Quoting smac at visi.com: > I was talking with one of my security friends this week when I said "We are > having our ceiling replaced in the basement because of some water damage. > The > guy is at our home doing it now." > The first thing out of his mouth was "Change the locks on all your doors, > right > now!" > I asked him "Why?" > He said "The guy who did the work may talk about his work and what you have > in > your house, at a local tavern and be over heard. They guy who did the work > is > licensed and bonded but it doesn't make him smart when it comes to > security". > > I guess this is one of the ways homes get robbed, over heard conversations. > > What do you all think about this sort of thing? Is it just paranoia? > > My security friend then said "you should change the locks on your doors every > 5 > - 7 years" Hmmmmmm.....????? > As they say... it's only paranoia if nobody is actually out to get you. This is why security people talk about threat profiling, you need to understand what you are defending and what you are defending against in order to be able to defend. Measures taken to defend need to be taken in context. What does it cost and what does it get you. Changing your locks every five years does not sound particularly paranoid to me. It is easy to have keys lost, copied or what have you. The cost is not particularly high to change/replace the locks, nor is it particularly difficult to distribute new keys to the members of your family. Do you have a lot of high end electronics or other type valuables in your house? If so, it is likely worth investing in a security system of some variety beyond key locks. There are many stories of people getting robbed after having someone into their home, repair people, cable installers, even delivery people. If you are having someone into your home, they are best monitored by a trusted party. If you don't trust the person who was in your house, and there was no trusted person observing, then changing your locks seems prudent. BTW, How many renters ask their landlord if the locks were changed from the previous resident? _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list