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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Deadly Inconvenience - Modern Day Vehicle Key Fobs Are Being Found Complicit In Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Deaths

Pictured here is a typical example of a modern day key fob for a vehicle. This particular fob is for a Ford brand of vehicle.

An article in the New York Times (see the source below) talks about the commonplace issue of modern day vehicles, that use key fobs as opposed to the old ignition keys, we all previously had to use, where the ignition systems on vehicles are inadvertently left running, even after a homeowner has parked their vehicle inside their garage.

Today there are about 17 million vehicles on the road in America, about half of which use some version of a key fob to operate the vehicle ignition system. This system was designed (in part) to increase the security of vehicles and provide convenient and simple to use access control.

But perhaps the inventors of this technology did not account for the issues that have surfaced. Specifically, that many ignition systems are being left on by accident. Because many of these key fobs, only require to be within a certain proximity of the vehicle to operate, a number of people are failing to adequately switch off their ignitions, resulting in carbon-monoxide poisonings. Vehicles are often left inside a closed garage and with the great number of quiet engines today, people may not be hearing their engines running.

According to the New York Times article titled, "Deadly Convenience: Keyless Cars And Their Carbon Monoxide Toll", 'more than two dozen people have been killed by carbon monoxide since 2006 and dozens of others have been injured, some with brain damage, after keyless ignition vehiles were inadvertently left running inside garages'.

According to the article, Toyota vehicles including Lexus have featured in about half of the carbon monoxide fatalities and injuries. Many modern day Toyota vehicles run a lot quieter today than in previous years and this is proving to be a concern for many elder people who may drive those brands of vehicles.

The article goes on to discuss lawmakers approaches to countering the problem and discussions by safety boards, but no legislation has been enacted to force vehicle manufacturers to comply, at this time.

Some manufacturers have added safety features like timed cutoff's and warning buzzers in later model vehicles, but many of the older vehicles are subject to this flaw that could be a matter of life and death.

The article (in the source below) makes some interesting reading.

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Flaw In Ring Doorbell Camera - Prevents Deleting Previous Users

(video removed)
Check the source below for the video

We continue to monitor the cyberworld of all things security related and just came across this interesting piece of news concerning Ring,

You remember Ring, dont you?

Amazon recently completed their buyout of Ring, to meld it into their Amazon Key program network.

We first talked about Ring in an article in June 2015.

The system is very smart and not bad looking however it is a flawed piece of technology that could be more of a security problem than a benefit.

Then there is the lawsuit against Ring (before the Amazon buyout) by Skybell, the original patent holder of many of the technologies that Ring is built upon. We also wrote about this in an article in January 2018.

I'm sure Amazon were not prepared for the headaches they have acquired. But the Ring management are no doubt smiling all the way to the bank.

I see a great number of the Ring door bell in my travels, so it is obviously a popular product (even though it was rejected during it's Shark Tank debut)

Perhaps the many customers who purchased the product were just not aware of it's shortcomings as discussed in the video above.

Not just that, but burglars are actually being pictured stealing Ring doorbells from houses.
And people still want to allow Amazon to be able to access your home with their Amazon Key program?

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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

Water Proofing Repair Project Using Plast-Aid Repair Product - Door Repairs Are Part Of A Locksmiths Repertoire

Being a locksmith is not my only offering. It is the vocation I am most experienced in, with about 35 years experience across 4 continents. I am lucky to have worked with many different professional locksmith tradespeople all over the world and have learned and continue to learn old and new tips, tricks and methods that will one day benefit customers I come into contact with.

Unlike some other locksmith tradespeople and businesses, I choose to believe that locksmiths dont just choose to work on locks and locking products or access control systems. I choose to believe that a locksmith is a person who will work on anything that opens and closes, with particular emphasis on doors. They can be entry doors (swing, sliding, roll top etc), safes (combination, digital, keyed etc), vehicles (cars, trucks, boats, aeroplanes etc), even appliances (cabinets, cupboards, refrigerators etc).

Often I am called upon by various customers to effect repairs to frames and hinges on swinging doors, rollers on sliding doors, safe combination servicing, even repairing vehicle ignition and door access control systems. Just yesterday I performed 3 separate and different types of jobs. One was installing a new replacement Baldwin mortise lock that was warrantied (unknown to the client) by the manufacturer for life. I had serviced the same client a number of times for different projects over the last 4 years, repairing and rekeying locks and doors as their needs arose.

The second job yesterday, was repairing a door closer on a shopfront. The client was concerned that they required a new closer to replace their aging model on their shopfront entry door, that had started to slam and not close slowly enough. Their worry was that the glass window might break and they would be unsecure. We simply adjusted the closing speed and latching action on their existing product, saving them hundreds of dollars in replacement parts and comforting them with the knowledge that they continue to be secure..

The third project was a little more complicated...

