Unlock your Hotel Door with Mobile phone says gadget guy

Following the airing of a segment on a nationally televised television program in Australia, the fallout in the hotel industry has been significant.

It seems that a particular video, detailing how a simple hack, requiring no special tools or materials, can be applied to many of the existing hotel room door locks in use throughout the world.

The hotel industry is particularly concerned about the security of it's guests with many leading hotels (and others) scrambling to mitigate the potential security breach and damages that this revelation has highlighted.

The video of the segment has apparently been taken down for fear of widespread security breaches, but essentially the hack involves an already pre-programmed room card, when inserted into another (different) room door lock and a mobile telephone held close to the door lock, the pressing of any keypad button, apparently allows a magnetic induction signal to emit from the phone, tricking the particular lock into thinking the keycard inserted is the correct programmed key.

Electronic security products are all the rage today, but are constantly being found wanting in the quality and suggested security they are being designed or used for.

While I agree that electronic security products certainly have their place in modern security environments, the time tested mechanical security product will continue to serve us because of it's ability to continually do what it is designed to do without the reliance on electricity.

(source...)