How to Hack an ADT Alarm System

Burglargard looks pretty cool. But I'd definitely have to re-evaluate fire exits before I installed, the last thing I'd want is for the entire family to burn to death because I was trying to save a few thousand dollars in property which is insured and replaceable.

Door frames and window frames are a common source of intrusion, but if your frames are made out of wood then I don't know if the 6" screws are going to save you, the wood is often a source of failure rather than coming unscrewed. It just splinters away.

As to Havenlock: many back doors are slide, and can be bounced out of their runs. It might help on the few which are swing doors rather than slide (at least around here). I think the whole app thing is kind of dumb, it is just a wedge, and still requires drilling into the floor.

How well does Burglargard hold up at the edge of the window? Sure, I can imagine it would slow down even a burglar who knows it's there, but a few hits at the edge of the window seems like it would let the burglar peel the glass (held together by the film) away from the frame?

And literally all of this won't help if you leave your house and leave a door unlocked, which is the far more likely scenario - the one time we got robbed, that was exactly what happened.

Had we not left the door unlocked, chances are people wouldn't have tried a daylight robbery.

Reasonable security measures are also an important part of computing.

I do some work in personal protection inside and outside of the home and there are really quite a few simple things you can do to better protect your home from a break in or home invasion.

First, make sure you have a solid wood or metal door with a deadbolt. Second, reinforce all exterior door frames with door jamb armor, a large metal plate that covers your door jamb and 3 1/2 in screws that secure it into the frame. [1]

There's quite a few other window security films on the market. 3M is probably one of the best. [2]

You'll want to look into securing your glass to the window frame so it doesn't just pop the glass out in one piece. Some windows make that easy to happen and some secure the glass in pretty well. 3M has a few attachment systems that hold the glass in the frame. One easy option is a silicone sealant called Dow Corning 995. It's an incredibly strong silicone that bonds the security film to the window frame. [3]

And finally get a gun and learn how to use it. You can tell me how much you hate guns but when a insane machete-wielding man kicks in your front door, a phone in your hand dialing 911 is not going to stop him in time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bsAMSQ13bY

[1] http://armorconcepts.com/EZ-Armor/

[2] http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Window_Film/Solu...

[3] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000L00N0Q/ref=oh_aui_searc...

On the first page of the class action, "ADT's wireless signals are unencrypted and unauthenticated, and can easily be intercepted and interfered with by unauthorized third parties"

I think rolling your own ZigBee security system is more safe (and cheaper).

To defend alarm systems a bit here, not all burglars are that sophisticated (so it's not trivial). As a teenager I came home from school after a break-in and the novice burglars had scurried off on account of the alarm system and had barely taken a thing.

I think if the alarm isn't able to communicate (through wired means or otherwise) with its sensors or its back end for a suitable period of time, it should be functionally equivalent to detecting a break in. That is; the alarm should sound, and the alarm company should call the cops (it'd have to be pretty difficult to accidentally lose contact, however.)

The entire point of an alarm is it goes off if something bad happens; not being able to go off is a bad thing.

People said the exact same thing about RF car fobs years ago. It is only a matter of time before the technology comes down in price and the software for doing this type of thing becomes more common. Never say never.

> While I think this sort of research is useful- I dont think this is anything that will affect people in real life.

Minus the part where ADT is having to defend themselves against a class action suit. I'd consider that "real life".

Well I think there's a lot more places that someone would do something like this. Like a country club that is full of valuables could be a big target, especially if there are a lot of trophies or sports equipment.

They might be willing to invest the time and money to become proficient at this attack, if they believe they'll be able to use it on several high-value heists -- think jewelry shops or museums, if you knock over a handful of those without causing a fuss you could make many times your investment.

Almost none of these are true for where I currently live, the only thing lacking, which it pretty much has to given the reality of invoking the police on wild goose chases, is action beyond the building when the phone line goes down. But in that case the local alarm most certainly goes off ... but not very often at all! AT&T at least here is near rock solid.

Do you think insurance companies would give discounts unless the benefits were per their actuaries real?

I'm sure the sign does a lot of good, but it's just part of a system of defense in depth which starts there (or perhaps not living in a bad neighborhood).

The first can be countered with a system that uses mobile as a primary or backup.

Some systems, e.g. alarm.com ones send a signal to the monitoring centre when an entry door is opened, then if no disarm signal is sent (e.g. the control panel was destroyed), they treat that as an alarm and dispatch police. It's also possible and done by some companies to hide the main control panel somewhere unobtrusive (and mute its speakers) and just place a remote panel by entry points as well as a remote speaker.

As for upstairs, that's people being foolish. Myself, I would never accept one that didn't protect upstairs entry points just to save a little bit of money. As they say, a fool and his money^H^H^H^H^Hsecurity are soon parted.

That's why relying on a single link for anything is a bad idea - if a system is known to use a landline, it's trivial, especially as in most parts of the US phone lines are aboveground, to cut the phone line before breaking in.

However, something like the HackRF can - and while not cheap (~$300), it's still accessible.

Another important detail, If you're just flooding a certain frequency you do not need an SDR to transmit, you can easily build a cheap $5 transmitter for that frequency.

For houses with lots of windows and bigger pets, one of the more ubiquitous sensors is the acoustic glass break sensor. You only need to jam that one for a few seconds to get in.

Ease of installation, primarily.

Inexpensive installation in already constructed homes.

If the systems used wires installation would become a much longer and more expensive process for existing houses. The installers would have to run wires from all over the house to the central box which in many houses would require cutting into the walls.

While everyone is saying ease of install, and its true, its not really that hard to hardwire a system in most houses. In fact, my previous house was hardwired by a central security group contractor in about 3 hours for nothing more than a 3 year monitoring contract (@~$20 a month, 6 years ago). Sure I didn't get sensors in all my windows, but I did get them in the doors, along with motion sensors that covered 90% of the square footage of the house, monitored smoke detectors, garage door controllers, and a bunch of other crap.

Probably close to $500 worth of DSC hardware.

Alarm monitoring is like printing money. The fact that ADT charges as much as they do, and installs such a craptasic system has always amazed me.