As Winter Approaches - Now May Be The Time To Get Proactive To Protect Family, Customers, Friends and Strangers

The current seasonal shift is well underway, no matter what part of the planet you live on.

Of course with the northern hemisphere changing over to Winter, so come the inevitable virus', colds, flu, pneumonia and other potentially life threatening illnesses.

An often over looked issue, that faces all of us regularly is the transference of potentially harmful pathogens that can occur when differing users might touch or operate a door handle, safety bar, handrail etc. Do you know who touched the item before you? Do you care?

A little over 7 years ago we wrote an article about the recently released (at the time) blockbuster movie, starring Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow. We included the preview in our article too. (See the article we wrote in October 2011, below).

When you go to a hospital or medical clinic, you hope that the managers of such public places care enough about the health and welfare of their consumers to have policies and rules in place to mitigate any harm potentially caused therein, right?

I'm sure you have seen and continue to see many private and public places include a pump bottle of hand sanitizer near a restroom and often signs posted inside a restroom requiring employees to wash hands prior to handling food or after using the facilities. This modern day policy stemmed from the outbreak of the highly contagious H1N1 virus that threatened many thousands of people all across the planet. Luckily the quick action of governments worldwide and especially the CDC in America, stemmed the threat, but not before thousands of people, animals, birds etc, were slaughtered or died.

See our post from October 1, 2011.

Contagion

Just last week my wife and I went to see this movie. I found it to be one of the most entertaining suspense filled films I have seen in ages.

It stars Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Lawrence Fishburne and a gaggle of other big name stars.

The storyline involves a woman who returns home to the USA from abroad who has been in contact with someone who passed on a virus to her. Anything or anyone she came into contact with seemed to also contract the contagious virus.

To make a long story short, many millions of people become infected and die before a cure is found.

The realism in this fictional movie was astounding. The film director makes the audience feel that the whole scenario is entirely plausible and probable.

The recent bird flu and H1N1 virus' that the world contracted in the last couple of years, makes this film even more realistic and topical.

Why do I post this review here?

I am the exclusive USA importer/distributor of the sensational Serrature Meroni brand of locks and door and cabinet hardware from Italy. Serrature Meroni, a few years ago introduced a unique line of inventory that includes especially designed anti-bacterial polymer door knobs. These handles minimize the potential impact of transferring diseasebetween people.

Virtually all people touch a door knob to operate a door at home or work or the doctors surgery or a hospital or any other public building, in order to enter or exit a room or the building. All people rarely consider the likelihood of catching and spreading germs from unknowingly touching a surface that a possible infected carrier has also touched.

Remember when those recent well known virus' (Bird Flu and H1N1) were breaking news all over the media? Pharmacists, grocery stores and merchants everywhere suddenly began selling notoriously huge amounts of hand sanitizers and similar products. Many institutions enacted strict policies forcing people to use hand sanitizers as often as possible and some even required employees to wear face masks to minimize the potential spread of airborne diseases.

The realism of the movie Contagion, made me think about how easy it would be to spread disease.

But thanks to forward thinking companies like Serrature Meroni, we can now rest easier with the assurance that forward thinking home owners, hospital management, doctors surgeries, chemical research laboratories and other concerned proactive people, are taking steps to protect their customers, staff, friends and families from the potential deadly side effects of unknown or even known virus'.

Breaking News: FBI To America: Reboot Your Routers Immediately

Breaking News: The Federal Bureau of Investigations recently released an alert to all Americans who may use an Internet connected router in their homes and businesses.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center sent a rare Public Service Announcement declaring, "Foreign Cyber Actors have compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and other networked devices worldwide."


A great many security products today are using router connected protocols to connect those devices to internal residential and commercial networks.

Many of these products including (but not limited to) alarm systems, closed circuit television cameras (CCTV), door locks, intercom systems and door bells etc, are often connected to WiFi routers in your home or office.

The nature of today's consumer marketplace appears to be fascinated by the growing Internet of Things (IoT) products that enable many of us to enjoy modern "connected" services that protect us, make our lives easier and keep us in communication range with each other.

