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Across the US, Popular Video Doorbells Are Recording their Own Thefts (digitaltrends.com)
There has been an uptick in reports of video doorbells getting stolen, according to local news reports. A story adds: According to the reports, residents are waking up in the morning or coming home at night only to find their video doorbell devices stolen. Typically the devices are screwed into place on the outside of a house, often with mounts or braces to hold them in place. While they are wired into the wall, thieves don't seem to care too much about that. In most cases, residents appear to report the devices have been pried off the side of their home. In some cases, the cameras are able to capture an image of the perpetrator as they are stealing the device. Those images are usually available through mobile apps connected to the doorbell, which might help police track down the person responsible for the theft. However, there's no guarantee that officers will be able to find the thieves, especially if they steal the device while keeping their face and other identifying features covered while on camera. Police are suggesting that people keep track of the serial number on their devices in order to keep track of them and watch in case the devices appear on Craigslist, eBay, or other online marketplaces.
It's cute that you think that these are equipped with secure enclaves and such like a cellular phone rather than a hard reset like your garden variety WiFi router or IoT device.
Security is something to add in v4 so that you capture a an additional round of upgrades after the early adopters and first wave mass adopters get burned by having multi-hundred-dollar pieces of equipment wander off.
Get Rolls Royce to build one.
Have gnu, will travel.
The trick to motivating the police here in America is using the 2 magic words.
"Officer, they stole my doorbell, my DRUGS, and my GUNS!"
Cops will be crawling all over the place looking for things to seize.
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
Police "suggesting" that people record serial numbers and "patrol" craigslist, fb market place, eBay, store bulletin boards.. what nonsense. Either the police actively will work a crime or they won't. Apparently personal property crime has become such a banality, law enforcement have abdicated their responsibilities. We as citizens shrug with little recourse other than conscientious objectors, must accept the fact the US is one step from anarchy.
This reminds me of the early 1970s when crime was so bad all the cops could do was recommend you get a gun to protect yourself.
That seems like it might be used by some manufacturers as an excuse to effectively prevent selling of used devices. Which is not to say that it would be a net negative—just that it can be abused.
Then, possibly less than a year after the thing hits the shelves, the company loses interest and you're just out over $100 because they've been "discontinued".
I assume they then blacklist the serial number of the stolen camera rendering it useless. This is what all electronics companies should do. Make it absolutely clear that any stolen device with a serial number that needs to talk to home base to operate becomes useless once stolen.
Ideally, if you try to configure a stolen device, a big flag comes up on the phone/tablet/computer you're using to do the setup informing you the thing you are setting up has been stolen and is a useless piece of junk. Even better, QR code on every device you can scan with their app and see if it's been recorded stolen or not.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Criminals are, for the most part, not the brightest bulbs on the tree, which is mostly why they're only an inconvenience in the grand scheme of things and not a tremendous threat to civilization. It's certainly not the cops (at least not those around here) who protect us from petty crime.
I had some idiot break into my truck, in my driveway and in plain view of three different security cameras, and steal a variety of rather worthless items - prescription glasses, my old radio scanner, and (worst) my half-broken 3-year-old cell phone (cracked screen, 802.11 radio no longer worked, etc. but I was still using it). Called the cops, gave them the videos that showed the guy's face, and told them the phone was still on so I could get its location. The phone was getting good coverage (gps was reporting +/- 20ft error), and given its presence in a wooded ravine about a mile away known to be a homeless hangout, I suspected it was still with the thief. Literally all the deputy would have had to do was drive over and I'd call it. Bust the guy, haul him in. Nope. We'll take a report, call your insurance company, we don't plan to do anything. Yet later that day, on my way to replace my sunglasses, they had plenty of time to pull me over for 7 over the speed limit.
The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.