Rules were meant to be broken. I hate to use such a colloquialism; however, in this case it is true.
The same goes for all "Security" tppls and methods. I remember when the first iPhone came out in 2007. A young man "unlocked" it the first day. This may be a poor example, but it proves my point: whatever security measures are used, 99% of the time, there seems to be a way to "break the code", "hack into it", or whatever terminology is chosen.
I recently re-watched the terrific film "Thief" (1981), one of director Michael Mann's first feature films, starring James Caan and Tuesday Weld. (**Spoiler alert**) Although seemingly simple, he finds an ingenious and effective way to break into a formidable safe.
Apologies for ending with another colloquialism, but "if there is a will, there is a way".
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And is there a reason why ordinanry metal keyes are no longer useful? The process to obtain a copy is much less difficult given the various concerns and steps required to use this service.
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Not creating an account with this service does not assure anonymity. What about the payment method?
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40% homes are broken into by kicking in the door. Keyed locks are overrated.
When a company says they cultivate relationships with law enforcement I get suspicious. The people who would benefit most from a company that compiles data on people and keys are going to be law enforcement. They are the ones who want to enter a home and leave no evidence that they have been there.
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I find it worth mentioning that we are still using oddly shaped pieces of metal to gain access to our homes. Hardly much advance since skeleton keys were common.
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We tried 3! times to make a copy of a key we needed ASAP and none worked! We did get the money back but will not use booth again. The Kiosk is in CA
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My Dad was fond of saying, "Locks only keep honest people out."
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Medeco keys aside, it is astoundingly easy to bypass most pin tumbler locks. The same goes for most electronic card readers, it just requires a different skill set.
“But given that KeyMe tries to retain a bare minimum of user data, the feature would be complex to incorporate, he said.”
If KeyMe is already using fingerprint biometrics, then the added security of Titan/Fido devices shouldn’t be inconceivable.
Facial (or other personalized) recognition tech will take care of this for us.
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@Jim
[ This comment was written by Josh Rubin, using the account of his wife. ]
People have repeatably demonstrated ways of fooling biometric security systems. A photograph sometimes tricks facial recognition systems. People have lifted a latent fingerprint off of a water glass, and made a fake finger out of gelatin. This was done at a security conference.
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@bigapplekk Not good ones (like FaceID by Apple that uses 3D and heat biometrics)
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Most of the time, people are right not to worry about home security, and this service really shouldn't scare people more than they should already be.
This service doesn't make breaking and entering any easier than it already is. I'm a magician, and as part of my act, I often get to see the keys of my volunteers (long story). What I've seen is that most people have homes a novice could easily break into.
The vast majority of people still just use Yale locks, which can be overcome with bump keys, instructions on which can be found on YouTube, and have been seen millions and millions of times. If that's not good enough, "locksport" is a thing, and I have friends who can pick a Yale lock in about six seconds.
There are great metal keys with magnets in them that make the key change shape in the lock (making picking nearly impossible), and cannot be duplicated without special ID cards. Sadly, people often skip those because they are a faff to deal with since many locksmiths don't make them, and they are expensive.
What is silly about this service is that it apparently does for one's keys what Facebook does for one's social life: in exchange for convenience, it makes everything available to determined people with bad intentions.
If folks are worried about this service allowing entry to dangerous people, I advise them not to use it, to switch to Mul-t-locks and to be careful about to whom they give keys, then periodically change their locks again. It's what I do.
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I started to make a key recently in a keyme kiosk and then decided that was a crazy idea and stopped. Why on earth would I let anyone duplicating my key know my address? I don’t give my address to the key makers at the hardware store and they don’t ask for it.
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Articles like this perpetrate our Culture of Fear, despite mounds of data proving it being the safest of times.
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An important article for anyone who gives keys to revolving guests. Keypad locks are so far superior to keys. Plus you don't need to carry a key with you when you travel.
(If you live in an area where your phone is likely to be stolen, go for the analog, manually programmable keypad lock instead of the phone-based one.)
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Today the email password is the master key for just about everything. I can sympathize with people who share those master keys with people who later turnout to be abusive. But there is a simple solution: change your email password if you have given it to people you don’t want in your email.
The vagueness about law enforcement cooperation seems like a much more significant risk, in light of the recent revelations that anyone can get phone location info from phone companies by impersonating police.
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This paragraph bothers me:
"Greg Marsh, KeyMe’s chief executive, said the company was able to hold criminals accountable. That’s because unlike traditional locksmith companies or key copiers at hardware stores, KeyMe has an information trail on what keys were produced and by whom. In the event of a crime, the police could check whether a key was duplicated with KeyMe and track down who had copied it."
First of all, if one doesn't create an account with KeyMe then how do they know who copied it? Are they recording photographic evidence of every transaction? From the article it appears that KeyMe provides essentially complete anonymity when copying a physical key at a kiosk.
There is also the claim that their online security is great because they split the data between three servers - but multiple servers may all possibly be compromised as easily as a single server depending on how they manage security.
Granted that KeyMe is convenient. It's not clear that it is also secure.
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The quote is from a security professional and is a criticism, not a joke.
if “ smart male technologists “ design a security product that doesn’t account for scenarios that are “ very well known “, how responsible if the product ?
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I would never trust the advice about the security of my keys, or other personal information, whose first name was Deviant!
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@Counter Measures
But would you trust the security of your car to a company named "KeyMe" :-)
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“The idea of intimate jealous partners having access to people’s online accounts is very well known — but possibly not among smart male technologists,”
Not sure what to make of this statement. My first reaction is the suggestion that hackers wouldn't have the experience of an intimate relationship let alone a failed one. If that's the intent, then it's insulting and shouldn't have been printed. Perhaps we need to look into "nerd shaming" as an issue, since everyone else seems to think their entitled not to be made fun of.
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@alocksley There seems to be a trend in gratuitous swipes against people. It mitigates the value of articles when they do this IMHO.
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@Wizened @alocksley
Men are far more likely to be stalkers than women.
People who use this service are more likely to be technologically knowledgable, like the sort of people who read the tech section of the Times, so no, your objections to this article's point of view are fallacious; the fears stoked by this article are completely reasonable.
For the first point, here's some data. I'm sure you can find more on the subject if you bother to look: https://www2.clarku.edu/offices/cave/pdf/Facts_About_Stalking.pdf
I feel the second point is self-evident.
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