When companies started suggesting that our mobile devices could be programmed to open our hotel room doors, the red flag in my head certainly popped up. With all the hacking of e-mail, Facebook and Twitter accounts out there, how hard would it be to hack a simple mobile phone?
And, while that wasn't the method recently utilized in Houston, a hack that requires only know-how and $50 in parts has been discovered. It exploits a workaround that allows hotels to access a room when the lock's battery dies. Of course, swapping out the batteries on a schedule would be the obvious answer...but lock maker Onity knows that a lot of hotels won't do that. Thus, the hackable workaround.
While the hotel is offering a workaround of its own (fill the exploited opening with epoxy...sigh), it's word to the wise time.
Double lock...and put valuable in the safe when you're out.
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