How Do I Prevent Lan Party Theft?

DragonTHC writes "I'm thinking about hosting a lan party open to the public. I'm aiming for approximately 60 people to attend. I can handle all the logistics of operation. The only thing I can't wrap my head around is: how do I prevent theft at the lan party? Do I hire security guards? Do I need security cameras? I don't know the people who will attend, and I don't know if they're trustworthy enough to not steal other people's equipment. What do I do?"

Insurance?

Suppose somebody gets hurt? Are you ready to handle a big personal liability lawsuit?

I would NOT do what you are describing.

Re:Insurance?

Suppose somebody gets hurt? Are you ready to handle a big personal liability lawsuit?

I would NOT do what you are describing.

That's really disappointing ... I've seen this argument stop lots of events from happening...
Public Liability insurance is not expensive for this sort of affair...
if you hold the event in a hotel or other such place then most straight forward issues could be covered by the hotels insurance...

Also, 20178 is pretty low... so your probably old enough to have actual assets worth suing over, where as students and younger people aren't as big a target.
No assets, no point suing.

Re:Insurance?

Suppose somebody gets hurt? Are you ready to handle a big personal liability lawsuit?

Oh please. If you're constantly worried about being sued you might as well just never get out of bed in the morning.

The reality here is this is a LAN party, not a frat-boy keg party. The risks are low.

If you're really concerned about it, most homeowners policies have a personal liability coverage in them.

Re:Insurance?

I don't think you ought to underestimate the dangers of *E*X*T*R*E*M*E* *F*R*A*G*G*I*N*G*!!!!

Re:Insurance?

Actually, the homeowner's policy will only cover liability on the property and I doubt they will host a 60 person LAN party in their house.

What they would want is a PLUP - A personal liability umbrella policy. I got one for $1 million that costs under $80 a year. Plus it gave me a deduction on my car insurance.

Re:Insurance?

Suppose somebody gets hurt? Are you ready to handle a big personal liability lawsuit?

I would NOT do what you are describing.

Not even trying to be funny but honestly, in no other country than USA would this be among the first things people think. I can't imagine that anyone in Finland would ever sue some organizer if they get hurt... Aside from it being clearly organizer's fault, such as letting toxic gas (not just farts) into the room. I mean... what? How do people even hurt themselves in lan parties?

I'm not saying the parent didn't have a valid point. If this is in USA and people really do raise law suits as easily as the rest of the world claims they do... Sure, get some sort of insurance.

But to thieving issue... Just tell people "Hey, if you have no friend here to watch your belongings and can't keep them safe yourself when sleeping, etc., you can leave the small valuables to me for a receipt.

Can't imagine this being an issue, though. I've been on countless lan parties from a dozen people to five thousand people (Assembly 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008), often without knowing anyone and always leaving laptops and often more (still packaged graphics cards, etc.) and such on the tables. Nobody has ever stolen anything from me nor have I heard that anyone else has lost anything in any of the events I've been in...

Have some trust in people. I know some would say "Yeah, you'll regret that trust when someone demands you two grands for that equipment someone stole from him" but seriously, guys:

If you can't have enough faith in humanity to throw a lan party because you fear for all the items that could be stolen, accidents that could happen, insurances, law suits... Your attitude to life sucks.

Related, have everyone sign a release..

...stating you are not responsible for lost/stolen/damaged equipment.

Re:Related, have everyone sign a release..

Also have all equip signed in/out, that's all - nothing leaves without a cross-check to make sure it was checked in by the same guy. If you make it look like you are expecting theft, people will steal. If you put everyone on notice that you have an honor system and this signin is just to prevent mixups for identical-looking equipment, you'll have happier party-goers.

The disclaimer should be nothing too onerous, but with plenty of disclaimers - "YOU agree that YOU are responsible for everything that happens to YOUR equipment while it's here, including theft, spillage, power surges, lightning strikes, or other acts of man or God."

Hire a guard, in cosplay

Hire a security guard, but if you want to intimidate lanparty geeks you need to have him dressed up as Arthas or something. Make sure the "steel is real" when selecting a weapon to go with the costume, geeks can tell 440stainless vs polished aluminum a mile away.

Re:Hire a guard, in cosplay

geeks can tell 440stainless vs polished aluminum a mile away.

Or they could use something nerds are really afraid of, girls.

Nothing

Your better off not trying to do anything to secure anything short of your own equipment. Just post a sign at the door that states that there is "no security" and that every individual is completely responsible for their own property.

a huge porn server

Stick one of those on the network, and people will be too busy downloading that to bother about stealing stuff.

nooooo!

But GPL-porn would probably be made by the same people that release software under the GPL......

Must...burn...imagination....

video capture, check id's

Post signs saying you will record video. And do it (assuming you have a large rectangular space, 4 cameras to get a 360 degree view should be easy to set up, and relatively cheap). Record video capturing the face and ID of each person attending, at a bottlenecked entrance. If you have a venue with a parking lot, notify everyone that there will be videotaping of the parking lot, and again, do it. If you have the budget, hire a professional to do the ID checking. This should pretty much make any theft a non issue to prosecute. Be sure to post a disclaimer that you're not responsible for items lost/stolen though.

DRM

Everyone knows that DRM is really the only answer for preventing theft in today's high-tech society.

Here's some pointers :-)

Having organized parties as large as 2000 people, there is one thing that will pretty much be true with a party of every size : You cannot possibly guarantee that there won't be any theft at all and maintain a decent party atmosphere (let alone keep inside the budget).