We were called by a client who had read some of our reviews on Thumbtack, a lead generation service for professional tradespeople that offers alternative leads services to Angies List, Home Advisor, Porch, Amazon Home Services among others. Having been a longtime member of the Home Advisor network (formerly Service Magic) and enjoying 350+ reviews there averaging 4.79/5 stars and also Thumbtack, with about 37 reviews to date averaging 4.9/5 stars, we are pleased that customers in our service region continue to be impressed with our offerings and bless us with many good natured positive reviews .

The project we completed yesterday took 5 hours to complete to satisfaction. The required repair was on a 75 year old home, where the basement walkout door was a custom built door installed when the house was built, but was suffering from the very common issue of water damage. The home owners were selling their property and moving out of state and a condition of the sale was to improve/repair the back basement walkout door. They had already contacted a number of contractors who had all determined that replacing the custom door would have been the best suggestion. The average estimated cost for supplying and installing a new custom door and frame in that location was ~$3500.00.

We decided to offer an alternative repair....

Plast-Aid is a product we have been using for about 7 years now. We found out about this brilliant product while researching PVC repair products and were delighted to learn about the other uses for the product. The Plast-Aid video below explains the uses of this product and how easy it is to use.



In the above video, they hint at other projects where Plast-Aid can be used successfully. We decided that the benefits of water-proofing would benefit our customer because the repair would mean they would not have to replace their door and frame.

 In the first image above (my foot), you can see that the client had already attempted to effect repairs using standard caulk and just filling in where the water rotted gaps were appearing.
The caulk did not dry correctly and the result was not suitable enough for painting, while not actually repairing the water damage within and preventing additional water damage.

 The next image shows the hole where i dug out the old caulk.
The amount of caulk used was far too much and didnt do anything to cure the water damage. It simply was an attempt to cover up and hide the damaged area.

This next image shows me digging out the vast amounts of caulk and dirt that had creeped into the water damaged hole beneath the old door frame.

We must have pulled out almost a quarter cubic yard caulk, mud and other garbage from this hole.

The next image shows how much material we had to cut out, of the water damaged wood, before we could begin the actual repairs.

You can see the Plast-Aid that we used to fill the base of the hole, left by the water damaged frame.

We actually used 3 separate containers of the Plast-Aid product to make enough material to fill in the base. This is designed to create a water-proof base with which to build upon.

The next image shows the entire filled portion where Plast-Aid was used to provide the filler.

Plast-Aid is great because it dries and "cures" quickly to enable you to build upon each layer of repair reasonably quickly. The product takes about 10-15 minutes to cure to a state where it can be molded into a soft putty and then be inserted into the application, without it dripping everywhere and making a huge mess.

 The last 2 images show the completed Plast-Aid repair, where we used the Plast-Aid to provide a water-proof barrier for the future. We cleaned up the looks using our Makita 3/8" belt sander that we use as a power file. This fixed the water damaged frame to the point where the customer can now use wood filler to patch over the top, sand and paint.

We are not painters and would never claim to be. We advise our clients prior to any repairs that we suggest they may want to contact a professional painter to put the finishing touches on important ambience of a project.

Purchasing Plast-Aid through their website is the better idea than through online market places, in my opinion. See the source below for a link to the Plast-Aid home page, which also shows many other applications for this fabulous product.

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Godrej - 19th Century Indian Manufactured Money/Cash Box/Safe - Open And Make Key

 Godrej were a 19th century Indian manufacturer of money boxes, safes and cash boxes who closed down in the early 20th century.

A few months ago, a customer contacted us to get their money box opened and have a key made.

We made sure to take some pics of this very old box and how we made the key.

After combing through multiple key blank provider sources and trying to find even something close, our misfortune to find an appropriate key blank made us decide to modify another key blank that was suited to another product.

This particular box, we sourced back to about 1908. It appears to be in surprisingly great condition for it's age.

You can see the key blank we decided to use to modify.

This money box used a coin slot/note slot on the reverse side
of the key operated lock. The slot has a welded on flap inside that is designed to prevent removing coins or notes from the locked box.

 Some of the tools, we locksmith craftsmen choose to use when impressioning keys to locks include a selection of files.


In this case we used a 4" warding file as our primary file of choice for this project.

The impression system of key fitting is a long time treasured skill, unique to the craft/trade of locksmithery. There are many books written over the years that teach the skill to new players, but practise makes perfect. After all, "Repetition Is The Mother Of Learning", according to popular theory.

One of our most popular posts in this blog is "How To Open And Make Keys To Antique Furniture Locks" and explains the method to impression keys to old fashioned 'skeleton key' type locks without damage.

You can see in this pic, we were required to drastically modify our selected blank and hand file the key. We were required to reduce the guage of the key to enable it to enter the keyway, because we could not find a suitable blank.

The finished key works beautifully in the lock, maintains it's originality (and antique value) and can only be withdrawn from the lock when the door is closed and locked.

Not a difficult project for an experienced locksmith, but rewarding nonetheless.

