tarp over the window.
I have written before about the need to be able to see events in every part of our Neighborhood. The unfortunate fact is that when things happen in places not covered by one of our cameras, we struggle to find the vehicles/persons involved, if we can find them at all. Several months ago one of the homes in the Neighborhood was broken into. The break-in was observed and using descriptions of the vehicle and the time the incident happened, we were able to pinpoint the vehicle and pass the information to the police. Unfortunately, since we did not have CCTV coverage which could place the vehicle at the home which was broken into, that was all we could do.
Since we put up cameras several years ago I have been asked many times to look for cars or people because of incidents which happened in areas where I know our CCTV coverage is non-existent. Much of the time the requester was unable to give me a reasonable time frame for the occurrence, and all I could do was plow through hours of pictures in the hopes that something would stand out. Most of the times it did not. Below is part of an article which I shamelessly copied. It addresses combatting crime in real-time because of professional minute to minute monitoring of a CCTV network, but it is also applicable to us because we can keep images for several weeks (longer for our Neighborhood Camera System). Therefore when something happens we can look back and check for any clues.
“There’s ample evidence that CCTVs combat more routine crime. According to a study by the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, when surveillance networks are installed and competently manned by trained personnel, they reduce many types of criminal activity by a significant margin, and they do so cost-effectively. After cameras were installed in downtown Baltimore in 2005, the study says, violent crime fell by 23 percent and all crime fell by 25 percent. In one area of Chicago, crime fell by 38 percent after CCTVs were installed. The study showed a smaller impact in other places—in Washington, D.C., for instance, researchers found that a surveillance system had no discernable impact on crime. But the reason for D.C.’s surveillance failure won’t please civil libertarians: Researchers argued that the cameras likely didn’t work because their use was too tightly regulated as a result of privacy fears. After getting input from the ACLU, D.C. instituted rules that severely limit who can look at the cameras and whom they can follow. The rules also prevent operators from saving surveillance footage routinely. In practice, the regulations mean that few people are monitoring D.C.’s cameras and responding to crimes that are caught on tape. The report suggests that if the rules were relaxed, the cameras might prove far more effective.”
In New Orleans there is a network of privately owned CCTV cameras which are registered with the police. When crime happens, the police check their registration for cameras in that area and send out a request for pictures. See:
http://www.wwltv.com/news/eyewitness/katiemoore/crimesurveillancealiveandwelldespitecitysdeadefforts-245454901.html . If the people in our Neighborhood whose cameras show the exterior of their house would register with Dav Eide or me, we could probably increase the coverage of our Neighborhood quite a bit.
While I’m on the subject of cameras, let me make some suggestions. If your CCTV system is over four years old, unless you bought a professional high definition system, it probably is time to think about replacing it. Look at your recordings, if you see only blurs where you can’t recognize people or vehicles, it is time to replace your system. The clarity of the cameras and recorders available today are much better than they were several years ago. If you do replace your aged system, let me hope that you decide to have a camera which looks out on any cars you park in your driveway, and another one which looks down the street. The cost for a municipality to place a camera on a pole is around $15,000 to $30,000, but it would cost only a couple of hundred dollars for an individual to add a camera to an existing set up. It would be great if one day we have the ability to track a vehicle from the time it enters our Neighborhood until it reaches its destination. That way if mischief happens, we can be on it as soon as it is reported.
Below is an article I copied from http://techpageone.dell.com/technology/xp-users-beware-hackers-are-targeting-you/#.U8lK5NyQx8E . I think it should be of inteest to people in our Neighborhood; especially those of you who are still using Windows XP.
Kirk Hall
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XP users beware: hackers are targeting you
The expected flurry of attacks following the end of XP support has yet to occur but that doesn’t mean users should put down their guard.
By Drew Robb – Tech Page One May 05 2014ShareShare on facebookShare on twitterShare on google_plusone_shareShare on linkedinShare on email
As of April 8, Microsoft stopped supporting XP. That has meant no more free security updates — though you can still get them if you are willing to pay a premium.
For a number of companies with thousands of XP desktops, the change has been costly. Just ask the IRS, which is going to be paying Microsoft millions each year to support its extensive XP user base.
Stu Sjouwerman, author of the book “Cyberheist,” says no massive attacks on XP systems have been spotted yet.
But it gets worse: Hackers had time to prepare for the April 8 deadline with a host of vulnerabilities that they can now exploit.
The expected volume of attacks has yet to occur but some may be yet to come. Cybersecurity experts say that organizations should remain vigilant.
“It’s actually been more quiet than expected, and no massive attacks have been spotted as of yet,” says Stu Sjouwerman, author of the book “Cyberheist,” and founder and CEO of security software and training firm KnowBe4.
“It looks like they are doing their testing now and laying the ground work for more extensive campaigns a little later,” he adds.
There are a couple of key attacks that users need to beware of. One is phishing emails, which are still surprisingly effective. The user gets an official looking message from someone claiming to represent Windows Helpdesk, Microsoft Tech Support, Windows Support Group or other Microsoft support teams. They offer an urgent update that requires the user to permit remote access to the scammer.
The alternate route is via cold calls from “Microsoft Support.” They scare the user about there being no more security patches for XP, and mention that new security holes have been discovered and that users need to manually apply a patch.
Those who fall for this con have handed over control of their PC workstation to cybercriminals who either use that base camp to hack into the entire network — or just hold user files hostage until a ransom is paid. Sjouwerman advises users to ignore such calls and emails completely. Microsoft never provides support in this fashion.
Some experts believe that a large volume of desktops will be vulnerable in coming months, and not just because many organizations were slow to adopt a new operating system. XP remains popular.
“There are still more XP systems in use today than there are Macs,” says Rob Cheng, CEO of PC PitStop.
Consider one East Coast publishing firm that hadn’t received any XP branded phishing attacks but received a number of bogus shipping emails that asked the recipients to click on a link to track an item. The organization’s accounting and circulation systems only run on XP. A number of financial services organizations face the same issue.
How can companies protect themselves?
Cybersecurity professionals advise users to at least download the most current XP update, and for those also running Microsoft Office, to keep it patched, too. Turn on the Windows Firewall, and turn on Microsoft Security Essentials. Install Secunia (free), which helps you keep the apps remaining in use on XP systems fully updated.
Tony Gauda, founder and CEO of ThinAir, a data security and storage company based in Palo Alto, Calif., raised concerns about XP users remaining on Internet Explorer. He explained that most attacks require network access of some kind to exploit a vulnerability.
“Upgrade to security focused Web browsers like Google Chrome and disable plug-ins and add-ons that are targeted often (like Java and Flash),” says Gauda.
Application-control white listing is another good idea. It locks down an XP box, only allowing known-good executables to run.
“XP users should take advantage of a white list rather than a black list as it gives a better layer of protection,” says Cheng.
Sjouwerman recommends isolating XP devices on separate networks with their own hardware firewalls. That prevents them from compromising new machines.
“Additionally, give XP users security awareness training so they don’t fall for phishing and other attack vectors,” he says.