The locksmith industry worldwide continues to evolve and many locksmiths today are busy recommending and installing modern "connected" security products, meeting the increasing demands of the marketplace.

Some of these "new generation" products are very good quality and often expensive too. Maintaining the security of your home and business is of paramount importance to protecting our families and our colleagues, aside from our customers.

According to the FBI, hackers are using VPNFilter Malware to target small office and home office routers saying, "VPN Filter is able to render small office and home office routers, inoperable" and are warning, "The malware can potentially also collect information passing through the router. Detection and analysis of the malware's network activity, is complicated by it's use of encryption.".

The FBI recommends, "any owners of small office and home office routers, reboot the devices to temporarily disrupt the malware and aid the potential identification of infected devices".

They also advise to consider disabling remote management settings on devices, use encryption and choose new and different passwords.

With the increasing number of "connected devices" in the wider market, security of your home, office and other connected products are potentially gravely affected by this new hack.

We suggest that all our customers and anyone using or relying on Internet Connected devices, including your door locks, your CCTV systems, your alarm systems and your door bells or intercoms, to immediately perform a soft reset of your WiFi routers. This action will temporarily mitigate the malware's operation. It may not completely remove the malware from an infected router and if you are further concerned, we suggest you perform a factory hard reset of the router.

We have been writing about security issues with IoT devices, in increasing articles in the last 12 months.

Some of these articles include:

New Digital 'Hurricane' Churns Gathering Strength To Land Blow On The Internet

KRACK - Dangerous WiFi Security Flaw Discovered. And It Affects ALL WiFi Devices

BlueBorne - A New Attack That Exposes Almost Every Bluetooth Connected Device

AirB&B - Lockstate WiFi Door Locks Bricked By Manufacturer Update.

Internet-Connected Garage Door Operator Disabled In Retaliation For Bad Review

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D&D Technologies Continues To Lead The World Of Gate, Fence Locks And Hinges

We have been extolling the virtues of this world leading company for many years now and as the new summer swimming season beckons in the northern hemisphere, we continue to sing the praises of the leading life safety products that D&D Technologies produce.

This fine example of Australian Ingenuity, continues to impress the entire world with it's superbly constructed and high quality range of locks, hinges and alarms.

D&D incorporated high security key cylinders into many of their range of products to satisfy the growing commercial market and the desire to include these fabulous locking products in high-security restricted key systems like (but not limited to) our fabulous Bilock Extreme Security Keying Systems. 

Bilock are another Australian designed high-security products manufacturer that have been around since the 1970's. We have been working with Bilock products for almost our entire career in the locksmith trade (now approaching 35 years). We continue to be one of the largest Bilock dealers in the Midwest of the USA, still representing the product since we first kicked off operations here in 2006.

We have been called periodically by customers across our geographical region to offer services and key duplication or origination for some of the D&D Technologies products, specifically their Magnalatch product and a number of their Lokklatch products. Our ability to include these gate locks in our Bilock systems only increases the security of the applications.

D&D Technologies products are recommended by many AHJ's (Authorities Having Jurisdiction), life safety officers, local government building inspectors around this country and the whole world. They are not just beautiful in their design, but simply installed and very easily operated.

We have been selling their products for many years in Australia and now here in the USA.

See our range of articles about D&D Technologies products

Florida Shooting Update - Hurricane-Proof Glass Found To Mitigate Losses

 We read with interest an article from CBS New York, a story about the use of hurricane-resistant glass in a window at the Florida school where a crazed gunman ran rampant recently, killing 17 people and sparking huge national exposure toward the gun debate in America.

The article tells about the use of hurricane-resistant glass and how it actually mitigated the loss of more lives.

We have previously written about ShatterGARD, a sensational window film product made by our friend and colleague, Jordan Frankel of Global Security Experts Inc.

This product can be applied to the surface of an existing glass window to dramatically increase the security of the window.

The talk, in recent times about initiatives aimed at thwarting the increasing quantities of gun related shooting incidents tends to fall by the wayside with people demanding that our elected representatives attempt to alter the nations gun laws to attempt to mitigate the ever increasing deaths by gun.

