Ring announces autonomous indoor security drone for $249

[Spud1]

I probably don't need to tell you this but just be careful with these things. And not for the "oh I can hack it" reasons people go on about (honestly, how pervasive are proper hacking skills or electrical engineering skills amongst the thief community? They put their XP into stealth, not intelligence). Obviously these things should really have a manual override and there's a real problem with very expensive electronics and very cheap back up locks.

I'd wait for them to be torn apart on Youtube before investing or only use as an internal extra layer of security.

Yeah - I have decent quality locks at the moment and would only want to replace with equivalent, or use one of the ones that fits over the top. Manual override is also important!

As you imply, locks are generally false security anyway - if a thief wants to get in, most locks are trivial to pick, or bump, or you just bypass it altogether anyway (window/patio door/frame or brute force etc). My main concern would be being locked out legitimately rather than anything else, but then i'd only want a smart lock on the front door anyway so should be ok!

You are right though, have to be very careful as some...like the Yale one which does work with UK doors, are just terrible quality lock mechanisms. There is a reason that one is permanently on discount of 50% or more.

[Hoonigan]

Personal Security Drone. Yes. Please.

We have one of their doorbells and find it very useful for multiple reasons. Very much excited for this launching in the UK.

[iworrall]

No. Just no.
Security cameras go on the outside of my house, not flying around inside it!

[Saracen999]

No. Just no.
Security cameras go on the outside of my house, not flying around inside it!

We have both. Inside ones are in selected areas, and (obviously) not in sensitive places, and are also both not obvious, and not net-connected.

My view is that any form of obvious security is a bit of a double-edged sword. It might deter casual thrives, might might also encourage more skilled scumbag to wonder quite what it so worth protecting?

So overt (and external) security is a tightrope walk. Beyond locking the place down like a bank, and I mean metal shutters and/or steel bars on windows, etc, nothing is going to keep really determined serious burglars out. But you can do enough to cause casual burglars to just pick an easier target. The obvious first step is GOOD doors and windows, and especially good locks. Sure, someone with skills can pick or bump, but your casual local scumbag? Probably not.

Decent doors, and door-frames, properly secured and mounted, will certainly defeat the local junkie looking for a few nickables for a fix. Ever tried kicking in even a reasonably heavy wooden door? Then imagine a wood-covered steel door, mounted on a properly secured solid steel frame. It isn't getting kicked in, and it'll seriously slow down a police MOE team with a 'key'. Disc-cutter? Sure, given some time, and willingness to make one hell of a noise.

Hidden internal cameras are, IMHO, about trying to evidence-gather, once scumbags are inside and hopefully believe they're less exposed than standing outside, trying to get in, and relax a bit. But as I won't ever give such cameras net access, you need secure lical storage, and it's about capture, not real-time viewing.

[ik9000]

The obvious first step is GOOD doors and windows, and especially good locks.
Decent doors, and door-frames, properly secured and mounted, will certainly defeat the local junkie looking for a few nickables for a fix. Ever tried kicking in even a reasonably heavy wooden door? Then imagine a wood-covered steel door, mounted on a properly secured solid steel frame. It isn't getting kicked in, and it'll seriously slow down a police MOE team with a 'key'. Disc-cutter? Sure, given some time, and willingness to make one hell of a noise.

what about one of these

[spacein_vader]

what about one of these

They're easily clogged with seamen.


Or so I've heard.

[philehidiot]

As above - most household locks in use in the UK within the last ten years are far from trivial to open. The tools required are one thing and the skill is another.

The simple fact is that if a criminal had the conscientous nature required to learn how to lock pick properly (and picking a real world lock in use, outside is a totally different case to lock picking as a hobby), they'd probably put that effort into learning a trade or something and earning wonga without the effort.

I have a box of old eurocylinders which have had a hard life and they're seriously hard to pick as they're so gummed up. Just a couple of security pins and you're golden in that scenario. The more important thing there is anti drill, snap protection and bump protection. I have a eurocylinder which cost me a tenner and it has all of these features. Adequate security these days is very affordable. Indeed when the cops visited for my FAC stuff, part of the security assessment was just "are these locks less than ten years old?" If you feel you might be a taarget for serious theives then yes, it is worth spending on the ABS locks with an interactive element and so on. But honestly, unless you think you're going to be targetted by real thieves or state actors, you're wasting your money. Most thieves will break a window and won't even care about your locks, unless they want to try and snap them.

Padlock security is a different matter. Masterlocks are terrible locks and are sold as high security. I recently demonstrated this to my father in law and taught him to rake his own masterlocks. Took less than ten seconds. Those 4 pin masterlocks are vulnerable to low skill attacks and he changed them out.

My advice is to go for disc detainer locks where possible as the skills and tools to pick these effectively are just not common and there are no simple raking attacks which will open these.

