Residential biometric fingerprint locks target mass market | Unit 2 | CW2 Colorado

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Residential biometric fingerprint locks target mass market

No key to lose or code to remember. Are they safe for your home?

by Dave Young, News2

November 28, 2007

DENVER (KWGN) — We've been hearing about the technology for years now.

Now that the prices are coming down the idea sounds great: a lock that reads your fingerprint. No key required. Nothing to lose or memorize.

But are they ready to pass the test?

"It's reading my finger and then what," I asked lock and security technician Elijah Lynn, while we demonstrated one of the units.

"It scans your fingerprint," said Lynn, "It compares that to the algorithm stored in the memory and it's denied you," he added, as the machine's light turned red and refused to open.

"Two-hundred dollars to a $1000 can get you a stand-alone biometric lock that uses batteries" said Lynn, "and will hold usually about 50 to 100 fingerprints. "

Once only affordable for business and government offices, biometric fingerprint locks are now touted as the ultimate step up in high tech security for your home.

But until recently, the technology was too unreliable to recommend biometrics for the home.

"They took it to the engineers and said., "We gotta fix this problem..fix it.,' and they have done that., " said lock technician Tom Gallegos about the first mass marketed biometric lock, made by Kwikset, which is now available in some Colorado hardware stores.

"It's kind of a fun thing," said Gallegos, who owns Englewood Lock and Safe. "You know some people originally looked at them you know like gadget-type stuff but now, it really could be something that could solve a lot of problems for consumers with keys."

The lock allows you to program in family members and anyone needing access to your home without a key, even for specific times of day and erase them when needed.

But Lynn said the overall technology, is still not matched with adequate lock safety.

"It's easy to bump some of these locks," he says.

He's talking about the threat of "lock bumping" we first showed you here on News2.

Lock bumping uses a specially cut blank to literally bump open a lock. The technique makes as many as 90 percent of residential locks, vulnerable to a relatively simple security breach.

It's a technique that's spread like wildfire on the internet, and sounded the alarm among law enforcement and lock makers.

"You can actually take a picture of it with your cell phone of somebody's key," said Lynn, "And if it's not patented, I can have a key to your house just like that."

And because biometric locks still need as key as an override, they are vulnerable.

Kwikset has introduced the first biometric lock, however, which it claims can't be bumped.

"This now has the new smart design that Kwikset has developed to disallow lock bumping," said Gallegos.

As the biometric scanning technology continues to improve, and prices come down, more and more of us may never have to worry about losing those keys again.

Nobody can make a copy of your fingerprint, but they're still working out some of the bugs in the devices to reduce false readings, so you may want to wait a few years before making the changeover.