I understand the desire to change the law, but will that prevent the problems? I doubt it. Even though I grew up in a country that radically changed it's gun laws a generation ago and have since not experienced mass-murders by gun to the extent of previous, I am also a firm believer in Freedom Of Choice.

The second amendment to the USA Constitution is a hotly debated topic across modern news, social media and in many discussion groups, almost everywhere you go.

Having spent my entire working career in the security industry, I have been exposed to many products and services that can and do provide significant products and services to increase the security protection of our doors, windows, walls etc.

Bullet-resistant products have been around for many years and many of these products have been found to greatly increase protection from bullets and the smash and grab techniques of would be criminals.

If the security of your loved ones is of concern to you, wouldnt it be a consideration to employ the use of products already in the market that can and do provide personal protections from gun related incidents, rather than attempting to change the law?

I cannot be sure how long the article will be available to see. View the source below for the article.

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Manufacturers Prices Are Increasing Again - How Much Is Too Much?

Distributors and manufacturers continue to increase their prices, driving up talks about inflation in our economy.

We heard from one of our local distributors two days ago that a number of manufacturers (listed below) have decided to increase their prices as of February 2018.

February:
HES: 2/1/18

Securitron: 2/1/18

Adams Rite: 2/1/18

Air Louvers: 2/1/18

Keri Systems: 2/1/18

Major Mfg: 2/1/18

Belwith: 2/5/18

PDQ: 2/5/18

Delaware To Update School And Institution Security Hardware Requirements To Overhauled Policy

Classroom Security has been becoming an alarming and increasing issue across North America in recent years, with the increasing numbers of armed intruders causing havoc to junior elementary (sub-primary), elementary (primary), junior high school and senior high school campuses, as well as a number of higher education colleges and universities.

Intruders, often bullied former students or disgruntled staff members, are fast becoming a major thorn to the security of our children while they are at school.

Delaware State House of Representatives, this week is currently debating and voting on a major policy change and update, aimed at increasing significantly, the security hardware and protocols at all the states schools, colleges and universities.

Many schools across the USA, already use quality door lock systems to secure doors, but many of the existing measures have been found wanting in recent times. This has caused much angst by parents and teachers, concerned with offering quality education to our children in safe, secure environments.

There are a great many products across the wider marketplace that already offer significant strength and security, but too few schools are bothering to spend the necessary investments to protect their faculty, staff and pupils.

There are many different brands of lock systems that provide increased strength and design, to better protect our children, including double cylinder lever entrance sets (called Classroom Locksets), including but not limited to Yale, Corbin, Schlage, Arrow, Assa, Abloy and many others.

Essentially, "a double cylinder classroom lockset functions like almost any other lever or knob entry set, except that it uses an internal keyed cylinder to enable the locking of the outside handle, while ensuring the inside handle remains unlocked and still easy to escape through, if required (maintaining life safety and International Building Code policies and rules)."

Some schools and institutions are spending millions of dollars to increase the security of their classrooms and entrances, but often they neglect to ensure that doors and windows include bullet resistant glass or resistant window films. Many seem to believe that the quality lockset and an alarm system will provide enough security to prevent an armed intruder from wreaking havoc through their schools.

Delaware are debating the inclusion of alarm systems, bullet proof accessories and double-keyed locksets.

In our 35+ years of locksmithery across the world, we have installed many locksets to school entrances and classrooms to increase the security of these doors.

In one case many years ago, one school decided to install double cylinder deadbolts to every door, as recommended by their security analyst and architect, before consulting with professional locksmiths, who are deliberately trained in physical hardware that complies with life safety, building codes, insurance requirements to protect would-be users of these rooms.
Our company was asked to install according to the plan and completed the request, against our better judgement, while warning the school officials that their desire was not legal. One week prior to the opening of the new school term, state and local inspectors came in to certify the school for opening, but when they saw the double cylinder locks fitted to all doors, they immediately failed the school because they did not comply with building and life safety codes.
Our company was once again called in to rectify the issues with new "approved" products that met or exceeded the codes, adding significant cost to the project. Our company worked overtime to complete the task prior to the school opening on time.

This reinforces the point that involving your local trained professional locksmith can and will augment your bottom line costs and save you considerable angst and compliance issues down the road.

