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How thievable are oscilloscopes?
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PlainName:

--- Quote from: NiHaoMike on July 10, 2022, 04:16:47 pm ---
--- Quote from: Zenith on July 10, 2022, 02:57:47 pm ---If anyone breaks in, they are likely to steal the scope as a technical looking thing, in the absence of any more likely looking portable valuables, and then probably throw it away, when they find it's not so easy to sell. The disruption to you could be huge and well over the value of the scope. Carting it home every night would be a pain.

--- End quote ---
I wonder how much effort it would take to build a smoke bomb disguised as something valuable with a mechanism to make it go off a few minutes after being stolen.

--- End quote ---

https://www.smokecloak.co.uk/

Had one. Two, actually. Fitted one to my office when I was building it and for the test firing I stood just inside the open office door. Within seconds I could see a thing and had to grope to the consumer unit and flick the breaker off blind.

In the end I decided not to use one, but only because it's a constant source of heat and there is far too much wood around to be comfortable. Same for the garage - amazingly effective but not really advisable to have a heat source around petrol.
AndyBeez:

--- Quote from: ebastler on July 10, 2022, 02:33:50 pm ---
I didn't realize that contact cleaning was such a significant business that it can keep a specialized company afloat. Not surprised that they pay minumim wage or even less. I usually do my own contact cleaning, preferably using KONTAKT WL solvent.

 ;)

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I really need a bigger mobile device screen.

Seriously, these cleaners had been trafficked from Nigeria on tourist visas. It was in their own self interest to take as much as they could before the UK border agency sent them packing. The trusted cleaning company had contracts right across London.

ContRact cleaners, security and catering are a significant point of failure in any physical (or cyber) defence yet, are barely mentioned in a security risk assesement. There is a notion that these guys are paid so little that if caught stealing, they cannot afford to be sacked. So they won't.  They are also too stupid to know what is valuable. I once came across a Latvian cleaner who was doing an MA in space based avionics. Not the only smart student with a Henry vac out there.

A problem too with popup hot desk office rentals. You have zero idea of anyone else who has access to the building at any time. BYOD but be prepared to take it home.
bd139:
Totally agree with that. We had some cleaners steal laptops a few years back. Of course we fired the cleaning company instantly and hired another one. Same fucking cleaners turned up  :palm:

Cleaners are now fully salaried background checked.
Zero999:
It depends on the oscilloscope, whether those who know the value and are of a dishonest disposition see the oscilloscope and think they can take it, without getting caught.

A new security manager where I work stated we must start to start locking the storeroom because equipment might get stolen. We have some very expensive pressure calibration equipment, which cost arount 20k each. I said it's unlikely anything will get stolen because it hasn't happened in the company's 70 year history and few people who are aware of the value of the instruments are the type to steal them. I told her, if we left a piece of test equipment worth 20k at the local shopping centre, with a £200 bike next to it, both unlocked, the bike would get stolen, not the instrument. The value of the bike would be obvious to anyone, but not the test equipment which is very niche.
tggzzz:

--- Quote from: Zero999 on July 10, 2022, 05:26:33 pm ---It depends on the oscilloscope, whether those who know the value and are of a dishonest disposition see the oscilloscope and think they can take it, without getting caught.

A new security manager where I work stated we must start to start locking the storeroom because equipment might get stolen. We have some very expensive pressure calibration equipment, which cost arount 20k each. I said it's unlikely anything will get stolen because it hasn't happened in the company's 70 year history and few people who are aware of the value of the instruments are the type to steal them. I told her, if we left a piece of test equipment worth 20k at the local shopping centre, with a £200 bike next to it, both unlocked, the bike would get stolen, not the instrument. The value of the bike would be obvious to anyone, but not the test equipment which is very niche.

--- End quote ---

Famously when Bill Hewlett found a store room locked, he used bolt cutters and left a note requesting that it not be locked in future.
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