"They're not that smart."

Since I bought our house there have been a few things that have irked me. Things that I have in my mental list to sort out. One of the remaining items is to update the security system, so I set out to get some quotes from installers and security agencies since insurance companies prefer to hear that your security system is monitored or "back to base".

Essentially with reputable companies they will have a monitoring system that your system dials out to when an alarm goes off. They will then call you at the house, then try any number of nominated contact numbers in which case you can request them to send out a guard. (for about $75) With a response time commitment from them of no more than 20 minutes that doesn't sound too bad, except for one problem. This is Australia.

Back in Canada, telephone and power lines are run roughly 1-2m underground, to your basement interior. In Australia they are run underground, or above ground, but they are run to a box at the "exterior" of your building. Exterior as in outside, and accessible from the front of your house. And you're not even allowed to put a lock on it because that's where they go to read your meters.

So my first question about back to base is whether they use land-lines or can opt for hooking in a mobile phone. They use land-lines, so my next question is, what happens when they cut the land-line. Absolutely nothing. The alarm will go off, but that monitoring company you're paying for will know nothing. Oh, I think he said that the system checks in every week. So I asked if there was a mobile option to use in case the land-line wasn't available, and sure enough there was one, for $1,600, not including the SIM card. $1,600?! What freaking planet are these people on? a GSM modem, which is the basis of this feature costs around $150.

So what I'm left wondering is why they couldn't wire a small GSM modem to the power supply, then I could put a $20/yr pre-paid SIM card from Vodaphone in, and do-away with the land-line completely?!

Anyhoo, the punchline title was a response I got from the system technician that came by to quote the system. I had said that monitoring seemed like a complete waste of money if all a burglar needed to do was cut the phone line before setting it off. He agreed that it was a vulnerability, but claims he's only seen it done 12 or so times. His response was "They're not that smart."

*Sigh*