There are many professional locksmith companies across North America, that provide trained professionals with field experience that are able to provide best-case-scenario advice, that will help any organization to increase their physical and electronic security measures, without breaking the bank.


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Settlement In Ignition Lock Class Action Lawsuit - $120 Million In Damages Awarded

We have talked about the Ignition Lock Debacle, a few times over the last few years and the subject has sparked much discussion across industry and wider forums online, offline and through the media.

An article (in the source below) we were recently alerted to, explains that last Friday a settlement was reached between GM and 49 states attorneys-general (Arizona was the only state to not join the action).

The class-action suit brought by nearly all states was filed in reaction to GM's 2014 recall of nearly 9 million vehicles that had trouble with their ignition switches.

The lawsuit alleged that GM and high-level employees knew about the problem as early as 2004, but waited many years to recall it's vehicles, all the while marketing their vehicles as safe and reliable.

The $120 Miliion dollar settlement, apparently ends this case.

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According to the article, GM agreed to several terms:

• Not represent that a motor vehicle is “safe” unless they have complied with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety standards applicable to the motor vehicle at issue.
• Not represent that certified pre-owned vehicles that GM advertises are safe, have been repaired for safety issues, or have been subject to rigorous inspection, unless such vehicles are not subject to any open recalls relating to safety or have been repaired pursuant to such a recall.
• Instruct its dealers that all applicable recall repairs must be completed before any GM motor vehicle sold in the U.S. and included in a recall is eligible for certification and, if there is a recall on any certified pre-owned vehicle sold in the U.S., the required repair must be completed before the vehicle is delivered to a customer.

Cortex™ Digital Door Lock - By Assa-Abloy Lockwood Australia

Our recent visit to the Assa-Abloy Lockwood Australia headquarters and original manufacturing facility in Huntingdale, Victoria, Australia allowed us to see in person many of the companies new products being manufactured and assembled.

One of their new products we viewed is the new Cortex Digital Door Lock. This product differs from competing products because it is available for narrow stile aluminum, steel or wooden doors, standard dimension, aluminum, steel or wooden doors using the Lockwood 5782 Narrow stile door mechanism or the Lockwood 3772 Standard stile mechanism.

The narrow stile Lockwood 5782 mechanism allows for typical shopfront aluminum doors to enjoy a stand alone electronic digital access control device. The standard stile Lockwood 3772 mortise lock allows typical doors fitted with mortise locks to also enjoy electronic digital access control.

The narrow stile or standard stile door locks also include 3 options for gaining access. Keyed (by way of the exterior key cylinder), PIN code, by way of the touch screen keypad and Card access by way of the built in card reader.

The PIN code digital touchscreen allows for up to 20 individual separate PIN codes to be programmed while the Card controller allows for up to 40 individual cards to control the lock. The added benefit of a mechanical door key allows for high-security key cylinders to be included. This enables mechanical key entry (if the batteries are flat), but there is also a 9 volt battery connection on the bottom of the unit to allow temporary power for a non-keyed user to gain entry to a flat battery unit.

Lockwood also make a version that uses a typical tie-bolt entrance set latch mechanism, allowing typical residential or commercial lever or knob entrance sets to also enjoy the benefits of electronic digital, PIN or Card access control. As there is a 9 volt battery terminal on the exterior, there is no need for the mechanical key cylinder on the Lockwood CTX530.

The video above shows how easily programmed the product is.

We expect to offer these in the local USA market in due course

(Price On Application)

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GM Ignition Key Fault - Not So Fast Says Texas Jury

A couple of years ago we reported about the GM Ignition Switch fiasco that was taking place across the country, in the wake of repeated mechanical problems suggested to be directly and indirectly caused by faulty ignition switches.

To read the articles we wrote previously click here

In a new article in USAToday, a Texas jury has sided with GM in a closely watched court case where the car maker was sued over a supposedly faulty ignition switch.

The particular case (see article in source below) was about an accident that occurred where the occupant lost control of the vehicle after hitting the key switch with their knee.

The jury found that case investigators determined through extensive research, that the driver was driving recklessly at the time of the accident.

