Police across the world are warning of a dramatic rise in theft of copper, which has recently increased threefold in value, making it an attractive target for thieves. Copper ground wire is a particular target, and in some instance thieves have cut through high voltage cable!The theft of a few hundred dollars worth of wire can have potential consequential losses in the millions of dollars. In 2006 hundreds of trains were disrupted in Italy and a quarter of a million passengers were disrupted when thieves stole copper wires serving signalling equipment.
In the US last week thieves stole copper pipe from a freezer at Indiana's largest food bank, wasting nearly half a million dollars worth of food for the poor.
Security managers are urged to identify any critical dependencies on copper, especially that which runs outside the perimeter, and take steps to better protect it with strong physical security and, where possible, anti-tampering technology to detect voltage changes associated with cutting.
