The Internet of Things (Smart locks, etc...)


technically there is an S in the unabbreviated version...
internet of thingS
 
Oddly, I don't think the biggest problem with smart locks is their disastrously poor information-security design. Working out how to send an unauthenticated "Unlock now" command over Bluetooth is of comparable difficulty to picking or bypassing a cheapish mechanical lock. Not too hard for an engineer, but beyond a common-or-garden burglar.

The problem is the physical design of smart locks. The average thief isn't going to mess around spoofing radio signals when the padlock is shimmable, made of plastic, and held together with hot-snot.

XKCD538 applies.
 
In my palace, we had reinforced doors with multiple physical locks... so they climbed the gutter and broke the window, took all gold (leaving all fakes behind), money, keys, some little digital devices, and then disappeared... all in less than 15 minutes for 4 apartments...
 
Working out how to send an unauthenticated "Unlock now" command over Bluetooth is of comparable difficulty to picking or bypassing a cheapish mechanical lock. Not too hard for an engineer, but beyond a common-or-garden burglar.
True but it can be automatized and you can have automatic unlockers sold on the black market so that anyone can unlock the door. This is already the case for car locks.
But it's still cheaper to just break a window or force the door open (unless it's reinforced).

The biggest trouble I see is that with smart lock hacking there's no trace of forced entry. Just a log stating that someone opened the door. Which means that insurance companies can refuse to cover the loss since you have no way to prove that this was a burglary.
 
I thought insurers generally insist on a certain standard of lock for the property they're insuring. The existing testing agencies and processes would fail most smart locks immediately for mechanical reasons, so the increased risk of traceless entry is a bit of a moot point.

Of course, most masterlock products can be quietly defeated with a rusty paperclip, so the problem isn't unique to electronic wodgits, either.
 
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It might also be that engineers are (by nature or by training) more aware that:
  • A 'dumb' appliance does the job perfectly well, and is only insufficient for a few edge-cases
  • Those 'dumb' appliances will last ten times as long as their 'smart' counterparts.
I have seen porcelain & bakelite light switches still in regular use, several decades after installation - a fair sight better than any of their modern Android-enabled counterparts will manage!
 
I just use OpenHAB and things that work with OpenHAB. That way it's all internal and not online.
 
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