You have a few options to choose from, and you could probably benefit from some unbiased advice. The final responsibility rests always with you even when you delegate the actual implementation to some company or other.

The first choice coming to mind is to purchase insurance. The advantage of this solution is that before engaging in preparing a quotation the company will request to perform a survey of the premises. They will easily find weak spots, if there are any, in the ways of access, and they will request their hardening as a condition for subscribing the insurance.

After you get and study their evaluation, you will have to estimate the cost of introducing the requested changes. You are still free to continue your inquiry and to select the comprehensive solution you prefer.

Then you may wish to study the offers of security providers companies. In exchange for a long term contract, possibly three years, they will supply hardware, installation and maintenance for a whole surveillance system directly connected with their central monitoring bureau.

What will occur next in case of an alarm is what you have to investigate with them and decide if, in exchange for the money they collect, they provide you with the security level you seek.

The third option you may wish to consider if that of doing it all by yourself. To study the subject, to get acquainted with the solutions, to look for the most suitable equipment, to learn how to install and operate it, seems to be a complex project.

But by breaking it down into its separate tasks you will be able to come to the conclusion that it is wholly doable. In the process you will learn a thing or two about home surveillance, you will gain confidence and self assurance, and you will see that you are able to spare quite a bit of money, compared to the other solutions.

It is certain that you must have in place sturdy means of passive protection. They may be widely adequate because burglars tend to look for the easiest breaking in opportunities and leave the rest.

Active alarms may deter intruders in that they convey to the burglars the notion they were caught in the act, and they would better abandon their prey for their own escape. The ultimate in home surveillance is however a system of one or more cameras keeping the area under constant monitoring. Their presence alone might be able to deter uninvited guests from trying their luck.

In any case a well conceived and operated surveillance system can detect attempts to get in, and provide useful clues to the authorities if there is a need to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators.