Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/06/19/tapp-lock.html
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Considering the security of the security device they sell, I’d be surprised if their online security is any good. Think about it, an online list of the names and addresses of people who bought the worlds most easily opened lock…
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How’s that old saying go? A fool and his money are there to keep honest people honest?
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If there are enough of these crap locks to make it worthwhile to build an opener, I know exactly what I’d stick it in.
(Of course, a phone app would be fine too.)
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I’m struggling to understand many things about this, but among them: why does a fingerprint lock require bluetooth in the first place?
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Honestly, how many people are going to even rattle that padlock, let alone hack it? Security theater is 99% effective and hey, life is uncertain.
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It’s not crowd funding unless it has bluetooth or a tie in boardgame
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99% of all padlocks would be defeated by a $10 pair of harbor freight bolt cutters.
We know this. We also know most people don’t walk out of the house with a pair waiting to cut them off.
By this same point, far far far far far fewer walk out of the house with a BT scanner that was programmed for this very specific padlock.
Honestly, a padlock is security for 99% of the people 99% of the time. We know it isn’t perfect, and if it is slightly more convenient, the better for us.
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TheRegister’s article notes that there was a firmware update promptly released to address the Bluetooth issue, though of course that does not address the physical concerns.
I guess somehow it made sense that the scanner would communicate wirelessly with the hasp mechanism for some reason?
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That seems like it would be a really dumb (but believable) way to communicate, when two tiny wires could do the same thing.
Looking at their site, though, it seems you can unlock with your phone as well.
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My guess is that you need BT to put the lock into “program” mode so that you can add or manage fingerprints to it. Otherwise they would need to add a UI or at least buttons to the lock itself. Unlocking with your phone is probably just a side benefit. Most smart locks also have time controls so you can allow access to specific codes / fingerprints only for certain times of day. It is way easier to implement that using a phone app with bluetooth than trying to cram enough buttons into the padlock to do that directly.
Very very few, but it would always be my fear in owning a “unique” sort of lock that it would make people want to show off by unlocking it in a unique way.
I would just stick to standard locks. If somebody wants to get in, they will, but it’s not making itself stand out at least.
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As per the video from the other day, it has a proprietary USB charging cable which I presume can also be used to program the lock, so it wouldn’t really need BT to be programmable.
Whether the proprietary charging cable is a good idea is another question. At a certain point, I might expect it to be easier just to carry around an ordinary key.
A great many padlocks will fall to fairly trivial physical attacks; but a great many padlocks don’t cost $100.
At that price point a fairly beefy boron alloy shackle is reasonably common; and those are not impressed by cheap boltcutters.
Against a nice, zesty, angle grinder it’s just a matter of time for pretty much anything made of matter; but 12in cutters are very much on the low end of physical attacks.
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I just had a problem with a gimmicky lock that didn’t stand up to the solution of some freeze spray and a 2 lbs hammer. And I think the freeze spray might of not been needed.
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