# Smart locks get bricked

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-locks-get-bricked/793734>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [August 15, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-locks-get-bricked/793734 "2017-08-15T19:28:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-locks-get-bricked/793734/1 "2017-08-15T19:28:09Z")

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Once again, the rosy assumptions about the “Internet of Things” come back to bite people.

> [@](#):
>
> In an email sent to customers last week, LockState CEO Nolan Mondrow said the software update has caused a “fatal error” in a subset of 6i locks, and the locks are now unable to reconnect to the firm’s web servers, making a remote fix “impossible.”

> **[Smart locks, not so smart: Customers stranded after botched firmware update](https://www.zdnet.com/article/smart-locks-not-so-smart-customers-stranded-over-botched-firmware-update/)**
>
> Hundreds of smart locks bricked after a flawed LockState software update.

Rather surprisingly, the locks did come with regular keys as a emergency backup. It’s a mighty good thing for the people affected.

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**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2017, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-locks-get-bricked/793734/2 "2017-08-16T17:04:36Z")

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If you’re on Twitter, Internet of Shit has a litany of these stories.

As far as I can determine, anyone who buys something that has remote access as a possibility is asking to get screwed.

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**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2017, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-locks-get-bricked/793734/3 "2017-08-16T18:12:06Z")

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Wife and I have one of those [Ring camera doorbells,](https://ring.com/video-doorbell-pro) which is internet-accessible. Handy from time to time, although most of the clips it captures are bugs crawling across the lens, and birds or frogs pursuing said bugs. If it dies or gets hacked, I’m not going feel violated; I can live with a stranger seeing our front porch over the internet. But I don’t see us ever getting an internet-accessible camera that monitors the _inside_ of our house, or an internet-accessible door lock.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2017, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-locks-get-bricked/793734/4 "2017-08-16T20:09:36Z")

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IoT devices are also how the huge Denial of Service attacks are done nowadays. They tend to have very little security, so it’s easy to take them over and have them attack a server.

The same security problems are why I don’t use 'em. I actually paid more to get one of those old fashioned FM transmitters to help find my keys rather than one of those cheap IoT devices that could tell me where they are. I’d rather hear the beeping and follow it.