Notes on Protecting Your Home
First off, this information is shared as-is without any warranty or statement about it's accuracy or efficacy. Every situation is different. These notes are from the author's own efforts to educate himself and attempt to mitigate the risks in his own situation. They are shared here as a reference for family and friends, however if you find this information helpful as well, that's great. If you have suggestions or stories of your own to share, please do so. We all benefit when we share our experiences. Use of this website is conditioned upon your acceptance to hold the author blameless.
Breaking the problem down.
We just moved in to a "new" home. (Well actually the home is nearing the century mark--and we couldn't be happier! The task of stewardship is a noble cause, even when it's self-appointed.) Having come from a more modern condominium, we were in for a learning curve on many fronts. The primary goal of these notes is to focus on security related issues and break down fears and challenges into manageable chunks that we can deploy assets against.
I've broken the process down into the following steps: Assess the threat. This is where we'll examine fears and challenges specifically. Address the threat. This is a little redundant, but this step is primarily concerned with realizing the mechanics of what's been identified during the assessment step and taking action to fortify against them. Test the threat. At this step we want to "become the threat" and see how well our efforts work at mitigating the perceived risk. Maintenance and Adjustments. Any engineering entanglement (er, I mean process) is an endless sequence of discovery and adjustment that finally culminates in a compromise that terminates the iterations of feature creep. (Ok, so I'm a jaded engineer... you should hear what I have to say about my experience with marketing ;-).) This step is a bookmark for ongoing periodic reassessment and adjustment when necessary to the plan based on evolving variables and an increasing understanding. If it means only that you put a recurring reminder on your calendar of honey-dos then we'll call that a success. Educate your neighborhood. Bringing your neighbors into the equation can be a great help. Not only can you get a boost to your piece of mind by including collaborators, you get the physical benefit of more eyes and ears as well as perhaps somebody visible at just the right moment that helps thwart an act which you couldn't otherwise mitigate. Neighbors are super valuable! Request for comments. As a student of this effort I'll be the first to admit my efforts are strengthened with the input of others. Academics are a valuable place to start, but they don't take on true meaning until they are tempered in the fire of experience. Sorry, forgive my penchant for the dramatic--it's hard to overstate the value of actual experience, and I very much welcome anyone who is inclined to share theirs.
The steps outlined above will form the basis of the sections of this treatment.
Table of Contents:
- Assess the threat.
- Address the threat.
- Test the threat.
- Maintenance and Adjustments to the plan.
- Educate your neighborhood.
- Request for comments.