You should, under no circumstances, assume liability over your guests' equipment. They need to know they are responsible for their own stuff, and that you will not be held accountable if somebody steals it. If they cannot watch their equipment for the duration of the party, then that is not your fault.
You can, of course, offer a "lockbox"-service -- i.e. offer to keep their hardware secured in a cage or some such which is guarded 24/7; This is pretty much the same model as wardrobe at theaters. You take their bags/hardware, issue them a ticket, and do not release the bags/hardware without that ticket. Make sure you inform yourself on what liability you are taking on (if any), possibly restrict it to a maximum value, and consider insuring yourself against theft thereof. If you do this, make absolutely sure that the station is manned 24/7 (we usually do this near the reception area). Think about policies and procedures for when somebody loses their ticket (they will.)

If you provide the network/power infrastructure (and you usually do), think a bit about how to secure it. If you rent your equipment, inquire about theft insurance. It may well be worth it, depending on what your equipment costs. The most probable time switches, routers, etc. get stolen is when everybody is packing up (at the end of the party) -- it's chaos at that point. Keep an eye on your stuff. We usually devise a monitoring system; if your switches are managed, you can keep pinging them once a second from a central station. If they don't reply two or more times, an alarm goes off (loud, obnoxious, flashy alarm, with the equipment name, number and mapped location on the screen, in red). Make sure you have people in place who can follow up on that stuff, fast. If there is only one exit, it may be easier to check for your "bigger" stuff; smaller stuff is easy to hide in bags, and searching bags is not only really, really timeconsuming, but also kills party atmosphere, potentially lands you in legal hot waters, etc.

Do not assume that people will leave via the designated exit/entrance area. You will most likely HAVE to have a secondary fire exit (or more, depending on the size of the venue). These cannot be blocked or barred. When people leave at the end, they may also use these. Equipment near there is rather high risk. Have people there.

Security "guards" (i.e. guys hired for that specific purpose) are nice for FEELING secure, but they don't actually do much. LAN-party goers don't usually end up in fistfights, and you don't want guards roughing up your guests. It doesn't, of course, hurt when some of your organizing team (you do have a team, right ?) look impressive in person :>

Security cameras don't usually have high resolutions and are easily avoided. You can make pretty nifty time-compressions of them though for the after-party videos.

If you want, you can devise a ticketing/sticker system for high-value items of your guests ... I.e. when they check in, give them 3-4 stickers for their equipment and a token to be kept secure (an armband, a badge, that sort of stuff). They affix their stickers to their equipment, and on checkout, you check the stickers against the badge. If you go this road, do keep an eye on speed. Wireless handheld barcode scanners can help. If this process is too slow, your team and your guests will grow frustrated at checkout and eventually not bother with it anymore.

You mention that you do not know the people who are coming. Do you also not know who is coming ? If not, make it a requirement to sign up on your website. Throw in some nifty stuff for that (seat selection, etc.), and people will do it. That way at least you'll have some personal information to identify people with.

Hasn't been a problem for me

I've been to dozens of LAN parties, and I've never lost any equipment. In fact, I usually end up leaving with more equipment than I came with.

LAN Party Theft

Speaking as someone whose worked with folks who host a 120+ person LAN party every 6 weeks, there are really only 2 ways to prevent it:

1.) Only invite folks whom you know and trust.
2.) Don't have a LAN party.

But, beyond that, try to organize your folks who are coming into groups who know each other, or can at least work cooperatively outside what's going on in the LAN. That is, if you have groups of folks who know one another, then while some are napping or off getting refreshments, someone they knowand trust is there to guard their loot. That's about the most straightforward way, because you won't know everyone, but hopefully everyone there will know a few other folks. And if they don't, maybe you can create some new groups of friends.

More than that, you DO need to have some sort of hold harmless paperwork that everyone agrees and signs, so you're not left with the liability issue. I mean, let's say no one steals anything, no one hurts themselves, what if someone innocently brings in a virus or malware or keylogger that gets spread through the LAN. Sometimes, CYA is the only way to do things.

Just my $0.02. Good luck, either way!

Re:How many people at the party do you know?

Better yet, don't invite people you don't know. It's that simple. If you don't know someone well enough to trust them not to walk off with your stuff, you shouldn't be inviting them into your house. I sopose you could hire a gaurd, or delegate security, or any number of any other things; the question is, do you really want to have to do that in your own house?

Re:How many people at the party do you know?

Invite Hells Angels they have a long track record of providing security http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Free_Concert [wikipedia.org]

Re:Parties in general

You can't expect to prevent theft at all in any kind of party.

Hell, if it's a really good party you should wake up 2 weeks later naked in an alley in Tijuana.

Re:The question should be.

> How can you steal from them without them finding out?

1. Make everyone sign "The host can keep any stuff that is left behind" contract before entering.
2. Yell "oh my god, are those girls naked out there"
3. When everyone is out, close the door
4. Profit

That is actually not stealing, because you made them sign. If you want to steal, skip #1.

Re:Handcuff them

Handcuff them to the table, and when they want to leave, you can escort them out.

I used to work for you, didn't I?

Re:kensington cable locks

Make sure the cable is looped around something that is relatively solid and unmovable.

Such as the gamers themselves. Oh, wait...

Re:Easy

What? Use social interaction to simply fix a problem that could equally be solved by the use of needlessly complex technology!? ARE YOU MAD?!?