The Top Tips for Improving Your Home Security to Make it More Safe

Do you leave your home unattended due to work or school? Do you plan to leave home for a long while on vacation? If there’s no one home, you need to prevent burglars from breaking in. Simply locking the door isn’t good enough nowadays.

Fortunately, we’ve got a list of the best steps you can follow to make your home more safe and prepared. Read on below for our guide and improve your home security measures:

1. Install Security Cameras

You can make your home more safe by adding a CCTV system. Make sure you have enough cameras to monitor entrances like your front door and garage. While you should keep some security cameras hidden, it’s better to keep some of them visible. Burglars might not attempt to break in if they see an active camera in place. Don’t fret if you’ve never installed security cameras before. See here for more information and professional assistance.

2. Multiple Locks on Doors

Look at every door you have. If they only have one lock each, you have a security problem. Burglars could easily break through one lock and some might do it without alerting any of the neighbors. Prevent this by adding multiple locks. If you can, add smart locks. These are devices connected to your Wi-Fi. They’ll send you notifications straight to your phone or email whenever they detect someone trying to break the locks. You can program them to sound off a loud alarm or to keep it silent while notifying the police, ensuring the cops can catch the burglar red-handed.

Also, be thorough about choosing locks. Go for ones that have been tested against various professional lock picking tools and can withstand forced entry.

3. Keep Some Lights On

One method to deter burglars is to make it look like someone’s home. Burglars are less likely going to break in if they think they risk confrontation. After all, the homeowner might have a gun or taser and that’s a risk too high for many thieves. Keep the living room lights on and the bedroom lights too. This gives the appearance that people are still awake even during the night. You could go one step further and keep a television on too.

4. Use Disguised Safes

What can you do to keep valuables safe when burglars manage to break in? Safes and vaults should keep your belongings away from burglars but sometimes they achieve the opposite. Some burglars might prioritize stealing a safe because they know there’s something valuable inside. Get around this by using disguised safes instead. You can find safes disguised as soda cans, books, wall sockets, and even bottles of cleaning chemicals. Burglars won’t pay attention to these everyday items. They’re on the hunt for jewelry, laptops, smartphones, and cash. Every second they spend in a house increases their risk of getting caught, which means they won’t look twice at an ordinary book or soda can on the kitchen counter.

5. Install an Alarm System

Even a simple home security system should have some form of alarm. Burglars might not push through if they hear a loud alarm sound off. CCTV cameras are still the more effective method, however. Of course, you don’t always have to rely on a traditional, loud burglar alarm. You can use smart alarms that will notify you and the police without making a sound in the house. The police can drive over quickly and catch the burglar red-handed. You’ll also get live updates as long as your alarm remains connected to the Internet. Let’s dive into that aspect more.

6. Take Advantage of IoT Devices

Internet of Things (IoT) refers to devices connected to the Internet, via your Wi-Fi router. This allows you to control them even when you’re not at home. Using an app on your phone, you can turn them on and off and get regular notifications. Some IoT devices are for convenience. You can use a smart fridge, for example, to automatically track groceries and notify you when you’re running low on food.  IoT security devices, like smart locks, smart doorbells and automatic gate openers, focus on protecting your home. You can install a smart doorbell that comes with a camera, allowing you to see who checks your door whenever you’re away.

7. Don’t Keep Spare Keys Nearby

People often keep spare keys around before they leave the house. This ensures they can still get back inside in case they lose their main key. However, this creates a problem with security. The main issue is that hiding spots have to be easy to remember. Otherwise, you’ll simply forget where you kept the spare key, defeating the purpose of having one. Burglars might easily spot your hiding areas. Why break a lock or window to get inside when they can easily use the spare key?

8. Don’t Forget the Windows

Do you have a window on the second floor? Make sure you lock it! You shouldn’t stop with a basic lock, either. Install an alarm so that burglars get frantic and scared as soon as they try to break through the window. Keep a CCTV within that area too, ensuring you can see if someone’s checking your windows.

9. Secure Your Wi-Fi

If you follow our tips on this guide, then you might have several smart devices keeping your home safe. However, all of those could lead to a different kind of break-in if you’re not careful: hacking.  Hackers could bypass your security systems by hacking your smart light or the doorbell. If there’s no encryption, they can use your IoT device to get into your network and access the information on your phone or laptop. This grants them access to your bank information and credit card details.

Even if they can’t go that far, they could still hack far enough to disable the smart locks on your doors and turn off the CCTV system. Fortunately, preventing this is pretty simple. Encrypt your Wi-Fi router so that hackers can’t access your network even if they get a hold of some passwords. To further protect your network, use an ASCII code or complex passwords that use a mixture of letters and numbers.

Stay More Safe With These Home Security Tips!

Keep your home and valuables more safe with these top security tips. Don’t simply follow one or two — accomplish all of these to keep your house burglar-free! Of course, home security doesn’t end here. You could also use biometrics and other new security methods to protect your home, even when you’re out on vacation. To lear more about these, why not check out our other guides today?