How safe are digital door locks as compared to a regular locks?

While upgrading the security of your house from a regular lock to a digital lock, it is natural to wonder how much more secure the digital door locks are. Especially knowing that any internet-connected device can potentially be hacked, you want to be sure about the security risk involved with digital door locks.  But consider this first: Locks have always been very vulnerable from the first day. Violating a regular door lock practically takes from a few seconds to a minute to two.

How Do Burglars Break Into Houses Secured By Regular Locks?

Here are some quick ways that an ordinary burglar can employ to break into a house guarded with an ordinary lock:

1. A popular way to break into a house is to Jimmy the regular old fashioned door lock, where burglar uses a short iron rod to force or break a lock open.
2. Picking a lock is no rocket science and you can buy a training kit for it online and teach your child to pick a lock for fun or safety reasons. The best of “pick resistant “locks are a little harder to pick but they still are not impossible to pick. While locking picking is easily the most ancient way of compromising a traditional lock, it is certainly not the most efficient of the frequently used way for burglars.
3. A bump key is a regular looking key that can fit in and unlock almost any regular lock.
4. Another way is lock snapping, where burglar delivers a little force at the correct angle on the weaker spot of lock and with a little clicking noise the lock opens up.
5. Slipping in your credit card between the door and its frame is another easy and elegant way to compromise a regular lock which very much popular in media and burglars since it is the easiest and most on technical way to break in.

These are the five most popular ways of compromising a regular lock secured door and for sure there are many more ways. These methods do not work with digital door locks armed with an alarm system which will set off if the lock is tampered with. The only way that someone can violate these digital door locks is through hacking the password which certainly takes more than a few minutes. Good news is that the majority of the burglars in Malaysia are not professionals, but impulsive thieves not equipped with technology and skills to hack into a computer system.

What Are The Chances Of Burglar Hacking A Digital Door Lock?

Since tempering the digital door lock will set the alarms off and send alerts to the house owner, the only ways to get access to your house is through the digital key for which you are the safe keeper or by hacking the system. As discussed earlier that most burglars are not expert hackers this dramatically decreases the chances of a house guarded by digital door lock being broken in.

Additionally, hacking a digital door lock needs you to be in physical proximity of the lock for more than a few minutes. That’s a painfully long time for a thief to risk getting caught in the process of breaking in since they usually have a bracket of just a few minutes to perform the entire stunt of burglary. They would much rather pick a house with a regular lock which can be unlocked much more quickly and conveniently.

It is highly unlikely that a hi-tech savvy burglar will attempt to breach a digital lock to steal some valuables from a home. Logic dictates that individuals with such skill set have better options available to them for making money without taking the risk of getting involved in petty theft crime. They will need a much bigger motive to hack a digital door lock system than some cash laying around your house. This is backed up by the encouraging statistics that there are practically no crimes reported regarding hacking of digital door locks in Malaysia.

Precautions Recommended To Improve the Efficacy of Digital Door Locks

Just because the digital door locks are much less likely to be violated in comparison to a regular lock, it does not mean that you should throw the caution out of the window after installing a digital door lock. These are some precautionary measures that you should take when you installing digital door locks to improve the security of your house.

1. Although your entrance doors are secured with digital door locks your windows and back door are not. Make sure you secure all your door entrances and windows before you leave the house.
2. Opt for a digital door lock that will go with the overall look of the exterior of your house. Anything extra fancy or flashy will send a message to the seasoned burglar that you have something very valuable at your house that you wish to protect with advanced technology. This will be tempting the burglars and while they cannot incapacitate the digital door lock easily, there is no reason they will not look into other ways of getting into your home like windows and backdoors.
3. Most digital door locks come with an emergency key for just in case your batteries die or you forget your password, you can still access your home. Make sure your emergency key is not in the plane site or easily accessible. Do not leave it under the doormat or over the shed. It is recommended that you keep the emergency keep with you rather than leave it outside the house. The best practice is to regularly charge your batteries so you never have to use the emergency key.
4. Do not share your password or digital key with anyone that you do not trust 100%.
5. If you grant someone like a baby sitter or a tenant temporary access, make sure you change the password or delete the temporary key immediately after they do not require it.
6. If you plan to share your password with people like dog walkers or baby sitters, make sure you are investing in a digital door lock that gives you the option of generating temporary passwords. It is best if those passwords can also be activated for a scheduled period like certain times or hours in a day only.
7. Delete your temporary passwords as soon as they are not needed.
8. Change battery of your digital door locks yourself and do not ask a house help or maid to it for you. While hacking them can be difficult, physically tempering a lock while changing batteries do not require many skills and can be very tempting too.
9. Also, double-check the security of your lock and confirm it has not been compromised after availing the service of a serviceman for your door lock. It is highly recommended you only avail the services of the company that manufactured the lock as they will be more reliable in this regard.
10. If you are leaving the house for some days, it is advisable to take measures so your house does not look empty. Also, inform your trusted neighbor that you will not be home for said number of days and they shall alert you and police if they notice any movement in or around your house.