Electric Locks... any info???

[Ryzom]

I have noticed, at least in some places around me, that electic locks are growing increasingly more popular. It strikes me that in the long run, most all locks will become electric (thats just my take, due to the ever increasing rise in technology we have always experienced).

You don't really read a lot about that sort of stuff, but I was just curious if anyone knew anything about electric locks? How to hotwire one, or crack it. I remember seeing a movie with ben afleck where he took the top off of an electric lock (the ones that you card to open) and then touched a wire to two of the metal parts inside it and opened the lock. Now I understand most hollywood don't portray very much truth but I was just curious if anyone knew about this...

[macaba]

I have to assume when you say 'Electric Lock' you mean an electric keypad. I don't think these will become more popular- i think Biometric locks will become more popular. Biometric locks are locks opened by Fingerprint or Eye (Retiner) Scan or else. Keypads arn't easy to open, all i can say is look for the obvious not complicating it. (Cryptic so its not easy for a kiddie to work out)

[Ryzom]

keypads aren't really what I was talking about specifcally but it falls into the same category.

The locks you sometimes find in hotels where you can easily reprogram cards which act as keys to open doors and such. Its some writing program the hotels use to rewrite info on the card, I'm not too sure.

As for the locks using fingerprints and retinal scans, I actually remember reading an article about retinal scanning becoming somewhat similar to Minority Report for airports.

Does this mean the eventual end of Lockpickers in general? This would be a very unfortunate outcome, because I personally have grown to love the art of picking a lock in the past few months I have learned about it.

P.S. I was in no way implying breaking into an airport or anywhere else, I buy my own locks and practice on those.

[Varjeal]

Due to numerous issues not the least of which is life/safety, it is rather unlikely that electronic card access, code access, proximity locks, and biometrics will completely take over. And it's even less likely that locksmiths will disappear completely, they/we'll just have to adapt to the trends, and continue our level of education.

Here's the issue...no matter what system is adopted, there still has to be physical hardware that latches a door to some type of frame. Now, whether this is a magnet, a physical latch, or other device, there will still need to be experts to sell/install/repair these devices. Life/safety issues often demand some type of bypass/override mechanism to protect in case of fire/theft/etc, and what better way than a lock, really?

There is zero chance that you will one day wake up to a lockless world.

[Chubby]

I remember reading a while back about some students in Japan that had bypassed fingerprint, and retinal scanners quite easily, in fact they posted information on how to do it yourself, in some cases just breathing on a biometric finger print scanner was all that was needed to access the system it was securing.
I did try to find it again and actually came up with something of similar interest, as you will see even facial recognition systems can be bypassed, I don't think that mechanical locks will be over shadowed by biometric systems, they have been with us for over 4000yrs, and will probably be with us for a lot longer, but used correctly biometrics will probably replace the use of passport & ID control over the next half century, more so than just being relied upon as security access devices.
All the systems in the following link were all bypassed by Germans, clever those Germans!
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200205/msg00203.html

[UEXplorer]

I think electric locks may be used more for interior purposes. I assume right now it costs a lot more to purchase an electric lock as opposed to a generic pin lock. I think an electric lock to a vandal is like silver to a pack rat. They would be destroyed so quicky. Whereas a durable old golden masterlock will attract less attention. Bolt cutters do raise the obvious security risk. Perhaps we'll see more large organizations investing in this new technology because they have the funds and security to protect their locks. I'm not so sure about individual houses.

Imagine this. Every company has some "master cards" that can open all locks. It would make lockpickers obsolete. You would call the company, they'd send out a guy to open your door/confined space with the master card and carve a new one out of plastic for you.

If this master card slipped out onto the black market and was reproduced it would be disastrous. All the cards would have to be reset and it would be pain for everyone.

Again imagine if vandals ran around breaking residential electric locks just like they egg cars. It would cost everyone many dollars to maintain their security. There is no reason why big names in the security industry won't just dominate the lockpicking industry. Remember Microsoft.

The same applies for biometric locks. Except they may be advantageous because you can control how many people have access to your area. You don't have to worry about too many keys in circulation. Again, if a hacker/lockpicker found a way to circumvent these it would be terrible, and probably expensive to fix.

I will not be relinquising my deadbolt anyday soon.

UEXplorer

[okiewind]

Electronic access control systems (lock is not pc to the physical security companies) are growing in popularity, but most first level entry points are in a "supervised" area.
I do not think they will replace the old fashioned locks for the simple fact that they require power, they require a lot of maintenance (it's an additional duty of mine at work), and installation is a huge pain in the neck.
As for the proximity card readers, it is too stinking easy to bypass these if you know the "material" used in the cards. Some use magnets, some wires, some a microchip, or any combination of these.

The control system to prevent a card falling in the wrong hands is by having random period card verifications. It is actually quite in depth, and I have a bad habit of going too in-depth, to the point of almost getting myself in trouble, so I will avoid that here.