Encryption and offsite backups. If someone nicks it then they don't get any private information. And with backups it's easy enough to just push the data onto a new device.
this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2025
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My servers are one NUC clone and a 4*16tb NAS. I have a lot of docker containers running constantly and yet cooling has never really been an issue for me. A larger concern is I would rather not see it, so It's hidden it under furniture. The fans on the NAS have attracted a layer of dust, and one day I might clean it. Kidding. I wont.
My security team involves a bull dog named Sophie, who has never done more than lick any other being, but I'm banking on burglars not knowing this.
Hah, my lab is mostly a bunch of raspberry pi’s screwed to a wall
I have a similar security team, that will bark for attention from people outside/entering the house. Sounds very intimidating, in reality, a big fluff that wants to play.
My nas is in the basement. Some day I might move it further into the basement, but there are so many steps between now and then.
Door lock and house alarm, also mines at the back of the garage with plenty of more easily stealable things in front of it.
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Home... lab?
Dude, it's just a computer.
maybe they have switches and computers and whatnot, different units
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I had to scroll down too far to find something like this.
If you're home the solution is simple. If you're not home, then they'll likely steal an inexpensive boomstick rather than your network gear.
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Nothing any more than anything else in my house.
Anything confidential is encrypted with a password. Other stuff is replaceable. And would theoretically be covered by home insurance.
It's valuable to you
I want to steal shit that I can move easily, and I'm going to avoid niche stuff with a limited number of buyers because I don't want to use the same people repeatedly
Since the other comments seem to be less than useful ideas on things you didn’t ask about…
I keep my NAS/Video server for my home cameras in my gun safe. Costco has a gun safe (really can be used for anything like documents too since it’s fire rated) that had power cable running to the inside. I used the same path to run a data cable and keep it all locked up in there with a monitor mounted on top and a UPS in the middle. My safe is close to my room with the idea being if someone wanted to break in I’d keep the footage. Not that anyone would, but like you seem to be asking I’m more concerned about the what if.
The rest of the switches/routers/WAP Controller is located in my home office closet inside of one of those on-Q boxes in the wall.
If the (theoretical) burglar finds a gun safe and it is even locked properly, I would think it looks quite attractive :)
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That sounds like a great idea but how is the ventilation on that setup? Does it have ventilation for letting in cool air and exhausting the hot air?
It’s a smaller unit for my camera setup and it’s in a cooler area. When I open the safe up it’s basically the same temp. So I’m not worried about thermal performance. At least on that front. The camera system is just for home monitoring. The main components (what you mentioned being concerned about) stay hidden too behind the closet wall in my office and the wall is an interior wall so thermally they stay pretty smooth.
Blinking lights don't really attract thieves... gold 'n' cash does.
With that said... put it in a room you can keep closed at all times (watch the temps).
And do have backups offsite.
Home security first of all, with cameras to deter thiefs. That alone mostly solves the problem, but I'm in a relatively safe area.
My "lab" is just a switch, nuc and unifi cloud key, and while they are warm in their closet, its not super hot.
I have a Kensington lock on the security camera box, but someone could theoretically yank that out of the wall.
The rest really isnt worth breaking in to steal.
All a kensington lock does is cause a bit of damage so a potential buyer can tell that the equipment was stolen.
A thief will likely want to steal or destroy the DVR, so make sure it's well hidden or locked inside a proper safe.
I'm guessing they can rip the other end of the lock out of the wall tbh.
But realistically, theifs aren't that sophisticated, they aren't going to waste time trying to find and destroy the DVR, the will grab whatever valuables they can carry and pawn and leave as fast as possible.
The cameras are really just a deterant, they will move on to an easier house instead of risking it with mine.
You are paranoid. And beyond putting a camera outside (minimal but some deterance), you have putting bars on windows and shit.
I mounted mine on the wall under a desk in a room with no other electronics, and then put up a fake wall in front of the server. It can draw in air from the sides, and exhaust upwards behind the desk. But the only real solution is offsite backup, which will also protect against fire and other disasters.
What do you do when you need to replace a drive?
So far that has never happened because I'm not using that much storage :) But I shut it down when I need to turn off the mains electricity, and for powering it on afterwards the fake wall can be lifted off. It's just the area underneath the desk so the panel might be smaller than it sounds like, and it hangs on some hooks so it's fairly easy to remove if you know what you're doing. Painted in the same colour as the wall, and with some some random junk on the floor in front, it blends in quite well though. I think the risk of burglary is fairly low, so it's primarily to soothe my own paranoia.
My current server is a normal tower PC on the outside, but it is placed in a remote and inaccessible part of my rooms.
My next one (work in progress) will be placed in a corner of the living room (because the cable from the satellite dish is there). It will not look like a computer. Just a white square box with a table top on it. And it will not make any noise (hopefully).
Genuine question how hard would it be to rig some form of self destruct to a drive that has to be deactivated before power is lost to it. Obviously their would be a backup power solution for if mains power was lost but would it be feasible and doable without breaking any laws inherently (eg being a trap and killing the thief).
I'm not asking for a friend but I also don't ever plan to use this knowledge I'm just genuinely curious.
There have been some interesting DEFCON talks on the subject.
DEFCON 19: And That's How I Lost My Eye: Exploring Emergency Data Destruction (w speaker) / Invidious: Nadeko or instance selection
DEF CON 23 - Zoz - And That's How I Lost My Other Eye...Explorations in Data Destruction (Fixed) / Invidious: Nadeko or instance selection
Some of the Invidious instances are busted due to recent changes but Nadeko seems to be working for now.
Cellar, steel-door with face-detection. Only if me (and/or wifey) are present the door opens shortly, video-surveillance, alarm-system. Same for gate and entrance. So you first would have to make your way TO the server-room :-) Might be an overkill (who wants to steal a server?!) but our backups and archives are stored there too, 100% fire-proof. And I value those. Money is replaceable.
Is your concern compromise of your data or loss of the server?
My guess is that most burglaries don't wind up with people trying to make use of the data on computers.
As to loss, I mean, do an off-site backup of stuff that you can't handle losing and in the unlikely case that it gets stolen, be prepared to replace hardware.
If you just want to keep the hardware out of sight and create a minimal barrier, you can get locking, ventillated racks. I don't know how cost-effective that is; I'd think that that might cost more than the expected value of the loss from theft. If a computer costs $1000 and you have a 1% chance of it being stolen, you should not spend more than $10 on prevention in terms of reducing cost of hardware loss, even if that method is 100% effective.