

Security by obscurity: The No Lock People - jcdreads
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/garden/14nolock.html

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pistoriusp
It's not so much the crime of theft that bother's me. If I'm not in the house
and my apartment is ransacked, whilst not ideal, is not really a problem.

My main concern is for the safety of my girlfriend and myself.

[EDIT] I just wanted to point out some of the security measures that I have in
my home (In South Africa).

1) I live in a walled off (3m walls) estate with permanent patrolling guards.
2) The walls have an alarmed and electrified fence on top of them, (about 1m
in addition to the 3m wall). 3) Entrance to the estate is controlled via a
single guarded entrance. 4) The entrance has camera's. 5) I live in a 3rd
floor apartment with a balcony, the only way to the access the balcony is to
climb two stories.) 6) The door to my apartment has a security gate.

That been said; my neighbor on the 3rd floor was robbed. A ninja, I presume,
climbed to the third floor and stole his wallet and mobile phone.

His girlfriend woke up with the criminal standing in his bedroom, she
screamed, he chased and the criminal jumped the 3 stories to the bottom floor
and GOT AWAY!

After that incident I installed a security gate on my balcony.

~~~
jacquesm
That does not seem to be a fun place to live. It almost sounds like a
voluntary prison sentence.

~~~
pistoriusp
Yup. Everyone lives in tiny cages and the result is that we've lost, or are
loosing, our sense of community.

I want to outline part of the reasons why we choose to live in "voluntary
prisons." I, thankfully, at age 26 have never been a victim of crime - But I
do know several people that have not been as lucky:

* My friend's cousin was stabbed in a shopping mall in the gaming arcade! He unfortunately didn't make it.

* The same friend's grandmother was strangled to death in her bed - The criminal stole her car.

* My previous boss had a "home invasion," this is one of those terms that tries to soften the reality of such a situation. 4 armed criminals entered her house. They hit her husband over the head with a bottle and tied him and her up in the living room. After awhile they untied her and made her walk into each room. (She wasn't raped, but apparently the gauged her reactions to each room to figure out if she had hidden anything of value in said room.) Before they left the house that defecated and urinated on the living room carpet.

* A friend's parent's owns a hotel - He went to the bank to draw wages for his workers (Most are paid in cash, because they don't have bank accounts.) He was followed from the bank and 2 guys criminals entered his property with 9mm hand guns - He gave them his entire staff's wages.

To get a first hand account of some of the things that go on here I would
recommend watching a documentary about the South African Special Task Force. I
believe it's from 1999.

It's 3 x 60 minute episodes.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQSndb1DcqY>

I know I'm painting a fairly bleak picture of South Africa - It's a remarkable
and truly beautiful place with amazing people (Minus the criminals.) It's just
this fucking crime that's making it a horrible place to live.

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jacquesm
I'm sorry to hear it is that bad. Is the trend worsening or improving ?

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pistoriusp
I think it's improving. :)

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mseebach
Around here, number one thing insurance checks is whether there's evidence of
a break-in. If thieves walk in through an unlocked door, you're not covered. I
don't lock my door to keep thieves out, I lock my door to make sure insurance
gives me a new laptop if someone happens to break in.

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jhgfgbhn
And you use an unpickable Modeco door lock? You changed the lock yourself to
make sure that no previous tenants or a janitor have a key?

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modoc
You're missing the point about the insurance company.

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jhgfgbhn
The point is that the insurance company can claim this but it wouldn't stand
up in court. They would have to demonstrate that it an unbroken door proves
negligence on your part - which would mean demonstrating that it is impossible
for a thief to get past the lock otherwise.

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evgen
No, they can simply deny your claim and then the burden of proof is on you to
prove that you locked your door and the thief gained entry by picking the
lock. Remember, in any dispute the person who wants the money is the one who
has to prove their claims.

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jacquesm
I lived in Amsterdam and drove an old car (Citroen DS). It was pretty beaten
up but still a classic and parts were pretty expensive.

The locks were pretty bad, you could lock the doors but a screwdriver would be
enough to open them so they didn't provide much security.

