Good And Bad Of 24 Hour Home Surveillance

In 2014 security cameras are just about everywhere.  In fact, you are likely to be filmed more times during the course of a regular day than you probably realize.  Aside from protecting highways or even businesses, security cameras are a great way to look over the home since not all of us can be there 24 hours a day.  Granted that a security camera system cannot prevent thieves from taking valuables, however it can catch them in the act and make it a lot easier for authorities to catch them.

What a lot of people do not know if that security camera systems are not always fool-proof.  Many people believe that their own personal setup will act as a gateway into their home that will ultimately be for their eyes only.  Unfortunately, that is far from the truth. Anytime you put something on the internet you leave yourself venerable to hackers.  Take for example the case of a family who's baby monitor was gained access by a hacker back in 2013.

So in reality, who is to say that having a security camera in your home is actually productive?  Despite the risk, many people around the world are still putting their camera feeds on the internet virtually unaware of the dangers.  If a private video feed that is supposed to give a homeowner piece of mind is accessed, wouldn’t this make potential burglars job easier since they have an idea of what is in the home?

Regardless, there are pros and cons to the entire thing.  This is something that I have been thinking of doing.  However after hearing about horror stories of people accessing private video feeds, I am thinking it might be better if I simply have security cameras outside my home versus inside and focused on valuables that I want to protect.

Beware Of Hackers

Fairly recently I had a terrible realization.  For several weeks I have been plugging away giving away massive details about my upcoming home automation project.  However what I did not take into consideration is the fact that I was setting myself up for a cyber attack.

Luckily for me, I have not decided on many aspects of my project and  many decisions on which direction to take are still up in the air.  For example, I am getting SmartThings, however I have also been looking into other hubs.  Just because I acquire the SmartThings hub does not mean I will keep it on a permanent basis.  This is just one of many examples.

Also lucky for me, I have not given away details of my future home security system.  I feel posting these details about my home security is not a good idea.  It is already bad enough that I have already publically declared my interest in home automation, however I am not going to allow that to deter me.  My main fear is to have someone invade my system.  This fear alone is why I have also decided that I will be encrypting my entire home setup.  Granted I am well aware anyone with some real skill behind a keyboard can find and access a system even behind an encryption.  That seems to always be a risk when doing anything regarding the internet. 

I guess this realization is the main reason as to why I haven’t been blogging as much.  I will still continue my project and gradually update my blog with details.  However it is safe to say that I will be much more aware when it comes to what I will share and what I will keep to myself.

2014 is basically here, this is going to be a great year.