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Earlier this year, a new type of mobile app blew the collective minds of many—including NBC News investigative reporter Jeff Rossen. Using the camera of a smartphone, these applications could scan a house key, allowing it to be duplicated remotely. Rossen warned America that it could allow someone to digitally steal your house keys if you left them unattended—by uploading photos and getting shipped a custom-cut copy. Of course, they could do the same thing with your house keys just by running with them to a nearby hardware store. But hackers !
One of the contenders in this market is called KeyMe ( https://key.me/ ). No one is going to shoulder surf your house key with KeyMe—it requires photos of a key placed on a white background, taken from 4 inches away. But KeyMe is doing something that will further boggle minds and will likely raise even more security concerns: using the app, you can store scanned copies of your keys on their server and download them at a kiosk. The company has been rolling out kiosks across the country and has just expanded its fleet after inking a deal to place them at the Lowe's home improvement chain. And you can also share your keys with others via e-mail, allowing them to make copies for themselves.
(Score: 5, Informative) by fleg on Sunday March 22 2015, @07:48AM
anyone worried about house security should be much more concerned about how easy the average house lock is to pick.
The MIT Guide To Lockpicking [lysator.liu.se]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 22 2015, @08:11AM
Yep. I've opened a few locks just by sticking random keys into locks, and trying them. Some very cheap locks don't require much of a match at all, it the key fits in the key hole, you can jiggle the damned thing around and get it to open. Some, slightly better locks require a near match, but there are limited numbers of keys to start with. If the manufacturer only has 120 different key designs, chances are that you can stumble over a matching key if you try. Then, of course, there are picks. Virtually all locks sold in America are pickable, some very easily, some with a little more difficulty.
There are some pretty good locks available in Europe, which master lock pickers claim are impossible, or nearly impossible to pick. But, those things are also pretty high dollar. One simply doesn't buy a $200 - $500 lock to secure ten dollars worth of tools. Not when most people use a cheap twenty dollar lock to secure their homes!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 22 2015, @10:23AM
the average home door is not anywhere near secure...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday March 22 2015, @12:04PM
Windows is not very secure either, even less effort require to hack it
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by fleg on Sunday March 22 2015, @01:19PM
sure, but the amount of time it takes to pick the average lock is not much more and the big advantage is you could lock it again on the way out.