This does bring into question the legitimacy of other claims of impropriety by the car manufacturer and does suggest that they are not at fault like previously thought.

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Sting Operation In Australia Reveals Simple Hack That Renders Electronic Security Swipe Key Systems Ineffective

Electronic security devices are quite the rage today in the security field with many companies offering variations of key fob and card key systems aimed at supposedly increasing the security access control of residential buildings and where we live, work and play.

Notorious current affairs program on the Nine Network in Australia, A Current Affair, recently produced a video segment where they caught up with a perpetrator, operating a scam to copy and reproduce the electronic key fobs and swipe cards that are supposed to be restricted and giving them to customers all across the Sydney and other metropolitan centers for a fee.

The issue presents a moral and ethical quandary because, as residents or dwellers of abodes, people often want to share access to their residences where many management companies often refuse to provide additional copies of electronic access control fobs and cards or,if they do, charge outrageous prices for even legal tenants of these dwellings to obtain working duplicates.

Tenants are often coerced to find more nefarious means to bypass the legal owner/operator of these security products and gain access to desired locations.

The legitimate locksmith industry across the world has been repeating similar messages for many years, that the perception of these "electronic access control products" providing better security and access control, is nothing but a fallacy. Yet the legions of building contractors and management companies simply turn a blind eye because they want their cake and to eat it too.

Legitimate locksmith companies have been offering restricted mechanical key control systems for decades. Systems like Abloy, Bilock, Evva, Primus, Multlock, Medeco etc, that produce operating mechanical keys that are virtually impossible for non-authorized people to obtain duplicate keys.

In the source below find a link to the video of this particular video segment where a reporter is hot on the tail (literally) of a scam operator who is selling inappropriately obtained duplicate tags for operating access control systems. The same systems where many people think they are in a secure building but unfortunately, as this video proves, they are not.

how safe do you feel?


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C.Q.R.I.T. - Key Control On Steroids

I happened to stop into my local supplier IDN Hoffman in Creve Coeur the other day when in walks Scott with Ian Cooke in from Canberra, Australia with CIC Technology.

Now, two Aussies in St Louis is a rare treat in the same room. We got to chin-wagging and he introduced me to this fabulous Australian designed and manufactured C.Q.R.iT range of electronic key cabinets and lockers. He opened the door and there was a Bilock key inside. We are the leading Bilock Extreme Security dealer in the Midwest. We have continually dealt in Bilock products for 25+ years worldwide.

The first version is the key cabinet above.

The locker here is state of the art.

Especially tailored to hospitals, schools, colleges, car dealerships, institutions, corporate security is now enhanced to it's finest.

Watch the video to understand the benefits of key control and how it helps you.




The options are endless with this multi-authentication product.

(source...http://www.cictechnology.com/)

Knock-N-Lock - New Horizons In Access Control

We have talked about Knock-N-Lock a few times in the last year and we see this technology as the future in access control for the obvious reason. No keyhole or visible access.

Coming Soon : Meroni Wireless Hidden Access Control System

The Knock-N-Lock revolution is starting to blossom with more and more facilities converting to this unique access control technology that combines cutting edge technology with superior physical locking components to provide the ultimate in security and access control.

Imagine being able to secure your entire office using one control key to operate the hidden keyhole that lets you in.

Preventing burglars and stopping home invasions is the aim of the rapidly improving quality of wireless access control technology that can also benefit discerning homeowners wanting to lock out unwanted intruders while not alerting them as to your secret keyhole.

If you dont know that there is a lock on the door, how can you determine the easiest non-destructive method of entry?

Stay tuned for more updates on this fabulous technology

Bilock Exclusive™ - New Improved Bilock Releases To The Market

Bilock Extreme Security products just release the newest addition to their product line.

A completely new rendition of the fabulous extreme security mechanical key system.

This new update to the well-known Bilock high security restricted key systems, answers many of the criteria discussed industry wide by customers, hobbiest forums, locksmith industry forums, engineers and government and military experts.

The new line is called Bilock Exclusive™.

This new design, actually increases the security of each new cylinder while removing the trigger interactive element.

Colors for the key heads are still pretty much the same, with 21 color choices comprising 3 parts, effectively offering about 9250 color combinations.

