Combined with a controlled alarm, this could be quite dangerous.
“Researchers Demonstrate How Easy It Is To Hack A Smart Lock” via Digg Researchers Demonstrate How Easy It Is To Hack A Smart Lock | Digg
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We are going to see these types of issues daily. Now that so many IOT devices are coming out, this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Honestly, if security is the most important thing, you should not be doing home-automation right now.
I really never understood the demand for security (alarm) integration in a “smart” system. For exactly this reason. If someone can access your door lock and the alarm isn’t integral to the (in this case zWave) system, you still have some protection. With both the lock and alarm integrated, the home/people/possessions are completely vulnerable.
Common reason is to get door/window state to use for automation with AC/Heating.
Is it worth it?
To each their own to decide based on the perceived vs. actual risk of somebody targeting your home and knowing its actual address.
Arguably its easier to just break a window if you just want to get in to a home. Most criminal activity is opportunistic and if your are being specifically targeted, a security system and door lock wont do a whole lot. Perceived risk is a deterrent so a sign + surveillance cameras generally do a good job preventing the opportunistic thieves from hitting your home.
[quote=“niharmehta, post:6, topic:192248”]To each their own to decide based on the perceived vs. actual risk of somebody targeting your home and knowing its actual address.
Arguably its easier to just break a window if you just want to get in to a home. Most criminal activity is opportunistic and if your are being specifically targeted, a security system and door lock wont do a whole lot. Perceived risk is a deterrent so a sign + surveillance cameras generally do a good job preventing the opportunistic thieves from hitting your home.[/quote]
Agreed! people tend to over think it alot. How many people even have functioning alarms to begin with. And when you watch the news and hear about robberies how many times to you hear that it was done threw some elaborate scheme to hack into the home automation system and disable the alarm. Most times its threw an unlocked door or window. They are not really picking locks and hacking networks like in the movies.
It almost always starts with watching you as you leave, or knocking on the door first to see if anyone is home. This is before the break in happens and right where home automation can step in and make it seem as if you are or lock your doors when you do leave, turn on lights around the house when motion is detected. Alert you to know someone is standing at your house where you can be on alert to call the authorities, manually set off the alarm if they start peeking in windows before they even get a change to physically break in.
I think having automation and security does more good then not in my case.
Note that this requires a malware app to be installed. Nothing prevents something similar in vera, as far as I know.
Of course, the first time a vera hack app rears its head, my vera is severed from the net. Unlike smartthings, the vera will still work. If I spend the time building layers of routers and VPN servers, I can even maintain remote access while denying vera free access to the net.
Those electronic door locks are only for convenience and stopping the “honest” thieves anyway. And most people who can afford to have a “smart” lock on their front door probably have a fancy door with conveniently smashable side windows.
IMHO… dogs > cameras > security systems > locks
But it would be nice to know if your smart locks were relatively safe.
BTW… in the posted video every “hack” required the user to download an unsafe app. To me that barely counts as hacking. They didn’t exploit anything, they just made an app that the user installed themselves. They make it sound like anyone can sniff the codes out of the zwave transmissions or there’s some other exploit that gives people full control without the user’s consent. These guys might as well call a program like VNC a “hack”.