Physical Security

Any interest in physical security?
Locks and Safes, Alarms, Access Control, CCTV, etc...

We could talk about how despite existing for exponentially longer it's somehow in an even worse state than cyber-security, or how the overwhelming majority of CCTV cameras come from Chinese government owned companies, or just post some questions or someshit? I dunno.

Attached: physical-security.jpg (1000x995, 239.12K)

This was something I've been thinking about recently. I set up IP cameras for a company I used to work for, but they required proprietary software.
For a good system you'd need some program to manage the cameras, the cameras themselves, and possibly a server to store video. Bonus points if there's a way to block the cameras from making external connections.

The camera management software is a VMS, there are several open source options out there but I haven't spent enough time playing with any of them to make a solid recommendation. The VMS will also be what handles the recording. Most of the ones I've worked on can record to NAS. Most camera companies also offer dedicated recorders that often segregate the camera traffic from the rest of the network.

As for the cameras, most (but not all) modern cameras should be ONVIF compliant and should therefore work just fine.

Also, you can SSH into basically all of the camera gear I've worked on. Generally the root password is just the admin password (somewhat concerning) for the device.

Good thread and also good hivemind.
I am going to build a simple CCTV system to control my properties, but I do not know what should I buy and how buy.

First of all I need wireless, battery powered cameras, it is absolutely necessary. Secondly these cameras should not have modern features which 15 years ago would be just called spyware, but nowadays there are called "cloud" or "shitty app – access feeds from anywhere, at any time!" etc.

I want to use own server with Monit (preferred) or ZoneMinder (alternative) for managing everything, so these cameras should be fully compatible with this software. Any suggestions?

Motion not Monit

Sadly, I haven't seen any that aren't garbage. You either get a decent battery life with sub 720p resolution or no battery life and mediocre resolution. Either way there's a reasonable chance you'll have to pull them down to charge them manually fairly often. Also, they tend to have all the spyware features and not be ONVIF compliant so they won't work with 3rd party software.

If you really must go wireless I'd look at building a setup with a normal wired cam, a NEMA box that will fit your battery, solar panel, PTP radio or mesh wifi, etc... but that's a fool's errand compared to even the most difficult wire run IMO.

Also, I have a few clients who build CCTV trailers to watch remote oil and gas sites or whatnot. All but one use diesel generators because they never got good results from solar.

tl;dr: wireless cameras are not a viable option yet

No. You can just wire them together such that when one goes off, they all go off (sound not the blinking light).

I've fantasized about various versions of the following setup as a kid.

In physical security if you step even just a bit above average you have 90%+ chance of success. Everyone expects you to lock your doors and so on, but no one expects you to have tripwires/alarms attached to them. There was a break in attempt at the Ecuadorian embassy with some guy trying to go in and presumably snatch/kill Julian Assange but he had setup a fire hydrant wired to the window to alert him.

What is the digital equivalent of tripwire ied's in your backyard or shotgun wired to the front door handle? Heavily customizing the memory management code for your OS of choice? Wouldn't that stop most exploits from working?

Good luck with that, almost all security camera products seem to be botnet. Your best might be a SoC with camera attached to it, drawing power from a large battery (perhaps a old scooter battery or similar, converted to right voltage and amperage) or perhaps a power bank but those have shit capacity and are expensive.