Are Smart Door Locks Safe? An Expert’s Opinion

One-click is all a case to lose everything we are in the cyber room. You can either be a defendant. One of the questions I always get is: are smart doorbells and smart locks a smart thing to do now? I always laugh at the word smart. I don’t know how smart it is to have a doorbell that can be turned on that can be accessed that can be monitored remotely 24/7, but the point is: are those technically safe?  And what it really comes down to is what is the functionality verse? What is the risk?

So yes, if I have a doorbell that I have a camera and I can go in and when I’m at work when somebody rings the doorbell, I could turn on the camera and I could see who it is. I can even talk to them and, in some cases, even give a verification. So if a signature is required for a package, they can still leave the package on your doorstep. Now, that’s great functionality. People love that I remember when they first came out.

What Are The Associated Risks?

People will be on airplanes, they’d be like check this out. I could look at my front yard and see what my kids are doing and see what my family is doing, that people throw a lot of fun and I remember being on an airplane once when somebody was showing one of their friends. This cool feature, and I went and said, but what? If an attacker is accessing that now they can look at your children, they can look at the driveway, and see whether you’re home or not. They can spy on it and you should have seen the person’s face.

They were like, I never thought about that. I never realized that risk and that’s really all I want you to do as long as you’re thinking about the risk recognizes and understand the risk. Then I’m okay with you accepting it.

So if you sat there and said Eric, I fully recognize that an adversary could potentially remotely access my video camera on my doorbell. They could monitor my kids. They can see my front yard, they can see my cars and I recognize that risk I’m minimizing it by doing a strong, password, verifying logins, and limiting who can access it, but the functionality outweighs the risk, we’re good.

That’s all I’m saying the problem is in cybersecurity. Most people never think about the negative, they never think about the impact and they never think about what could happen as long as you’re willing to accept that risk, we’re in great shape and we’re off to the races and I’ll give you an example: Amazon, in-house delivery, Amazon has special locks that you can put on your door and when you’re not home, the delivery person will go and put the package inside your door.

Now, most people go that’s crazy. Who would do that? That’s nuts! That’s the biggest security risk on the planet. I’m always gonna be honest with you. I do it. I have it in my townhouse now, a lot of people like are you serious, Eric you’re, a security professional? Hold on, Let me do the analysis.

Analysis from Eric

I live in a townhouse on a fairly busy street, so if packages are left out front for two or three days, somebody can see them. Somebody could not only know that I’m not home, but they could potentially pick it up.

And yes, I’ve had a few cases where I’ve had packages go missing. Second, I don’t have an overhang and it rains a lot in Northern Virginia, so I’ve had many cases where packages were delivered and I wasn’t home for a few days and by the time I got home, the package was completely soaked and whatever it was inside was Ruined or wasn’t really usable next I travel a lot.

I sometimes go on for one two or three weeks and I’m the only one that’s at my townhome, which means that no one is around to let people in so from my standpoint, knowing that when a package comes it’s gonna be put inside, it’s not going to be left out in the rain, and it’s not going to be left out front for two three or four days to me.

That benefit outweighs the risk. Let me explain about Amazon home delivery. They are not allowed inside your house, they open the door, they put the package inside and they shut the door next, they don’t have the code when they go to your door, they take out a device and somebody gives them a one time code that only works Once opens the door, so they can get it.

I also have a camera inside my door and I get notifications. So whenever there’s an in-house delivery, I go in and get a text that says someone’s coming in the house with the link and I could turn on the video and watch and see that put the package-lock the door and I can verify the doors lock.

Also. I can turn that off at any time I want. So. If I don’t want anyone in the house, I can do it so from my standpoint, the benefits far outweigh the risk, and yes, if a delivery person came in and they started going into my house, I would see on the video camera and I could call the Police, second, I know who it is right.

I have video pictures and Amazon is tracking the delivery person’s identity. So to me yes, it sounds bad. It sounds crazy, but when you really sit there – and I actually do this – I take a piece of paper. I draw a line and whenever I make decisions I always say what are the pros? One of the cons can I live with the cons. Can I live with the negative? What’s the upside? What’s the downside? Can I live with the downside when I went in at first honestly, I didn’t think I was gonna do home delivery.

But when I laid out all the benefits and the risks and I looked at ways, I could mitigate the risk for me and my lifestyle and what I do. It seemed like a smart decision, so I will never tell you that something is safe and secure and I will never tell you whether you should or should not do something.

What I will tell you is: what is the benefit you’re getting? What are the risks or exposures, and can you live with those risks as long as you do that analysis, then, depending on your lifestyle and what you do, smart, doorbells and smart locks might be a smart thing or it might be a dumb thing.

Do the analysis know the facts and then you’re making good smart decisions?