Target Hardening
Target hardening is the practice of making your home, your vehicle, or your person enough trouble to be worth skipping, so an offender chooses a different target. It is also known as hardening the target.
Why Preppers Meet the Term
Most property crime is a selection process before it is a crime. An offender weighs effort against reward against the odds of being seen, then picks the easiest option. You are rarely defending against someone who chose you specifically. You are competing with the other houses on the street, and target hardening moves you off the top of that list. It makes your house not worth the extra two minutes, which is the decision an offender is actually making.
Target hardening pairs with OPSEC to cover both halves of the problem. OPSEC keeps your supplies and plans quiet, while hardening makes the approach expensive. The same thinking scales down to your person through the gray man principle and out to your accounts through MFA.
Prepper Life guides on hardening your home, your vehicle, and your accounts are in the works.
