Types of Door Locks
When securing your home or business from unauthorized access the first thing many of us think of are physical locks. What some of us may not think of is the various types of physical locks that are currently on the market. Each of which have their pros and cons. In this article I am going to go over some of the various types of physical locks as well as the pros and cons of each type.
Deadbolt
The first and most common type of lock is the standard keyed deadbolt. A deadbolt uses a cylinder that runs through your door and into the frame of your house. A strike plate is a metal piece attached to your door frame that helps prevent the cylinder from ripping through the frame in the event of forced entry.
These locks are an effective and cost efficient way to secure doors. A problem with this type of lock however is that anyone with a key can open them. This means that if you lose your key you will need to change them out to be secure.
Electronic Locks
Electronic locks are locks that can be opened without using physical keys. There are a variety of these types of locks. I prefer using these types of locks because they can be programmed in a way that can allow you to keep track of who is coming and going.
The first type of electronic lock is the simple keypad. In order to open these locks you type in a combination that you have already setup. Some of the higher end locks allow you to configure multiple combinations that you can give out to various people. The very high-end locks of this nature will give you access to an audit log that can be used to see which passwords were used at what time.
The second type of electronic lock is a Smart Lock. These locks can be opened in a variety of ways. Many connect to your wireless network and can actually be opened or closed remotely using a smartphone or other device. These types of locks can send you alerts when they are opened and closed which can be nice if someone is opening the door at an unexpected time. These locks can also include a keypad. If you need to deny someone access to your building you can easily change the combination or disable it all together.
Along with Smart Locks you also have locks that can be opened with Bluetooth, RFID or by swiping a card.
As with anything attached to a network the vulnerability with these new types of locks is that they can be hacked. RFID can be cloned, admin accounts can be hacked and cards can be swiped. We highly recommend using multifactor authentication to secure your accounts and always keep your RFID tags and cards close to you.
These are just few types of locks that can help prevent unauthorized people from accessing your physical location. We hope you found this post useful.
