During the summer, we tend to make the best use of our homes – we invite friends over and open the curtains and the windows to let the world and plenty of fresh air in. But it’s still important to make sure that your home is secure over the summer months. Here are seven ways that you can do that.
Install An Alarm
First of all, it’s vital that you install an alarm. Speak to your friends and family members to get recommendations for local companies that can do this for you, and make sure that you pick an alarm system that’s suitable for your lifestyle. Some people might want to put an alarm on at night downstairs while they’re asleep, whereas if you have teenage children who come home late at night this might not be a priority for you. Make sure that it’s obvious from the outside of your house that you have an alarm installed – companies will install a box on the front of your house and give you stickers to put on your windows. These will discourage any opportunistic thieves from targeting your home.
Keep Those Windows Closed
During the summer, a lot of us keep our windows open so that we can have breezes in our home and plenty of fresh air. If you work at home, keeping the windows open is a good way to get some sunlight and warm air without getting completely distracted from your work. But if you go out, it’s absolutely vital to make sure that you close and lock your windows. You may get home to a warm house, but it will be absolutely worth it to ensure that your home doesn’t become an easy target.
Keep Valuable Items Out Of Sight
A lot of us spend half our lives using electronic items such as TVs, tablets, laptops and expensive smartphones, but it’s important to remember that you shouldn’t keep them in sight of the windows. Passers-by shouldn’t be able to see that you’ve recently bought a brand new iPad, so when you’ve finished using it, make sure that you put it away instead of leaving it out in plain view of anyone who might happen to walk by your window. Although people should be able to restrain themselves from stealing, the fact remains that you should do your best to make sure that you aren’t a target. Put your expensive possessions away and keep them out of sight of the windows.
Check Your Doors And Windows
Not everyone’s house is completely new and up to date, and if that’s the case with you, it’s time to get your doors and windows replaced. Double glazed windows with locks are probably the most secure. Some people have bars on the inside of their windows, but if they ruin the look of your house, they absolutely aren’t necessary to keep it secure. Wooden door and window frames aren’t especially secure, as they can degenerate and warp over time, meaning that they may be easier to break into. Securely fastened modern doors and windows will prove to be much steeper obstacles for thieves to get past, meaning that your home will be less likely to be targeted.
Think Like A Burglar
Take a good hard look at the outside of your home and think about it like a burglar – is there a tree right next to a window that would make it easy to climb in? Is your garage door rickety and easily broken? Are there any rain-swollen window frames that would be easy to break into? You may see your home as your sanctuary for yourself and your family, but you need to take a step back and view it with cold hard cynicism instead.
Be Careful On Social Media
This time of year, a lot of people are going away on vacation. If you’re planning to do so, don’t talk about it on social media. It can be tempting to tweet a countdown of days until you get to escape gray skies for the sun and the sea, but that essentially means that you’re advertising to anyone who can see your tweets that your home will be empty for an extended period of time. Likewise, when you’re actually away, make sure that you save posting the Instagram pictures of clear blue water and mimosas until you’re home. Aside from the security concerns, you’re on vacation to enjoy yourself – what’s the point in inducing FOMO in everyone who follows you?
Get A Dog
Finally, if you’ve been considering getting a dog, now could be the time to do it. You don’t have to get any sort of vicious animal that’s likely to attack any intruders, but it is a good idea to have a pet who’s likely to make a lot of noise if someone they don’t know enters the house. Of course, home security isn’t the only reason that you should get a dog – you should make sure that you have plenty of time and energy to devote to your pup. But the presence of a dog in a house can absolutely discourage anyone from trying to break in.
If you use plenty of common sense, your home should be easy to secure this summer – make sure that you close and lock your windows and doors and that you don’t broadcast it when your house is empty, and you should be perfectly safe.
Adam Quirk, MBA & MCJ
Adam Quirk is a licensed private investigator and criminal justice professional with over 15 years of professional experience in the field.
Remembering all our passwords can feel like a full-time job! But taking password protection seriously is important. Having something as simple as 1234 or ‘password’ is leaving you wide open to identity theft. So when using social media sites be sure to set them up with a variety of passwords that include upper case and lower case letters as well as at least one number.
