SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
This fingerprint-verified smart lock can be foiled by a magnet:
Tapplock, a company that makes fingerprint-verified locks, has had a rough time with its locks' security. The company's flagship lock, which has been available since 2019, is apparently easy to pop open with a magnet. YouTuber LockPickingLawyer published a video last week showing how he could use a powerful magnet to turn the motor inside the Tapplock One Plus, causing it to open. The entire process takes less than 30 seconds.
The Tapplock One Plus costs $99 and features a fingerprint sensor. It also has built-in Bluetooth, so people can unlock it using an app. In response to the video, Tapplock commented: "Wow! Shout out to LPL for finding this exploit. Working on a fix with magnetic shielding, will be back."
This is a commendable reply, although it doesn't do much for people who already bought the lock. Most companies ignore bug reports or fail to fix the flaw. It at least seems like Tapplock wants to figure out how to prevent this kind of attack.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday April 06 2020, @10:27PM (1 child)
Here's one that's cheap. [aliexpress.com]
Like really cheap. You can change the currency at the top of the page to whatever you like.
I am going to assume something that cheap is just to slow a thief down, rather than stop him.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday April 07 2020, @04:05AM
Friend of mine who runs the local lockpicking club said that a cheap crappy Chinese padlock was one of the toughest padlocks (outside of high-security ones) he's ever picked because everything was so sloppily-made that... OK, I don't know the technical details but whatever it was that normally works didn't work very well and he had to spend ages messing around with it. He bought it specifically as a teaching padlock because he thought it'd be a doddle to open but it ended up being a right pain and not suited for teaching at all.