safes

[tugrik]

Strangely enough, one of the things I've felt I've always needed to buy (but haven't) was a safe. Something 2-hour fireproof, media capable, that has the ability to be bolted to the floor from inside. I'd transfer the hanging files that have all my tax and personal documents into it, as well as a few LTO and DLT tapes (both from my own network and offsites from work). I'm just trying to figure out how much of a false sense of security they might or might not be.

I have the car-alarm worry. If someone really wants your car, there's not a damn thing you can do about it, honestly. Your best bet is a lo-jack like device that helps the cops track it down after they steal it (instead of trying to stop the theft itself). Even those are commonly foiled by various jamming techniques when a pro theft ring wants an expensive car bad enough. Therefore, a car alarm only does three things: stops the most petty of petty theives, makes you feel more secure (somewhat falsely), and wakes your neighbor up at 3am when someone drives too close to it. How much of this applies to safes at home? Is having a proper (but consumer-grade) safe, lag-bolted to the slab in the garage, going to keep out someone who actually wants to break in and take stuff? Or is it the kind of thing that a petty thief with a crowbar will be able to pop off the cement and tote to his car for later disassembly?

It's just something I've never thought about before, is all. I like the idea of keeping things safe from fire and casual theft, but I don't want to be paying the $$ for a false sense of security.

Comments

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

The safe always made sense to me in a protection from natural disaster kind of way. If I wake up to smoke and fire at 4:30 AM I just want to worry about getting the animals out of the house, not my important legal papers.

Safe safety.

[(Anonymous)]

Regarding storing digital media in safes - the most sensible unsubstantiated assertations I've seen online say that you should double-bag any media you're storing in a fireproof safe, as at the very least the safe lining may shed water vapour (one of the cooling/protecting mechanisms), and at worst you'll get soot. Bags, of course, should be mostly deflated, as they'll expand.

YMMV. For my own data security, I'm planning to go the "off-site backup" route and give a backup CD binder to a friend.

Re. security against theft, I'd personally just worry that someone would think there's something valuable in the safe and be _more_ inclined to steal it. Nobody cares about someone else's tax files, but a safe could have all kinds of Cool Stuff (tm) in it.

Breakability of safes is not my area of expertise, so I can't comment re. things like popping the door off.

-Deuce

Re: Safe safety.

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

"...and give a backup CD binder to a friend."

That's actually part of the reason I want the safe. I trade media with friends for just this reason, and I'd like to be able to keep the ones entrusted to me in the safe. :) Cool info on the bags, thanks!

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

Nobody has yet to make the car alarm I want. So I designed my own.

Interface is a simple 10 keypad. Starter is disabled until proper 5 digit code is entered. My starter disable is different in that the starter line is shorted to ground through a relay, so the Hotwiring trick will do nothing more than blow fuses and the car won't work. If the door is opened and engine is running, Carjacking is assumed and the code again must be entered within 60 seconds or Ignition defeat and Starter Disable are activated, shutting the car down after the crook has zoomed a short distance down the road. This puts safe distance between the ejected owner and the car thief but the car is close enough to be recovered. A single flashing LED is the only indication that the 60 second timer is going and that the code must be entered.

Finally, should the alarm sense that an alarm situation exists and the vehicle is still running, it assumes that the shutdown systems are defeated somehow and implements DIRE KABOOM - This is nothing but a magnetically latching relay which shorts 12V to ground, blowing the Fusible Links under the hood. The fusible Links are only replacable at a shop, and unless the relay is deliberately reset first, the replacement will blow as well.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

If you've got the money to throw around, buy a safe and bolt it to the garage floor, and then try to break into it yourself and see how long it takes. It'll be fun.

[amilori.livejournal.com]

Generally, consumer-level safes are for protection against natural disaster & casual theft, not against professionals. Professionals will have done their homework & know exactly what they want and how to get at it. There really isn't a consumer-level security system that will keep a determined professional out.

[beetles.livejournal.com]

It's worth it against a fire if you take extra precautions. Since my family once lost everything in a fire, I definitely think it is worth the investment. I don't know how tough it is against theft.