Secure Your Home While Away on Holiday or Vacation

Some precautions are simple and the others, we can help you with. Gone are the days when a person leaves home and there’s no way to keep a handle on what’s going on there. Technology puts the control in your hands, no matter where you are. The following are just a few common tips to secure your home while away.

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• Let a neighbor or two know that you’ll be gone and your house will be empty. Leave a key with a family member perhaps. Hide gifts and packages from view. If there is a break in, make it so nothing is easy to lift. And if the packaging has been left out for trash pickup, be careful! Burglars get a sneak preview this way. Make sure your home is well lit and maybe install an outdoor sensor light. Thieves usually work in the dark. Remember that.
  
• The U.S. Fire Administration reported 2,650 deaths from house fires in 2008. Watch it with your Christmas lights. December is the deadliest month for electrical fires. Also inspect the furnace and chimney to avoid a fire danger. Check the batteries on smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. Garage door openers can be hacked! Disconnect them while you’re gone.
• So you get to your destination, let’s say a family home. If you end up at the coffee shop while your cousins argue over which pie to eat first and you’ll be doing internet stuff through public WiFi, you should get a VPN. A VPN is a virtual public network. It hides you from those around you. A VPN shields you and your information from prying eyes when out in public. It’s routed through the internet to a remote site, making you more elusive and secure from would-be thieves.
• Putting your travel plans online is a bad idea. Don’t share everything because “they” are watching and you’d be surprised what a thief can find out if he’s focused on you.

Explore the services we offer. Today you can automate home security as well as other aspects, even turning the heat up or down while you’re away. You can do it all from a smart phone!

Call us, we can set it all up for you.