One day the glass on the passenger side front window was smashed in, but there
was nothing in the car so that was an expensive fix.

After that I left the doors unlocked, worked for years.

Every now and then I'd find a door open in the morning but no more smashed
windows. The car was very tricky to start (with the gearshift lever) so they
never managed to steal it.

In the winter a homeless person would sometimes sleep in it, we sort of had an
understanding that if he didn't mess it up I was ok with him using my car as
his base.

Interesting town, Amsterdam :)

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tptacek
I don't lock my car or my garage for this reason. None of the security on my
car does anything to stop a cinderblock, and that's the likely attack vector.
I live on the border of the west side of Chicago --- a very high-crime area
--- and garages and cars are busted into all the time.

A couple times it's been clear that someone had been in the car. But I've
never had my garage door and car windows destroyed.

~~~
jacquesm
> None of the security on my car does anything to stop a cinderblock, and
> that's the likely attack vector.

I think your profession is shining through there ;)

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po
So… Joyce Weisshappel, where was it that you say you live? Hope the people in
your building don't read the Times.

I lived in Brooklyn for 5 years on the border between some sketchy
neighborhoods and some very nice areas. On my last day before moving to Tokyo,
my car was broken into. I had always been careful not to leave anything of
value inside the car, but on the last day I was tired from moving and had
parked in the nice neighborhood, so I wasn't as vigilant.

I think this article says more about New Yorkers living relatively disposable
lives. Many New Yorkers move every few years, and sell off their valuables
(rent money!) and lead minimal lives.

The other half live in secure buildings and pay piles of money for maintenance
fees and doorman tips. I don't know if I can count that as not locking the
door.

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sophacles
Oh man. I've been noticing this divide for a long time now. Im a sorta-lock
person. Im not opposed to locking stuff, but I don't go out of my way for it.
I used to lock much less, when I had roomates -- convenience really. I don't
lock up my bike either, when I'm at the coffee shop or bakery or whatever
anyway. My garage is never locked. I live in a "bad" neighborhood and have yet
to be robbed. Some say it is only a matter of time, but statistically this is
unlikely.

This area seems to contain the best anecdotal evidence for something like
karma too. Seems those who are most fearful, and super lock everything also
get robbed a lot. Those who don't worry about it don't get robbed as often.

Anyway I think its funny that the people who are afraid of robberies and
"double lock" and "tripple lock" talk about how its "inevitable" they will get
robbed, and that it makes "common sense" that the extra locking is required.
Of course if that was so true, the number of "no-locks" reporting 0 robberies
would be way fewer. Seems that there is a huge amount of fear manipulation
happening in the lock industry.

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cdr
When I was in college, I never locked my POS car because I figured there was
nothing worth taking in it. One night some kids got in it and took everything
that wasn't nailed down - absolutely nothing worth anything to anyone else,
but stuff that cost me a lot of time and irritation.

I always lock my car now, and I wouldn't ever fail to lock my house either.
Not putting up that minimum barrier is just foolhardy.

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scotty79
Car lock can be easily destroyed. Locking your car when you have nothing
valuable inside may cost you the lock. That was in the case of my friend. Also
possibly window if interested party has just a stone on him.

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cdr
Maybe. In my case, it would have definitely made the miscreants move on to the
next car. At least if the offender breaks something, insurance will pay for it
(if you have insurance), and you have something concrete to file a police
report on.

~~~
scotty79
Insurance will pay and raise your insurance premium because you become higher
risk person.

