How secure are wireless home alarms?

DISCLAIMER: I may not always be right and some of this information is based on educated guesses.

How secure are todays wireless home security systems? See for yourself in this short demonstration with DSC Alexor.

DSC advertises this system as 2-way and supervised.

"2-way" is referring to how the components communicate with eachother, ie. they are not just sending information, they can also receive it. However, only the wireless keypads and keyfobs actually are 2-way - all the sensors are 1-way. This is what makes the above possible. The wireless door sensor sends the trigger signal to the control panel, but the message never gets there since the frequency is being jammed. Since the door sensor has no way to confirm if the message has been received by the control panel (since it's 1-way, the control panel can't answer back), it will just assume so and cease further action.

Supervised means that the control panel listens for all the components to "report in" every X minutes (about 10 min) and if they don't it will make a fault signal after 1-24 hours, depending what has been programmed in. This means that a burglar can jam the frequency, destroy the sensor(s) and have at least an hour before fault is reported and even then, faults are usually not considered high priority by monitoring stations.

Other observations about Alexor:
- GSM speech robot has poor sound quality
- GSM speech robot can't call about wired zones or RF-jamming
- Remote control through GSM is sometimes buggy
- Can't call and send SMS messages at the same time (with same module), you'll have to choose between them
- Proximinity tags are big and have unreplaceable battery that, after being depleted, requires you to buy another tag
- No automatic arming/disarming timers - meaning if you want the system to be on at nights, you have to arm it manually every time
- PIR sensors wait 6 seconds after trigger before sending an alarm - in theory this could be enough time to destroy them
- Only 2 wired zones, which are shared as programmable outputs

With all that said, this system is no worse than others - I have yet to see a working wireless solution.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• alexor
• dsc
• wireless
• home
• security
• system
• alarm
• bypass
• bypassed
• circumvent
• radio
• signal
• jamming
• blocking
• block
• jam

[snowboardjoe]

Having experience with RF, there are still many flaws with this test in the video. In such close proximity, it's possible for a remote to jam such a device. However, it would need to jam the control panel receiving the signal. There are some weaknesses using wireless, but it's not a DSC problem--it's a wireless problem that any manufacturer will have. The customer needs to weigh all of the pros and cons of wireless for their situation.

[SteamFox]

@snowboardjoe It works over distances too - it all depends how much power you have on the jammer. There will always be weaknesses in wireless alarm systems, but the problem presented here doesn't have to be one of them.

[alarmsuk]

Just two important comments:

1. To be able to do this in the way shown, the wireless TX has to be really close (under 5m) from the receiver to be able to block all the communications. That means it is not possible to do it from outside from the place to be protected! You have to get it almost in front of it to get the receiver blocked.

2. I assume in this test, the antijamming function was off of or a Jam detect would occur after just 10 seconds? Try to overide from outside within this time!

[SteamFox]

@alarmsuk 1. This depends on how powerful the transmitter is. In this demo, the control panel was about 5 meters away. This device is just an ordinary remote, not actually designed to jam anything. For someone who wants to take advantage of this flaw in the system, I doubt it would be a problem.

2. Jamming detection was on. Nothing will happen if the jamming lasts under 20 seconds. Note that often the jamming detection is actually turned off because it can generate false alarms.

[alarmsuk]

@SteamFox Our comment was the official reply from DSC when we questioned them on this subject. To be fair, we have had similar experience to the reply, so I am quite happy the 2 points are accurate. If you post a video showing the device getting overridden from outside a property without generating a condition, then this would be a better demonstration of your claims. As it is, no intruder could get close enough to do this.

[SteamFox]

@alarmsuk I'm not claiming anything, everything I've shown and said are facts. You may be right and you may be wrong about the proximity issue, I've not tested this because I live in a small apartment where I simply can't get far enough to try it without modifying my current installation. I'm not sure I understand the rest of your post. Who is this "we" you're talking about?

[SteamFox]

@EvesSecretCom Hi and thanks for the comment. The RF-jamming detection was on. Jamming has to last at least 20 seconds before anything happens.

[EvesSecretCom]

Hi SteamFox, was the RF-jamming function turned off for your demo?

[SteamFox]

@corxxgold Whether "crap" or not, DSC is a well known brand and major player in alarm system market. Thing is, this isn't cheap either (except in USA where alarms generally are cheaper). I paid 700€ for this which is $900. Everyone are free to decide whether that is fair for the functionality you get.

[corxxgold]

This is why DSC equipment is crap,, its the cheapest stuff out there