There are many talented locksmiths around this country and the world who still practise the art of impressioning today.

The skill is unique to the locksmith trade and one that can save customers money and heartache when needing service to their antique lock, safe or furniture product.

Bulldog GD400 Heavy Duty Garage Door Lock And Installation

 Earlier this week we completed an unusual request for a customer. The customer needed to secure his garage door with much better security than the flimsy standard garage door lock and assembly to protect substantial value in tools and inventory.

There are many options available to suggest for this type of application and I remember that the Bulldog GD400 is definitely one of the better products out there.

The unique strength of The Bulldog GD400 is it's best quality. Made from treated 3/8" (10mm) thick steel plate and using another 3/8" (10mm) thick steel plate for internal anchoring and held to the door with stainless steel hardened carriage bolts and pressure nuts, the product not only looks great but is very, very strong.

The strike plate is a 4" (100mm) long hardened steel tube that is anchored into cement.

Following see our install procedure...

The first step is to mark the holes in the door and drill pilot holes through the outer skin and into the aluminum rail that makes the internal frame of the door.

Drill a couple of holes to hold the plate to the door. We only drilled two of the four holes just to line up and level the product and prepare for the next installation steps.

Once we attached the plate to the door, at the right height, we rested the plate on the strike tube and penciled around the bottom plate.

Now that we have marked the spot for the strike tube location it is time for the hard part. Drilling a 5" (125mm) deep hole in the cement garage floor base. This is quite an older home in an older part of our region and the original builders laid a 6" (150mm) thick concrete floor with heavy gravel embedded within their mix.

Drilling the hole took 2 hours alone using a heavy masonry drill bit and hammer drill as shown below and we used a cold chisel to help with the finer hole adjustments. 

Working slowly and constantly measuring and remeasuring to maintain accuracy, and you eventually end up with the correct sized hole, to the necessary depth.

You can see how deep we were required to drill to fit the strike tube into the concrete floor

You can see the mixture of gravel in the cement in this next image.

We poured a little sand and stone mix into the hole to get the strike tube to sit at the appropriate height and then filled our hole with new cement mortar, anchoring the strike into the concrete.

We deliberately made the cement into a little hill, so that when it dried it would lessen the chance of a tripping hazard.

The end result of the fitting looks good. All that's left is the mandatory 48 hour drying time. It is a good idea to keep the application wet while it is drying, to assist with curing. 

 2 days later we returned to square up the fitting, drill the extra holes and secure the inside mounting bracket.

 The end result is a nice and square (plum) fitting that is super strong.

The completed installation shows the stainless steel hardened 7 pin tubular (Ace) cylinder locking body, that secures using stainless steel ball bearings inside the strike tube. In the first image at the top of the article, you can see a rubber cap that fits over the cylinder. This protects from rain, dirt and grease entering the cylinder and it is recommended to use it for increased product longevity.

Visit the manufacturers website in the source below to purchase.

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New Articles Across The Web Point To Increasing Media interest In Amazon Key Service

We have written a few articles in recent months about the recent Amazon takeover of Ring and their intention to meld it into their Amazon Key Network of Smart Home products.

The Ring product has seen stellar sales in recent years, after failing to score a deal on the very popular television show, Shark Tank.

I find it especially interesting that this recent acquisition by Amazon arrives on the heels of a patent infringement lawsuit by Skybell, who maintain that they are the original patent holders of the technology (see our article).

According to an article on Cnet (see article), the Amazon acquisition of Ring was finalized in February. The article reports that Limp ( a Seattle based company) and Siminoff (from Ring's California head office), took the opportunity to discuss some more details about the acquisition after the deal closed. The article alleges (unconfirmed) that Amazon paid about $1 Billion to acquire Ring.

Another article appearing in The Guardian (UK), also confirms the deal details and also indicates (like Cnet) that Amazon will continue to let Ring trade in it's own right (like Bezos does with the Washington Post), but that as a result of the Amazon takeover, Ring drops its price for it's award winning product to US$100 from US$150 and £89 from £159.

It is no secret that we are not impressed with this offering. With the amount of customer data issues, across the news today and Amazon being one of the largest acquirer of customer buying/purchasing data, combined with the attempts to infiltrate the residential and commercial physical  and electronic security markets with sub-par quality products, we feel that allowing companies like these to enjoy unfettered access to your private dwellings, even outside of regular business hours is opening you and your family up to increased security issues.

I would expect insurance companies to jump on these changes and no doubt increase insurance premiums because you allow more access to your properties than normal.

As a concerned security products installer and locksmith services provider, I feel it is my responsibility to inform you of the shortcomings and security issues surrounding the use of services like Amazon Key might bring.

Far be it from me to tell you what to do and whom you choose to give access to your doors, but I will continue to refuse to open myself and my family up to the possibility of unauthorized and uncontrollable entry to our home and properties.

What will you do?