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mootothemax
Theft and burglary are, in the vast majority of cases, crimes of opportunity.
That's the only point I can think of that favours locking one's door.
Otherwise, if you have something someone really, really wants to steal,
they'll find a way. Bit like IT security ;)

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pvg
Should have probably left the original title alone since the article has just
about nothing to do with 'Security through obscurity'. The whole thing is a
bit over the place to begin with as it throws some very different kinds people
- people who are well-off enough to have security staff instead of locks,
people who just don't believe they're in significant danger of being
burglarized, etc - under one facile heading.

~~~
sophacles
I think that there is an intersting divide here, that meshes nicely to
"lock/no-lock", which is mostly attitude/fear based. The no-lock is: "meh, its
not worth worrying that much about" and the lock is: "i must lock my doors, im
afraid of being robbed".

Personally I feel locking is partly a totemic ritual, involving more magical
thinking than people are willing to admit about it. Seriously ask people why
they lock the doors when they have a giant window right next to it, and they
say "its safer" and "it keeps out the burglars". Point out the window, and
they say "it just works ok".

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idlewords
The purpose of locking doors where I live, at least (San Francisco) is to
prevent street people from coming in and sleeping in your hallway, and protect
your stuff against petty theft by fairly desperate people who will try
doorknobs looking for stuff they can quickly grab. Locks are quite practical
solutions for both problems.

~~~
sophacles
Fair enough. In the places I have lived (a fairly affluent suburb of Chiacago,
and a college town in the middle of nowhere), the hysterical response is very
common, probably because there is no practical side to it -- people who want
in will break in anyway and mostly everyone else keeps out. Sure there is the
occasional drunk college kid who is somehow lost and crashes on the wrong
couch, but they are mostly harmless, and very appreciative when you don't call
the cops.

~~~
idlewords
Location, location, location!

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bonsaitree
I guarantee none of these "No Lock" people have bothered to read the fine
print of their insurance policies and they don't own firearms.

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actf
I'm not sure I understand the point of the article. Security through obscurity
does work in the sense that it decreases crimes of opportunity (I'm sure this
is true even in the world of IT). Obviously it doesn't prevent someone who is
motivated from getting in, but I don't think any reasonable person would
suggest that it does. Does having a lock on something decrease your chance of
having it stolen? I think the answer is: Absolutely, yes.

If you don't believe that security through obscurity is effective the
following experiment should easily be able to confirm this: Place a couple of
expensive bikes propped up on the street in random locations around town. A
day later repeat the experiment, this time putting a lock on the bikes. Now
I'm pretty sure no one is actually going to perform this test, precisely
because the outcome is so obvious.

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makmanalp
In computer security circles (AFAIK) security by obscurity is not security.
You always assume that the attacker has your source code, the layout of your
computers etc. If you translate that over to this, you assume that thieves
know that your door is unlocked and you have valuables. It would be a no-no.

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og1
I lock everything. Is it that inconvenient to do? I know a lot of people that
don't lock their stuff and I really don't understand why. But I guess my stuff
is safer with other people leaving their property unlocked. Given a burglary
it will be much easier to steal other peoples stuff than mine. It's like the
joke, Q: How do you escape a wild animal? A: Be faster than the slowest person
in the group.

~~~
sophacles
Im not so sure: a crappy easily broken lock suggests more value than unlocked.
Further question: are your people who don't lock stuff constantly being ripped
off?

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brk
I'm somewhat in the middle.

We always lock the doors at night, not because I think it will stop someone
who really wants to get in the house, but because it will act as enough of a
delay and noisemaker for me to grab a weapon and stash the wife and dogs in
the closet. Actually, probably just the dogs, the wife is pretty handy with a
gun.

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archon
This is exactly why I lock my doors and use a door chain. If they wanted to
get in, they'd make enough noise to wake me and everyone else in the house up.
Hopefully it would give me enough time to wake up and get to my gun.

If I didn't live in an apartment, I'd install an alarm system for the same
reason.

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forinti
My dad is the only one in his block who does not have a security system and is
also the only one whose house has not been broken into.

Edit: Ooops, forgot to add that I think it's simply because he doesn't call
attention to his house. If he doesn't need protection, then maybe he doesn't
have anything of value, right?

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e40
On my block, the only two houses without alarms were the ones hit. (They both
got alarms and no one has been hit since.)

As someone else said, this type of crime is one of opportunity, usually. It's
easier to burgle a place without an alarm, so often that's what happens.

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obiefernandez
There is a middle ground. My condo has a coded lock and takes four digits to
get in. Lots of my friends and colleagues have the code, as does the doorman,
cleaning service, etc. Never had a problem.

