Archive for September, 2010

Halloween is near and it’s once again time for trick or treaters!  SafeTech Alarm Systems would like to remind our readers of a few Halloween safety tips that will keep the day fun!

Trois-Rivières, Quebec has the highest break and enter rate among Canadian census metropolitan areas. (Source: Statistics Canada)

These days people are sharing more and more of their personal information online. Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and a variety of other social media websites, it is now easier than ever to invite friends to social events, post photos, share vacation plans and keep your social circle informed than ever before.

However, with this freedom comes new security risks as well. When sharing information online it’s important to remember that anything you share online could be easily distributed to the general public.

The first thing you should always do before sharing personal information online is consider who could possibly see your posting. Social media messages are easily shared and forwarded to others, so do not post anything that you do not want others to see.

It is also incredibly important to keep a diligent eye on your privacy settings. You will want to make sure that the general settings as well as the settings for particular posts or events are set to your specifications. Failure to do so can have very serious consequences.

For example, a teenage girl in the United Kingdom recently created a Facebook invitation for her birthday party. She meant to invite 15 friends, but accidentally marked the event as “public” rather than private. This meant that anyone could see the invite. More than 21,000 people replied and anyone who visited the public invitation was able to see the girl’s picture, address and phone number.

Obviously this was a huge security risk to the girl and her family. Always be aware of who can see the information that you post online.

The same is true for posting about your location. A post on Facebook or Twitter that you are going to be on vacation for a month could be seen by someone who wants to break into your home.

Police in British Columbia and Ontario recently warned people to avoid mentioning vacation plans on Twitter and other social media website for this exact reason

Podcast link: http://www.safetechalarms.com/podcast/Staying-Secure-Online.mp3

Excellent ways to stop burglars from robbing your home include installing motion-activated lights outside and placing security cameras in strategic locations.
This will show potential burglars that they will be noticed if they attempt to break into your home and cause them to think twice before attempting to do so.

There were 205,710 reported cases of breaking and entering in Canada in 2009. (Source: Statistics Canada)

According to statistics released by the FBI, property crime cost an estimated $17.2 billion dollars in losses in 2008. The statistics, released as part of the FBI’s Crime In The United States publication, show the costly damage of property crime.

Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson. There were approximately 9,767,915 property crimes in the United States in 2008. There was, however, a 5.3 percent drop in property crime between 2004 and 2008.

Burglary accounted for 22.7 percent of all property crime. There were an estimated 2,222,196 burglaries in 2008, up 2 percent from 2007.

There were 3.6 percent more burglaries in 2008 than in 2004 and 5.8 percent more than in 1999. 61.2 percent of all burglaries in 2008 involved forcible entry.

Far more residential properties were broken into than commercial properties. 70.3 percent of all burglaries were residential.

There were 205,710 reported cases of breaking and entering in Canada in 2009. (Source: Statistics Canada)