There is no end to the methods that scammers have come up with to attain information vital to the success of their schemes. Whether they are seeking to perpetrate fraud, hacking or espionage, the most tried and true method is also one of the oldest: social engineering. It is one of the most successful because it is one of the least obvious methods, and can often require much more effort than would be reasonable for the small kernels of information that it can gather. However, those small nuggets of information can be as precious as gold to someone with the worst of intentions. Understanding and preventing social engineering is essential to protecting yourself and your business from everything from financial scams to identity theft.
Social engineering is basically an attempt to attain personal or confidential information through manipulation and subterfuge. This can be online or face to face, in conversation or through electronic collection of data. It is a concerted effort to exploit trust in order to obtain information ranging from what you might be working on, to passwords that will allow access to data or processes. This is usually accomplished by individuals misrepresenting themselves as someone who would have a legitimate need for this information.
Emails, even those from trusted friends and co-workers, can be accessed and manipulated by any number of people. Even legitimate-looking emails from holders of your personal information such as your financial institution should not be trusted enough for you to click on the links to access your account. If at all possible, securely access the site on your web browser rather than clicking suspect links.
It’s easy to leech off a neighbor’s wi-fi connection especially if is not properly secured. One of the tell-tale signs of a home network breach is if there are suddenly more computers connected to the network. For some, the hacking goes as far as controlling mouse clicks and movements and copying files from the users’ computers.
According to the IRS, approximately 122 million people in the U.S. pay some type of income tax every year. Of those, well over 50% pay their taxes at home, using online services like 
Create a strong password for your tax software. This sounds like a no-brainer, but the password you use to protect your tax return should be the strongest of any of your accounts, so take plenty time to think it out and make sure your personal information is as secure as possible. Avoid whole words; those are easy for password-cracking programs to crack. Use a combination of letters, numbers and special characters, and make your password as long as the program permits. You should also make sure your tax return password is unique; do not use the same password, or any variant, anywhere else on the web. “YourName123” and “CurrentMonth123” are examples of unacceptable passwords. Check out these 
Secure your wireless network. If you have a wireless network in your home, make sure it is properly locked down, with a strong password and updated security software. Check the security settings on your router and other Wi-Fi equipment, and verify the security of the password before you do any work on your tax return. Again, having a strong password for your wireless router seems like a no-brainer, but a shocking number of people–
Be aware of IRS scams. Over the last few years, people have lost millions of dollars and had their identities stolen through multiple 
Check your credit report. Take the time to review your credit report at least once annually. As an American consumer, you’re allowed one free copy of your credit report from each of the three main credit bureaus, 
jewelry, technology, and personal belongings
photographs and videos shared every day. Each of these posts automatically includes the user’s location, and it has been suggested that Kim Kardashian’s numerous snaps during her stay in Paris may have made it possible for the thieves to track her down without ever being spotted.
keeping your location information public, then save media to your phone while it’s on Airplane Mode and post it later, so that your location can’t be tracked continuously; ask your friends to do the same.
One of the most profitable attack vectors for hackers is targeting phones running out-of-date software. The longer you let your device run a last-generation operating system, the more vulnerable you become to attack. Hackers and criminals spend a lot of time looking to exploit old software because so many people neglect regular updates.Give Lookout Personal for iOS a try. It’s a consumer version of Lookout’s powerful suite of security tools. By keeping watch for out-of-date software and scanning for malicious applications, Lookout shores up two of the most common ways hackers find a way into personal devices.
Benjamin Franklin famously remarked, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” If Franklin were alive today, he may want to add “cybercrime” to the list.
Since the dawn of the internet, people have been writing passwords down on sticky notes and posting them on their desks at home. This will work well until you lose the note or suffer a break-in. Imagine dealing with the double whammy of residential theft and your bank account being drained. That’s a bad day!
This built-in application can be a lifesaver when your phone goes missing. Built by Apple and included in every new iPhone by default, Find My iPhone is GPS-based security software that will help you track down your phone whether it is hiding in the couch at home or in a thief’s pocket across town.
While we normally think of computer viruses targeting desktop computers, there is a growing black market for viruses targeting mobile devices. So much commerce takes place over phones and tablets — from business email to personal shopping — that iPhone- and Android-specific viruses are on the rise.