GSM House-Alarm Jammers.

Benedict

Most monitored alarm (domestic) systems now seem to be as good as useless because all the burglar has to do is "jam" the signal that alerts the company doing the monitoring.

The internet is full of jammers for sale for as little as ten Euro!

Even the major companies (like Eircom Phonewatch) are vulnerable to this.

Anyone have a solution?

KoolKid

Yes other landlines, radio, IP polling,GSM with polling. This is old news and old technology we are all aware of. From reading this forum over the years I find an awful lot of Phonewatch customers ignore advice from professional installers anyway.

Benedict

Okay Koolkid, "old news"? Maybe - but very startling news to many of us ordinary simple non-technical folk!

This was high-lighted in yesterday's Evening Herald. It really does seem that alarm "monitoring" is as useful as a glass hammer!
Burglars can just turn it off at the touch of a button.

In the current crime-ridden environment, I think that this is one piece of "old news" that should be making the front page on every newspaper!

Do you know of any company that offers anti-jamming monitoring?

KoolKid

Most alarm companies and monitoring stations offer many solutions to GSM jammers.
Remember this equipment only jams GSM diallers.
PSTN diallers over normal phoneline are not affected. IP connections are not affected.
Radio monitoring is not affected.
I read that article and I have to say it as very poor journalism IMO.
One line claimed high tech equipment the next said the equipment was basically DIY.
The Garda quote gave the impression it was to do with wireless alarms.

kub

KoolKid wrote: »

Most alarm companies and monitoring stations offer many solutions to GSM jammers.
Remember this equipment only jams GSM diallers.
PSTN diallers over normal phoneline are not affected. IP connections are not affected.
Radio monitoring is not affected.
I read that article and I have to say it as very poor journalism IMO.
One line claimed high tech equipment the next said the equipment was basically DIY.
The Garda quote gave the impression it was to do with wireless alarms.

Well put KoolKid, i get the impression that the OP thinks we are not competent.
But speaking of Gardai, the poor men and woman of The Gardai only have a minimal clue of the workings of electronic security systems, it is only those in specialist units that know the score, so just because a Garda said something does not make it gospel.

KoolKid

Its the media I blame more so. All written for effect rather than information.

JustTheOne

So basically a hkc gsm is useless now?

KoolKid

No . It will still work. But it can be jammed.
You can pay for the app & connection via a subscription & get polling . However the response times are very slow compared to whats free on the market from GSD or Vanderbilt(Siemens)
GSD Can Notify You of missed polls via IP in 5 minutes
Vanderbilt(Siemens)Doing the same can Notify you in as little as 20 seconds if you want.

Here is HKCs Pricing

Residential Options

Standard - €4.99 per month (Incl. VAT)
Managed World SIM
Unlimited App control + notifications
SMS control + notifications, fair usage limit 50 messages per month
(* Alarm activations only)
Monitoring to Central Station
(GSM-SC Only)
Loss of connectivity to site detected within 8 hours

Premium - €7.00 per month (Incl. VAT)
Managed World SIM
Unlimited App control + notifications
SMS control + notifications, fair usage limit 100 messages per month
(* Alarm activations only)
Voice dialler notifications
Monitoring to Central Station
(GSM-SC Only)
Loss of connectivity reported to central station
(GSM-SC Only)
Loss of connectivity to site detected within 90 min

Benedict

I have to say that a lot of the responses are of a technical nature - which I don't really understand. I suspect that the majority of householders with monitored alarms are blissfully unaware that they are as good as useless because they can so easily be blocked.
Yet they continue to pay around E30 per month for monitoring!

It will only take one big newspaper headline to wipe smiles off a lot of faces. When that happens, the companies who don't offer "jammer resistent" alarm systems will be hit hard.

Right now, the public are living in cloud cuckoo land if they think they are protected.

KoolKid

Again this only relates to alarms monitored by certain types of GSM modems. I have tried explaining this to many people many times. It most cases they are not interested and are blinded by the brand or the attitude "sure Mary down the roadroad has it she said it's great"
There was 2 days of the Joe Duffy show not so long ago highlighting major vulnerabilities in a major brand of Alarm system, did it make a blind bit of difference? Not at all.

JustTheOne

So my hkc new gsm unit I only got installed is useless?

Marvellous.

fred funk }{

JustTheOne wrote: »

So my hkc new gsm unit I only got installed is useless?

Marvellous.

No, it's not useless. Without going into too much detail, most alarm systems route of communication can be easily disabled.

GSM blockers still aren't common in spite of what you're being told but they are a concern. If a burglar is aproaching your house he doesn't know what way your alarm communicates whether it be GSM, landline, radio or ip but with the large company we're talking they only use GSM so a burglar knows what he has to do just by the name on the bellbox.

kub

Benedict wrote: »

I have to say that a lot of the responses are of a technical nature - which I don't really understand. I suspect that the majority of householders with monitored alarms are blissfully unaware that they are as good as useless because they can so easily be blocked.
Yet they continue to pay around E30 per month for monitoring!

It will only take one big newspaper headline to wipe smiles off a lot of faces. When that happens, the companies who don't offer "jammer resistent" alarm systems will be hit hard.

Right now, the public are living in cloud cuckoo land if they think they are protected.

As professional security system installers, who are more interested in the security of our clients rather than sales, we have to be suitably vague as to what we say here, as this is a public forum and the very people we are trying to deter could be reading this.
I would suggest to anyone who has concerns as to the their current monitoring arrangement that they discuss this with their installer, if after that they are not happy then we are here to help.

Benedict

Staying quiet on this issue won't make a robbery any less likely. Jack the Lad knows all the tricks far better than we do (and knew them long before Joe Public knew them).

The fact of the matter is that monitoring without anti-jamming should carry a health warning.

If the public was aware that their so-called monitoring could be disabled at the press of a button, they wouldn't install it in the first place. What would happen then? Well here's what would happen. The companies would start selling proper monitoring - or they would go out of business.

Personally, I'm surprised that some of Ireland's best known security firms are still able to squeeze 30/35 Euro per month out of clients for "monitoring" that is basically useless!

aphex™

Are they jamming GSM or jamming the frequency the sensors the alarm uses?

KoolKid

It's jamming the GSM Monitoring not the wireless alarm or its devices.
People are being told of this and many choose to ignore it. I have told numerous people and they still go on to install a system with a GSM dialler that's vulnerable to these devices.
As I said, not so long ago there was a discussion over 2 days on Joe Duffy about a particular brand of system. That made very little difference to peoples mindset either.

aphex™

Interesting, I wonder can the networks pick up this interference.

Also, are there any 3g/4g dialers? When you move away from gsm there's a large range of frequencies to block.

KoolKid

The signal is not blocked by interference so there is nothing for the networks to pick up on.

Benedict

As far as I know, they jam the system so that if you're on the premises, your mobile gets jammed so you can't even phone the gardai. So it is a really serious matter.

capailldubh

Sorry to butt in here but my Visonics GSM module has died. Rather than replace it, is there any way to connect the alarm to my UPC/ Virgin landline phone? I think its probably VOIP.

KoolKid

Yes if there is a standard PSTN dialler on the system already.