Are smart locks safe? yes!

If you do some research on smart home solutions and smart locks, and try to share some ideas with your friends or partners, you will definitely be asked the question: "Are smart locks really safe?" Incomplete Facts and information often falsely negatively affect smart locks. In this article, we'll debunk several of these often-heard myths and provide solid arguments for the next discussion.

"Smart Locks Make Your Door Locks Unsafe" - Wrong!

Most manufacturers of electronic door locks offer retrofit solutions. This means that the Smart Lock is mounted onto the existing door cylinder. This is usually a much easier solution: if the lock doesn’t have to be exchanged, you can continue to use your old key. You will not incur any additional costs. If you move to a new house, you can simply bring along your Smart Lock to your new place.

Since the lock cylinder stays the same, a Smart Lock in no way alters the fundamental security features of your lock. Regardless of whether you use a Smart Lock or not, we always recommend investing in a high-grade, secure lock cylinder.

"Lock the door with your smartphone? That's not safe!" - Wrong!

Many people feel insecure about installing smart locks and using their smartphones to unlock doors. What if my smartphone is stolen? How do I lock the door when the battery is dead? How can my child lock or unlock the door if they don't already have a smartphone? All these questions have simple answers. If you lose your smartphone, another authorised person can remove your access at any time - your personal digital key. This brings a big benefit: the entitlement can be withdrawn in seconds, and you don't have to replace the entire lock, which you would have to do if you lost a traditional key.

If your battery is dead or your residents don't have a smartphone, a few Smart Lock accessories can come in handy. For example, airEkey offers other means of entry: using an entry code or a small bluetooth remote. Of course, you can also continue to use the old key as an additional backup.

"Anyone can simply remove the smart lock from the outside, right?" - Wrong!

Many well-known manufacturers of electronic door locks, as well as the airEkey Smart Lock, offer access solutions installed on the inside of the door. This makes it impossible to recognize from the outside that a smart lock has been installed on the inside of your door. An excellent additional security feature that should also be considered when purchasing a smart lock.

"Smart locks are easy to crack" - False!

All smart home products, including smart locks, are constantly under scrutiny because they are thought to be easily hackable. It is often difficult for a layperson to tell how well a particular Smart Lock model is protected from a dangerous hacker attack.

The security level of smart home products is a hot topic in TV and newspaper coverage. Many of these are tested in the laboratory under conditions that are very different from the everyday environment. This is why judgments are often incomplete and stir up additional insecurities.

They often publish their test reports on their blog, and smart lock manufacturers usually list these test certifications on their website. Another important security feature revolves around the transparency provided by the Smart Lock manufacturer about its encryption and data transfer protocols. For example, at airEkey, we blog about our end-to-end encryption concept.