You would be surprised at how countless people have shared their horrible smart lock experiences. Smart locks, apparently, can be a little dumb when it comes to security.
Take for example the case of a 31-year-old smart enthusiast living in Missouri. He went all in on the smart home and was dumbfounded when his neighbor walked up casually to his front door and yelled, “Hey Siri, unlock the front door.” Siri complied.
His mistake was to place his iPad in the living room for his convenience. Sadly, his iPad didn’t have passcode authentication, making toying around his smart lock ridiculously easy. His smart lock story went viral online and got a spotlight in Forbes.
This is not meant to discourage you from going for a smart home. This is just to remind that you of the precautions that you need to take so your smart lock will not get hacked.
Password authentication
I know, it’s basic, but passwords are like the pawns of your kingdom. You have this extra layer of security of defense that drives off people who are just playing around like the neighbor in the story. Enable passwords in your devices and your Wi-Fi network.
Make your own network
Smart home devices need to have a network so they can understand each other. Usually, you’d just connect it to the Internet, the holy place where everyone can have access to everything. If you want your smart home to be safe, you’d want to create your own, separate network.
This has a downside, however. First, it takes time to setup. Second, some features of your devices (ie, Amazon’s Alexa search feature which needs the internet) wouldn’t work. This setup is recommended if you control your home devices via automation and physical smart switches, like sensors that’ll trigger your lights.
Invest in smart locks from reputable companies
If the second suggestion doesn’t appeal to you because of the limitations, the best that you can do is to invest in smart locks from reputable companies like August, Kevo, and Schlage. These companies protect their businesses and their clients by continuously reinforcing their security. They usually release security updates regularly.
There you go. If you do these things, you can protect your smart locks from getting hacked.
