51–60 of 124 posts
Clearly it wouldn't be reasonable to impose a lower standard of safety and security than a non-smart lock. I don't think landlords would attempt to argue that principle. The argument from them will be that smart locks do not regress security and safety. Given the widespread and well known security problems with IoT devices across the industry, I think it'd be reasonable to demand assurances on this. For example, an a…
Is it impossible to do this safely? Just like with my car, it would be really convenient when holding kids and a load of their stuff to not have to fish out the keys. I suppose there's the issue of your landlord locking you out if they're unhappy with something, but surely that is not purely a technological issue.
In theory, yes, it's possible to do this safely. But offhand I can think of several horror stories about smart locks, and no good stories. The tech just seems absurdly immature at this point. And this product, in particular, is apparently known for glitching and not working, so...
I can understand the need for IoT device in industry, such as remote monitoring of device in the field. For home use I have yet to see a device that make any sense. IoT is at this point complete marketing hype, and very little practical application.
Is there any secure smart lock? I would want one because I'm away 3 months a year and it would simplify renting my apartment on airbnb when I'm away (especially with the rent I pay in HK) but I'm also rather worried about the security implications. And from my brief research, a lot of vendors have very little documentations about security. I would obviously only consider one that has a fallback to an actual key.
Right now the predominant attitude is basically "key control is easier than trying to secure IoT." Easier to use a physical key and manually vet who gets the key than to audit an IoT setup. I tend to agree just because the state of security practices in IoT is so egregiously bad.
Is there any secure smart lock? I would want one because I'm away 3 months a year and it would simplify renting my apartment on airbnb when I'm away (especially with the rent I pay in HK) but I'm also rather worried about the security implications. And from my brief research, a lot of vendors have very little documentations about security. I would obviously only consider one that has a fallback to an actual key.
Define secure? A keyed tumbler lock can often be bypassed with a $10 kit and an hour's training via YouTube. Alternatively, without a frame reenforcement kit, a lock is bypassed with a strong kick. Finding a software hack is probably the least of your worries.
There's no a single IoT device available that I would want to install in my home, let alone a lock. I can understand the need for IoT device in industry, such as remote monitoring of device in the field. For home use I have yet to see a device that make any sense. IoT is at this point complete marketing hype, and very little practical application.
The only two exceptions are my phone (hard to avoid) and my radiator thermostats.
For the latter, they are connected to the internet and I can adjust temperature and put them in "holiday mode" from an app or web page. However the control box doesn't require any firewall holes or port openings, as far as I can tell it gets updates by sending a HTTP request to the same online portal where I can control my heating schedules.
It communicates with the thermostats and window sensors on some kind of RF protocol similar to Z-wave, but if someone goes to the effort of hacking that just to mess with my heating, I would actually be a bit flattered.
I probably wouldn't choose the internet-connected version again. Even though it is a lot easier to setup and manage, I think I would prefer the "dumb" standalone units. They're a bit more fiddly to setup initially, and you have to put each of them to holiday mode manually. But I would prefer to not have them connected to any kind of network.
I used to be the type of person who wanted everything 100% connected 100% of the time. Over the last couple of years, I've taken a pretty hard turn in the opposite direction, I prefer to have everything as simple and standalone as possible.
Clearly it wouldn't be reasonable to impose a lower standard of safety and security than a non-smart lock. I don't think landlords would attempt to argue that principle. The argument from them will be that smart locks do not regress security and safety. Given the widespread and well known security problems with IoT devices across the industry, I think it'd be reasonable to demand assurances on this. For example, an a…
I always wonder if the folks making legal claims on hn actually practice law - the arguments are often nonsensical. Or maybe this type of logic is why law seems so backwards to folks
Clearly it wouldn't be reasonable to impose a lower standard of safety and security than a non-smart lock. I don't think landlords would attempt to argue that principle. The argument from them will be that smart locks do not regress security and safety. Given the widespread and well known security problems with IoT devices across the industry, I think it'd be reasonable to demand assurances on this. For example, an a…
Still leaves concern for DOS and privacy attacks.