‘Smart’ locks yield to simple hacker tricks
It’s an open secret that the Internet of Things (if we must call it so) is pretty terrible, whether in standards, ineroperability, or security. Good security, though, you don’t really expect in a smart light bulb or coffee maker. A smart front door lock, however, really shouldn’t be quite this easy to hack.
Two different presentations at DEF CON this year made it clear that there’s a long way to go before we should start trusting the average smart lock — or even the nice ones. This may surprise you, or you might have been saying it for years. At all events, these guys proved it with gusto.
Anthony Rose and Ben Ramsey, from Merculite Security, showed off a bit of lock hacking done with less than $200 worth of off-the-shelf hardware. Some opened easier than others, but in the end 12 out of 16 yielded.