The electronic locks with manual backups I have seen so far are spending a quid or so on the backup. It isn't worth buying £100 of lock for the backup system to be vulnerable to a low skill attack. The best one I've seen so far has NAND for the PIN storage and power failures are deal with using a 9V battery to charge it briefly.

Security is in layers. Each layer should require a different set of tools and skills to defeat. That will make your opponent move onto something easier. Having a really expensive system with a trivial to defeat override is insane. It is also very, very common.

[Saracen999]

..... Having a really expensive system with a trivial to defeat override is insane. It is also very, very common.

And that, while no doubt utterly accurate, is seriously depressing. Not surprising, though.

[Gentle Viking]

semen fly thru a little door like that, a man sized man, he bang his head a lot until he learn to duck.

From a technical standpoint i am interested in seeing how cluttered a environment that little thing can navigate, looking at consumer drones navigation / tracking are hit and miss.

Most doors in Denmark you can still open with what here is named a bump key, this is a regular key with a pattern in it which you bump into the lock, but like a proper locksmiths lock "pistol" it also take some getting used to. ( i still have both )
Learning to pick the same locks are probably faster, i did it with the neighbors door last year after his smoke alarm had been howling for several hours in the evening.

When i was a parasite ( most forms of crime ) we never bothered with locks or doors.

[philehidiot]

Most doors in Denmark you can still open with what here is named a bump key, this is a regular key with a pattern in it which you bump into the lock, but like a proper locksmiths lock "pistol" it also take some getting used to. ( i still have both )
Learning to pick the same locks are probably faster, i did it with the neighbors door last year after his smoke alarm had been howling for several hours in the evening.

Pick gun like this??

The country in question really has a huge impact on the security. The US is terrible. I find it endlessly amusing when people go on about how they have a gun for intruders but have a flimsy wooden framed door with a slippable latch and a lock that a child could rake. "I fear intruders to the point where I walk around armed and have loaded guns around the place, but make no effort to stop it getting to the point where I need to kill someone." "Locks are expensive. Check out my custom Sig." And from a practical point of view, just getting the blood out of the carpet is a pain in the neck. It confuses me.

Europe tends to be better from what I've seen, but it's all dependent on the culture of the country and how ignorant or not people are of low skill attacks. In the UK, it tends to be lock snapping. Brute force and ignorance are used on even the flimsiest of locks (see below).

But, as it becomes more and more evident that locks are vulnerable to low skill attacks, people will hopefully start paying attention. Youtube has been a huge boon for the industry as people show up these terrible locking systems for what they really are. Bumping became popular and into the public eye and suddenly anti-bump systems in locks started becoming standard. The industry will only start making such things standard when the public are made aware. Bump keys are mostly a pain as you need so many of them for all the different keyways. But once you have the collection, you're set. A set of Yale keyways will hit a wide assortment of UK doors. Newer ones are usually dimple locks and that does make bumping trickier, but not impossible.

Those pick/snap guns are scarily effective on pin tumblers and are an excellent argument for more expensive locks, especially ones with interactive elements. But, as I say, it's about layers of security. A thief skilled in defeating one system is unlikely to be skilled / equipped to defeat three. Or, more likely, they'll see it as too much effort / risk and will move on to something less well protected.

A great example was the theives who hit my parent's neighbours. They'd bought a house recently vacated by an old lady who moved into a nursing home. The windows were all wooden, old and neglected. The doors were ill fitted, old and in wooden frames. But a wealthy family moved in, moved all their posessions in and didn't get on with the upgrades. As a result, a gang of organised thieves moved in and spent a good hour or so thoroughly cleaning them out. The locks could have been picked with ease (30 years old or more?). There was a two or three lever mortice locks for which you could have used try-out keys, available on Amazon for peanuts. Or they could have bypassed it. But no, they just crowbarred it open, splitting the frame. Inside in a few seconds most likely and then out of sight. The noise won't have bothered anyone.

Wealthy area, lots of targets, but no one else is worried as they all have multiple layers of decent security. These tactics only work on people who don't consider their potential threat.

That house now has cameras, alarm and new doors / windows, all hastily fitted. Bit late, but they won't be robbed again anytime soon.

[John_Amstrad]

autonomous indoor security drone = autonomous indoor spy drone

[ik9000]

autonomous indoor security drone = autonomous indoor spy drone

what's the betting security is 3rd rate and hackable to make it so even if not to start with?

[emperoralku]

Wife suggests a Klingon Bird of Prey appearance would be better

You married well, congrats!

[ik9000]

You married well, congrats!

depends. Is she full Klingon or just half? Not sure I would want the anger issues either way!

And for every B'Elanna Torres there are plenty of:

[[GSV]Trig]

You can keep B'Elanna, I prefer a bit of K'Ehleyr..

[ik9000]

You can keep B'Elanna, I prefer a bit of K'Ehleyr..

Worf would disagree...