Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Smart Home
  3. News

This device protects packages delivered to your door while you’re away

The Package Guard protects deliveries from theft, now on pre-order for $69

By

package guard keeps track of your deliveries tpg background 3164 1
Image used with permission by copyright holder
It’s always exciting to have a delivery on the way, and so it’s massively disappointing when that package doesn’t make it into your hands. Unfortunately, “porch pirates” are common enough that over 15 million people have a delivery stolen from their home each year, according to Package Guard. To protect deliveries when they arrive, the company has created a new product that serves to deter thieves. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $45,000 from 381 backers, the Package Guard is now available for pre-order on its website.

Package Guard is a small alarm, about the size of a Frisbee, that can be placed outside your front door. The device clearly says, “Place Package Here,” so that those delivering items know where to set the packages. Once a delivery has been set on the device, Package Guard’s alarm is armed. If anyone tries to remove the package without entering the necessary passcode in the app, an alarm will sound, much like a car alarm.

Recommended Videos

For those who have home security cameras, Package Guard can be set to work in conjunction with the system. In this case, the alarm will also take a photograph of the person who snatched the package. The image can then be automatically shared with the police or on Facebook to warn neighbors.

Related

The idea behind Package Guard comes from founder Michael Grabham, who was himself once the victim of a porch pirate. He had been expecting a delivery of coats to be distributed to the homeless over the holiday season, but the package was stolen from his front porch.

“With an increasing number of people ordering items delivered to their homes, I wanted to create a simple solution that would solve the problem of protecting a delivery when no one is home,” said Package Guard founder Michael Grabham in a press release.

You can now pre-order the Package Guard and keep your deliveries safe for $69. This represents $20 off the retail price of $89, so if you’re interested in ensuring that your packages stay on your porch (and out of the hands of strangers), this may be a good investment to make.

Update: The Package Guard is now available for pre-order on the company website. 

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Stephanie Topacio Long
Stephanie Topacio Long
Contributor
Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…
Amazon’s new Astro robot can keep an eye on your home while you’re away
Amazon Astro Robot in living room.

Introducing Amazon Astro – Household Robot for Home Monitoring, with Alexa

During today's Amazon 2021 event, we got to check out a new home robot assistant called Astro. In addition to providing the whole range of Alexa voice commands you're used to, the Astro has a telescoping camera that can get a full view of your home, not just from ground level.

Read more
Pegasus and BlastDoor are why you need to update your Apple devices immediately
iPad, iPhone, and airpods.

The iPhone 13 may be ready to launch tomorrow, but Apple is working fast to patch a major vulnerability to its devices with a new update for iOS 14.8, iPad 14.8, and watchOS 7.6.2, none of which were given a beta test period first. While none contain major features as you might expect in advance of tomorrow's "California Streaming" event, these are important security updates, as they contain fixes to two system vulnerabilities.

The potentially more serious one is Pegasus, which is an invasive spyware discovered by Israel's NSO group. This "zero-click" exploit requires no input from a phone's user to take effect, and was being used specifically against activists in Bahrain, including members of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. By defeating Apple's BlastDoor security system, the ForcedEntry exploit was able to install the Pegasus spyware suite for purposes of surveillance.

Read more
How to protect your home security camera from hackers
Google Nest Indoor Security Camera

You've probably seen the stories in the news about trouble with do-it-yourself Wi-Fi home security cameras. There are home camera “invasions,” where user video is stolen from private cameras and posted to the internet, or straight-up hacking where an unknown person can access your camera and the microphone attached to it, and speak to you, threaten your children, or otherwise harass you from afar.

While these instances are rare, they do exploit certain vulnerabilities in wireless home surveillance cameras, so it's important to know how it happens, how you can tell if your camera's been hacked already, and how to secure your home network and evaluate whether your cameras are at risk and fix them.
How do hackers get into your cameras?
Why hackers hack security cameras is a whole separate question, but there are two common ways hackers can access wireless network information.
Local Wi-Fi network hacking
The first involves the hacker being within the range of your Wi-Fi. The hacker either guesses your Wi-Fi password or creates a duplicate or spoof network that looks like your Wi-Fi network. Next, they suppress the real network so that you sign in to their network instead. Once they have your password, they log in to your actual Wi-Fi network, and that's where the trouble begins.
Remote hack attack
While these local attacks are possible, they’re much less likely than a remote attack. Remote attacks occur when hackers gain your actual password info. How do they get your password? Sometimes if people use weak passwords like 11111, password, or 123456, hackers can simply try a bunch of the most common and default passwords until they hit on the right one.

Read more