If you need electricity to operate your locks, a power failure is the difference between you sleeping on your front porch, or burglars having a key to your house.
If there is no keyhole to pick then it is probably marginally more secure, but if a burglar wants to get into your home then no door lock is going to stop them. They could just break it or break your windows.
This is it. The weakest part of most doors is the door. A sledge hammer will go through a door or window regardless of the lock.
Smart locks are way more convenient and the ability to grant timed access and unique access controls probably makes them more secure.
If you’re caught with a lock pick, or sledge hammer or saw all, that establishes intent. You’ll do more time. Of course that’s a huge “if”
They could just break it or break your windows.
This is why you need backup measures. For example, if they break in through my windows, they’ll be foiled by the micromachines I placed strategically on the floor. If they break through the door, they’ll have to contend with the blowtorch I have rigged just inside the entryway. Always remember, “this is my house, I have to defend it.”
Just leave some Lego on the ground. Perfectly legal, yet instantly lethal to anyone who steps on it.
If they manage to get past that, you should attach a paint can to some rope and have it rigged to swing towards them if they are coming up the stairs.
What if you’re in another city that your uncle happens to live in and his house is being renovated, would you still be able to defend it?
We have steel doors and protection metal bars in the windows in LATAM (yep, our houses are little fortress) and even that would not stop the most dedicated burglars…
You know, I feel cameras help even more, these scums get anxiety when they see cameras lol.
Less. Look at any Lockpicking Lawyer video on YouTube as he demonstrates in real time how bad they are. Most of his videos are under 5 min
If you want to really turn yourself off smart locks check out any DefCon talk about smart locks or “smart” devices in general.
You want them to break in for insurance purposes though, it’s a clear indication of unauthorized entry. Your policy should cover the door/window, but if your lock gets picked/bypassed you’re going to have a rough time getting things covered.
I just watched LPL pick a smart lock with no keyhole. He just had to shove a bit of wire in the drain hole at the bottom. 🤦♂️
A previous owner of my apartment had for some reason installed a high security door. It’s 5 inches thick with steel plates inside and has 3 separate sets of 3 locking rods like a bank vault. Not sure what line of work they were in but, really, good luck to the person who thinks they can break in here easily. Downside is there is no way to put a digital lock on the sucker.
I would be worrying about fire fighters won’t be able to enter my apt when they need to.
And most dumb locks can also be picked in under 5 minutes. The difference is a smart lock can alert me when someone who isn’t me opens the door or leaves it open. Of course, most burglars are just going to break a window to get in.
There should be a separation between fully mechanical locks with electronic monitoring (ideal) and a mechanical lock with vital electronic components.
You can get a lot of locks which allows you to connect external mechanisms which can do just that. Don’t know anything ready out of the box, though
My smart lock doesn’t change the locking mechanisms. It’s basically a robot on the inside that turns the lock like you would. The only security issue would have to be software side, which a typical thief isn’t going to bother with especially since you cost tell from the outside that’s it’s not a normal lock - because it is.
August lock btw.
I agree that most thieves won’t bother - but they do now have the additional option to hack it, making the lock less secure in total, not to mention the flawed mechanical design many of those smart locks have.
Yeah I’m just saying in my case they have no way of seeing that it’s a smart lock at all. The only smart part is an attachment on the interior side. So mechanically it’s 100% the same, and there is no visible indication that is “hackable,” even if it were. My door and it’s lock look as just like it did 15 years ago.
most of the smart locks that are supposed to be drop in replacements for traditional locks are mostly trash.
Personally been eyeing upgrading to UI’s access readers, but it lacks features like door unlock with Apple Homekey (for now anyways since it requires some specialty hardware). So been holding off.
This particular product is geared towards small business and large enterprises. But can be setup for home usage if you have to technical expertise.
Depends. Any modern lock can easily be picked with something called a comb, which can bypass all the pins by pushing them far up into the lock so it can turn. However, the position on the security of pin pads is debatable. Regardless of which is better, both can easily be bypassed with a drill, so I guess neither.
Every house has a window to break, door locks are an illusion of security.
The reason why people even pick locks to get in homes is because it’s most of the time silent to pick a lock. Do you think someone would just choose to pick the lock instead of breaking the window if noise wasn’t a concern? Though I guess there are silent glass cutters too.
Only cheap locks with a huge design flaw can be picked using a comb. The lock picking lawyer explains in many videos, how this is a very old exploit and easily can be defended against.
However, locks like that sadly still exist. So it is important to choose a reputable manufacturer - be it for classic locks or digital ones. However I will say, that digital locks usually have a classical backup. So that gives an attacker just one mor option to defeat the lock.
A dog with a loud bark will always be more effective than any lock or security system. My border collie is a super lovable dog but her bark is designed to scare off wolves. It’s sounds mean and scary. Truly one whose bark is worse than the bite. She hasn’t ever bit a human but she pinned a pit bull that challenged her and gave him a bite to remember.
