Tech Geek

What sort of technology do you leave in your vehicle? I know, on any given day, there is could be an old mobile phone, a hand-held GPS receiver, an iPod Touch, and an adapter to play the iPod through the radio. Many times there is a laptop thrown in as well. I generally take advantage of the fact my back windows are tinted and keep things out of view from the windshield to keep the risk down somewhat. There is also the fact that I live in a relatively low crime area! But I received an e-mail that got me thinking this week.

The e-mail, in part, read:

Our friends had their car broken into while at a football  game. Their car was parked on the green adjacent to the stadium and specially allotted to football fans.

Things stolen from the car included:
a  garage door remote control, some money and a GPS prominently mounted on the dashboard.

When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything had been stolen.

The thieves used the GPS to guide them to the house ("Go Home" feature), and used the garage remote control to gain entry to the house.

They knew the owners were at the game, what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house.

It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

It does seem plausible and at first it made me feel dumb for leaving my GPS receiver (usually under the seat) in my car much of the time. This could happen. Then I thought a bit more and realized that there are other things in my car that could lead potential thieves to my home. Usually a piece of two of mail and always insurance and registration information in the glove box. I'm certainly not going to remove those items!

I went to my favorite website for debunking internet myths and hoaxes and checked it out. Snopes.com, despite its very annoying pop-ups, is the website I generally visit when I get an e-mail about something going on that I'm skeptical about. There write-up for the story is at http://www.snopes.com/crime/intent/gps.asp.

The second part of the e-mail I received had a message about mobile phones and how we list people. It caught my attention because I only recently, at the urging of the ELCA Youth Gathering Safety and Security Team, changes my wife's number in my mobile to have ICE (In Case of Emergency) in front of it. Many First Responders will look for such an entry to contact relatives in an emergency.

This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists names on her mobile phone after her handbag, containing her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc., was stolen.

Twenty minutes later she called her husband from a pay phone telling him what had happened; and he says:

"I got your text asking about our Pin Number and I've replied a little while ago." NO conversation here....just a text....

When they rushed down to the bank, they were told all the money was already withdrawn.

The thief actually used the stolen cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list, and get the pin  number.

Within 20 minutes he had emptied their account.

Snopes.com has a write-up about this at http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/pintheft.asp. They come to the same basic conclusion as I would. Verify before responding to such a message or e-mail.

In both the technological world, including that of the internet, and the rest of the world we always have a balancing act between security and usability. A house is made less secure by having windows and doors. To be secure, cover them all up with steel plates. Doing that will make it impossible for anyone, including yourself, to get in and out of the house. If, however, you'd like to have the ability to leave your house, you'll have to compromise on security to increase usability.

We do the same thing with our technology. A computer that isn't plugged into the internet is more secure than one that is. It also can't do all the things that one plugged into the internet can do. In both technological and real-world safety and security, the best thing to do is be aware of your surroundings and think before you act.