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Hotel Room Security Fail

Here’s an interesting security flaw my friend and I discovered today…

One Response to “Hotel Room Security Fail”

  1. Daniel Marsh Says:

    Frankly, this isn’t much better or worse than the more commonly seen chain and swing style door locks found at hotels. Both of those types are easily circumvented as well.

    When it comes down to it, hotels want the appearance of security, not actual security, which is a completely different matter entirely. They don’t want to implement any type of security that would inconvenience them in the event of a nonpaying customer refusing to leave their room, a customer dying or having a health emergency, a customer exiting through an adjoining room and locking themselves out, etc…They also don’t want anything that would have a high replacement cost or require much time to replace if it did need replacing. A room that can’t be occupied is one that isn’t earning the hotel money. You can see this philosophy in many common hotel fixtures, from locks to hotel safes. For example, many hotel safes have known default unlock codes or use the same unlock code for ALL safes in the hotel.

    If you want some additional security while traveling, there are a variety of portable devices designed to jam a door using a wedge or other mechanism. They frequently incorporate a high decibel alarm that is triggered on any significant vibration of the door handle. They might not keep an intruder from getting in, but they might give you a few seconds to get out of bed, get fully awake, turn on a light, arm, find a weapon, etc.

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