A new style of head with the three interlocking parts is still used.

The product still uses the innovative Quick-Change-Core technology that Bilock is famous for.

Dealers will probably need a little retraining in the construction of the new cylinders, but key creation is identical and used with existing machinery, so no new tool equipment to purchase other than the new keying kit and cores/cylinder bodies.

We believe that existing cores (from older systems - New Generation) can be used in the newer cylinder bodies, but the new cores cannot fit into the older cylinder bodies.

This new product increases the patent protection for the Bilock product for another 15 years while increasing the security of each core by doubling the side-bar blocking pins, directly making the ability to pick, impression or bump the lock virtually impossible.

The introduction of Mifare™ chips into keyheads is also now possible for connecting with electronic access control products that might exist in different customers networks.

Release date to the USA and North America markets are unclear at this time, but we expect to offer the newer system by next summer.


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Holiday Season - Increases Theft Opportunities

Denver Police recently released a video they made with a former thief about the pitfalls of holiday season shopping.

The fellow in this video highlights excellent points that all shoppers, especially holiday shoppers require to be aware of and take precautions to avoid.





The person in this video informs us that we all need to be much more vigilant and self protective, because there are a great many nefarious characters just waiting to prey upon our negligence.

I believe it is my responsibility to provide information and education about products and services that increase your and your families personal and property security.

The locksmith profession is one of the oldest professions, dating back to medieval times. Locksmiths came about because consumers have a need to find someone who can provide the better lock system to protect our properties, our dwellings and our families from the continually increasing instances of burglary and theft.

As "Dave" points out, the thief doesnt discriminate. The thief doesnt care whom he causes harm to.
The thief is always "casing" the parking lot for the opportunity to commit a crime.

As a consumer or a parent, it is only our own responsibility to protect ourselves and our families, by taking preventative action to thwart attempts to steal, damage or cayuse harm to us, our friends or our families.

Sometimes there is little that can be done to stave against some of the methods that these nefarious characters ply. By contacting your local locksmith or consulting with an industry approved locksmith with accreditation from notable associations like the SOPL (Society of Professional Locksmiths), ALOA or a couple of other notable groups, the consumer might find ways and means to protect themselves, their friends, their families and their properties, this festive season.

Providing security advice and offering quality security products and services are the principal aims of the locksmith trade. Not all locksmiths, just make keys to cars.

We wish you the happiest and least stressful holiday season. We wish you a happy, healthy and secure festive season.

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Post Revisited - Knock 'N Lock - A Revolution In Access Control Technology

We have the complete parts and price list for this very interesting, yet disruptive technology. While in the video, they say it is tailored to commercial, industrial, government and defense properties, many of their products do find a market in the specialty residential market too.

Knock N' Lock unique access control products have been around a few years now. We first published an article here back in June 2007.

The video above gives a typical scenario where the product can be typically suited. There are, of course many other applications where this product is especially useful.

Essentially, the lock system uses no visible outside keyhole and consequently ensures total access control to authorised remote control users. Yes, you still require to use the especially designed key, but without a conventional keyhole of any kind, surreptitious attack of a conventional keyhole is avoided, significantly enhancing the security of the application.

View the company website in the source below for further details about this superb access control solution.

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Ebola Scare - Preventing The Spread Of This And Other Contagious Diseases.

Pictured here is an electron microscope view of the Ebola Virus.

The disease has been surfacing and spreading across Northern Africa for the past couple of years and has started to make it's way to Europe and America with cases being reported in Spain, Greece and Dallas Texas.

A few years ago, the nasty Avian Flu from Asia commonly referred to as H1N1 was the planets last massive virus to affect numerous victims across the world, that got the attention of the media and Centers for Disease Control.

There are many media sources that have been reporting on methods to minimize the spread of this fatal virus, but so far the only cure is said to be a product called Zmapp, a drug developed in the USA to combat the disease.

Serrature Meroni, the Italian manufacturer of leading nouveau door handles and entry products introduced their Anti-Bacterial range of door knobs, about 7 years ago. The product uses an especially formed handle that dissipates or bounces microbes and bacteria away from the door handle, preventing transferrence of these "nasties" between people who naturally would touch the entry door handle to enter or exit a dwelling.

