Duplicate Key Apps: The New High-Tech Tool Burglars Can Use To Break Into Your Home

Technology is a sword that cuts both ways. Though it can and does make people's lives more manageable, it can be used for nefarious purposes too. Case in point, a variety of apps that help you quickly obtain duplicate keys for your home or business can also provide burglars easy access to your money and belongings. Here's more information about this issue and tips for protecting yourself.

About Key Copying Apps

These days there's an app for almost everything, but of particular concern are apps that allow people to easily duplicate keys. How these apps work is the person scans the key, uploads the scan to a key duplication website, and then has copies sent to the address of the individual's choice. Though many of the apps work in tandem with websites, there are some that let people obtain duplicate keys by using the scanned images at kiosks.

The companies that offer these apps have few—if any—safeguards in place to prevent an unauthorized person from getting copies of your house, office, or vehicle keys. Some companies require personal information such as driver's licenses and credit card numbers. Others require users to scan the pictures a certain way (e.g. against a white backdrop). However, these safeguards can easily be defeated, leaving consumers vulnerable to in-real-life hacking of their homes and businesses.

Tips for Protecting Yourself

The best way to protect yourself is to avoid leaving keys in easily accessible places or giving them to people you don't know or trust. Having a key rack near the front door may be nice and convenient, but it may be better to put the rack in a lockable closet or cupboard. This way, you can easily lock the keys away when you have strangers in your home or prevent unauthorized people from gaining access to keys for your office.

If you're moving into a new home, apartment or office building, immediately changing the locks will invalidate any keys that may be floating around with the previous residents or people who made copies of them without permission. It may also be a good idea to change the locks if someone in your home or office loses a key.

Don't give people the entire set of keys to open one door. You can purchase key rings that let you easily separate one key from the bunch to give to someone who needs it. This minimizes your potential losses. If the person copies one key, they can only open the door the key fits.

For more tips on protecting yourself from these high-tech apps, contact a locksmith like LI Locksmiths Inc.