Is DIY Home Security System Encryption a Big Deal?
Let me see if I can illustrate this well using an analogy that seems relevant. Imagine you are building your dream home. You’ve planned every detail down to what slightly improved shade of white selected for the ceiling paint. Your highly skilled and detail-oriented project manager brings you the list of needed decisions for the week, and one of those is the front door hardware.
After scouring the catalogs and web sites for just the right handle and lock combination, you arrive at the perfect fit. You give the green light to your project manager, and the door looks great, and the hardware looks even better.
A few days later, while searching the web for some finishing details to the new home, you happen to watch a recent news broadcast explaining how the perfect handle and lock you just purchased for your front door can be opened with a blank key from the local hardware store.
Installing a DIY security system without encrypted technology is like making the key to your security available to anyone who knows how to purchase on Amazon. That’s a pretty large group of people and probably not what you intended for your home or business’s security.
When making your purchase decisions for security, place encryption at the top of the list, then spend the time to figure out sensors and placement. Once you have checked encryption off the list, you can spend time putting thought into areas like where motion detection is needed and where to install security cameras. In that case, it makes good sense to ensure that a ten dollar part ordered through Amazon Alexa can’t disable the entire system.
Fortunately, available today are excellent DIY security kits and DIY custom-designed systems that include encryption for sensors, security cameras, smart home devices, and even smart locks so you can avoid the universal key scenario.
At Innovate “Security for Life,” Inc., the company I started, we spent weeks vetting our manufacturing partners for not only encryption technology but also reliability and a propensity for the latest in security engineering technology. Looking back at the years I have in the industry, it is easy to recall the countless and easily avoided service calls needed for various reliability issues like battery performance and adhesive materials.
Like most businesses, the devil is in the details. In the security business, the details can mean the difference between preventing unwanted entry and a client losing all their family heirlooms.
In addition to performing as the system is intended, knowing your DIY security system is encrypted adds one more layer to the peace of mind you are looking to achieve. So let’s go through the checklist of items to consider for your DIY security purchase.
Combine encryption, monitoring services, intrusion detection with life safety devices like smoke detectors and CO sensors, and real peace of mind is looking very promising. Add some cool technology like encrypted blue tooth arming and disarming with a video doorbell, and the system is starting to come together. You now have also avoided the dreaded feeling of seeing a social media clip demonstrating how the system you just purchased can be hacked with a ten dollar device. Below is a simple checklist of security purchase considerations:
- Purchase from a vendor with long experience in the security industry.
- Purchase Encrypted Security Equipment.
- Use the Life Safety Features of Your System – Add Carbon Monoxide and Smoke detection.
- Have your security system monitored for intrusion and life safety.
- Purchase security equipment on the front edge of technology – Systems with Bluetooth and Amazon/Google compatibility.
- Make using your system habitual – arm and disarm every time you leave the house.
- Maintain your security system – Repair or replace broken sensors, clean sensors from dust, and make sure batteries are in good working condition.
Hackers and criminals will always be attempting to break the latest technology but let’s make sure we’re not making it easy for them. From my experience, after twenty years in the security industry, customer satisfaction starts with designing systems that do more than just giving you a cool mobile app and yard signs to show off to your neighbors.
A well-designed DIY security system with protection for intrusion and life safety while also safe from hacking through encryption can provide you with real peace of mind. With a little education on some of the basics in security, this is attainable, and you will have a reliable system that works as intended when it counts. Learn more in our Technology Page