Prevention is often said to be better than cure, because it mitigates the spread of a disease before it can affect large populations.



The Serrature Meroni Combina is the logical choice for any public amenity, hospital, medical office, clean room, laboratory or even educational facility, that might decide that the protection of their staff and guests is of vital importance to their business.

The handles are available in limited colors (which has something to do with the Anti-Bacterial properties) and enables all users, even the physically challenged, to easily operate the door handles, free from worry of contracting or spreading diseases.

The Ignition Lock Debacle Is Not Really GM's Fault - More Insurance Companies

It is clear to all concerned by now, that the GM Ignition Switch debacle is one of the most sensational news stories of the year.

Locksmiths who work on automobiles have known of these issues for many years and have informed powers that be, in the recent past.

The reports fell on deaf ears, as usual and only since the reports of deaths have authorities bothered to press the issues with manufacturers.

I do find it interesting that it seems the automobile industry appears to have come full circle, with regard to ignition systems.

When the first automobiles were rolling off the production lines, in the early 20th century, all vehicles had the ignition lock switch mounted to the dash, usually toward the center of the instrument panel. This was significantly easier for people to control and away from the possibility of being knocked by a knee or leg. Many ignition tumbler switches were pin tumbler operating systems and not wafer/disc tumblers. Properties inside the cylinder prevented the accidental knocking and turning off the keyswitch.

It was the advent of the insurance companies that brought about a major change

iPhone 5S Fingerprint Scanner Hacked - Faith In Biometric Fingerprint Control Begins To Decline

Apple's new iPhone 5S has only been out a few days now, but already some enterprizing German hackers have discovered a flaw with the biometric fingerprint access control function.
(The video after the jump shows how the hack works. )

It is no secret that I have mentioned reasonably often in the recent past about the limitations of fingerprint biometrics.

A few years ago, I was offering (what I thought was) a brilliant product that used a fingerprint scanner as the access control solution. It turns out that I couldnt have been more wrong. I discovered, through significant trial and error that biometric fingerprint scanners are faulty by design.

I think that one of the reasons that fingerprint identification became the rage, a few years ago, was because law enforcement and investigation services have been using the technology for many years to assist with forensic investigations. While it has proved to greatly assist investigators with identifying suspects, the technology must have been misinterpreted when someone thought they could use the technology as an access control solution.

After selling numerous fingerprint scanner products to concerned customers, I was disappointed to discover that most of the products available incurred serious sensitivity issues. Specifically, that people over aged 55 had enormous difficulty operating the devices unless the scanner sensitivity was turned down to zero. This directly reduced the perceived security of the devices. But that was not the only problem...

Smartspray DNA Helps Law Enforcement To Pinpoint Perps - Now In The USA

In July last year, we wrote an article about Chain Reaction DNA, a product that has been adopted by security personell in the USA under the guise of Smartspray DNA that enables the spray solution to "infect" a would be assailant or criminal and mark them with an invisible solution that shows up under ultra violet light.

It is being used in some parts of the USA right now and the video (after the jump) shows a recent news article about how effective it is becoming.

The product is applied via a spay canister located in a vehicle, purposely set up by Florida police to catch a thief, who was targeting vehicles in their district.

Georgia Imposes Hefty Fine On Rogue Trader Posing As Locksmith

CBS Atlanta 46



The State Of Georgia has imposed a hefty fine against another rogue sheister posing as a locksmith company and blatantly ripping off consumers in the Atlanta and surrounding suburbs.

Hot on the heels of that #ABC The Lookout expose, aired on prime time TV a couple of months ago, that showed another rogue trader performing the identical scam, this time the authorities have slapped a noteworthy fine.

But, unfortunately he is not out of business completely. He is still allowed to trade, although he has supposedly agreed to make his business practices more transparent.

It is most unfortunate that the American consumer marketplace is being attacked by these foreign, often middle eastern people who come here to escape their oppressive and repressive societies. Why do they not try to meld into the fabric of American society? Become honest, hardworking and respectable community members and reap the benefits of friendship and comeradery that most Americans share.

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