Making an entrance: Remote door-opening tech

Regarding the insurance for the locks, for this reason you can now buy automatic locking triple lock doors. Google MACO UK Z-TA Automatic Door Lock for one example, although there is about 3-4 different manufactures of similar products now. You need the door drilled out for it to fit, so you'd usually ask for it when buying the door.

Then just wire it up to an access control system. You can buy them on eBay at £15 for an RFID one (but they are ugly). You could take it apart and hide it behind a house numberplate or something though.

I ended up going for the manufacturer access control system to guarantee it works and looks nice. Installed next month, but cost a f***in fortune. I decided to go with it anyway after doing months of research.

If I was doing it again, I'd say just give me a standard key, so much hassle dealing with brand new and expensive tech.

Re: Re-boot

Yes, in a lot of places the release is a weak point for sure. We have CISA locks which have a standard fixed striking plate and the magnet is in the lock itself, pulling it back to the open position, which is much sturdier.

And, of course, a good cylinder is important too. Ideally registered keys, not some cheap cylinder that can be opened in half a minute with a locksmith's tools.

For highest security, tuck make sure the relay is tucked away too, so you can't rip the panel off and jumper the lock. I've also seen code panels that reset to default to if a certain button was held during power up. So, if you can engineer a brown out...

Re: Re-boot

If you buy cheap junk, yes.

There's nothing stopping you fitting some serious hardware around even the cheapest of locks to hold it in though. London bars etc. can be adapted to strengthen even the crappiest of locks and, don't forget, your hinge is probably the weak point by that time anyway (especially if you have only two, one top, one bottom, leaving the point of greatest leverage unbolstered).

Personally, I'm quite impressed at basic locks. Even mag-locks are now quite serious. £20 can get you a 500kg holding force mag-lock that put a handful of watts. That's pretty impressive. And, yes, I have hung off one fitted to a metal gate at work to see if it was true. And, no, I don't think you'd open it short of cutting the power which generally requires cutting through an armoured cable or steel fence post anyway.

The problem with security, as always, is not to make the door unkickable, but to make it the least likely alternative. Anybody wanting in will get in, through a window, or just bringing a sledgehammer and making a hole in your side-alley (you could kick any half-decent brick wall down if you tried and had good boots). It's not about absolute security, it's about the effort and sometimes noise/suspicion required to do so. And, like car security, how long you'd be there trying to do it.

I doubt most people even have a front door that would stand up to a few good kicks anyway. The point is that doing that is risky, noisy, obvious and attention-attracting and might still leave you with an aching leg or splinters in your thigh. And so smashing a window is an easier way in.

There's a reason the police have those door-opening battering rams that can be operated from a standing position in one hit. But it's not because that's the best way to gain entry. It's because it gets entry into almost every house and can be repaired quite easily afterwards and there's much less chance of showering someone in glass shards.

Re: More of this sort of article please!

"[...] we take central locking on cars almost for granted, [...]"

Reports this week that Range Rover owners in London are unable to get theft insurance unless they have a lock-up garage. Apparently criminals have access to the necessary equipment to command the car security mechanisms.

Re: I have a small metal key

Well, it's good enough for the TARDIS!

I can recall at least one baddie (probably Tom Baker era.) cussing in exasperation "this lock is too primitive for my equipment to open!"

Re: I have a small metal key

Keys, as an access mechanism, have sufficed for thousands of years.

However, they require physical conferral of the device in question, which is a security risk. Note the numerous mentions of house guests, parcel deliveries etc.

It's useful to have a way to allow a random person in, on your authorisation. You can tell someone a PIN over the phone, you can't give someone a key.

And 3D-printing may well make keys dangerous. A quick photo or even video of your average key, let alone a few seconds of physical access, will give you enough information to make a viable copy, and lock-bumping basically makes 90% of the locks out there key-less with about an hour's practice on a box of old locks. There's also a reason you should change your locks after you've misplaced a key, whether it's returned to you or not.

I'd rather have electronic access. But this is too much. And, yes, at least one of my doors would be accessible by an old fashioned unpowered lock, in the case of an emergency. Though I'd make it the one that requires the greatest faffing to get to, i.e. jumping the fence etc.

Re: Not suitable for all doors?

The one I'm getting for my composite from door has a normal key slot. Guess I'll have to leave it with someone I can trust in case the power goes out.